Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

Godolphin Australia may have one of the biggest and best broodmare bands in the country, possibly the world, but that doesn’t guarantee success. Yes, it helps, enormously, but having the cattle is only one piece of the puzzle. Breeding top-quality horses isn’t an exact science and requires the expertise and experience of those at the helm.

This spring, Godolphin Australia will breed 186 mares. A panel comprising Vin Cox (Godolphin Australia’s managing director), Jason Walsh (Godolphin Australia’s racing and bloodstock manager), Alastair Pulford (Darley Australia’s head of stallions) and Adrian Hancock (external bloodstock agent) are responsible for determining the matings and they receive input from Godolphin Australia’s three stud managers John Sunderland (from Woodlands), Barley Ward-Thomas (Kelvinside) and James Manning (Northwood Park).

“We grade all of our mares, starting with the best, and just work our way through it,” Pulford told The Thoroughbred Report.

“We don’t go there with a plan of sending a certain number to one particular stallion.

“We go through each mare in turn. We look at her pedigree, we take her physical status into consideration, her production record, if she has one, and then we choose a stallion. Sometimes, it’s unanimous, others it’s not, but there’s never a lot of argument over it. Sometimes, you’ll hold firm for a mating that you think is particularly good, but we’re dealing with genetics and horses, so it’s your best guess, it isn’t definitive.

“The basic rule of thumb is that proven mares go to unproven stallions and vice versa. We tend to want to use 60-plus per cent proven stallions. We have a majority of proven stallions, that just provides a level of safety, and we’re also keen to support our young stallions with some of these really good mares that are proven and capable of throwing top horses. This had held us in good stead over a long period of time.”

If we use last season’s results as a determining factor, we can safely say Godolphin Australia has got it right. In 2022/23, it bred three individual Group 1 winners - Anamoe, Paulele and Golden Mile (Astern) - and they combined for eight top-flight triumphs. Add 10 Group 2s, 17 Group 3s and 14 Listed races and you have an accumulative tally of 49 black-type victories.

Gallery: The Group 1 winners Godolphin Australia bred in the 2022/23 season, images courtesy of The Image Is Everything

Anamoe - a son of Street Boss (USA) - was the flagbearer, collecting six Group 1s, including the time-honoured Cox Plate.

He is now at stud, embarking on his debut season at Darley’s Kelvinside at a fee of $121,000 (inc GST). Unsurprisingly, Godolphin Australia is throwing great support behind the nine-time Group 1-winning champion, sending 17 of its mares to him.

“It’s a big number for us to send a first-season stallion, so we’re really boots in there. It’s nearly 10 per cent of our broodmare band,” Pulford explained.

“Dazzler, the dam of Bivouac, and her half-sister Guelph, who was a champion herself and is the dam of Encryption, they’re both selected for Anamoe. We know they produce top horses.

“Kiamichi (the 2019 G1 Golden Slipper winner) is a bit younger, but she’s had a couple of foals now. She’s got a beautiful Lonhro filly (named Loblolly) and an I Am Invincible filly and is due to Street Boss.

“She’s been to three proven stallions, so we take what you would call a slight risk with Anamoe. It’s giving Anamoe one of the best mares in our book, a Golden Slipper winner.”

Global giants

A host of Godolphin Australia’s top mares were exported to the UK on August 5 and they will be covered on Southern Hemisphere time by some of the world’s best stallions in Dubawi (Ire), Frankel (GB) and Kingman (GB).

The triple Group 1 winner Alizee (Sepoy) and the beautifully bred Group 3 heroine Exhilarates (Snitzel) are among those that will visit Dubawi - the Champion Sire-elect in Britain and Ireland in 2022.

“They’re already there and a couple have been served,” Pulford commented.

“Alizee, just physically, she’s such a big mare, so she’s going to suit Dubawi down to the ground.

“Exhilarates is not as big, and Dubawi is probably a slight risk physically, just in terms of size for her, but he’s such a good stallion.”

