3 minute read
Exceptional sprinter returns to farm where his sire was reared.
Brilliant Coolmore Stud Stakes (registered as Ascot Vale Stakes) (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Exceedance (Exceed And Excel) has been retired from racing and will take up stud duties at Vinery Stud in 2020.
By Darley's exceptional stallion Exceed And Excel (Danehill) - who himself was raised at the Hunter Valley-based farm - Exceedance was purchased by Vinery for $180,000 at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale from the Newgate Farm draft and the farm's general manager Peter Orton said he was delighted the colt would be retiring to their breeding barn.
"It is great for us at Vinery," said Orton. "It's a sire line that works well and he is out of a good mare. He is such a stunning looking horse and he had that real x-factor about him as a racehorse and those are the sorts of things you look for in a stallion, elements that make them a little bit special and hope that they pass it onto their progeny.
"The Coolmore is a race that everyone wants to win and a lot of great horses have won it and gone on to be great stallions. He proved he was a special talent on the racecourse and when you go to the stallion, it's not necessarily about how many races that racked up, you just have to access the horse and I think even when he was placed in those Group 1s he showcased how good he was."
Exceedance won on debut as a two-year-old, before coming out and winning the San Domenico Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) on his first start as a three-year-old.
The colt then finished third behind Bivouac (Exceed And Excel) and Yes Yes Yes (Rubick) in both The Run To Rose (Gr 2, 1200m) and Golden Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m).
The Team Hawkes-trained colt's crowning glory came on his next start when he turned the tables on a high-class pair, when defeating a stellar field in the stallion-making Coolmore Stud Stakes, showing an explosive turn of foot to land the Group 1 at Flemington last November.
He retires the winner of the three of his nine career starts which saw him amass $1,181,115 in career prize-money.
Exceedance hails from what many consider to be the best crop of Australian three-year-old's in the last decade and Orton says the fact he routinely beat and performed well in this crop only reiterates what a good horse he was.
"It is undoubtedly an exceptional crop of three-year-olds and it has been hard to split them," said Orton. "The three horses, Exceedance, Bivouac and Yes Yes Yes, were all exceptional racehorses and the fact that you are running second and third to each other and winning - there is nothing lost in that. To have done what he did up against that calibre of horse is just a testament to what sort of he was."
The colt is the only winner out of the five-time winner Bonnie Mac (Thorn Park), who is herself a half-sister to Group 3 winning pair Upham (Mastercraftsman) and Intimate Moment (Dubawi) and Listed scorer Gold Rum (Golan).
Exceedance will stand alongside another son of Exceed And Excel in Headwater, as well as the likes of All Too Hard (Casino Prince), Press Statement (Hinchinbrook), Star Turn (Star Witness) and Pluck (More Than Ready) and Orton rates it a very exciting time for the stud.
"We've had a bit of change on the roster with some of the older stallions - More Than Ready, Testa Rossa and Mossman no longer covering at Vinery, but we have some really exciting new stallions on the roster in Headwater, Press Statement, Star Turn and now Exceedance who hopefully have a lot in front of them as stallion - it's a very exciting time for Vinery," said Orton.
A fee for Exceedance and the rest of the Vinery stallions will be announced at a later date.
