Decades-old mantra at Glenlogan Park alive and well for upcoming season

Cover image courtesy of Glenlogan Park Stud

It was a significant decision in 2017 when Queensland’s Glenlogan Park Stud, after 25 years in the business of standing stallions, opted out of it. Jon Hasler’s farm, managed by Steve Morley along Innisplain Road south of Beaudesert, had stood the likes of Show A Heart and Falvelon and, in recent years, Rothesay, Real Saga and Jet Spur.

However, the decision far from removed Glenlogan Park from the sire scene in Australia.

Since 2017, the stud has invested in off-site stallions. It bought into Exceedance as a yearling, a horse that won the G1 Coolmore Stud S. and G3 San Domenico S. before covering his first book of mares at Vinery last season. Glenlogan was also involved with Zousain, the Zoustar colt that won the G2 BRC Champagne Classic before retiring to Widden for the 2020 season also.

“We got out of standing stallions about three years ago, but we didn’t get out of stallion ownership,” Morley said. “We are still very interested in owning parts of stallions, be they breeding rights or percentages. So we’ve still got our finger in the pie in lots of ownership arrangements, either while those horses raced or buying shares or breeding rights at stud.”

These investments include new sires like North Pacific at Newgate and Anders at Widden, along with more seasoned sires like Russian Revolution and Brave Smash (Jpn), now approaching their third seasons on duty.

Exceedance and Zousain are entering similar territory.

Understandably, Glenlogan’s stallion investments heavily influence the farm’s breeding plans each year, and this spring it has booked 51 mares to 20 individual sires.

Colonial mantra

The largest collection among the Glenlogan mares is the 19 that are booked to brand-new stallions.

“We have a great history in having supported first-season sires, and have got really good results in both the sale ring and on the racetrack, with those horses,” Morley said. “We’ve had a great record of identifying the right new sires and supporting them strongly, and with that in mind we stick fairly rigidly to Australian-born speed horses. That is something that we’ll be taking to the next breeding season.”

With this in mind, Morley has booked three mares to Kia Ora’s debut sire Farnan, two to Darley’s Bivouac, five to North Pacific, six to Anders and two to Time To Reign, with another possibly to King’s Legacy.

“The first-season sires we will support this year are Farnan, a Golden Slipper winner, Bivouac, who was a great 2-year-old but also an outstanding 3-year-old, North Pacific is just a magnificent animal and Anders is all speed and precocity,” Morley said. “Then there’s King’s Legacy and Time To Reign. They’re Australian-bred, early maturing, really good-looking horses and they’re the types of horses we’ve always targeted and done really well with.”

Gallery: Some of the first-season sires that Glenlogan Park are supporting in 2021

North Pacific and Farnan

The broodmare Wabeel (Commands) is one of the five mares that Glenlogan Park has booked to North Pacific. She is already a stakes-producer, with her second foal Yamazaki (Real Saga) a winner of the Listed Silk Stocking at the Gold Coast this year.

Wabeel is 14 years old and a half-sister to Singapore’s Champion Miler Super Ninetyseven (Show A Heart), while this is also the family of Solvit (NZ) (Morcon {GB}), who won the 1994 G1 Cox Plate.

“She’s a stakes-placed Commands mare that has produced a really good stakes winner in Yamazaki, who is also multiple Group-placed,” Morley said. “Wabeel leaves terrific styles of horses and she should suit North Pacific very, very well.”

North Pacific will stand his debut season at Newgate for $22,000 (inc GST).

“He is just a magnificent horse,” Morley said. “We were involved in a group that was the underbidder on him as a yearling, and he’s such a great type. He’s a genuine Group 1-quality horse.”

Also among the 19 Glenlogan mares headed to new sires is Asinara (Teofilo {Ire}), who comes from a Mr Prospector (USA) mare with a heavy black-type page in the United States.

Asinara was purchased by Glenlogan Park, in partnership with Neil Jenkinson, at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in 2017 for $170,000 from Godolphin. Her first foal was the 2018 colt by Snitzel that sold last year on the Gold Coast for $200,000, bought by Gerald Ryan and David Raphael. She has a yearling colt by Lonhro.

“Asinara is Group 3-placed and comes from a lovely, deep family,” Morley said. “She’s a big, scopey mare and Farnan should really suit her physically and genetically. Her Lonhro colt is a belter, a magnificent type, and he’ll be targeted at the Magic Millions sales next year. He would challenge as the best yearling on the farm right now.”

Morley said the choice of Farnan for both Asinara and two other of Glenlogan’s mares, Banda Spice (Show A Heart) and Zavance (Mossman), fitted the farm’s mantra perfectly.

Farnan was the outstanding juvenile sprinter of his generation, winning the G1 Golden Slipper, G2 Silver Slipper and G2 Todman S. in the autumn of 2020, and he will stand his first season at Kia Ora for $55,000 (inc GST).

The ‘provens’

Glenlogan’s run-sheet features 12 broodmares heading to what Morley categorises as ‘proven’ sires. On this list is Capitalist and Deep Field at Newgate, I Am Invincible at Yarraman Park, Zoustar at Widden, Snitzel at Arrowfield and Spirit Of Boom at Eureka Stud.

