Timing is everything in the breeding game, and while one chapter is set to close for Ian Smith and Edinburgh Park Stud at Magic Millions on Tuesday, another is just about to open for Kooringal Stud and the Lamont family, whose recently acquired stallion Merchant Navy broke new ground on Saturday with his first Group 1 winner from just two crops of racing age.
Royal Merchant’s timely victory in the G1 Goodwood H. came less than a month after it was announced that her sire would stand the upcoming breeding season at Kooringal, and studmaster Angus Lamont revealed that the son of Fastnet Rock has been well-received ever since news broke of his imminent arrival at the fourth generation property.
“It’s a big result,” Lamont said. “We’ve had a lot of congratulations coming through and I’m sure there will be a few bookings off the back of it.
“It’s a big result. We’ve had a lot of congratulations coming through and I’m sure there will be a few bookings off the back of it.” - Angus Lamont
“There’s been some good enquiries from clients on the farm at this stage and plenty of people are certainly wanting to head his way.
“There’s also been interest from outside breeders. I know Royal Merchant’s grandmother is coming to him for a start and we’re very happy with how he has been received at this stage.
“A win like that gives us a lot more confidence in the horse ourselves as well.”
Merchant Navy’s move south from his former base at Coolmore Australia, where he stood his first five seasons at stud, was orchestrated by Lamont with the help of Coolmore’s Paddy Oman, who suggested that the dual hemisphere Group 1 winner might be better placed in Wagga Wagga.
Lamont had been in touch with Coolmore previously about a few different stallions and jumped at the chance to stand a horse of Merchant Navy’s ilk, especially after taking into account the quality of mare he had been afforded during his time in the Hunter Valley.
Merchant Navy | Standing at Kooringal Stud
“He’d be the best-credentialled horse Kooringal has ever had the privilege of standing, so we’re really excited to get ahold of him,” Lamont said.
“He’s covered some fantastic mares over the past couple of years and they’re all in good stables, that’s the key to it. If they’ve got any ability, they’ll be able to find it.
“He has 72 weanlings on the ground, 60 yearlings and 91 2-year-olds, so there’s enough there to keep coming through and I’m sure there will be some more good ones amongst them.
“He (Merchant Navy) has 72 weanlings on the ground, 60 yearlings and 91 2-year-olds, so there’s enough there to keep coming through and I’m sure there will be some more good ones amongst them.” - Angus Lamont
“I’ll certainly be supporting him with some really nice mares. Maltese, the dam of Ancestry and Diamond Tathagata, she’ll be going to him among some other pretty handy mares.”
Whilst Merchant Navy hasn’t made the blistering start to life at stud that many good judges hoped and predicted he would, his yearlings still sold for up to $260,000 earlier this year and entered plenty of the country’s leading stables, including those of The Everest-winning trainer Clayton Douglas and multiple Group 1-winning handlers Bjorn Baker and David Vandyke.
His most expensive yearling to date, the $700,000 Magic Millions graduate Steel City, has done more than her bit to help her sire’s cause, winning the G3 Magic Night S. and going toe to toe with the very best of this season’s juvenile crop. Like Royal Merchant, Steel City is trained by Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, who trained Merchant Navy himself to win the G1 Coolmore Stud S. prior to his brief but successful racing stint in the Northern Hemisphere.
Unsurprisingly, Maher and Eustace have been one of Merchant Navy’s biggest supporters since he swapped the race track for the breeding barn, and with renowned judges such as David Ellis, Paul Moroney Bloodstock/Catheryne Bruggeman/Ballymore Stables and Emirates Park also purchasing yearlings by him in 2023, combined with the fact that he will stand the upcoming breeding season at a much reduced fee of $13,200 (inc GST), Lamont is confident that Kooringal’s newest recruit represents a great option for breeders in search of some value this spring.
“I think it’s a great opportunity to go to him at that price,” Lamont said. “His oldest progeny are only 3-year-olds and he’s already got a Group 1-winning 3-year-old and a Group-winning 2-year-old in Steel City.
