'If you're looking to breed a racehorse, he's a very good bet': Twin Hills Stud release their 2026 fees

Cover image courtesy of Twin Hills Stud

Twin Hills Stud will present a roster of three stallions for the 2026 breeding season, with a mix of proven ability and promise of what is to come. In the season where both of his stallions with runners have produced stakes winners, Twin Hills’ owner Olly Tait is pleased with the value his trio has to offer breeders.

Table: Twin Hills Stud's 2026 service fees, including GST

Blue Diamond Daumier maintains fee in fourth season

G1 Blue Diamond Stakes winner Daumier leads the roster again in 2026 when retaining his fee of $16,500 (inc GST). The son of Epaulette saw his first crop of yearlings walk through the ring this season, where they have been well received with 86% clearance.

“I feel his first yearlings have sold very well,” said Tait. “It's a competitive level of the market where he sits, but there were good prices across the board and to get a top price of $200,000 is very promising. The feats of Extreme Choice, who also won Daumier’s headline race, have helped.

“With that race win and his beautiful pedigree, he is a horse who deserves to be thought of as a real prospect.”

Three sold at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale for an average of $95,000 and a further five averaged $71,000 at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, with his top-priced lot, offered by Twin Hills themselves, sold at the latter for $200,000. With 24 sold from 28 offered to the market this year, they have averaged $44,114, returning three times his initial service fee.

“We have lots to look forward to with him, and we'll know more about him in 12 months time,” said Tait.

Daumier has 108 foals on the ground from his first two books and was visited by 52 mares in 2025.

Smart Missile still producing Group 1 talent

Now rising 18, Smart Missile maintains his fee of $13,200 (inc GST) for his 15th season at stud. It will be the stallion’s ninth season at Twin Hills Stud, and he has been consistently producing winners since his relocation. Of his 25 Australian stakes winners - from a global total of 27 - 20 have struck since his move, and two of his best in G1 TJ Smith Stakes winner Briasa and G3 Northwood Plume Stakes winner Aviatress were conceived at Twin Hills.

“I can say with some conviction, Smart Missile is the best $12,000 stallion in Australia,” Tait said. “He’s a very good stallion and he has proved that over a number of years. He isn’t a young stallion any more, but he still gets high class horses and people who have used him in the past and like him do come back.

“If you're looking to breed a racehorse, he's a very good bet.”

Also the winner of two Listed events amongst her seven victories, Richard and Chantelle Jolly’s Aviatress will bow out at the Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale later this year and was due to have her penultimate start in the G1 Robert Sangster Stakes this week, but has scratched after drawing the carpark. She will head instead to either G1 Goodwood Handicap or the G3 Proud Miss Stakes on May 9 as her swan song.

Last year’s TJ Smith winner Briasa has won eight starts under the steerage of Hawkes Racing. He added the G2 The Shorts to his record in the spring and ran eighth in Ka Ying Rising’s (NZ) (Shamexpress {NZ}) G1 The Everest.

While out of the placings in three starts this campaign, he was fourth to Marhoona (Snitzel) by just a neck in the G1 Galaxy Handicap and fourth again to Beiwacht (Bivouac) by a touch over a length and a half last start in the G1 All Aged Stakes. He has amassed over $4.5 million for his owner-breeder Ian Johnson to date.

From his total progeny to race, Smart Missile has a 70% strike rate for his 605 winners, and while smaller crops in recent years have left him a smaller pool of runners, he has produced triple digit individual Australian winners in six of his 11 years with runners.

“To anyone else who stands a stallion, I have always said that it is hard to get a stallion as good as Smart Missile, and we have been very lucky,” Tait said. “He’s been very important to us over a number of years, and it's nice that he's still performing.”

Thanks Gorgeous keeps Peltzer steaming along

A son of So You Think (NZ) and winner of the G2 Stan Fox Stakes and the G3 Eskimo Prince Stakes, Peltzer will remain at the same fee of $11,000 (inc GST) in 2026 as he hits 12 individual winners from 36 runners for the season. One of those is the filly Thanks Gorgeous, winner of the Listed Sunlight Classic at her most recent start.

Thanks Gorgeous has won three of her five starts in 2026 and was third in the G3 Quezette Stakes in the spring behind Ferivia (Astern) and My Gladiola (I Am Invincible), before running fourth by two lengths to Inkaruna (I Am Invincible) in the G3 Thoroughbred Club Stakes.

Her performances have amassed her trainers, Mark and Levi Kavanagh, and connections over $560,000 in prizemoney to date and she lines up in the G2 Tobin Bronze Stakes this weekend.

Thanks Gorgeous is her sire’s second stakes winner after Buccleuch. The gelding went unbeaten in three runs during the winter of his 2-year-old season, culminating in the Listed Taj Rossi Series Final where he beat subsequent G1 VRC Derby runner-up Arcora (Justify {USA}).

“He is a very relevant stallion, he hasn’t had a lot of runners, but he has had two high class horses already in Thanks Gorgeous and Buccleuch,” Tait said.

“There have also been a number of horses who have run well in metropolitan races. He has two crops on the track now, so he needs to have runners and he needs to have winners to remain relevant, which he has achieved. We feel at his fee that he is very good value.”

Buoyed by Buccleuch’s success and Thanks Gorgeous’s promise, Peltzer’s 2025 book rose to 66, almost double the season before, and his sales averages in 2026 had also improved to $49,045, three times his 2023 fee of $16,500 (inc GST). Buccleuch’s half-sister Strangeless (Pierro) and Thanks Gorgeous’s dam Localchella (Exceed And Excel) both visited Peltzer again in 2025.

“It is early days in terms of booking for this year, but if Peltzer can get some winners over the Adelaide and Brisbane carnivals, we think he will be very popular this year,” Tait said.