North American stallions in New Zealand and Australia

[Eye On Breeding]

It is quite incredible to see so many of our top race horses go Down Under to stand at stud in Australia and New Zealand. Great horses like Mister Big, Art Major, Bettors Delight, Lis Mara, Mach Three, Art Official, McArdle and trotters like Majestic Son who was a killer racehorse here in North America. What do the breeders Down Under think of this situation and what will happen in a few years time when the progeny are racing there. It should open a whole new market for North American buyers down in New Zealand and Australia. It would be great to see what your thoughts are on this development of shuttle stallions.

[nat]

Shuttle stallions have put us light years ahead of where we were in the late eighties when we use to get excited about unraced half brothers & second cousins to a good stallion in the US it has made us more picky and astute of where to send our mares. The plethora of choices of outstanding stallions and reasonable priced I think the biggest advances will be in the trotting ranks (look what Muscles Yankee has done already) if they don’t price themselves out of the market with some top of the range stallions now available. The interesting thing is that some work and some don’t like In The Pocket, Fake left, Falcon Seelster they just have that cross that clicked, Jenna’s Beach Boy spent 4 years out here never sires a top liner but sired winner and was in the top 10 of age group lists and even still is in the top 10 individual winner and stakes list in Australia

[Neil]

Hi there
There certainly is some interest in those bred downunder
a mare by Bettors Delight that our syndicate gave up on was purchased by US interests for breeding.

I would not have she was worth the air fare but who knows

[Thomas Johnson]

Jenna’s Beach Boy was a real failure here in the states. There are a number of great racehorses that come off the track and get great mares like Beach Towel, Niatross, Nihilator and Jennas Beach Boy that always are the leading first or second season sires but then fade away. What the breeders do, is not enough study and get carried away with the early results of a sire. The real great sires come through with champions each year that go onto be great racehorses. The last great example of a great sire that was written off as a two year sire was Western Hanover.

[mango]

Hi there
Not only are we getting great shuttle stallion's but we are also getting frozen semen to some of the best in the world, Western Ideal, Rocknroll Hanover, Somebeachsomewhere and Muscles Yankee. Now Bettor's Delight had he's first fresh semen crop race this year and they did a great job but in saying that he did serve 540 mare's in Australasia in 06/07. And for last year Bettor's served 249, Art Major 350 and Grinfromeartoear served 419. Would like to know what people think on how many mare's these stallions are serving. I've noticed at Hanover shoe farms they are only letting them serve around 160 and i think that is a good thing should they put a max of 200 out here or just leave it as is.

[mightymo]

it's not Hanover restricting, they have restricted books in the US where no stallion can serve more than 160 mares

[mango]

Western Terror 2009 season served 251 and 189 this year, Rocknroll Hanover 2009 season 182 and 186 this year. When Somebeachsomewhere went to stud they said they would only let him serve 160 which he did and he served 157 this year and Well said only served 150 this year if no stallion is allowed to serve more than 160 why have Western Terror and Rocknroll Hanover. 2007 Art Major served 213, 2007 Camluck served 204, 2008 Mach Three served 225, Muscles Yankee 2008 served 191 and in 2009 served 185.

[nat]

I have a theory about service limits and high service fees if you limit a commodity then it becomes rare therefore at the sale the bidding war begins and if the stallion syndicate has a majority of that rare commodity in the sales and you think your getting a barging at $40,000 when the service fee is $20,000 good profit for the syndicate and high sale averages all looks good on the CV and makes that rare commodity more desirable.

More so prevalent in the Thoroughbred world where the sevice fees are way higher

[mightymo]

Mango

The restricted books has been a gradual process, I think it was 200 in 08, 180 in 09 and now to remain at 160.

The key is that there can only be 160 registered foals, so they serve 200 mares knowing that a certain number will miss and others will slip etc

Im not sure if it applies to Canada(where Western terror stands) but it definitely applies in the US

[mango]

Hi Mightymo/Nat
Do you think studs in Australasia should be looking to follow in the footsteps of the U.S and say put a max of 200 per stallion. Or would that make it to hard on the studs to aquire the good stallions due to the fact of all costs involved and that they may need to serve 180+ to break even.

[nat]

Synticates have to cover their cost's and it aint cheap shuttling stallions and it comes down to restriction of trade, and you would hate to think you had the next CC and were restricted to sevices per stallion but when it comes to serving 540 mares I think that a bit out of control and to me thins the value of the stallions foals.

[mightymo]

we used to have limited books in Aust. Would not surprise me if we went down that path again at some point

[Southern Man]

Wont happen in NZ. HRNZset a limit of 125 years ago and it was overturned by the courts as a restaint of trade so not arunner in NZ