3 minute read
Australia's highest priced yearling of 2005, Musket, will retire to Darley's Cootamundra base this year, where he will keep company with the likes of Carnegie and Octagonal.
Photo by Racing and Sports
The three-quarter-brother to Makybe Diva will complete his racing career in Brisbane this winter – aiming for an elusive Group 1 victory - before being retired to make his stud debut off a fee of $11,000.
By Redoute's Choice from Tugela, from the Riverman mare Tugela, Bob Ingham's Woodlands Stud gave $2.5million for the colt at the 2005 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
He was an impressive debut winner who quickly graduated through to Open company and he recorded two stakes placings during last year's Sydney Autumn Carnival.
Returning to racing as a five-year-old this season, he took out the Group 2 Shannon Stakes first up last September. This autumn he has placed second to Dao Dao in the Listed Royal Parma Stakes before running an eye-catching sixth in the G1 Doncaster Mile.
To date, he is the winner of four races in 14 starts for earnings of $300,000.
A full-brother to Musket sold to Patinack Farm for $1.2million at last month's Easter Sale, while Makybe Diva's first foal, a Galileo colt, made $1.5million. Both were from the draft of Tony Santic's Makybe.
Musket will stand alongside Domesday and Quest For Fame at Darley's Cootamundra base, where Carnegie has been retired to this season.
Octagonal also resides at the Twin Hills property and he will cover mares on a request basis in 2009, despite not being part of the official roster.
