Nature Strip powers Nicconi to the top

Thanks to the $6.8 million Nature Strip won with Saturday's thrilling victory, Nicconi has been elevated to the top of the Australian Sires' Table and with a lead of $2.8 million over Shamus Award, it could be a place he occupies for some time to come.

Nature Strip, who is now the fourth highest prizemoney earner in Australian racing history with over $14.4 million, remains Nicconi's sole Group 1 winner to date, be he also heads a list of 23 stakes winners in a stallion career that is till on the upward trend.

Last season, Nicconi produced a career-high 119 Australian winners, six of them at stakes level, with progeny earnings of close to $10 million, results powered by the world's best sprinter.

Peter Devitt bred Nicconi along with Les Gordon and Lindsay Park, and having enjoyed his successful racing career, has remained involved through his stud career.

It was with particular joy that Devitt watched on as Nature Strip captured the world's richest race on turf at the third time of asking for trainer Chris Waller on Saturday.

"That was a great result. He's had a couple of goes at it, but yesterday was a fantastic result," Devitt told TDN AusNZ.

"He has been a great flagbearer, but if you look at it, Nicconi is often in the top 10 of winners for Australian sires and around the top 10-15 earners as well. That win yesterday, that is going to have him challenging for the top earning stallion. That is a good result for him," he said.

A simplified equation of adding Nature Strip's The Everest prizemoney to what Nicconi earned last season would have been enough for him to finish second on the Sires' Table in 2020/21 behind Written Tycoon, something which augurs well for this season, where he is tracking better in terms of winners produced.

Good for breeders

As well as the fact he has produced 432 winners from 624 runners, Devitt also points to the strong return that Nicconi has given breeders through the sales ring. Across the major sales in 2021, his yearlings, which were conceived off a service fee of $24,750, averaged nearly $84,000, the highest in his breeding career.

"Nicconi has been extremely good for breeders. They have got good results from a relatively low service fee, so it has been very profitable for people sending mares to him," Devitt said.

"I think what the win does for him in The Everest, it comes at an appropriate time. We are halfway through the breeding season and we have still got a few spare spots in his book, so hopefully the phones will be busy at Widden with people sending mares to him."

The 2021 breeding season has represented a new era for Nicconi, who relocated to Widden's new Victorian base and is heading the roster, standing at $27,500 (inc GST).

Devitt said that decision was made to create more opportunities for the stallion and allow him to stand out.

"We had a discussion with Widden and I think at the end of the day, they were keen to come to Victoria and we were very keen to stand him in Victoria as well. Widden said 'let's give it a go' and It will be interesting to see how he goes," he said

Invested in the family

Nicconi is the third generation of the family that Devitt and Gordon have been involved with. They purchased into the ownership of his maternal grandam, Dubai Lass (Bletchingly), at the suggestion of Colin Hayes and she was able to win a race in Adelaide for the trio.

Again, at Hayes' suggestion, they mated her with Lindsay Park resident Scenic (Ire), producing a talented filly named Nicola Lass who would win seven times in their royal blue and pink diagonal colours for the late Peter Hayes, while she was also placed in a G3 Tristarc S.

In the early stages of her breeding career, Nicola Lass was offered through a Lindsay Park dispersal in 2002, but Devitt and Gordon were very keen to keep her.

"There was a dispersal sale at Lindsay Park and most of the stock were going through the ring and I said to Les Gordon, 'we don’t want to let this one go cheap'. I remember I bought her back, that's a long time ago," Devitt said.

That proved a smart move as the year before she had produced a Danzero colt, who would prove a star on the track. In Devitt and Gordon's ownership, Niconero won five Group 1 races, including the 2009 Australian Cup.

A month later, her Bianconi (GB) colt came out and won the G1 The Galaxy in the same colours for David Hayes. Named Nicconi, he would also win the 2010 Lightning S. and head to England to tackle Royal Ascot with his future as a stallion already secured.

"We did a deal with Widden Stud, just prior to him going to England to run in the King's Stand. If he had have won that, which he probably should have, there was a clause in the contract that if we got an offer over a certain number, they had to go along with it," Devitt said.

"He ran fourth in that race. He was ridden by Frankie Dettori, and he missed the start and he was way back and flew home."

Off to Widden

While a big money overseas stud deal didn't eventuate, Devitt was more than happy with the back-up plan.

"We were keen to stand him (Nicconi) with Widden at Widden. They purchased a 30 per cent shareholding in him and put a few of their clients in him. The Hayes, the Gordons and Devitts stayed in him from then on," he said.

With a pedigree free of Danehill (USA), Nicconi was compatible with a wide variety of mares and he produced crops of over 100 foals in each of his first four years at stud.

While his numbers dipped in his fifth year, he has served triple figure books in every season since, with over 200 in each of 2016 and 2017.

While Nicconi has had four 2-year-old stakes winners in total, and also produced the first Australian 2-year-old winner of the current season in the Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr-trained Cavalla, Devitt said trainers have learned that much like Nature Strip, his progeny tends to improve from 3-year-olds onwards.

Given those two big crops mentioned earlier have just turned three and four respectively, you can expect the winners to continue to flow regularly for Nicconi this season as he looks to hold on to that lead on top of the Sires' Table.

Cheering each and every one of them home will be Devitt, who says he takes great pride in every winner Nicconi produces.

"It's a great thing to watch and you also take a lot of pride with the stock that we have raced and won with. If you have bred them, and raced them and they win, there is a bit more of a thrill than just buying them through a yearling sale," he said.