Godolphin’s stallion roster primed for breeding season

Cover image courtesy of Sportpix

The first day of the breeding season has landed in Australia, and Godolphin has its ducks in a row for a vintage spring. The world’s largest breeder, spanning four continents these days, with some 59 stallions spread around five countries, will breed around 200 of its own mares in Australia, and almost exclusively to a collection of 19 Darley stallions.

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New to the roster from Europe, there are sires Earthlight (Ire) and Ghaiyyath (Ire) joining returning shuttlers Blue Point (Ire), Harry Angel (Ire), Too Darn Hot (GB) and Frosted (USA). There is also the sound success-story that is Street Boss (USA) returning for his eleventh season, while local hero Bivouac will debut alongside the likes of Australian sires Astern, Microphone, Brazen Beau and Impending.

Lonhro will cover his 18th book at the age of 23, while Exceed And Excel at 21 years will also stand his 18th season, and is in the fine form of a Champion sire.

“He’s an elite stallion, and has been an elite stallion all the way through,” said Vin Cox, managing director of Godolphin Australia. “He’s getting on and we want to manage him now. His fertility is still very strong, but we don’t want to accelerate the inevitable either, so he’ll ultimately have somewhere around 100 mares this season.”

So far, the season has stacked up neatly for Godolphin and its bookings. Cox said there hadn’t been many issues around COVID with bringing shuttlers in.

“In terms of flying horses in and getting them around on floats, there’s been no particular issue,” he said. “The issue is the people coming with them, so we’ve had to make plans around that, but we’re well used to it now. The logistics of moving people has made things a bit complicated, but not impossible.”

Likewise, the hiccup with Pinatubo (Ire) not shuttling to Australia, a late decision that was made last month owing to an eye issue, was something that Godolphin handled quickly and well.

“We want to be transparent with our clients, and when the decision was made, and it was only made late because the horse had an issue that flared up while he was in quarantine. We got on the phone with clients to let them know right away,” Cox said. “We hoped to retain everyone in the Darley tent, but clients are entitled to do what they wish with their mares, so we just rearranged the deck chairs as far as our mares were concerned and spread them through our stallion roster.”

Pinatubo’s not travelling was a significant disappointment for the Godolphin and Darley teams. However, Cox said there are plenty of seasons ahead for the talented son of Shamardal (USA), and the rich replacements on offer in his absence meant most bookings hardly skipped a beat.

“Blue Point, for obvious reasons being by the same sire, was probably the greatest beneficiary,” Cox said. “But it was spread right throughout, and I would only say Blue Point because of numbers, but it really wasn’t by much.”

First-season focus

This spring, the first-season sire list for Godolphin is looking particularly good.

Sprinting star Bivouac has earned his oats as one of the most popular new options for breeders around the country, and Godolphin will support the stallion with 11 of its own mares.

Bivouac proved himself a juvenile and 3-year-old star of the Australian racing scene, winning seven stakes races across two seasons (six of which were Group status), among them the Group 1 trio of the Golden Rose S., Newmarket H. and VRC Sprint Classic.

The son of Exceed And Excel will cover his first book at a fee of $66,000 (inc GST).

“We’re very excited about the prospects of Bivouac,” Cox said. “We want to give him as good a chance as we can, particularly because it’s his first season. The surrounding support for him has been quite spectacular. He was a hot sprinter in Australia and is a domestically raced sire-prospect. He’s from a great pedigree that everyone knows, and he’s a speed horse. Commercially, he will sit on top of a lot of people’s wish lists.”

Among the Godolphin mares headed to Bivouac is Ghisoni, a stakes-winning Lonhro mare from the Red Ransom (USA) dam Portillo. Ghisoni won the G2 Surround S. in 2016 and has had two colts to date by Exceed And Excel, the first being 2-year-old Renosu with James Cummings at Flemington, and the second is a yearling on the rise.

“We’ve got an opinion on a few of her foals, not least the 2-year-old that the team is fairly excited about,” Cox said. “Sending her to Bivouac was an obvious mating.”

Ghisoni is due to foal to I Am Invincible in October.

Joining Bivouac on the debut roster, Earthlight and Ghaiyyath have arrived from Europe with substantial credentials. Earthlight is a dual Group 1 winner in France and England, while Ghaiyyath was the highest-rated horse in the world last year and posted three of the top four Timeform performances.

Godolphin has booked 12 mares to Earthlight this spring and 10 to Ghaiyyath.

“Earthlight is an unbeaten 2-year-old, and he looks like a 2-year-old,” Cox said. “He’s a horse that’s low to the ground, very strong hindquarter and big, wide hocks. He’s a very good-moving horse, and we’re sending him some very elite, illustrious mares.”

