Ever Ready

ONE OF THE BEST SIRES IN HISTORY More Than Ready has continuously created new benchmarks throughout his career, and he doesn’t look like stopping any time soon, writes Melissa Bauer-Herzog.

The stallion was part of the team that trainer Todd Pletcher sent to run in the Kentucky Derby, a first attempt on the race for the trainer. More Than Ready finished fourth, 5l behind race winner Fusaichi Pegasus.

More Than Ready

He went on to win the King’s Bishop Stakes (G1) and proved to be an extremely versatile horse when winning or placing in stakes races from 5f to 1m1f.

It was this show of versatility that led to another chapter written in More Than Ready’s book – Vinery Stud, Australia purchased breeding rights to stand the sire through the southern-hemisphere season. Now, some 20 years later, that has led to the stallion making history – he leads all sires by number of seasons shuttled and number of winners sired.

“He loves the travel and has done it for 19 consecutive seasons,” says Adam White, Vinery Stud’s bloodstock manager. “I think the next highest number of shuttle seasons is 15. He just loves it and although the time will come for him to stop, I certainly believe keeping the horse active ensures he remains healthy and overall a happy horse.” A popular stallion with breeders in both the US and Australia, More Than Ready leads all stallions by winners with 1,846 sired as of November 11.

The stallion also reached an amazing achievement in early November when his daughter Uni won the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) to become his seventh Breeders’ Cup winner.

That number puts him at the top of the Breeders’ Cup list ahead of champions such as Sadler’s Wells and Unbridled’s Song, who he has been tied with since 2017.

For WinStar Farm, More Than Ready’s northern-hemisphere home, Uni’s victory was a headlining event.

And this year’s Breeders’ Cup was made even sweeter as two of his daughters also produced winners over the tw0-day meeting. “First, we were thrilled for the connections of Uni – Haras D’Etreham, Chad’s team and the ownership group,” said Liam O’Rourke, WinStar’s director of stallion sales.

“It was a very proud and exciting day for everyone involved in More Than Ready. It’s a massive achievement as the Breeders’ Cup is the pinnacle of racing and to win at the meeting you have to beat the world.

“He’s a remarkable horse, tough with great desire. There’s an intangible asset that he passes along, in addition to speed and quality. It’s a great recipe.”

An even more exciting milestone is within reach of the stallion – at the time of writing, More Than Ready is just one away from the 200 stakes winners mark.

For White, the stallion’s global success comes back to the sire’s versatility. “He was an exceptional two year-old and this certainly helped him be such a success in the southern-hemisphere,” explains White. “He has produced two Golden Slipper winners, a Blue Diamond winner and two Magic Millions winners, as well as numerous other Group 1-winning juveniles here in Australia. “This is so important to our industry here. The fact that he is the only stallion to be crowned champion two-year-old sire in Australia and the US is another great achievement.

More Than Ready

“More Than Ready is not just a great sire of juveniles – he has numerous Derby and Oaks winners in both hemispheres, as well as many great milers and sprinters. His stock are versatile and this is what has made him such a wonderful stallion worldwide.”

Every year the More Than Ready stallion teams in both hemispheres have the welcome problem of dealing with too many applications from breeders.

White has been involved in his stallion career from the beginning and has enjoyed watching him rise to prominence with some of the best mares in the world visiting his court. “In the early days it certainly created a lot of work, which was nice,” he says. “I remember when his first crop started racing, he had some good success early and we set his fee at A$40,000.

“More Than Ready is not just a great sire of juveniles – he has numerous Derby and Oaks winners in both hemispheres, as well as many great milers

“Soon after his daughter Carry On Cutie won the Champagne Stakes (G1) and he ended that season with a record six individual stakes winners in a first crop. That resulted in over 500 applications – you can imagine the work involved in sorting through that!

“But booking mares to him has certainly been a highlight of the job when you consider he has covered some of the best mares to race here in Australia such as Makybe Diva and Black Caviar.”

More Than Ready continues to have great fertility, even as he approaches his 22nd birthday, but both farms have modified how they handle his books to ensure he has the best chance of success with smaller numbers. For WinStar that includes trying to get history to repeat itself by working with crosses the farm knows have been successful. “We look at the patterns that he’s had success with over the years both in pedigree and physical,” says O’Rourke. “We target a certain number of mares each year that we think will suit him best and lead to the next Group and Grade 1 horses for him. “He is extremely popular, but, unfortunately, we can’t accommodate every request for him so it can be a bit tricky in that respect. It’s fun because we get to see a lot of nice mares. Typically, stallions lose a little popularity into their 20s, but he’s only getting stronger.”

The smaller books mean both farms have to reject more mares than they accept, but White says that just having More Than Ready on the farm’s roster has been extremely important for getting mares to the younger stallions as well.

“I can not put into wordswhat this horse has done for our farm and our brand over many, many years,” he explains.“He was a foundation stallion here at Vinery and his achievements have no doubt helped our image and also that of our stallion roster. “I think an important part of this is that he was introduced here at a modest fee. He started in Australia at a fee of A$20,000 and quickly elevated after being crowned champion first-season sire.

“Good stallions like him make the phone ring, and when the phone rings it certainly helps us to direct some traffic to the younger stallions.”

While the management of More Than Ready and the mares he breeds changes a little depending on the hemisphere he is in, both farms’ feelings are much the same. Both White and O’Rourke echoed each other by saying their love for the stallion is one of the reasons they are so proud of what he has achieved.

“I feel very privileged to have worked with him throughout his career,” says White. “When I first joined Vinery he was a young three-year-old and we felt he would be perfect for the large number of Danehill line mares we had here in Australia.

“That certainly became the case and more. He went on to win the King’s Bishop a few months after we secured him and of course the rest is history.”