Sire's move looks a good strategy
The Age
Friday July 10, 2009
Switching Strategic to Victoria is a big plus for the local industry, writes Andrew Garvey. FROM a Victorian perspective, a glance at the leading-stallions' list going into the new season is a little depressing, with eight of the top 20 sires having stood in the state before mostly being relocated to NSW.This year there have not been any big-name poachings and Strategic, one of the best-value proven stallions in the country, has headed south almost unnoticed, but being in the company of some of his Darley barn mates, that is probably not surprising.So successful has Strategic been this season - at present, No. 24 on the sires' list - that he leads every other stallion who will stand in this state in the forthcoming season.While he is a few years older, the relocation of Strategic bears a resemblance to the move of Rubiton from the same property - then Transmedia Park - to Blue Gum Farm at Euroa in 1995.Rubiton was a grandson of champion Victorian stallion Better Boy and was a group 1 winner in Victoria, with the Cox Plate among his wins, and Strategic is a great grandson of another local champ, Showdown, and scored a group 1 win in the Australia Stakes at Moonee Valley.With Darley rationalising its stallions this year following the takeover of the Ingham family's Woodlands Stud last year, the move of Strategic to the Northwood Park property at Seymour looked a good fit."He comes from a great Victorian heritage in terms of his sire line and Victoria hasn't got a lot of proven stallions so we think he is well placed," Darley nominations manager Alastair Pulford said.Bred by Woodlands Stud, Strategic is a son of outstanding sprinter and underrated sire Zeditave, who is still in active service at Newhaven Park Stud in southern NSW.In 20 seasons, Zeditave has sired 34 stakes-winners with seven of those being group 1 winners but he has never attracted the same attention as his Northern Dancer-Danzig-line counterparts.He was the best racing son of The Judge, a winner of the now group 1 Lightning Stakes at Flemington. Despite being a highly successful racehorse, The Judge, a son of Showdown, was only moderately patronised at stud.In a five-year career - before his premature death - at Sandown Lodge Stud, he never covered more than the 50 mares he had in his first season.Despite several sires' premierships and 38 stakes-winners, Showdown's two best-performed sons, Tontonan and Silver Sharpe, were geldings so the chances of the sire line continuing were limited. Eleven of his sons sired stakes-winners but The Judge, through Zeditave and his sons Strategic and Magic Albert, has been the only horse to keep the line going in a commercial sense.Strategic's female line has plenty of strength with his dual Sydney-winning dam Sudden Impulse being a daughter of two Golden Slipper winners, Luskin Star and Sweet Embrace.Despite winning the group 2 Todman Slipper Trial at two and following that up with the Australia Stakes win and narrow defeat in the Newmarket Handicap at three, Strategic was banished to Woodlands' secondary property at Cootamundra, to start his stud career at a fee of $7000.As a result, although he got plenty of numbers, he probably did not receive the quality of broodmare that his race record and pedigree deserved, not that it has stopped him carving out a successful career."It is a testament to his ability as a stallion that he has done as well as he has and he will get a hell of a lot better opportunity in Victoria," Pulford said.Since being retired to stud he has sired the winners of more than $23 million and his Australian progeny earnings are only $20,000 shy of Octagonal's, who started at stud the same year at Woodlands' Hunter Valley headquarters, at a fee of $30,000, but who now resides at Cootamundra.With the win of Strat's Flyer in the Takeover Target Stakes two weeks ago, Strategic has sired 20 individual stakes-winners headed by former top two-year-old Meurice, who was bought by Darley in a multimillion-dollar deal two years ago but had to euthanised after a trackwork accident.After a couple of quiet years in 2006-2007, Strategic served 148 mares last year, largely through the deeds of Meurice, and although Darley did not use him much last year, this season it will be strongly supporting him, says Pulford. "Last year when we had just taken over, we probably didn't realise how good he was but since then he's got horses like Aichi and Desuetude and this season he will serve 23 or 24 Darley mares," he said.Pulford says he has been pleased with the response to the seven stallions Darley is standing in Victoria this year and it is no surprise that one of its newcomers, New Approach, already has the book-full sign out. As the undefeated champion European two-year-old of his year, who went on to win the English Derby and Champion Stakes, he is arguably the best-performed horse to stand in Victoria. "His record stacks up against the greats like Sir Ivor and Nijinsky in terms of the races he won, so it is no surprise that he has been so well received," Pulford said.Strategic's does not have a full book to date but Pulford says he is well on the way and as a proven stallion providing an outcross to Danzig-line mares, at what appears to be a realistic fee of $16,500, that should not be a surprise.As with Rubiton, Strategic's progeny have never really set the yearling sale circuit alight, but, as they say, "they don't do much running in the sales ring".
© 2009 The Age