\n\t\t\t\t\tBy Trevor Marshallsea<\/b>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Listen<\/p>\n
At a time when Australia looks for its next big things in the stallion world to step up alongside a raft of ageing champions, Kia Ora Stud is ebullient over their flagbearer Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) as his first season of runners draws to a close.<\/p>\n
The rising eight-year-old, who won his first five starts capped by the 2020 Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m), has made an equally stunning impression in his early strides as a sire.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s Randwick victory by the Brad Widdup-trained Nashville Jack gave Farnan the most winners among Australian first season sires this season, with a handful of meetings and starters to come until Thursday\u2019s close to 2024-25.<\/p>\n
While he still ranks third by earnings behind champion debutant sire Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon) and Australia\u2019s most expensive stallion, the proven-elsewhere Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), Farnan now has 14 winners to go one ahead of Ole Kirk by that measure.<\/p>\n
Kia Ora\u2019s flagbearer is equal-third by winners among the nation\u2019s two-year-old sires, sitting amidst three thoroughly proven stallions. That count is topped by four-time champion sire Snitzel (Redoute\u2019s Choice) on 17, ahead of Capitalist (Written Tycoon) with 16, and with triple champion I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) sharing third with 14.<\/p>\n
Farnan will finish the season with three stakes winners \u2013 colts North England and King Of Pop, and filly Recuperato \u2013 which puts him fifth by that measure among two-year-old sires and second among first season stallions, one behind Ole Kirk.<\/p>\n
North England has won two of five for the Newgate-China Horse Club collective, taking Randwick\u2019s Kindergarten Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) and Rosehill\u2019s Golden Gift (1100m), which while non black type is worth $1m.<\/p>\n
The Waterhouse-Bott colt ran a fair sixth in the Golden Slipper, in which Farnan also distinguished himself in his first season by having three runners, with King Of Pop and Farcited also starting.<\/p>\n
Those last two colts also filled the quinella in Canberra\u2019s Black Opal Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m), which was King Of Pop\u2019s second win amid four starts.<\/p>\n
King Of Pop also provided half of the quinella in North England\u2019s Kindergarten Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m), while Recuperato won Flemington\u2019s Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m), before Farnicle became Farnan\u2019s fifth stakes horse when second in Eagle Farm\u2019s BRC Sires\u2019 Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m).<\/p>\n
While Kia Ora had believed Farnan had all the right credentials to succeed as a sire, to see his first season evolve in such a manner has the Hunter Valley farm ecstatic as he gears up for his fifth standing season at $77,000 (inc GST), up from $55,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a very good season. We couldn\u2019t be any happier with how he\u2019s going,\u201d Kia Ora\u2019s bloodstock and breeding manager Shane Wright told ANZ News.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you go in with a stallion like Farnan, a Slipper winner and Champion two-year-old, that\u2019s what\u2019s made it in Australia year in and year out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith his criteria leading into stud, everyone believed he was going to be a success. So there was probably a bit of a target on our back.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo for him to have done what he\u2019s done now \u2013 leading by winners, having the winner of the Golden Gift, the quinellas in the Kindergarten and Black Opal, along with a stakes race at Flemington.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows he can get horses to the track, have good numbers coming through, but they can also get to those biggest races that everyone wants to be aiming for, and he\u2019s doing it with colts and fillies.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe started off pre-Christmas with some very nice winners like North England, and it\u2019s just continued all the way through.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were always expecting him to do well, so it\u2019s not a shock. But there is a certain amount of relief when your first season sire comes out and does what he\u2019s done, and has horses that show real potential for the future as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amid his 42 Australian starters, nine of Farnan\u2019s 14 winners, and two of his three stakes winners, have been males.<\/p>\n
Wright is hopeful Nashville Jack will be among the first croppers to prove the stallion\u2019s produce will blossom as three-year-olds.<\/p>\n
Bought by Widdup at Inglis Easter for $225,000, as the third foal of Sydney city winner Dixie Chick (Star Witness), Nashville Jack was thereabouts in both runs of his first preparation last autumn, finishing fourth in the Silver Slipper Stakes (Gr 2, 1100m) and fifth in the Black Opal \u2013 in which Farnan boasted four of the 11 runners.<\/p>\n
He returned, winning both of his barrier trials, at Rosehill, before stepping out on Saturday to win by 1.98 lengths in a highly competitive 1100-metre two-year-old handicap.<\/p>\n
The eight-horse field featured six previous winners, including Team Hayes\u2019s Sandown victor Hello Romeo (Hello Youmzain), who ran second, and Shaggy (Sandbar), a three-time winner including of Randwick\u2019s prestigious Slipper warm-up the Pierro Plate (1100m) in February.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrad\u2019s always had a good opinion of Nashville Jack,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was in some strong races as an earlier two-year-old, in the Silver Slipper and Black Opal, and ran well, but the stable thinks some maturity has come in now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt turned out to be a very hot Saturday race, for late July, but if you looked at his trial form, the $4.60 he started at was a very decent price. He\u2019s still furnishing, but he could be a very nice horse going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cNashville Jack is a prime example that Farnan\u2019s stock all look like they\u2019re going to be even better at three, with the way they run.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright also cited the Ryan-Alexiou colt Grand Eagle, who won his third and fourth starts in non-black type company, at Hawkesbury and Randwick, in April before spelling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese two, along with the top horses he\u2019s had like North England and King of Pop, they all look like being very, very good three-year-olds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd along with these horses who\u2019ll be contesting some of the big races this spring, I\u2019ve got trainers saying they\u2019ve got some nice yearlings by Farnan who\u2019ll be stepping out in the next couple of months. So it\u2019s very exciting times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright said the stellar first seasons of Farnan and Vinery Stud\u2019s Ole Kirk had been most timely for Australian breeding.<\/p>\n
\u201cStallions like Farnan and Ole Kirk are stepping up at exactly the right time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had those champion stalwarts for so many years, like Snitzel, who\u2019s sadly passed away recently, plus I Am Invincible and Written Tycoon, who are getting toward the end of their tenure.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there\u2019s a big gap there when you\u2019re trying to breed with top class mares, and we really feel a horse like Farnan has a niche there now where he can fit in very nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farnan had been fully booked for the coming spring \u201cpretty much since Easter\u201d, Wright said, with his book closed at 170 mares. This compares to books of 192, 189, 152 and 184 mares through his first four seasons, all at $55,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a nice stallion. He works well in the shed. We\u2019re looking after him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want him here for the long run. We don\u2019t believe in overdoing it. We want to protect him the best we can whilst giving him the best chance of success as well. He\u2019s proven what he can do. Now it\u2019s time for us to look after him a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll be getting some very nice mares again this spring. Every year he\u2019s seemed to be getting better and better mares, and this year with that slight fee increase, the level of mares has gone up as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was obviously a very good two-year-old himself, and the calibre of mares people have sent to him has given him potential to reach an even higher peak at stud than he achieved on the racetrack.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Trevor Marshallsea Listen At a time when Australia looks for its next big things in the stallion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-297203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114928079610238906","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}