The business of making champion stallions is a lucrative one and Australia is undoubtedly the best place in the world to find bang for buck in terms of sourcing quality colts that are the raw material from which countless millions are made.
Global breeding enterprises such as Coolmore, Godolphin, Juddmonte and Aga Khan Studs consistently produce high class colts from their elite breeding programs that go on to dominate world sire lists.
A quick look at some of Europe’s leading sires reveals a significant number were never offered for sale as yearlings. Current superstar sires such as Galileo, Dubawi, Sea the Stars, Frankel, Kingman and Siyouni never saw the light of day in a sale ring.
In contrast, here in Australia our Top 10 stallions last year were all offered at auction and all were sold, barring Fastnet Rock, who passed in and was retained to race by Coolmore.
Quite often in the Northern Hemisphere, the cream of the crop is never put through a sale ring, but in Australia our biggest and most successful breeders are also sellers which is why we see a Yarraman brand on champion sire Snitzel, who stands at Arrowfield Stud and a Darley brand on Pierro, who stands at Coolmore.
The Australasian sale ring is an investor’s paradise where the finest colts are traded at market price and as we see from the sums paid for our leading sires(ranging from $50,000 for Written Tycoon up to $460,000 for Rubick), value is at a premium.
Nearly all the stallions in the Top 10 were bought by their trainers, which probably reflects the end of an era when trainers were largely responsible for sourcing their own horses and the majority bought at the sales under their own name.
These days it’s often big investment partnerships chasing hard on the colts and dominating the leading buyers lists with current star colts like Farnan and King’s Legacy bought in this way, while high profile horses now retired to stud such as Capitalism and Russian Revolution were also purpose bought as future stallions.
With some of the best prizemoney on the planet and an exciting year round racing program, Australia is a great place to create the stallions of tomorrow that can measure up with the best in the world.