“These are horses that have been as good as we’ve seen for many years in this country,” Morley said. “I Am Invincible and Snitzel, they’re probably horses that have only a limited number of years left, so you want to be giving yourself an opportunity with those.”

Glenlogan Park sold an I Am Invincible yearling at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale this year for $1.2 million, a filly from the Show A Heart mare Heart Of Thrills. She sold to Rosemont Stud.

“Not that you need confidence to go to Vinnie, but that did give us a leg-up to go back to him, and those mares that are going to him (four in total) are all quality, quality mares,” Morley said.

Among them is Super Too (Hinchinbrook), the half-sister to Group 3-winning Super One who stands at Newhaven Park. Super Too was purchased by Glenlogan for $575,000 in 2019, sold by the Newgate Consignment at the Magic Millions National Sale.

“Super Too was multiple Group-placed and she was pure speed,” Morley said. “She’s a half-sister to Super One, who is by I Am Invincible, so every time we breed this mare to Vinnie we get a three-quarter relation. And she’s a magnificent type, so it just makes lots of sense to send her there.”

Additionally, Morley mentioned Hijack Hussy (Hussonet {USA}), the Listed-winning, Group 3-placed mare that is booked to Zoustar.

“She’s only had two foals, and the first one by Written Tycoon made $800,000 on the Gold Coast while the second made $400,000 and sold to Mick Price,” he said. “So she leaves these magnificent styles of horses, and the I Am Invincible colt that she left last year is going to Magic Millions next year, and he’ll only add further to that.”

Glenlogan Park and Neil Jenkinson bought Hijack Hussy from Yarraman Park in 2017. She cost $400,000 at the Magic Millions National Sale. She’s been a steady and profitable breeder, providing three foals by Written Tycoon and I Am Invincible respectively, and Hijack Hussy will meet Zoustar for the first time this spring.

“Genetically and physically she will really suit Zoustar,” Morley said. “When we source these mares to buy, we try to target those that are good-quality mares that will suit most stallions, and I do think it’s important that we move the mares around. I have no problems going two or three times to a stallion, but after that I do try to move them unless there’s a definite click that has shown itself to be successful.”

Repeat business

Glenlogan Park has a remaining 20 broodmares heading to second, third and fourth-season sires this spring.

Among them, two are booked to Pierata, Russian Revolution, Written By and Hellbent respectively, while Brave Smash will get four and seven will head to Exceedance, reflecting the stud’s significant stake in the latter stallion.

“Exceedance is a horse that we bought into as a yearling, so we were lucky enough to share in all of his racetrack success and we have enormous faith in the horse going forward,” Morley said. “He’s a horse that we supported heavily last year, and we’ll do so this year and again in the years to come.”

Exceedance stood his debut season at Vinery Stud last year for $38,500 (inc GST). This year, he is slightly less at $33,000 (inc GST). He covered 142 mares in his first book, and Morley said he is a cocktail of brilliance.

“He had that acceleration that only the really, really good horses have,” he said. “I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t make a really good impact.”

Among the seven mares heading to Exceedance from Glenlogan Park are Street Made (Can) (Street Boss {USA}).

“This is a family that keeps going through the roof,” Morley said. “Street Made is a multiple stakes-placegetter, but she’s out of a mare who’s had 12 foals, all of them have won and seven of them have black type. She’s just had a great first foal by Rubick, and she’s in foal to Trapeze Artist. She will suit Exceedance exceptionally well.”

The stud paid $110,000 for Street Made at last year’s Magic Millions National Sale, bought from Willow Park Stud and in foal to Rubick. That foal, now a yearling, is aimed at the 2022 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.

Lastly, Morley mentioned Pindan Pearl (Testa Rossa), who is a half-sister to the G1 Coolmore Classic and two-time Group 3 winner Heavens Above (Street Cry {Ire}). Pindan Pearl is one of two mares booked to Pierata at Aquis Farm.

“She is out of a really tough Group 3-winning mare called Reggie,” Morley said, “and she was a very good racehorse herself. She won five times and was stakes placed, and she’s such a beautiful mare to look at. Her first foal was by Written Tycoon and was nothing short of outstanding, but unfortunately she injured herself before sale so we retained her for breeding.”

Pindan Pearl has had three foals since, colts by I Am Invincible and Russian Revolution, and she foaled to Snitzel last week.

“Pierata is a terrific horse and now very accessible to us here in Queensland, because he’s only just around the corner,” Morley said, flagging a significant hurdle that breeders will face this season with NSW in state-wide lockdown.

“Geography normally has very little to do with our breeding plans,” the stud manager said. “But it’s going to be a challenge this year with COVID, so we’ll have to see how that all pans out.”

Traditionally, Glenlogan Park is a walk-on breeder, handling in-house all the particulars for its mares, including transport and foaling down.

“Normally we’d drive them down, have them covered and drive them home the next day,” Morley said. “But the answer is that we really don’t know how this season is going to go at this stage, we really don’t.”

Table: Some of Glenlogan Park Stud's 2021 matings