Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

Palm Angel (Starspangledbanner), trained by Jason Warren for owner/breeders Rosemont Stud won the Listed Merson Cooper S. on debut on Saturday at Caulfield in a strong ride from Ethan Brown.

Above average ability from the start

“She was tough. It was terrific. Jason had been pleased with her from the beginning and was particularly taken with her over the last six weeks,” said Rosemont Stud’s Ryan McEvoy.

“She showed ability at home, and we knew she was above average, and then she won a jump-out against some older horses so there was some confidence about her.” As an unsighted juvenile, she was sent around at $12 by punters and won by 0.75l.

“Palm Angel is a proud homebred. She had a small x-ray blemish which is why we didn’t sell her. She was such a good type, but that blemish would’ve meant selling her at a discount and we were reluctant to do that. She went into our racing system and was a star at the breakers and then when Jason opened her up in a gallop she broke the clock.”

“She’ll have a little breather now, she’s been up for a while.”

Graduates of the Merson Cooper

In recent years, the Listed Merson Cooper S. has produced several horses of outstanding class with Eneeza (Exceed And Excel) winning it last year before adding the G2 Percy Sykes S. in the autumn. The year before Little Brose (Per Incanto {USA}) went on to win the G1 Blue Diamond S., while in 2020 a bay colt by the name of Anamoe added his name to the leger in his first of 14 career wins that included a Group 1 win as a 2-year-old, 3-year-old and 4-year-old with nine career Group 1 victories in total.

Gallery: Some of the high-class gallopers who have won the Listed Merson Cooper S. in recent years, images courtesy of The Image Is Everything

“We’ve got Hanseatic at the farm too. The (Merson Cooper) has historically been a good foundation race and a form race for the Blue Diamond series. Hanseatic won it on debut and went to win two of the Blue Diamond lead up races, then Anamoe went on to be a star. Little Brose won the Diamond. That wasn’t lost on us.”

Hanseatic, whose first crop are 2-year-olds, won the 2019 Listed Merson Cooper S. on debut then added the Listed Blue Diamond Preview (Colts and Geldings) and the G3 Blue Diamond Prelude (Colts and Geldings) at his next two starts. He ran second in the G1 Blue Diamond to Tagaloa who also stands at stud in Victoria.

A successful cross

Starspangledbanner has spent his time in Australia based at both Coolmore Stud in the Hunter Valley of NSW and Rosemont Stud’s Victorian base. “It’s a cross that has been good to us with Brooklyn Hustle bred on the same cross. It was another astute purchase from Mitho to buy a Pivotal mare from overseas for good value.”

Palm Angel’s dam, Noblest (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) was a winner over 1400 metres in England and was purchased by Rosemont Stud at the 2016 Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale for €125,000 (AU$203,000) in foal to Bated Breath. She produced a colt in early 2017, then came to Australia in August 2017 where she was served by Brazen Beau.

“She’s a sister to a champion filly over there, Peeress who won a Lockinge. She’s a robust sort of mare with nice length for a Pivotal. It’s wasn’t a lot of rocket science, she’s by an influential broodmare sire with a real pedigree behind her. She didn’t have a stellar race record, but Mitho thought she would suit our domestic stallions here.”

Noblest is a full sister to Peeress (GB) whose seven wins included the G1 Lockinge S. and G1 Sun Chariot S. and she was rated the Champion Older Female Miler in GB and Ireland in 2006. Peeress has been a good broodmare, producing Listed winner Ladyship (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}), who has had a massive year as the dam of 2024 G1 Lockinge S. Audience (GB) (Iffraaj {GB}) and 2024 G3 Greenham S. winner Esquire (GB) (Harry Angel {Ire}), and she had earlier produced 2019 G3 Dick Poole S. winner Dark Lady (GB) (Dark Angel {Ire}).

“A couple of years prior we sent Joint Aspiration to Starspangledbanner and got Brooklyn Hustle, and she was really the inspiration for the purchase (of Noblest).

Joint Aspiration (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) arrived from France in 2012 after being purchased by Bertrand Le Metayer Bloodstock at the Arqana December Mare Sale for €85,000 (AU$138,000). She had a few foals to Toorak Toff, then went to Starspangledbanner producing Brooklyn Hustle in 2016. She won on debut at two, later winning the G3 Proud Miss S. and G2 Dane Ripper S. Her first foal is a yearling colt by Zoustar who is yet to be catalogued for a sale.

