A brilliant winner of the 2024 Group I ATC Doncaster Mile and Randwick Guineas, high class Dundeel stallion Celestial Legend will be heading south to go to stud at Woodside Park in Victoria.
Retired by his owner Bon Ho following his unplaced run in this year’s Group I ATC George Ryder Stakes, Woodside quickly swooped to purchase 50 per cent of this most appealing stallion prospect and he will stand at an introductory fee of $27,500 inc. GST.
Trained throughout his career by Les Bridge, Celestial Legend was a winner over 1200m at his second start at two and then blossomed at three to become the star three year-old colt of the Sydney autumn Carnival winning the Group II ATC Hobartville Stakes (1400m), Group I ATC Randwick Guineas (1600m) and Doncaster Mile (1600m) in succession.
Celestial Legend retired with four wins and two seconds from 13 starts with prizemoney of $3.4million and will seek to emulate the success of Dundeel stallions Super Seth and Castlelvecchio.
They were both elite Group I winning three year-olds and have both now produced Group I winners of their own this season - Super Seth siring Feroce and Linebacker, plus Kiwi trained 2YO filly La Dorada, while Castelvecchio has sired Australian Derby winner filly Aeliana and El Castello.
Celestial Legend was bred and sold by Arrowfield as was Super Seth and is from unraced Snitzel mare Sarraqa, a three-quarter sister to South African Group I winners Rafeef and Mustaaqeem from Champion South African Sprinter National Colour.
He joins shuttle stallion Benbatl (GB) (Dubawi), who returns from Japan for a second season for an unchanged fee of $22,000, Group I producing sires Shalaa (IRE) (Invincible Spirit), Vancouver (Medaglia D’Oro) and Foxwedge (Fastnet Rock) along with Rich Enuff (Written Tycoon) and Delaware (GB ) (Frankel) at this picturesque Victorian farm.
The fees for Shalaa ($19,800), Rich Enuff ($13,200) and Delaware ($7,700) remain at their 2024 levels, while both Vancouver and Foxwedge have been reduced to $8,800 from their previous mark of $9,900.
