Widden Stud last year announced a new partnership with Winstar Farm in North America that will see record breaking Group I winning sprinter Cogburn (USA) shuttle to Australia later this year with his fee set at $27,500 inc. GST.
Acclaimed as the fastest horse in the world last year, Cogburn has a unique brand of speed.
In the Group I Jaipur Stakes at Saratoga on the turf over five and a half furlongs, the explosive sprinter set a North American and world record time of 59.80seconds, which attracted the interest of Antony Thompson.
“We were keen to announce [him shuttling] early, the timing was great with a lot of the Aussie breeders in Keeneland for the November sales and we took over 30 breeders out to WinStar to inspect Cogburn,” he said.
“The response was fantastic. I think you need to educate the market to a certain degree because they haven’t seen the horse race on home soil and it’s not a horse they’re familiar with, but when you say the world’s fastest horse, that captures their attention and from there that interest has really grown.
“The feedback from everyone that has seen Cogburn has been so positive that we’ve really had a lot of support already.”
With nine wins and two seconds from 16 starts, Cogburn retired at the end of his five year-old season with earnings topping $US2.4million and notably was able to win in each season he raced including a debut victory at two.
Widden Stud has charted a path into a new era of success this century through astute selection of stallions such as Northern Meteor, Sebring and Zoustar and Antony Thompson is excited to introduce the fresh blood of Cogburn into the mix.
“Cogburn is one of seven Group I winners by Not This Time, who is regarded as one of the most exciting young sires in North America attracting comparisons to champion Australian sire I Am Invincible for his meteoric rise at Taylor Made Stallions starting off from a modest fee of $15,000 when he went to stud in 2017,” said Thompson.
“That first crop that produced 17 stakes-winners and his second crop produced 12 stakes-winners with his current crop of three year-olds holding serious potential having already produced seven stakes-winners last year including his first Royal Ascot winner Shareholder, who won the Group II Norfolk Stakes.”
With nearly 70% winners to runners and 12.2% SW to runner, Not This Time has sired 46 stakes-winners in total and his fee for 2025 has been set at $175,000 up from $150,000 in 2024.
Not This time has sired seven North American stakes-winners so far in 2025 and the only stallion to sire more is Gun Runner on eight, while the reigning Champion US Sire in 2024, Into Mischief, also has seven. Three of his stakes-winners in 2025 are Group winning 3YO’s Magnitude, Final Gambit and Disco Time.