“It wasn’t a huge amount of money for a mare with (Noblest)’s profile and now she’s proving to be a good mare. She’s really hitting her straps. Her 3-year-old Narbold was an impressive runner up in the Anzac Day S. He’s had a couple of hiccups this spring but is a high-class horse.”

Narbold (Churchill {Ire}) is the year older half-brother to Palm Angel and is trained by Chris Waller. He ran second, to Epimeles (Dundeel {NZ}), in the Listed Anzac Day S. at two at his second start, and recently won his maiden at his second start as a 3-year-old. He is also raced by Rosemont Stud.

“Palm Angel has a full sister, a yearling, on the ground, who is a beauty. I’m not sure yet if she’ll go to a sale or stay in our racing system. The mare doesn’t owe us a lot.”

Long association with Starspangledbanner

Starspangledbanner retired to Coolmore in Ireland in 2011 but managed only 33 foals from that first season and 30 from his first crop in Australia. He moved to Rosemont in 2013, 2014 and 2015 breeding seasons before returning to Coolmore in 2016. His fertility slowly improved through restricting the number of mares he served, in defiance of what veterinarians expected, and in 2019, he went back to Rosemont for three seasons, while still shuttling to Ireland. He had 2022 off, staying in Ireland and then returned to Coolmore Australia after that.

With 48 stakes winners including eight Group 1 winners from less than 800 runners, Starspangledbanner was worth persisting with, and served 115 mares in 2023 with 67 live foals returned to the stud book so far in 2024. This will rise as the November foals and late returns come in.

“We’ve got a long association with Starspangledbanner. We bought into him when Coolmore bought him off the track and enjoyed that association with him. We are proud that we’ve had good success with him. We also race Lincolnshire, and he’s been a positive influence on our farm.”

Lincolnshire, a 3-year-old filly trained by Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman won the Listed Dequetteville S. on debut as a 2-year-old last autumn.

Hanseatic – Rosemont’s other Merson Cooper winner

The first crop of Rosemont’s resident sire Hanseatic are 2-year-olds and he has two runners at this very early stage. “He’s started in promising fashion. His first runner was an eye catching third in a stakes race, we sold her at Inglis Melbourne and the Hayes team think highly of her.”

Rohesia ran third in the R. Listed Inglis Banner on debut and is out of Vinnie Rose (I Am Invincible) who is a winning half-sister to Listed winner Centrefire (Shooting To Win). Rohesia was sold by Rosemont Stud for $150,000 to Lindsay Park Racing at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale.

“His other runner is with Lloyd Kennewell and Lucy Yeomans. She hit the line really hard in a maiden the other day and looks like a win is in store soon.” Tiz Worthy ran third at Bendigo on debut in mid-November and is out of Snitzel mare Tiz My View who won twice at two and three.

“There are a couple of others looking to run in next few weeks. Sam Freedman has one that he’s bullish on. I think it’s cause for optimism and we are excited about what we are hearing.

“His second crop will be heading to the yearling sales soon. We have a nice filly out of American mare Sound Machine and a colt from Bim Bam Boom who are we excited to take to the Gold Coast. We have another large group heading to Melbourne later in the summer.”

Sound Machine (USA) (Into Mischief {USA}) was a dual Listed winner in the states and this Hanseatic yearling filly is her first foal. She’s catalogued at the 2025 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale as Lot 971.

Lot 212, the Hanseatic colt is the third foal of unraced mare Bim Bam Boom (I Am Invincible) whose first foal is 3-year-old filly Dance To The Boom (Exceedance) who won on debut in August for trainer Bjorn Baker. Bim Bam Boom is a half-sister to Group 1 winner Albany Reunion (Fastnet Rock).

The Kings of European breeding, Dubawi (Ire) and Frankel (GB), remain the world's most expensive stallions with their 2025 service fees remaining at 2024 levels; the Darley stalwart and the Juddmonte superstar both commanding a fee of £350,000 (AU$675,700).

Their records are impossible to fault, both horses well and truly earning the title of breed shapers with their records of producing topliners coupled with their outstanding strike rates ensuring that their influence will be felt for generations to come.

