Telemon Thoroughbreds are set to enter the 2021 breeding season with an unchanged line-up of three stallions.
Champion 2yo Colt and Golden Slipper Sire SIDESTEP (Exceed and Excel) has had his fee reduced to $11,000 ($16,500 in 2020). Telemon Principal Dan Fletcher explained that the move was aimed at shoring up support for their exceptional young headline sire.
“We’re eagerly awaiting his first QTIS runners,” Fletcher said. “We’ve made a conscious decision to sharpen the focus on SIDESTEP this season for our QTIS breeders and we wanted to take the initiative with his service fee to get these guys behind us.
"He has his biggest, highest quality crop on the ground and the calibre of this stock is next level as you would expect.
"His initial runners may be small in number, but the winners just keep coming. His first Queensland sired crop sold to $150,000 off a $7,700 fee so we’re extremely excited about SIDESTEP’S future.”
Joining SIDESTEP on a fee of $11,000 ($13,200 in 2020) is dual Group 1 winner, JUNGLE CAT (Iffraaj).
“We’ve pulled this guy’s fee back from $13,200 as much as anything to match SIDESTEP,” Fletcher explained.
“JUNGLE CAT covers his third book of mares this season and is a horse going places. It’s quite amazing to think that when we brought him down in 2019, we had to educate our breeders a little bit about the IFFRAAJ blood: since then, WOOTTON BASSET has become globally significant and will stand at $71,500 in The Hunter, and ALMANZOR is one of the most talked about stallions in Australasia.
"JUNGLE CAT is the fastest IFFRAAJ ever and his first foals are outstanding. We knew JUNGLE CAT had the performance and the pedigree when we launched him. Now he’s shown us he is pre-potent we believe he’s set to be an outstanding stallion”.
Completing Telemon’s roster is SUN CITY (Zoustar) at an unchanged fee of $7,700.
“SUN CITY was particularly well received in 2020,” Fletcher said.
“He is the most precocious, naturally brilliant son of ZOUSTAR and is a breathtaking individual. We’ve positioned him as a QTIS stallion that will get early winners. Experienced breeders told us last year he is the best-looking horse in Queensland and with his pedigree as well as the blistering speed he showed pre-Christmas we don’t think his supporters will have a long wait to be rewarded.”
Telemon are a Queensland owned farm that have invested long term.
“We completed the acquisition of Gary and Marg Pemberton’s Running Creek Stud in February,” Fletcher said.
“We’ve made a long-term commitment to Queensland and we hope we can build on the terrific support we’ve already received. We want Queensland breeders to support truly Queensland farms.
"Telemon will add to our stallion roster at some point, but it will have to be a horse that meets our criteria and improves our offering. It’s interesting that a couple of the horses we considered are at other farms interstate at significantly higher fees than we’ve announced. This dynamic reinforces the belief we have in our roster as well as the exceptional value we have on offer.”
