Cover image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
In what is already a very competitive local market for stallions, it's a challenge made that little more tricky by the fact that four more stallions will make their debuts on Darley's Australian roster this season with Australian star Bivouac to be joined by high-profile shuttle trio Pinatubo (Ire), Earthlight (Ire) and Ghaiyyath (Ire).
But for Darley Australian Nominations Manager Adam Brayshaw, the success of their debut seasons, where between them they covered a high-quality mix of both Group 1-winning and Group 1-producing mares, has set their careers up well.
"We were absolutely delighted with the support all three received in their first year. They got an incredible quality of mare and were supported by the best breeders in the country. The champions they were on the track, they were deserving of getting an elite book of mares in their first year and they were certainly all able to do that, which bodes well for them going forwards," he told TDN AusNZ.
"We were absolutely delighted with the support all three received in their first year. They got an incredible quality of mare and were supported by the best breeders in the country." - Adam Brayshaw
While locally raced stallions such as Microphone have the advantage of being fresh in the mind of many of the Australian industry, getting shuttle stallions to successfully capture the imagination of breeders is a different challenge.
In 2021, Blue Point will be joined by two other shuttle sons of Shamardal (USA) in Pinatubo and Earthlight on the Darley roster in 2021, and Too Darn Hot by another son of Dubawi (Ire) in World Champion Ghaiyyath, however Brayshaw feels there is no chance the second-season stallions will get 'lost' on what is an expanding roster.
The mantra of Darley on these shuttle stallions is simple. Quality will always stand out.
"These horses are elite and what we have identified with our shuttle horses is that if you bring that elite horse they are very much able to stand on their own," he said.
"You get inundated with interest in that first season, but the elite horses carry that support through their second and third seasons, which are often more difficult for a stallion.
"I've got no doubt based on our feedback, talking to clients as we do on a daily basis, that Too Darn Hot and Blue Point, as strong as the quality of mare was in their first books, their second books are going to be equally as impressive."
That's quite a statement of confidence when you consider the books that they had in their first seasons.
Hot start
Too Darn Hot served nine Group 1 winners at Darley's Kelvinside property in New South Wales, Catchy (Fastnet Rock), Cosmic Endeavour (Northern Meteor), Earthquake (Exceed And Excel), Entisaar (More Than Ready {USA}), Invest (Dehere {USA}), Maybe Discreet (Shamardal {USA}), Planet Rock (Fastnet Rock), Purple (Commands) and Savaria (NZ) (Savabeel), part of a list of 38 stakes-wining mares.
Also on the list were the dams of Group 1 winners Flit (Medaglia D'Oro {USA}), In Her Time (Time Thief) and Kementari (Lonhro).
Gallery: some of the mares Too Darn Hot (GB) served in his first season
"It's one of those things that gets used a lot, where we say a horse ticks all the boxes. I try to avoid saying it, but it’s hard to do that with a horse like him. He was such an elite horse. He was a Champion 2 and 3-year-old, a superstar on the track and with an amazing pedigree," Brayshaw said.
With strong co-ordination with Darley's team in the Northern Hemisphere, Brayshaw and the rest of the nominations team were able to capture the imagination of Australian breeders with Too Darn Hot, who served a full book of 130 in 2020. An invaluable assistance to that was the fact he was from a sireline that the local industry is well familiar with.
"With Too Darn Hot, he's the image of Dubawi. People are very familiar with what Dubawi looks like and what his progeny look like, and that certainly helps the cause." - Adam Brayshaw
"With Too Darn Hot, he's the image of Dubawi. People are very familiar with what Dubawi looks like and what his progeny look like, and that certainly helps the cause," Brayshaw said.
"You are not having to educate people on a particular line. It’s a line that has been very successful down here and it’s a line that people know really well and people like."
Making a Point
Blue Point, who will again serve at Northwood Park in Victoria this year, is also very much stamped by his own sire, in his case Shamardal.
As well as Australia's leading breeders getting behind him, such as Yulong, Yarraman Park, Three Bridges, Edinburgh Park, Robert Crabtree, Go Bloodstock, Gerry Harvey and Corumbene Stud, he also got substantial support from Godolphin, serving 12 from its own broodmare band.
The late Shamardal (USA) sire of Blue Point (Ire)
"We've been bringing out shuttle horses for a long time and history would say we are quite good at identifying the horses that are good for our conditions down here," Brayshaw said.
"When you look back at horses like Teofilo, Street Cry and Medaglia D'Oro, we have identified horses that we believe in and we back that up with the support with our broodmare band.
"These are all parts of the Godolphin system and we are bringing these stallions out that we fully believe in and support them with our own quality mares. It really enables those people that come along for the ride and support these horses to get some real benefit from it."
Microphone test
Darley launching Microphone, a Group 1-winning son of the legendary Exceed And Excel, into the local market was always going to be met with substantial anticipation.
As it usually does with its Australian-based stallions, Darley offered breeding rights in the stallion ahead of his first season, with 30 sold in quick time, giving him the perfect base to launch off from his Kelvinside base.
"These people involved are significant clients of ours and we have long-standing relationships with. We know they are excellent breeders and they are the people you want in partnership with these horses," Brayshaw said.
"That was a really important element of his first book and kicking him off to a great start. The beauty of doing these breeding rights is that those 30 people are invested in the horse, they have got their breeding rights. So in his second season he has automatically got a really good group of breeders ready to support him and arm him with a good group of mares."
"So in his (Microphone) second season he has automatically got a really good group of breeders ready to support him and arm him with a good group of mares." - Adam Brayshaw
Microphone served 19 stakes-winning mares in his first book, with support from SF Bloodstock, George Altomonte, Kia Ora Stud, Segenhoe, Milburn Creek, Newhaven Park, Willow Park Stud and many others.
Launching stallions is a complex business, and Microphone's career in the breeding barn began a little slowly with some fertility challenges early in the first season. It meant that while it was anticipated he would serve 150 mares in that first season, he ended up serving 118. Brayshaw feels the fertility challenge is something Darley can continue to manage moving forward into his second season.
"He made a slower start than what we would have liked. He was extremely busy in the shed early on and as those scans came back and they weren't quite as good as we'd like, we backed off him," he said.
"It got to the point where he was covering twice a day and we didn't go beyond that. We haven't confirmed with our stallion managers what the approach will be for this year, but I’d say the likely scenario is that we will have something very similar this year."