Dubawi enjoyed 33 stakes winners in 2024, led by Rebel’s Romance (Ire) who picked up four Group 1 wins during the year in four different nations. Dubawi also sired 2024 dual Group 1 winner Notable Speech (GB), G1 The Oaks winner Ezeliyah (Fr), and Master Of The Seas (Ire). During the year, he added four juvenile stakes winners, while his 3-year-olds and older horses led the charge.

Gallery: Some of the stakes winners that Dubawi (Ire) has sired in 2024

Frankel’s fee also remains unchanged for 2025, and his 2024 included 24 stakes winners led by triple Group 1-winning juvenile filly Lake Victoria (Ire), as well as dual Group 1 winner Measured Time (GB).

Wootton Bassett (GB) has shot up the list in 2025 to become the third most expensive sire in the world. He stood for €200,000 (AU$325,100) in 2024, and will be €300,000 (AU$487,700) in 2025, thanks to a stunning year where he enjoyed five Group 1 winners, with four of those being 2-year-olds, led by G1 Del Mar Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Henri Matisse (Ire), as well as G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Camille Pissarro (Ire), G1 Critérium de Saint-Cloud winner Tennessee Stud (Ire) and G1 Critérium International winner Twain (Ire). All up, he had 20 stakes winners across 2024.

Sea The Stars (Ire) comes in at fourth at €250,000 (AU$406,400) for 2025, and his season in 2024 has included 29 stakes winners led by G1 Grand Prix de Paris-winning 3-year-old colt Sosie (Ire). At the same fee, but in USD (AU$384,000), are the trio of Into Mischief (USA), Justify (USA), and Gun Runner (USA).

Comparisons to the Australian breeding scene are interesting. We have three at the top of the list; Zoustar, I Am Invincible and Extreme Choice all at $275,000 (inc GST) with Snitzel next at $247,500 (inc GST).

Top 10 stallions and average fees

Let’s have a look at the top 10 in the jurisdictions discussed and the average fee of elite stallions.

In Great Britain the top 10 stallions stand for an average of $221,000, in Ireland $117,000 and in the United States $299,700.

Written Tycoon's 2024 fee was listed as private, but if we go on his 2023 fee of $165,000, he would make the top 10, and place the average price across the top 10 stallions in Australia at $169,400.

Table: Global top 10 stallions

Gallery: Average service fee by location

The money spinners – progeny earnings on the track

Comparing prizemoney across various jurisdictions can be fraught with prizemoney so varied in different regions. Using the leading sire tables on Arion to build a list of the top 20 in each region in 2024, then checking each one individually to get their global progeny earnings for the 2024 calendar year in Australian dollars, shows the dominance on Japanese, American, Australian and Hong Kong prizemoney on the world stage.

Leading is American-based sire Into Mischief with AU$51 million in progeny earnings this year, while Zoustar is the leading Australian-bred sire, thanks to his dual hemisphere earnings. Pride Of Dubai makes the top 10, again thanks to being a shuttle stallion who is having a massive year, while Deep Field sneaks into the top 10 thanks to his Hong Kong and Australian earnings.

In the ring

Once again Japan dominates the discussion with Epiphaneia (Jpn) leading the world with 12 yearlings sold in 2024 for an average of AU$1.6 million, although Frankel’s Northern Hemisphere yearlings aren’t far behind with an average of AU$1.5 million.

Dubawi also ticks over the seven mark with 14 yearlings sold in 2024 for an average of AU$1.46 million.

Australian-based stallions don’t make the top 15, largely due to our currency rate, with I Am Invincible coming in at 18th in the world with an average of AU$582,000.

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

The black and orange checks of Bennett Racing flooded the racing coverage in both Sydney and Melbourne with Nathan and his team finishing the Spring with 11 metro wins, five at stakes level.

'One hell of a spring'

Alongside stable star Southport Tycoon (Written Tycoon) and exciting filly Snitzanova (Snitzel), Baraqiel (Snitzel) claimed a spot amongst the nation’s elite sprinters when smashing a top-class field in the G2 McEwen S. at Moonee Valley, Fawkner Park (Ire) (Zoffany) secured his third stakes success in the G3 Rosehill Gold Cup, while Warnie (Highland Reel {Ire}) stamped himself as a horse to follow with a close-up third in the G3 Heffernan S. at Caulfield on Saturday.