The dual Listed winner Athiri (Lonhro) and the Group 3 victress Larkspur Run (Shamardal {USA}) will be covered by Frankel - the fastest sire to 50 Group winners in history and Champion Sire in 2021.

“Athiri and Larkspur Run are both beautifully bred stakes-winning mares that we’re able to use Frankel for. His stats are unbelievable,” Pulford said.

Gallery: Some of Godolphin Australia's top-class mares set for covers in the UK

Pulford said the opportunity to access “two of the best stallions in the world” was one simply too good to pass up.

“We’ve taken the opportunity with mares that aren’t in foal from last season or are maidens, such as Larkspur Run, to use those elite Northern Hemisphere-based stallions, which Dubawi and Frankel both are. They’re two of the best stallions in the world and it’s good to get the opportunity to use them,” Pulford remarked.

“If either Dubawi or Frankel stood in Australia they’d be standing for $500,000 each and we’d be sending as many as we could to them.

“It’s not always possible to use them, because we don’t send pregnant mares over there, but it’s easy enough to send the empty mares.”

The 2021 G1 VRC Oaks heroine Willowy (Kermadec {NZ}) will also be covered on Southern Hemisphere time, with the 5-year-old to be served by Kingman.

Shuttle stars

Darley’s shuttle stallion Blue Point (Ire) has hit the ground running, with six stakes wins to his credit in the Northern Hemisphere. His 2-year-old son, Big Evs (Ire), who is trained by Michael Appleby, has contested four stakes races, winning three of them, including the G2 Childers S. at Doncaster earlier this month.

Blue Point’s first crop was well sought-after during the 2023 Australian sales season. He had 59 yearlings sell at an average price of $181,218.

Godolphin Australia will send another nice book of mares to the only horse ever to win three Group 1 sprints at Royal Ascot, who stands at Darley’s Northwood Park for $44,000 (inc GST).

The super producer Accessories (GB) (Singspiel {GB}) is one mare that will be covered by Blue Point. She has thrown two Group 1 winners and five stakes winners overall - Helmet, Bullbars, Epaulette, Pearls (Exceed And Excel) and Pericles (Street Boss {USA}).

“She’s one of our blue hens, she’s thrown five stakes winners from four different sires, so she just keeps getting the job done,” Pulford said.

“She’s a beautiful, high-quality Singspiel mare and she’ll suit Blue Point down to the ground.

“A lot of our matings are done with the physical in mind. Physical certainly as much as pedigree. And temperament is always a major factor. We are big enough on nicks and crosses, but it’s certainly not all we go for.

“We’re very conscious of the physical because all we’re trying to do is produce a racehorse, not a sales horse.”

Too Darn Hot (GB) is another Darley shuttle stallion that has made a profound impact in a limited time. He has five stakes wins to his name and Kevin Burke’s Fallen Angel (GB) handed him his first Group 1 victory when he was much the best in the G1 Moyglare Stud S. at the Curragh earlier in the month.

A son of Dubawi, Too Darn Hot’s first Australian crop averaged $184,361 during the 2023 sales season.

Too Darn Hot’s 2023 book includes the brilliant Essaouira (Exceed And Excel) - the dam of Alizee and the elite-level winner and Group 1-producing stallion Astern.

Pinatubo (Ire) - a Horse of the Year and a sensational 134-rated unbeaten Champion 2-Year-Old - returns for his second season, having covered 131 mares in 2022 at Kelvinside. The three-time Group 1-winning son of Shamardal (USA) will stand at a fee of $55,000 (inc GST).

His book for the spring includes the well-bred Redoute’s Choice mare Retsina - the dam of the stakes winners Athiri, Savatiano (Street Cry {Ire}) and Vilana (Hallowed Crown).

Quality for Exceed

Darley’s evergreen stallion Exceed And Excel has covered less than 100 mares in each of his past two seasons and that will again be the case in 2023. Now 23, Exceed And Excel stands for $132,000 (inc GST) this spring.