“She’s only two, and just of the types that I’ve seen, they look like they’re only going to get better as they get older, just like the Fastnets (Rock, stallion).
“She’s (Steel City's) only two, and just of the types that I’ve seen, they look like they’re only going to get better as they get older, just like the Fastnets (Rock, stallion).” - Angus Lamont
“I’m very excited to see how she comes back in the spring. She won the lead-up to the Slipper and raced very wide throughout, she just had a torrid run in the Slipper. She certainly has that Group 1 potential and she’s in the right stable, so she should have an exciting future ahead.
“There may be others as well. He’s got these sprinters but a lot of them are also getting over some distance as well, so there’s likely to be a fair few pop up as older horses over a bit further in the next six months.”
A bittersweet success
In becoming only the third 3-year-old filly in history to win the time-honoured G1 Goodwood H., Royal Merchant also became the latest Group 1 winner to carry the Edinburgh Park brand, joining the likes of Hong Kong Horse of the Year Silent Witness (El Moxie {USA}) in exalted company.
Statue of Hong Kong Horse of the Year, the Edinburgh Park-bred Silent Witness | Image courtesy of the Hong Kong Jockey Club
Royal Merchant was bred and raised by Edinburgh Park on behalf of long-term clients Michael and Helen Keegan, who raced both her dam Seventhchic (Seventh Reason) and grandam Euro Chic (Dehere {USA}). With Edinburgh dispersing the last of its breeding stock on the Gold Coast this week, Saturday’s Goodwood result was a poignant one for many, but none more so than Edinburgh principal Ian Smith, who recalled the story of how Euro Chic first arrived in the Manning Valley.
“It’s an excellent result for very good clients of ours in Michael Keegan and his wife Helen,” Smith said. “It’s great to see that their hard work has finally delivered a Group 1.
“It’s an excellent result (Royal Merchant's Group 1 victory, for dam Seventhchic) for very good clients of ours in Michael Keegan and his wife Helen. It’s great to see that their hard work has finally delivered a Group 1.” - Ian Smith
“Michael sent Euro Chic to Seventh Reason because he was a shareholder in him after he was purchased as a yearling. He made massive money up here on the Gold Coast, I think Gai Waterhouse bought him for $2,000,000.
“That was when Euro Chic arrived at our place, in foal to Seventh Reason. The foal was born and reared at our place and I said to Michael that now we’ll start being more commercial with stallions.
“He decided to race the foal, Seventhchic, and she was trained by Chris Waller. She was quite a handy mare and off the track we sent her to Merchant Navy.”
The rest, as they say, is history, and much to Smith’s delight, the Keegans retained a share in Royal Merchant after she was sold to Ciaron Maher Bloodstock for $160,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale back in 2021.
Royal Merchant | Image courtesy of Racing SA
“She was a gorgeous filly,” Smith recalled. “She’s only going to improve too. Knowing that family, some of those older horses like Alburq are still running around as 5- and 6-year-olds and winning Saturday-class races.
“She’s a filly that’s kept on stepping up and up, she went down to Melbourne and grew another leg down there. To sit wide the way she did and then accelerate off that speed on Saturday was a tremendous effort, and winning that Group 1 against older horses is fantastic.
“It’s a great thrill for Michael but a tinge of sadness for me. All these mares and all those weanlings last week, I can see the potential in those and I just know there are future stars among them.
“It’s a great thrill (Royal Merchant's Group 1 victory) for Michael but a tinge of sadness for me (selling the families). All these mares and all those weanlings last week, I can see the potential in those and I just know there are future stars among them.” - Ian Smith
“Winning that on Saturday just shows you the quality of horses that are bred at the farm. It’s bittersweet I suppose because here we are selling all our mares over the next few days, but hopefully the market can see that and sink their teeth into the stock that sells on Tuesday night.”
The second and final part of the Edinburgh Park Unreserved Dispersal, which features a host of stakes-winning and stakes-producing mares, will bring the curtain down on Tuesday’s opening session of the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