“It’s been one hell of a Spring, it’s been pretty exciting,” Nathan Bennett said, “Its 100 per cent been our best year.

“It’s been nice to see the hard work has paid off. It has been quite extraordinary to be honest. You never see everything fall into place like it has and we’re just thankful it has happened.

“We felt like the monkey was off the back early in the Spring with Southport Tycoon and then to finish it off with another stakes winner was pretty special. Snitzanova has pretty similar attributes to him actually, she’s just as tough as him, she just fights her guts out which is great; you can’t train that into them. It’s good we are finding those types of horses.

“Off what we’ve seen she will end up in some Group 1 races in the Autumn in New South Wales, in those filly’s races there.”

Although Southport Tycoon had already claimed a Group 1 victory in the Australian Guineas (1600 metres) as a 3-year-old, Bennett believes the Manikato S. was the pivotal Group 1 win needed to cement his status as a standout stallion prospect before heading to Widden Stud, especially given the Australian racing industry’s focus on speed.

“It was a really important Group 1 win for Southport Tycoon, especially dropping back to 1200 metres at weight-for-age,” Bennett said.

“Obviously, he was the Guineas winner as a 3-year-old and then to come back as a 4-year-old and get that ticked off was huge.

“Ciaron and I planned it. A few people probably thought it was an ambitious plan, but we pulled it off.

“He can do it from 1200 metres to middle distances. We’ll see what he can do in the Autumn and we’ll see if he can get another one. To head off to stud as a three-time Group 1 winner would be amazing.

“He’ll have a couple more weeks off and then come back into work.”

Baraqiel's road to recovery

While ecstatic with his season’s results thus far, Bennett shared the disappointing news that emerging topliner Baraqiel, who had failed to win in two starts since his dominant McEwen S. success, had injured his suspensory ligament when finishing third to Nadal (Xtravagant {NZ}) in The Meteorite at Cranbourne.

“Baraquiel was amazing in the McEwen,” Bennett said, “To go from a maiden on May 5 to end up in Group races it was a fantastic effort by him.

“He just got a bit lost down the straight again. He’s had three runs down the straight and just gets the wobbles and looks like he is looking for the rail, maybe that’s just a bit of inexperience.

“In the Meteorite he actually broke down, which was unfortunate. We’ve got him back in rehab now and he has just arrived up at Bong Bong. He is going to go in the hyperbaric chambers. Hopefully we will get him back a bit quicker by doing that. We’ll definitely look towards the Spring with him. The Manikato comes to mind; we know he loves The Valley and if he’s ready he’ll go towards a Goodwood in Adelaide.”

Bennett’s other stakes winner for the Spring came in Sydney, with the Annabel Neasham and Rob Archibald-trained Fawkner Park (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}). Despite his age, the 6-year-old put the writing on the wall that best is still to come with a strong front running performance.

“Fawkner Park is an amazing horse,” Bennett said. “He’s got a huge turn of foot on him. It’s quite amazing how he grows a leg the Sydney way and sort of struggles the Melbourne way. He’ll stay up in Sydney and I’m already looking forward to his next prep. He keeps raising the bar. He showed he can do it from the front with his win in the Rosehill Gold Cup.

“He’s an exciting horse for the Autumn.”

A large operation, growing from just 15 runners in 2017 to having well over 150 runners a season now across multiple stables, Bennett indicated it was important to keep the momentum rolling and revealed he has a couple of horses earmarked as future headline horses for the stable.

“Zaszou is knocking on the door to become a stakes horse,” Bennett said.

“She had two cracks this prep and she will go to the paddock now, but I’d say she will go close to becoming a stakes horse next prep. She’ll have learnt a lot this prep.

“We’ve also got some nice 2-year-olds coming through. There’s one called Military Tycoon that I know Maher has a lot of time for and another called Fireball Miss that is showing a lot of promise. We’ve also got a horse with Corsten’s called Zouclaire who is putting her hand up as a 2-year-old. I dare say, one of those three might put their hands up in the coming months.”

Building on momentum

On the back of his recent success, Bennett will head to the 2025 Gold Coast Magic Millions Sales in January with plenty of support and ammunition, with the aim of finding their next stallion prospect.

“It’s what everyone wants to do, to find a stallion, but it’s pretty hard to pull off,” Bennett said.

