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Fewer mares look to be leaving the state this season given the strength and depth of stallions now standing in Victoria
Adam Sangster’s Swettenham Stud will stand six stallions at Nagambie this year, with the roster headed by shuttler Toronado (High Chaparral) who has enjoyed his most successful season to date on the race track. Rubick (Encosta De Lago) meanwhile joins the Victorian stallion ranks at Sangster’s farm having previously stood at Coolmore Australia’s Hunter Valley property.
The Victorian stallion ranks this spring look to be the strongest that they have ever been, with Written Tycoon (Iglesia), set to be crowned champion sire for the first time, returning to the state for the 2021 breeding season. NSW-based stallions have dominated the leading sires table in Australia now for over 40 years - you have to go back to the 1978/79 season when Century (Better Boy) was crowned champion sire, a year after Showdown (Infatuation) took the title.
Victorian-based buyers spent just shy of $58 million at last month’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, some $4 million more than NSW-based purchasers and Swettenham Stud’s Sam Matthews believes that there will be fewer mares leaving Victoria this season given the strength and depth of stallions now available to breeders in the state.
“The breadth and depth of stallions in Victoria is the best we have ever had,” said Matthews.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there are considerably less mares leaving the state this breeding season, because you have got everything you need here, from Written Tycoon to the dozen or more first season sires.
“Then the proven horses from $10,000 right the way up to $150,000 - there really is something for everyone’s budget.”
The Swettenham Stud 2021 roster is completed by I Am Immortal (I Am Invincible), who will be standing his second season at stud for a fee of $13,750 (inc GST), globetrotting Group 1 winning shuttler Highland Reel (Galileo), Puissance De Lune (Shamardal) and Trust In A Gust (Keep The Faith).
“Every bloodline is covered and every farm has one of the best rosters they have ever had,” continued Matthews.
“Yulong, Darley and Rosemont are flying then, there’s Leneva kicking off, Spendthrift adding more quality and Widden coming down here with a great selection of stallions. Not to mention, our roster at Swettenham is the best it’s ever been - it is a really exciting time.
“Everyone you speak to in Victoria is sending their mares to Victorian-based sires, very few people are talking about what mares they are sending to the Hunter. To my knowledge there will be a lot less horses going across the border this year, which is great for the state of Victoria.”
Highland Reel returns to Swettenham Stud for the fourth time this year and Matthews says that breeders are attracted to a stallion like him in the hope of breeding a middle distance of stayer. The son of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) covered 148 mares during his first season in 2018, near on 100 the following year and a book of 161 mares last year.
“In the Hunter there is a huge amount of competition for the earliest sprinting two-year-old horses but the appetite for stallions outside of that might not be as strong,” said Matthews.
“But here you get those middle distance stallions, Highland Reel is a good example, he covered his biggest book in his third year, so I would imagine horses like Russian Camelot and Fierce Impact will go very well, people will be happy to breed to a middle distance horse.
“I think there is a lot of support around them and a lot of hype around them. You don’t have to be the winner of a two-year-old race before Christmas anymore to stand at stud and we are able to offer something to every breeder, looking to breed every style of horse.
“I think people are looking to breed those middle distance horses that can stay a trip but also have a turn of foot and I think the thirst for those types of horses is being resurrected.”
Toronado will stand his seventh season at Swettenham this year. He covered his biggest book of mares last year; 210 at a fee of $27,500 (inc GST) and Matthews said that they will be very selective about the mares that he will cover this spring.
The son of High Chaparral (Sadler’s Wells) has enjoyed his most successful season on the racetrack to date which included his son Masked Crusader landing the William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) while his daughter Affair To Remember won at Group 2 level and Sill A Star and Senor Toba scored at Group 3 level.
“We have been very selective about the mares he will cover,” he said.
“We have had around 400 mares put forward to him and we have taken 110 so far. We are allowing the people to go and buy the mares they want to buy at the sales and work out the matings, before finalising the book.
“He has been inundated with mares, but we are just being really selective, we want to make sure the breeders who are willing to spend that money on his fee can actually get a return. With his limited book we want to make sure it is the right mares and not just the first mares to get in.”
