Paulele to stand at Northwood Park for $16,500

Cover image courtesy of Western Racepix

Northwood Park in Victoria, home to the southern horses of the Darley Australia roster, will this spring welcome Paulele to its ranks. Godolphin made the announcement on Thursday, the son of Dawn Approach (Ire) set at a debut fee of $16,500 (inc GST).

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Darley is yet to announce its full roster for the 2023 breeding season, but at Northwood Park, Paulele is likely to join locals Brazen Beau, Impending and Kermadec (NZ). The property was also home last breeding season to shuttlers including Blue Point (Ire), Earthlight (Ire) and Ghaiyyath (Ire).

At $16,500, the chestnut Paulele has been priced deliberately accessibly.

“We recognise that our clients and friends who use our stallions have different budgets,” said Andy Makiv, Darley Australia’s head of sales. “We try to balance the two rosters we have in Australia and balance the pricing, but we also recognise that not only is a horse like Paulele competing with horses off other rosters, but he’s competing with horses on our roster too.

“In that respect, we’re always conscious of balancing our roster with opportunities for them all.”

It’s a given that Anamoe (Street Boss {USA}) will be Darley’s headline act in the spring, but that doesn’t undermine the credentials that Paulele will bring to the Victorian roster this year.

As a rising 5-year-old, the son of Dawn Approach has been a stakes-winner at two, three and four years of age, and at close to $2.5 million in track earnings, he’s won the G1 Winterbottom S., G2 Roman Consul S., G2 Schillaci S., G3 Kindergarten S. and G3 Eskimo Prince S. He also won the Listed The Rosebud.

It’s been an extensive, consistent career through most of the racing states in Australia, from Sydney to Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

“He’s a seriously good horse,” Makiv said. “What I love about him is that he’s a Group winner at two, three and four, and he was a multiple city winner pre-Christmas as a 2-year-old. That’s a really precocious horse, and to put it in context, if he was a Magic Millions graduate, I suspect he would have been the Magic Millions 2YO Classic favourite.

“So he was an early 2-year-old, but he also raced and performed at Group 1 level in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia. To do that, you’ve got to have a great mind and his race record highlights his speed, his precocity, his soundness and his toughness.”

Paulele’s appeal will be his speed, which is so central to the Australian breeding game, and at $16,500, he will be affordable and competitive with his freshman peers.

“We think he’s the perfect stallion prospect,” Makiv said. “There’s a lot to love about him and we debated his fee a bit. We thought there was a slight down-turn in the yearling market at that lower level, so we didn’t want to be too aggressive or too greedy.

“He’s a really good prospect and if he throws to himself, they’ll be excellent yearlings. His price of $15,000 plus GST is probably slightly on the lower limit of what we could have, and maybe should have, stood him for, but we think it’s a great opportunity for Victorian breeders.”

He’s a rare beast

Paulele will enter Northwood Park as a significant speed branch of the Galileo (Ire) line, and his race record reflects this. However, he also comes from a very strong damline.

He is from the Flying Spur mare Chatoyant, and Chatoyant is a half-sister to the Group 1-winnning Bonaria (Redoute’s Choice), as well as the Group 3-winning Time Out (Rory’s Jester) and that good, Group 3-winning broodmare Legally Bay (Snippets), herself the dam of Merchant Navy.

At stud, Chatoyant has produced not only Paulele, but also the G3 Thoroughbred Breeders’ S. winner Montsegur (New Approach {Ire}), in turn the dam of this year’s G2 Skyline S. winner Corniche (Fastnet Rock) and the dual Group 3 winner Heresy (Street Boss {USA}).

“This is a great pedigree,” Makiv said. “Dawn Approach was a great physical and a seriously good racehorse himself. Paulele’s dam has been a wonderful producer, and horses close up in this pedigree are among those that Godolphin has had a lot of recent success with.

“This is a really fast two- and 3-year-old family. I think Paulele will suit a lot of mares, but most importantly he’ll suit what Australians are trying to breed, which is 2- and 3-year-old speed.”

During his career, Paulele consistently raced against the best sprinters of his generation. Racking up five Group victories among a set that included Home Affairs, Nature Strip (Nicconi), In The Congo, Coolangatta (Written Tycoon) and Roch ‘N’ Horse (NZ) (Per Incanto {USA}) was no easy task.

“His win in the Roman Consul, it was freakish,” Makiv said. “Even in the TJ, it took the likes of Nature Strip and Eduardo to beat him. His form around really good horses is excellent, which highlights his level. He was a top-class horse at the top end as a juvenile, and then at weight for age.”

Makiv said there aren’t many horses that can manage that, and it’s a huge selling point for Paulele.

“There are a lot of 2-year-olds and early 3-year-olds that race really competitively against their own age, but they don’t necessarily translate to weight for age,” he said. “Paulele was able to be that really good 2- and 3-year-old, but then he was able to mix it with those older horses in those strong weight-for-age ranks. He’s a rare beast.”

Paulele to date has won eight races, six at stakes level, and he’s been in the first three in 14 of his 22 starts. He’s been six times placed in Group or Listed company, which is about as consistently competitive as it gets.

Fine-tuning two rosters

Makiv confirmed that Paulele, still just four years old, will race on ahead of his retirement to Northwood Park. The horse will compete in the Brisbane carnival, giving potential shareholders and breeders an opportunity to see him still on a racecourse.

“He’ll continue to train on in the short term,” Makiv said. “He’ll head to Brisbane, targeting the Doomben 10,000 and other races up there. It’s exciting for the horse and for us standing him because breeders that might want to book to him, as well as anyone that might wish to explore a breeding right, they can follow him in the coming weeks into the Queensland carnival.”

Any success that Paulele experiences in Brisbane won’t affect his service fee. He won’t be more expensive if he wins the G1 Doomben 10,000, and it’s a show of faith by Darley Australia.

“We’ll hold the fee, despite what he might achieve,” Makiv said. “We’ll just hope to see the phone ringing off the hook.”

Paulele will stand as a freshman sire this spring alongside some sharp names that will include the likes of In The Congo, Best Of Bordeaux, State Of Rest (Ire) and others. By the spring, there will be more.

“We certainly take on board what our competitors are doing with their horses, but we tend to focus mostly on our own two rosters,” Makiv said. “We’ve got a business in New South Wales and a business in Victoria, and they’re both important businesses for what we do.

“We try to make sure both rosters have a blend of sirelines… proven versus unproven, new additions, etc. It’s important that both rosters get new horses from time to time, and that includes the local horses like Paulele and Bivouac, and the Too Darn Hots, Pinatubos and Palace Piers.”

Makiv said that Anamoe was a big consideration between the two rosters this year, and that won't surprise anyone.

“With the likelihood that Anamoe fits well in New South Wales, we needed a new horse for Victoria, and Paulele was a more than worthy opportunity for the Victorian breeders. He has a lot going for him and we are extremely excited to have him here.”