“We’re going to have a crack at it. We have a group of us that are looking to go to the sales with a bit of cash to spend. We won’t go crazy and go and buy the million-dollar horses, we’ll just stick to our plan and pick the colts that are at the top of the list from our side of things.

“We look at types first. We will look at a horse six to eight times before it will get through to the final list and then once it gets through, then we start going through pedigrees and making sure it is sellable. We add that all together and then the vet has to tick it off. Sometimes you end up with about 100 on your shortlist and then you bid on those and then obviously budget comes into it. It is hard work but we just make sure we stick to the plan and make sure we see the horse as many times as possible. We’re often looking for a reason to knock a horse off the list, rather than keep it on. We remain very disciplined and try to buy horses for good value that we love.

“We were just chatting about how we’re going to have enough horses for everyone to jump in, because we’ve had a lot of people asking but we’ll just set up some lists and make sure everyone gets all the information as we’re buying the horses. We’ll make sure the existing owners don’t miss out as well.

“It is a great time to jump into ownership. You notice a lot of syndications win these high prizemoney races which is fantastic and is what will keep the game growing.

“We’re really looking forward to whole sales season again, we love that part of it.”

Despite recent success, it wasn’t an easy rise for Bennett Racing to mix it with biggest and best syndicators in the game. It required Bennett to risk it all to compete with the likes of Darby Racing, Proven Thoroughbreds and Australian Bloodstock.

“You have to put a lot on the line and spend a lot of money and put yourself in a lot of debt to get yourself up there, but we backed ourselves in, which has paid off,” Bennett said.

“We try and outdo what we’ve done the season before and so far, we’ve done that every year by prizemoney. We’re well on the way this year, I think we did just over $4 million last year and this year we’re already at $3.5 million.

“We do the hard yards, we find the nice horses and now people have got belief in us.”

With horses in some of best stables across the country, a hard-working attitude and most importantly, results on the track, it’s safe to say the the best is yet to come for Bennett Racing.

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

Most breeders will have heard of G1 Goldmine, an in-depth mating tool which helps them dissect the match between mare and stallion.

However, diving into a pedigree to the depths it facilitates is not to everyone’s taste, or time constraints. At the beginning of the month, Matthew Ennis, Managing Director of G1 Goldmine, quietly launched Stallion Match - a streamlined redevelopment of the technology that takes stallion hunting to the next level.

“The biggest change with Stallion Match is its simplicity,” Ennis told TTR AusNZ. “It’s a super high-level way of analysing a mating, without getting into the nitty gritty like we do in G1 Goldmine.

“G1 Goldmine is set up in a way that you can really pull a pedigree apart, and find out what's happening, whereas with Stallion Match we really try to simplify it by asking, ‘What's the father? What's the mother? And then, is it good, and how good?’

“That's really the difference, we don't really go into the nitty gritty as such.”

Stallion Match has received its own, sleek branding, with each hypothetical mating evaluated by comparing similarly bred stakes winners and their aptitude at different ages and distances. The uncluttered interface lays the information out efficiently, so that even the entry level breeder will find it accessible. Users can shortlist favoured stallions, and there is promise of more to come.

“It’s unlike anything else out there at the moment,” Ennis said. “It’s a stallion directory with a real focus on analysis.

“I think we're improving our ability to give the market what they want. I think there's always been many different types of breeders out there.

“There's the pedigree-savvy breeder, then there's always been that commercial breeder, and then there's been the mum and dad breeders that aren't necessarily too interested in diving too deep into a pedigree.” Stallion Match offers benefits to them all.

Data-driven foundations

The call for a more user-friendly tool has long been there, according to Ennis, but it wasn’t something he wanted to develop before a few holes in the underlying data were plugged, as he puts it.

Both G1 Goldmine and Stallion Match are data-driven tools designed to aid the mating process. A vast amount of information is fed into them, but they are only as good as the quality of data they rely on.

With this focus in mind, Ennis has been devoted to diligently ensuring that the database is comprehensive and reliable, a process which he believes he’s now on top of. A robust data set, he explains, allows for more accurate suggestions and predictions.

“We've worked very, very hard and spent a huge amount of resources at creating a very, very robust data set of racehorses,” Ennis said. The data of over 1.5 million racehorses from around the world, stretching back to 2011, have been fed into the Stallion Match database. Presently the site lists 1927 active stallions from 622 farms across 11 countries, and Ennis sets the total at over 2000 with inclusion of “old legends” for comparison.