Among them is the G3 Kindergarten S. winner Anise (General Nediym) and the outstanding race-mare Forensics (Flying Spur), who clattered through a 2007 and 2008 campaign with six Group wins, namely the G1 Golden Slipper, G1 Queen of the Turf and G1 Myer Classic.

“We’re sending Virage De Fortune too,” Cox said. “Stakes winners, Group 1 winners, Golden Slipper winners, he’s getting elite mares.”

Earthlight will stand at Northwood Park in Victoria at a freshman’s fee of $22,000 (inc GST), while Ghaiyyath will join him in the southern state at $27,500 (inc GST). Juggling the riches between the two Australian states is an exercise in itself for the Darley operation.

“It’s just a balance of our roster, which stallions we think will work best where,” Cox said. “We were going to have Pinatubo stand in New South Wales as a son of Shamardal, so it’s just a matter of balancing the roster really.”

Ghaiyyath is the only son of Dubawi (Ire) standing for the Darley operation at Northwood Park, and his 10 home mares will include Smooth (Lonhro), a full sister to Pierro and half-sister to G2 Wakeful S. winner Ambience (Street Cry {Ire}), and Brilliance (Street Cry {Ire}), a half-sister to no less than sires Bullbars, Epaulette and Helmet and the Group-winning filly Pearls (Exceed And Excel).

Ghaiyaath was a €1.1 million (AU$1.78 million) weanling for John Ferguson at the 2015 Goffs November Foal Sale, bought from the Castlebridge Consignment. His race record stands at 13 lifetime starts for nine wins, a second and two thirds, and among those he conquered in his excellent career is Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and the late Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}).

Cox said the new sire offers a valuable option for mile to mile-and-a-quarter breeders, which he’s noticed is a growing market.

“You can see there’s a bit of a change in attitude,” he said. “The breeders aren’t solely focused on 2-year-old racing, and commercially it’s heading that way with a lot of money being spent on European stayers. Ghaiyyath might keep that market here in Australia.”

Back for more

Of the second-season offerings at Darley this spring, Blue Point, Microphone and Too Darn Hot are the highlights. The former will be at Northwood Park and the latter two will stand at Kelvinside.

Blue Point covered a healthy book of 128 mares last year, and Godolphin has booked 14 of its own to the sire this season. The figure is slightly larger than expected with the overflow from Pinatubo, but not substantially so.

“The reports we’re getting independently of his foals are very exciting,” Cox said. “We’re excited about where he’s heading, and we gave him a great start last year. We’ll be sending him once again some of our highest-profiled mares, none less than the mothers of Bivouac and Savatiano.”

Those mares that Cox mentions are Dazzler (More Than Ready {USA}), who is 12 years old and in foal to Exceed And Excel right now, and Retsina (Redoute’s Choice), who is 13 and currently in foal to Blue Point. Dazzler is the dam of Bivouac and stakes winner Coruscate (Exceed And Excel), while Retsina is the dam of eight-time stakes winner Savatiano (Street Cry {Ire}) and two-time Listed winner Athiri (Lonhro).

When deciding how many mares to send to Blue Point, Cox said it was a case of consistency.

“It’s about continual support,” he said. “We want to ensure that our young horses get as good a chance as they possibly can, and we therefore support them with good numbers through their early seasons at stud.”

Microphone is one such horse that has been handled carefully by Darley, an Exceed And Excel sire-son that won the ATC Sires’ Produce S. in 2019 as well the G2 Skyline S. and G2 Autumn S. at Caulfield. He covered 117 mares last year, and he will likely cover a similar book under careful handling, of which 11 will belong to Godolphin.

“Ultimately he ended up with 68 mares in foal last year, and some of the foals are on the ground,” Cox said. “We’ve got some nice mares going to him, and we’ve got a lot of faith in the horse. We bred him, we raced him and he was a Champion 2-year-old at the end of the day. We want to see him become a highly commercial stallion, and there’s a lot of nice foals around by him.”

Among the top-shelf mares booked to Microphone is Celts (Lonhro), a Group 3 winner and the dam of stakes winners Gaulois (Street Cry {Ire}) and La Tene (Helmet), the latter a winner of the G2 VRC Sires’ Produce S. last year. Celts is currently in foal to Microphone on a late cover.

Joining her in heading to the stallion is Colour (More Than Ready {USA}), who was a Group 3-winner and is currently in foal to Too Darn Hot. This is a family that goes straight back to fourth dam Easy Date (Grand Chaudiere {Can}), dam of Snippets.

Meanwhile, Too Darn Hot will serve nine Godolphin mares in his second season in Australia. Among them are the exceptional race-filly Guelph (Exceed And Excel) and Yavanna (Redoute’s Choice), the dam of Kementari and Telperion.

Too Darn Hot returns to Kelvinside at a fee of $44,000 (inc GST) after covering 130 mares last year.

