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Vinery Stud stallion sires his first Group 1 winner and two new stakes winners on Saturday

Alligator Blood’s ultra-impressive victory in the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) on Saturday underpinned a fantastic day for Vinery Stud-based stallion All Too Hard (Casino Prince) and twenty-four hours after the memorable day which saw the stallion’s progeny hit new heights Peter Orton was full of praise for the son of Casino Prince (Flying Spur). 

Prior to the gelding’s victory in the Guineas, All Too Hard’s progeny had already landed two stakes races, with juvenile Hard Rock Girl’s victory in the Cinderella Stakes (Listed, 1050m) at Morphettville, while five-year-old mare Dawn Dawn landed the Guy Walter Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m). Those became stakes winners number 14 and 15 for the Vinery Stud-based sire.

Orton said that while All Too Hard had always enjoyed plenty of winners to grab his first elite-level scorer was very satisfying.

"Over the last few months he's had a plethora of winners, which is good,” said Orton. “But the market is always looking for that top horse, so to get a horse of the calibre of Alligator Blood is fantastic as a flag bearer.

“But we want to know there are others about and so to have two other stakes winners on the day was really important for us. And variety too, he's had two two-year-old stakes winners this year and the perception is they take a bit of time, which is true too, and to have a mare winning as well. The variety he puts into his stock is really good.

“The variety in runners, a gelding, a two-year-old and a mare was great. Also he's doing some great things in Hong Kong too. That's our market. Breeders are looking and saying you can't have horse that just throws fillies, or one that just throws colts, you want to be able to breed where Hong Kong respects us to and that Asian market which is very important to our market. Our business is not about running at one end of it and chasing that, you have to have broad business.”

Orton said that he could see similarities between Alligator Blood, who will now likely head to the All-Star Mile (1600m) on March 14, and All Too Hard, who won four Group 1s during his career. 

“There's a champion factor in there,” said Orton. “What he did on Saturday was amazing. If you go back to All Too Hard and think about what he was, he was a three-year-old who got up and did things as a two-year-old. When we bought him, we won three Group 1s with him, and he had a virus on the morning of the Australian Guineas, he would have won that by six lengths.

“He could have gone on for another year, but we paid a lot of money for him and that's always difficult. He would have won another five or six Group 1s, he is that calibre of horse. The attitude is what you see. All Too Hard's will to win as a colt was spectacular and there is that I see in him as well.”

All Too Hard has covered seven books of mares at the New South Wales operation.

“This market, the approach to first-season sires, has always been very aggressive," Orton continued. 

“He picked up an amazing group of mares in his first year, he had 50 Group winners and 15 Group 1 winners. They aren't necessarily the ones that throw the good horses. I actually believe he has come back into the better end of the middle market, that's where those mares with depth of pedigree are. He had done very well from that.”

All Too Hard has never been a stranger to getting winners, but Orton said you could not put a price on stakes winners to help with a stallions profile. 

“There's a lot of the industry that support the horse and believe in him and that has franked that support, but we won't be looking to take him anywhere from where he is,” said Orton. “We need days like that to continue to build.

“It’s good too as All Too Hard gets the benefit of that as he goes along. Alligator Blood is his own animal and he's obviously become a bit of a talking horse. People put in a lot of money to go to stallions and be in the industry to start with, you want to know that the stallion you go to has got the capability. The top stallions all show they have the capability to throwing top horses themselves. Winners are good, but you have to get the top end, that's the nature of the business.”