“Now we're at 500 data points now for every horse and it goes back as far back as we can go,” he added.

“If you don't have a big data set that's clean, you can try to create a model but it's going to be wrong. We delayed the launch (until this month) and the reason was because of the data.”

When developing Stallion Match, how that data is delivered to the end user was a huge focal point.

“It was on our agenda for the last 18 months (before launch),” Ennis said. “We improved our data and the automation of that data with various models.

“I think that puts us into a position where we're able to have more predictive suggestions as opposed to only relying on the breeder’s input.”

Leap of faith

First conceived of in 2006 and relaunched in its current form in 2020, G1 Goldmine has had impressive reach in the global breeding world. A distinct new brand might be necessary to set Stallion Match apart from its progenitor, but that comes with a consequence.

“The tricky part is that it’s a new platform,” Ennis explained. “Realistically, we won't get the engagement that we're seeing with G1 Goldmine, at first.

“So we are almost starting afresh. It's daunting, but it's totally exciting.”

Whilst he’s aware that all new products come with an inherent minimum number of ‘friction points’, Ennis has smoothed as many as possible - which includes the pricing.

“It’s a free product. All they have to do is register, it costs them nothing. If we can just show people what is on offer, I'm expecting engagement to go through the roof and that people will love it.”

Critically, individual user membership and running mating analysis is subsidised by the farms, who will also have a slew of mating and marketing analytics at their fingertips.

“I think farms are going to embrace it,” Ennis said. “It's a really good platform to create an introduction for a breeder that they might not necessarily have met previously.”

Direct communication

Ennis envisages shrinking the gap between stallion farms and breeders by placing more tools in the hands of farms to make that first connection.

“My personal goal is to really open up that communication between the breeder and the farm, as soon as I possibly can,” said Ennis.

“We'll start onboarding farms by the end of this month,” he explained. “The farm gets a dashboard when they are onboarded, and it's not only a management tool for their stallions and farm where they can update all of those marketing pages, but it's also a very detailed analytics program.

“They (farms) can capture data points now on virtually everything associated with their stallions. Search metrics, location, if those searches are linked to any other external marketing campaigns that are doing. They can see in terms of the time of the month - when there's a spike, when there's a drop off.

“But they can also then reach out to specific registered users searching for their stallions."

Farms will be able to communicate directly with end users via the platform, Ennis explained, and achieve the goal of all good marketing strategies: turn that initial interest into a sale. When messaging is launched, it will go both ways, and individual users will also be able to reach out to farms through the platform's channels.

“So for them (farms), it's going to be a game changer. All of a sudden, they've got the opportunity to target and communicate with the end user. It's pretty remarkable when you think about it.”

A friendly reception

One question that pops up repeatedly throughout The Innovators series is how receptive to change an industry like horse racing is. Roughly, the heuristic jump is to think that a sport which has largely repeated the same practices since the thoroughbred breed was developed hundreds of years ago will be inherently resistant to change.

However, Ennis argues that things have changed in recent years.

“I think the tide's changing,” he said. “I think that was the case when I first started. We were trying to push the envelope. We had to dial it back a little bit to accommodate - but I think that's changed in so many ways.

“I think Stallion Match could include a lot more things that will prepare us for tomorrow, without a doubt. They're on our roadmap.”

The Stallion Match website promises the release of more in-depth features to come, including broodmare sire analysis and the results from progeny that have gone through the sales ring. The plan is to roll out new features monthly in the run up to the 2025 breeding season, ensuring the depth and quality of data remains consistent.

“I think the market, generally, is becoming used to the concept of relying on data and utilising a digital environment now,” Ennis said, “whether that's data, whether that's registering a horse, transferring a horse, whatever it happens to be.”

Another point that Ennis can draw comfort from is that Stallion Match relies on the same fiercely independent model that has provided such success to G1 Goldmine.

“I think it's a really good way for a farm to market themselves in an environment that is 100 per cent independent,” he said.

“We don't have any ads, we don't push any one farm more than any others, it's an independent space where a farm can put themselves out there, and breeders can feel confident that what they're receiving in terms of results is not biased at all.”

“At its very simplest, it’s a dating website for race horses. That's what we do; we basically try to give the power to the breeders to make the best matches.”