His list of mares includes the two-time Group 1 victress Colette (Hallowed Crown) and the 2019 G1 Thousand Guineas scorer Flit (Medaglia D’Oro {USA}).

Gallery: Some of the mares to be served by Exceed And Excel this season, images courtesy of Ashlea Brennan

“He’ll probably cover between 50-60 mares this year, maybe a few more,” said Pulford.

“We love him for those young mares starting out their careers. Colette went overseas to Dubawi her first season, we took that opportunity with a superstar mare like her. We’ve found Exceed is a great stallion for young mares, especially mares that can run; he seems to bring out the best in the mare, so we do love sending him those good, young stakes-winning mares.”

Table: Some of the matings Godolphin Australia are planning in 2023

Cover image courtesy of Tattersalls

It’s 9am on Monday morning in the UK, and instead of basking in the glory of his red-letter weekend, Johnny McKeever is busy buying the Group 2-placed mare Sedaka (NZ) (Savabeel) on Gavelhouse.com in conjunction with fellow bloodstock agent Bruce Perry.

Secured for NZ$205,000 on behalf of Watership Down Stud Australia, Sedaka will visit Darley’s exciting young shuttle sire Too Darn Hot (GB) for her maiden cover this year, a stallion who has made a blistering start with his first crop of 2-year-olds in the Northern Hemisphere courtesy of the likes of Group 1 winner Fallen Angel (GB) and Group 2 scorer Darnation (Ire).

The latter was a dominant winner of the G2 May Hill S. at Doncaster last week and that is precisely where McKeever rounded off his particularly fruitful weekend, with 200,000gns (AU$404,200) yearling purchase Iberian (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) winning the G2 Champagne S. a matter of hours after another of his purchases, Just Fine, made it two from two in Australia with a stylish success in the G3 Kingston Town S. at Royal Randwick.

Having Group race success with a juvenile in England and a 6-year-old tried horse in Australia on the same day is a real testament to McKeever’s ability to identify a quality horse, although in typically self-deprecating fashion, he believes lady luck has more than played her part.

“We’ve been lucky enough to have quite a number of good horses over the years, but I can’t remember a time when in 36 hours we got three Group winners up on the board,” said McKeever, who also purchased Friday’s G3 Newcastle Gold Cup winner Military Mission (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) as a tried horse back in 2021.

“They weren’t the most important races, but you know how your luck is in this game, if you get a winner you’re thrilled, so to get three all at Group level was quite exciting.

“We all know that most of these things are down to a bit of judgement and a bit of luck. Olly Tait flew up to Newmarket to buy some stayers for Wathnan Racing and he outbid me on several of them, that’s why I ended up on Just Fine. Had he not been there, I might have bought a different one and then overlooked Just Fine.”

Thankfully for McKeever, he didn’t make that mistake with Just Fine, who up until that point was most famous for being King Charles III’s first winner as monarch.

The son of Sea The Stars (Ire) has subsequently left his Northern Hemisphere form well behind since joining up with the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott stable, taking little time to adapt to life on Australian soil which, according to McKeever, cannot be said of all imports.

“It’s a bit weird to say that a 5-year-old is an exciting horse, but he looks like Australia is really suiting him and he has progressed a great deal from a good quality handicapper in England to a horse that may be knocking on the door of The Metropolitan,” he said.

“I don’t know whether he has surprised them (Waterhouse and Bott) or not, but I know they have loved the way he’s gone since he arrived.

“In our experience, most of the time when they come down from here (UK) as older horses they do need about a year to acclimatise to Australia.

“The first season can be a bit hit and miss and it tends to be the second season there when you start to see the best of them, but this horse has just gone down there and taken everything in his stride.”

The dream team

Just Fine is now a clear favourite for The Metropolitan following Saturday’s impressive performance and will head into the Group 1 contest with an unbeaten record in Australia, something that is all too familiar for the McKeever and Waterhouse partnership.

