Cover image courtesy of Coolmore
A week after announcing its 2023 stallion roster, Coolmore Australia on Wednesday revealed its service fee for the Triple Crown winner Justify. The son of Scat Daddy (USA) will stand for $77,000 (inc GST).
Justify is part of Coolmore’s 15-strong roster this spring, returning after a 2022 hiatus when he didn’t shuttle to Jerrys Plains. Previous to that, he had covered books in 2019, 2020 and 2021 at fees ranging from private to $55,000 (inc GST) and $66,000 (inc GST).
Justify’s fee release coincided with a very good week for the stallion.
At Warrnambool on Wednesday, his 2-year-old son Scentify won on debut for Ciaron Maher and David Eustace. Last weekend, his smart filly Legacies maintained her unbeaten run for Peter Moody and Rosemont Stud when winning the Listed ANZAC Day S. at Sandown.
Both of these results follow a vintage start for Justify in Australia. The chestnut stallion is currently leading the first-season sires’ table by earnings, with close to $1.8 million banked across 11 runners. His obvious star has been the Annabel Neasham filly Learning To Fly, who won the G2 Reisling S. and G3 Widden S. through the autumn.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Justify’s Australian stats sit at two stakes winners from just 11 horses to the track, with four winners for seven wins. It’s a very respectable record in a sharp amount of time. While Learning To Fly recovers from injuries sustained during the G1 Golden Slipper, Legacies has been put out with an eye to the G1 Thousand Guineas at Caulfield in the spring.
In the meanwhile, Justify’s return is very welcome to everyone at Jerrys Plains.
Justify (USA) | Standing at Coolmore Stud
“We look forward to welcoming Justify back to Australia this season at a fee that we believe represents great value for breeders,” said Coolmore Australia’s Colm Santry. “All the leading breeders want to use him and he will cover a select book of mares this spring.
“Coolmore’s confidence in Justify has been well-documented and it hasn’t taken long for his progeny in Australia to hit the ground running, just like they did in the Northern Hemisphere.”
“Coolmore’s confidence in Justify has been well-documented and it hasn’t taken long for his progeny in Australia to hit the ground running, just like they did in the Northern Hemisphere.” - Colm Santry
Comparatively, Justify is standing at Coolmore’s Kentucky operation for US$100,000, which equates to AU$150,000. He’s logged Group winners in Australia, Ireland and his native America, with close to 50 worldwide winners in two years’ worth of runners. Of those, nine are stakes winners.
The horse was fourth on the American and Canadian first-season sires’ table in the 2022 racing season, and he’s inside the top 10 of second-season sires in this early part of the 2023 calendar.
The Danehill thing
For Coolmore, the Scat Daddy sireline has been ultra-successful. It has delivered them not only Justify, but also Caravaggio (USA) and No Nay Never (USA).
In Australia, this sireline is valuable because it’s free of Danehill (USA), which gives it an important versatility when it comes to breeding options.
Gallery: Stallions of the Scat Daddy (USA) sireline related to Justify (USA)
“High-class, Danehill-free stallions are few and far between in Australia, and it is particularly encouraging that Justify has already proven to be extremely effective with Danehill blood,” Santry said. “Learning To Fly is out of a Fastnet Rock mare, Legacies is out of a Danehill Dancer mare, and Scentify is out of an All Too Hard mare.”
Though it’s early days for Justify in Australia, these sorts of patterns are hard to ignore. Both of the horse’s local stakes-winners hail from the Scat Daddy-Danehill cross. Of Justify’s four winners in Australia, in fact (the other being Californian from an I Am Invincible mare), all feature Danehill closely.
“High-class, Danehill-free stallions are few and far between in Australia, and it is particularly encouraging that Justify has already proven to be extremely effective with Danehill blood.” - Colm Santry
In hand with this outross positivity, Coolmore expects that Justify progeny will only improve as they mature, with Santry admitting as much on Wednesday.
“The indication from trainers is that everything they (Justify progeny) are doing as 2-year-olds is a bonus,” he said. “We expect that this is only the tip of the iceberg for him, which is very exciting.”
Justify is well-clear at the top of the first-season sires’ table in Australia, with Harry Angel (Ire) close to $800,000 behind him, followed by Brave Smash and Trapeze Artist. Should Justify win the title this season, he will be the first shuttle sire since More Than Ready (USA) to be an Australian first-crop Champion.
Returns in the sale ring
Justify’s sales results have lived up to the horse’s fee increase of $77,000. His debut yearlings in 2022 averaged $245,000, and his second crop weren’t much shy of that at $220,000.
To date, his top-selling youngster has reached $1.4 million, a price paid at the 2023 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in January when Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott snapped up the first born from the exceptional race mare Sunlight (Zoustar).
Sunlight | Image courtesy of Sportpix
The topicality of this purchase was interesting on Wednesday as Justify’s fee was released. At Canterbury’s midweek meeting on the same day, Sunlight’s full brother, Kandinsky Abstract (Zoustar), won on debut for trainer Chris Waller. The victory came with all the bunting expected of a colt that cost $3 million as a yearling, Kandinsky Abstract fetching that figure at the 2022 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale when offered by Widden Stud and bought by Tom Magnier for Coolmore.
“Breeders that use him this season look set to capitalise on the unbelievable quality of mares that he has covered,” Santry said. “His second-crop yearlings sold for $1.4 million, $750,000, $700,000 and so on.”
“Breeders that use him (Justify) this season look set to capitalise on the unbelievable quality of mares that he has covered.” - Colm Santry
These foals emerged from the likes of champion Sunlight, as mentioned, and the Group 1 winners Nakeeta Jane (So You Think {NZ} and Invincibella (I Am Invincible), while Justify has sired progeny from Champagne Cuddles (Not A Single Doubt), Fontein Ruby (Turffontein), Global Glamour (Star Witness) and Tulip (Pierro).
“There is no shortage of quality stock coming through,” Santry said.
