In a numbers game it’s tough going for boutique vendors to make an impact, but the Darling Downs-based nursery Highgrove Stud is doing a remarkable job from only just a handful of opportunities.

Offering no more than 20 yearlings per season, Highgrove Stud is outperforming its size having sold a stakes winner for the past three successive seasons. Since 2017, Highgrove Stud has offered 104 yearlings to the marketplace and are the proud vendors of 10 individual stakes placegetters. That has the Queensland nursery operating at almost 10 per cent stakes placegetters to horses offered which is great going for a small-scale boutique operation.

In the past four racing seasons, Highgrove Stud graduates have featured in the placings of 16 stakes events. With two individual juvenile stakes winners to its name, Highgrove Stud has a strong record of producing precocious stock with almost 40 per cent of its stakes-performed graduates being 2-year-olds. Of the farm’s stakes-winning graduates, two were juveniles including Listed Lonhro Plate winner Cythera (I Am Invincible), Listed Talindert S. winner Aardvark (Capitalist) while the third was Snapped (Not A Single Doubt) who claimed last year’s G3 Petaluma Proud Miss S. as a 3-year-old. The farm’s prevalence for speed is further emphasised in the fact 75 per cent of its stakes performers have been over short-course trips of 1200 metres or less.

Table: Highgrove Stud's stakes performers 2023/24

This season, Highgrove Stud’s graduates have already featured in the top three placegetters of three juvenile stakes events. Of the 26 juvenile stakes events run in the eastern states this far into the season, Highgrove Stud graduates feature in almost 12 per cent of the top three finishers. A luckless third on debut in the Listed Debutant S., 2023 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale graduate Aardvark broke through for an impressive victory in last weekend’s Listed Talindert S. at Caulfield. Purchased by Baystone Farm for $240,000, the colt is raced by the James Harron Bloodstock Colts Partnership who also races fellow 2023 Highgrove yearling graduate, Fearless (Pierata) who was an encouraging second in the G3 Canonbury S. at Rosehill a couple of weeks ago. The progressive colt was a $220,000 purchase from the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.

Table: Highgrove Stud's stakes-performed graduates by sale

The average purchase price of a Highgrove Stud yearling is $230,000 while the average price of a stakes-performed graduate is a tick over $300,000. Interestingly, all of the stakes-performed graduates from the Queensland-based nursery are sired by unique stallions. The only mares with dual stakes performers from the farm are Global Dream (Fastnet Rock) and Helena’s Secret (USA) (Five Star Day {USA}) with the former responsible for stakes-placed duo Global Quest (More Than Ready {USA}) and Minks Star (Star Witness) and the later the dam of Listed Lonhro Plate winner Cythera and the stakes-placed Rule Of Law (Snitzel). Of the 10 individual stakes performers, 50 per cent are Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale graduates, three were sourced from the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale and the remaining two from the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.

With a host of juveniles stepping out at recent Sydney trials including the promising Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou-trained Amazing Eagle (Capitalist), Highgrove Stud is well-represented to continue its strong presence on the juvenile ranks as the pointy end of the season approaches.