Back in 2011, the pair teamed up to buy a horse by the name of Glencadam Gold (Ire) (Refuse To Bend {Ire}) for 135,000gns (AU$272,800), securing him from the draft of the late Sir Henry Cecil’s Warren Place Stables at the Tattersalls Horses in Training Sale in Newmarket.

Glencadam Gold took to Australia like a duck to water, winning his first three starts Down Under before heading into The Metropolitan as a $2.80 favourite, where he duly obliged by 3.8l under a young Tommy Berry.

Further elite-level success followed for McKeever and Waterhouse courtesy of fellow import The Offer (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}), who triumphed in the G1 Sydney Cup in 2014. Their relationship is equal parts fruitful and longstanding, and McKeever has Waterhouse to thank for introducing him to the Australian bloodstock industry.

“I met Gai through a mutual friend at a dinner party in England and she did her usual, ‘Oh you’ve got to come down to Australia’,” McKeever recalled. “I said I didn’t have any clients, but she let me buy a few yearlings for her at Magic Millions in the early days and got me started.

“Gai is the whole reason I got into Australia and now that my kids have grown up, Susie and I go down there every year around the 1st of January and leave after Easter. It’s pretty nice and I've obviously got a lot more familiar with Australian racing in the intervening 12-15 years.

“I’ve bought her some stayers from up north almost every year since then - I think Glencadam Gold was actually one of the first and certainly the first Group 1 winner that I’d sent down to her.

“She has been an amazingly good client and is always so enthusiastic. Adrian (Bott) has become a good friend too and I have the height of respect for him as a trainer.”

As well as Glencadam Gold and The Offer, McKeever was also responsible for sourcing multiple stakes winner Military Mission for the Waterhouse-Bott team, parting with £170,000 (AU$327,000) to secure him from the draft of his trainer Hugo Palmer at the Goffs London Sale in 2021.

A winner of one race from seven starts prior to his import into Australia, Military Mission has proved a revelation Down Under, winning a further five times for his new connections including a pair of Group 3 contests.

“He’s an old star of a horse who we bought as a handicapper at the London Sale during the COVID year, where we all did it remotely and it was very difficult to do business,” McKeever said.

“My wife and I got stuck in Australia during COVID and Military Mission was the first horse we bought when we arrived back. I got steered onto him a little bit by Hugo Palmer, who used to be one of Gai’s assistants. He said that this horse would go well in Australia and we followed his advice, but I don’t think we could have envisaged he’d be this good.

“He’s just been a star for not a very expensive horse. He has won three Cups now and that’s his game. He’s a very genuine, tough horse and he’s giving his very enthusiastic group of owners a huge amount of fun. For what he cost he has been a brilliant bargain.”

The Goffs London Sale, a boutique auction held on the eve of Royal Ascot each year, has been a fruitful hunting ground for McKeever and Waterhourse, who teamed up to top last year’s edition when parting with £1.2 million (AU$2.31 million) to secure promising young stayer Hoo Ya Mal (GB) (Territories {Ire}).

The pair returned for more this year and signed the docket for two lots, both of whom McKeever has high hopes for, for a combined outlay of £560,000 (AU$1.08 million).

“One of them is a horse called Cuban Dawn, who is a lovely stayer in the making, and the other horse is more of a ‘now horse’ called New Endeavour, who has a lovely temperament and just loves to race,” McKeever revealed.

Gallery: The pair of horses purchased by McKeever and Waterhouse-Bott at this year's Goffs London Sale, images courtesy of Goffs

“He’s with Roger Varian and has now entered quarantine. I believe they’re going to give him a shot at the Golden Eagle.

“He’s a horse that has just improved and improved. I think he has improved something like 21lbs on official ratings since we bought him.

“He’s a really exciting horse and a little bit of a different mould to what we normally buy. I don’t think he’s an out-and-out stayer, I think he’s probably going to be a mile or 10-furlong type of horse in Australia.”

Changing it up

New Endeavour hails from the unraced Invincible Spirit (Ire) mare Moody Blue (Ire), who is a half-sister to the dam of dual Australian Group 2 winner and G1 Tatt’s Tiara placegetter Lumosty (Fastnet Rock).

