‘He’s such an iconic horse’: Lonhro retired from covering duties

Thursday marked the end of an era for the Australian breeding industry, with Godolphin Australia announcing Darley’s Champion Sire Lonhro has been retired from stallion duties.

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Lonhro retired from stallion duties

The rising 25-year-old retires at the top of his game, with last Saturday’s Rosehill Guineas victor Lindermann becoming his 13th individual winner at the highest level.

Furthermore, Lonhro’s progeny has combined for 191 stakes wins (106 of those are Group successes), and he has 95 stakes winners (56 of them are Group winners). And earlier this month, he sired his 1000th winner, that being the David Jolly-trained Lake Agawam, who saluted at Morphettville.

Speaking to TDN AusNZ, Darley Australia’s Head of Stallions, Alastair Pulford, said Lonhro will forever be remembered as an all-time great.

“What can you say?” Pulford commented.

“He goes out on his own terms and as a happy, healthy horse. Hopefully, he’s got a long time in retirement, there’s no reason to think he won’t have.

“He’s been such an important horse for us.

“Lonhro, Street Cry and Exceed And Excel have been champion stallions for the stud. But he’s a bit more than that because he’s such an iconic horse and has been the pin-up horse for the stud for a long time, certainly alongside Exceed.

“One of the reasons people love coming to visit our stallions is actually just to see Lonhro and have their picture taken with him; he’s one of those horses.”

Vin Cox, Godolphin Australia’s managing director, also paid tribute to Lonhro, who will see out his days at Kelvinside Stud in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales.

“It is with great appreciation I announce that the decision to retire Lonhro from covering duties has been confirmed,” said Cox.

“Most importantly, Lonhro retires from the Darley roster sound, happy, healthy and will remain in residence at Kelvinside. The stallion team, led by Barley Ward-Thomas and Yev Kovalov, plus Lonhro’s long-time mate Deen Griesheimer and all other handlers who have contributed within our stallion barn have done a wonderful job caring for this Australian icon for over a decade, and who will continue to do so.

“It’s important to us that the horse retires on his terms and to all who have supported Lonhro throughout his career, we thank you enormously.”

Cox said Lonhro has and always will be ‘the people’s horse’.

“A few times a year we have people come up for their anniversaries and want to see Lonhro,” he said.

“We’ve even had a couple get engaged in front of Lonhro, people name their kids’ middle names Lonhro.

“He is a horse who has charisma, and the effect he has had on people has been quite significant.”

A champion on the track

Bred by Woodlands Stud, Lonhro is by the great Octagonal (NZ) from the Group 3 victress Shadea (NZ) (Straight Strike {USA}).

Trained by John Hawkes, the gorgeous (dark) brown horse made his debut at Rosehill in November 2000. Sent off at 2/1, the colt was touched off by Gai Waterhouse’s Royal Courtship (Royal Academy {USA}) in an 1100-metre event worth $40,000.

He broke through at his next start, before notching his first stakes win in the G3 Blue Diamond Prelude (Colts And Geldings) under Brett Prebble.

Lonhro ran fourth in the G1 Blue Diamond S. and would have to wait until the spring of his 3-year-old season to bag the first of 11 Group 1s - in the time-honoured Caulfield Guineas. With Darren Gauci in the saddle, Lonhro circled the field and ran away from his rivals in the stallion-making race.

“Occy’s little boy has taken the lead and pulls away to win the Guineas,” race caller Greg Miles described at the time.

Lonhro’s triumph in the G1 Australian Cup of 2004 is etched in racing folklore and his ability to perform a Houdini act and clutch victory from the jaws of defeat still beggars belief. Seemingly in an impossible position at the 200-metre mark, Lonhro sprouted wings to nail Delzao on the line.

Having raced on into his 5-year-old season, the curtain came down on Lonhro’s stellar career in April 2004. He bowed out having won 26 of his 35 starts. He also placed five times, amassing earnings of $5,790,510, which in today’s money, would be quite staggering.

“His race record… he was just awesome,” Pulford said.

“The Australian Cup is obviously the one everyone centres on, but the day he beat Sunline at Caulfield (in the Caulfield Stakes), it was just unbelievable.

“And he was so dominant in Sydney.”

The next chapter

Following his illustrious career on the track, Lonhro was retired to stud.

He spent the past 15 seasons in the Darley breeding barn and his reputation was enhanced when he shuttled to the US between 2012-14.

Lonhro was crowned Champion Sire and Leading Australian sire of winning 3-year-olds in 2010/11, the top Australian sire of 2-year-olds in 2011/12 and the leading Australian sire of winners in 2013/14 and 2014/15.

“He was one of the keys behind the purchase of the Ingham racing operation all those years ago and a lot of the success of that deal relied on him,” Pulford explained.

“Around the time of Equine Influenza, I remember Peter Snowden saying how much faith had in his progeny. He said, ‘Compared to the Octagonals, they’ve got speed, they’re different types of horses’, and obviously he went on to prove that as a stallion, and he was a horse that imparted far more speed than people expected him to.

“Most of his best horses were sprinter-milers, although he did get the odd big winner past a mile; he had a Rosehill Guineas winner on Saturday in Lindermann and Aristia won a VRC Oaks.”

Lonhro became a stakes-producing sire on March 1, 2008 when Black Minx (NZ) took out the Listed McDougall S. at Eagle Farm.

His first Group 1 winner was the top colt Denman, who was much the best in the Golden Rose of 2009.

Lonhro’s other Group 1 winners are Beaded, Benfica, Pierro, Mental, Bounding, Exosphere, The Conglomerate, Impending, Kementari, Aristia, Lyre and Lindermann.

Pulford rates Pierro as the best of that list.

“We bred Pierro and it’s obviously well-told that we sold him as a weanling,” said Pulford.

“He was a horse I was always barracking for at the races because he was just such a good horse.

“He was flying Lonhro’s flag and will continue to do so.

“Kementari is a horse we’ve all grown attached to over the time, but I remember Beaded and Mental and horses like that.”

With the likes of Impending, Pierro, Denman, Encryption and Exosphere standing at stud in Australia, Lonhro has become a sire of sires, and he has made his mark as a leading broodmare sire, too, with his daughters producing 101 Group-winning horses including the likes of So Si Bon (So You Think {NZ}), Osborne Bulls (Street Cry {Ire}), Barber (Exceed And Excel), Niedorp (Not A Single Doubt) and Golden Mile (Astern).

“You see the benefit of Lonhro, not only through his sons, but also his daughters, everywhere at the moment and that’s very pleasing to see,” said Pulford.

“I looked at Lindermann walking around the mounting yard at Rosehill on Saturday and he was as cool as a cucumber, he walked just like his father, and there was a lovely photo of Anamoe recently just standing on the track taking it all in; Lonhro used to do that.”

His deeds in the sale ring reflect that of a wonderful racetrack career with his yearlings offered at public auction netting supporters $71,939,788, with his topseller being Lot 416 from the 2019 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale - a filly from Dancing Heather (Danzero), which was consigned by Newhaven Park and bought by Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum for $1.4 million.

On three occasions (2018, 2019 and 2022), his progeny have averaged in excess of $200,000.

Lonhro has six yearlings catalogued for next month’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale and two remaining crops for buyers to get their hands on.