“There is not a hotter stallion prospect around the world than this horse,” Cox said. “He was an outstanding racehorse by a phenomenal stallion and from a phenomenal family, and we’re sending him phenomenal mares.”

Guelph needs little introduction.

Her four Group 1 wins included the Champagne S., Flight S., 1000 Guineas and ATC Sires’ Produce S. She also won the G2 Tea Rose and G3 Blue Diamond Prelude (Fillies). She retired to stud in 2015 and has produced the stakes winner Encryption, who won the G2 Danehill S. and G3 Black Opal S.

Yavanna, on the other hand, is a proven mare already in foal to Too Darn Hot, and Cox said the elite status of this stallion is bankable.

“He was an elite racetrack performer and he’s by an elite stallion and his pedigree is elite,” he said. “He’s out of a Group 1 winner who’s out of a Group 1 winner, and you can never say these things are rusted-on certainties, but this horse might be as close as you can ever get.”

The Angels

On the third-season sire ladder, European shuttler Harry Angel (Ire) deserves a look. The son of Dark Angel (Ire) was a G1 July Sprint and G1 Haydock Sprint Cup winner through 2017, and he began his shuttle duties in 2019 with a book of 129 mares, followed by a book of 106 mares last spring.

This spring, his fee is unchanged at $16,500 (inc GST) and Godolphin will support him with 11 of its own mares.

Continuing to shuttle a stallion like Harry Angel is something that Cox said was down to performance.

“If they get runners and hit well, they’ll keep coming,” he said. “If the commercial market tells us that it doesn’t want to support the horse, then we review our position. But Harry Angel is a horse I’m personally very excited about. The yearlings we have by him are quite outstanding, and as a result we’ve probably sent more than we had intended to this time last year for this season.”

Cox said the quality and athleticism of the Harry Angel yearlings at Godolphin had heavily influenced the horse’s bookings this year.

“We sent around eight of our mares to him last year,” Cox said. “We’ll send 11 this year.”

The mares in question are the likes of Aspen (Exceed And Excel), a half to Ghisoni, and Italy (Domesday), who won the Listed Canberra Guineas, and is one of those with a Harry Angel yearling already on the ground.

The Boss and Frosted

The chestnut super-sire that is 17-year-old Street Boss is booked for his eleventh season in Australia, and this year he will be hotter than ever for Darley with his exciting 3-year-old colt Anamoe, a winner of the G1 ATC Sires’ Produce S. in the autumn as well as the G2 Todman S., and super filly Arcaded, a winner of the G2 Blue Diamond Prelude (fillies) and G3 Magic Night S.

Street Boss is looking like the best sire son of Street Cry (Ire), and is one of only 10 stallions to have sired multiple Group 1 winners in Australia last year. His company is illustrious – Frankel (GB), Written Tycoon, Savabeel and stablemate Exceed And Excel, among others.

Street Boss will stand at Kelvinside for the first time this spring, having previously based himself in Victoria, and he will get mares like Alizee (Sepoy), Exhilarates (Snitzel) and Anamato (Redoute’s Choice).

“Street Boss has always been a very consistent sire,” Cox said. “His consistency has served him well, and he keeps getting good horses. His profile of mare has kept increasing, and with that his consistency of racetrack results has followed through.”

Hanseatic and The Quarterback have been a pair of previous progeny worth noting, but Anamoe and Arcaded are another level again and the stallion’s fee has spiked to $55,000 (inc GST) this season from $27,500 (inc GST) the last three years.

It’s the most that Street Boss has ever stood for in Australia.

“He’s of an age where he would be one of only a handful of sons of Street Cry at stud,” Cox said. “You’d have to say he’s well and truly among the best of them. He’s a horse that we have a lot of confidence in, and a horse that we’ve have had a lot of confidence in for a long time.”

At Northwood Park, meanwhile, the 9-year-old grey stallion, Frosted, has returned for his fifth Australian season. He is by Tapit (USA) and is a three-time Group 1-winning sire with the Group winners Cloudy and Ingratiating already to his name.

He will stand for $44,000 (inc GST) this year, a doubling of his $22,000 (inc GST) fee of last year, and back to his original launch service fee.

“We supported Frosted in his first year,” Cox said. “Of that five, we’ve had two stakes winners and two other stakes placegetters. That’s a really good start for a horse. Commercially he’s got a lot of interest as a result, and Ingratiating is looking a really good colt, so when you have horses like that representing him, he’s not a hard sell.”

Godolphin will send to Frosted, among others this spring, the Exceed And Excel mares Earthquake and Essaouira.

The former won the G1 Blue Diamond S. in 2014 among her four Group victories, while the latter is the dam of stakes winners Alizee and Darley sire Astern, whose second crop of foals will be hitting the track this season.

Table of some on Godolphin’s matings for 2021