McKeever and Co. will be hoping that New Endeavour adapts to Australian conditions as effortlessly as his future stablemate Just Fine, who also had evidence in his pedigree to suggest that he would be right at home in the Southern Hemisphere.

Just Fine is out of a half-sister to not only Saturday night’s runaway G1 Woodbine Mile winner Master Of The Seas (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), but also Group 3-winning mare Falls Of Lora (Ire) (Street Cry {Ire}), who is the dam of Godolphin’s three-time Australian Group 1 hero Cascadian (GB) (New Approach {Ire}).

Although there was plenty to like about both Just Fine and New Endeavour from a pedigree standpoint, that wasn’t the deciding factor in their purchase according to McKeever, who places far less emphasis on a tried horse’s pedigree than that of a yearling.

“With horses in training it’s a different skill set from buying young stock and yearlings,” he said. “You look less at their pedigree and more about what their background is.

“It’s a huge catalogue for the Horses in Training Sale in Newmarket but there is quite a small number of horses that would hit our shortlist. We want horses that have shown enough class to be Listed-stroke-Group class in England, or at least very good quality handicappers that will get the trip.

“They also have to be sound and come from a stable where you feel there will be some juice left in the tank.

“It’s very, very competitive as the main stables in Australia are after these horses all the time.”

That competitiveness has prompted McKeever to slightly alter his approach to buying tried horses, with the leading bloodstock agent now much happier to consider those aged four and above than he would have been only a few years ago.

“One thing slightly against Just Fine was that he was a 4-year-old, and I normally prefer to buy 3-year-olds,” he added.

“Funnily enough, since Stuart Boman bought Zaaki aged five, maybe we are wrong to dismiss the 4-year-olds.

“A change in environment, warm weather and a different sort of training sometimes does the trick, and in real-life terms horses are only just becoming fully mature at four, so maybe we are missing a trick by only concentrating on buying 3-year-olds.

“That’s the beauty of this game, you are learning all the time.”

Hitting the jackpot

A fine example of that constant learning process is through McKeever’s blossoming relationship in the Northern Hemisphere with Lambourn trainer Charlie Hills, with whom he has purchased a number of yearlings in Europe over the past two years.

The pair have seemingly hit the jackpot with a talented 2-year-old colt by the name of Iberian, who announced himself as one of the leading juveniles in Europe with a commanding 2l success in the G2 Champagne S. at Doncaster on Saturday.

A 200,000gns (AU$404,200) purchase from Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in Newmarket, Iberian cost slightly more than what McKeever and Hills are normally willing to spend on their yearlings, but much to the former’s relief, he looks to be worth every penny.

“I’m very excited for Charlie as that’s our first Group winner together in two years of buying,” McKeever said. “It takes a while to get to know the horse that your trainer likes and gets on well with, so we have definitely made a better stab of it this year.

“I think we’ve had about eight or nine 2-year-old winners come through the system this year and they’re quite nice quality horses too.

“We normally operate between 50,000 and 150,000 on most horses, but we had been encouraged to go higher for Iberian because John O’Connor at Ballylinch said that he would keep a share in the horse if we bought him, which gave us encouragement to know that the breeder thought so highly of him.

“Now he’s en route to becoming a stallion prospect.”

A son of former shuttle sire Lope De Vega (Ire), Iberian will now bid to enhance his stallion credentials in the G1 Dewhurst S. at Newmarket next month before being put away for the winter and prepared for a crack at next year’s 2000 Guineas.

He is likely to meet the cream of this year’s juvenile crop in the Dewhurst, with representation expected from both sides of the Irish Sea, but having already claimed the scalp of the highly regarded Rosallion (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}) on the weekend, McKeever is confident that Iberian is up to the task.

“To do what he did was very exciting,” Mckeever said of Iberian’s Champagne S. victory.

“I was at Doncaster to watch him and they more or less said that the (Richard) Hannon horse (Rosallion) was one of the best that he had had for ages, so we hoped we might win or at least come a close second if he didn’t win.

“I was talking to Barry Hills yesterday and he said Iberian is as good a 2-year-old as they’ve had there for 10 years. He’s done a couple of bits of work at home the like of which they haven’t seen from a 2-year-old in a while.

“He’s got gears and he has that instant acceleration. He’s not huge, he’d only be a 15’3 model or something like that at the moment, but I think he has Guineas written all over him.”

There’s a lot of water to go under the bridge between now and then, but a Guineas would be more than just fine for McKeever.

Cover image courtesy of Magic Millions

The Lootah family’s Emirates Park brand is no stranger to the elite circles in racing. Their list of homebred graduates includes Group 1-winning stallions Encosta De Lago, Swice Ace and Al Maher while they were also responsible for purchasing G1 Golden Slipper-winning fillies Mossfun (Mossman) and Estijaab (Snitzel).

Since the start of the 2018/19 racing season, Emirates Park have bred the winners of 29 stakes events including a top-flight victory with Vega One (Lope De Vega {Ire}) which came in the 2021 edition of the G1 Kingsford-Smith Cup.

Almost a quarter of the stakes events won by Emirates Park homebreds in the past five years have been by their juvenile stock. Stakes-winning 2-year-olds sporting the Emirates Park brand include the likes of dual stakes-winning filly Enthaar (Written Tycoon) and I Am Invincible sired fillies Najmaty and Ebhaar. Remarkably, four of the six stakes-winning Emirates Park-bred juveniles were produced from the stud’s 2018 crop which also includes the G2 VRC Sires' Produce S.-winning colt Lightsaber, a sire-son of Zoustar.

While Emirates Park is known for offering quality yearling drafts to the commercial market, they have retained ownership of 60 per cent of all stakes winners bred in the past five years. While John Thompson forked out $75,000 for Vega One at the 2017 Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling sale, Emirates Park fortunately stayed in the ownership and experienced the thrill of his Group 1 success in Brisbane. Aside from Charm Stone’s $1.55 million price-tag at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, the recent stakes winners offered by Emirates Park have fetched a moderate average of $131,000.

Table: Total stakes winners represented by sire

I Am Invincible is the most represented sire of Emirates Park’s recent stakes winners having sired four individual black-type winners carrying the brand. Part-owned French resident sire Dream Ahead (USA) is represented by two Emirates Park-bred stakes winners including their retained stakes-winning filly Marboosha and G2 Tristarc S. winner Shumookh. The former shuttle stallion is also the broodmare sire of dual stakes-winning sprinter Lightsaber who commenced stallion duties this month at Western Australia’s Darling View Thoroughbreds. Stallions aside, Emirates Park’s blue-hen mares Najoom (Northern Meteor) and Salma (Encosta De Lago) are responsible for four of the farm’s 15 stakes winners.

Table: Total stakes winners per trainer

The Emirates-bred stock certainly has an affinity for particular trainers including Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott managing homebred stakes-winning entire Dajraan (GB) (Frankel {GB}) as well as dual stakes-winning mares Alassio (Foxwedge) and Shumookh. Peter and Paul Snowden have also handled three Emirates Park fillies in the past five years including Marboosha and I Am Invincible sired duo Ebhaar and Najmaty. Simon Miller and Tony Gollan are the other trainers represented by dual Emirates Park-bred stakes winners.

Already a stakes-winning juvenile, blue-blood filly Charm Stone kicked off her spring 3-year-old campaign in style recently with back-to-back wins in the G3 Quezette S. and Listed Atlantic Jewel S. Talent certainly runs in the family with her mother being the dual stakes winner Najoom who is the dam of three foals to race for three winners including Charm Stone’s dual stakes-winning full sister Najmaty. The Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr-trained talent now shoots for Group 1 success as the lone filly in this weekend’s prestigious G1 Golden Rose S. While she may not carry the famous green and white silks of Emirates Park, there will be plenty of echoes heard from the farm’s Murrurundi base.