6 minute read
KIA ORA
SPEEDING TO A BRIGHT NEW FUTURE
“Mares and female families are very important, yes; but it is for their stallions that most studs will ultimately be remembered.”
Yarraman Park, home of I Am Invincible, would surely not disagree. Nor Widden, for that matter, made famous by champion sires from Star Kingdom through Vain, Bletchingly, and Marscay, hopes now pinned on exciting young sire Zoustar.
Coolmore Australia currently rests on foundations laid by Danehill, Encosta de Lago and Fastnet Rock while Arrowfield Stud will forever be synonymous with Redoute’s Choice and his sire sons Snitzel and Not A Single Doubt.
Vinery Australia’s and Godolphin Australia’a legacies are intertwined with stallions like More Than Ready, Lonhro and Exceed And Excel respectively.
Kia Ora Stud, breeder of Exceed And Excel, was home one hundred years ago to leading sire Magpie, whose most famous sons were Windbag and Amounis. Kia Ora in the mid-1900s also stood champion sires Midstream (Shannon, Delta and Hydrogen) and Delville Wood.
This Scone landmark, famous too for the winners of 15 Derbys, seven Melbourne Cups and five Cox Plates, has a history as rich as any in Australia, whether measured by champion sires, quality yearling sale consignments or elite racetrack performers.
And it this this history of champion sires that Kia Ora, already significantly invested in local sires like All Too Hard, Headwater and Press Statement, aims to revive with its recent acquisition of headline young stallion prospects, Magic Millions graduates Farnan and Prague.
FARNAN, ATC GOLDEN SLIPPER GR1
- Maintains Kia Ora consultant Michael Kirwan, currently overseeing the establishment of a resident stallion complex at the picturesque Scone property.
“Not only did he win Australia’s most important sire-making race, the Golden Slipper, on his way to Champion Juvenile honours but he is also the most precocious, best and fastest two-year-old colt by sire-sensation Not a Single Doubt, sire also of probably the world’s best sprinter in The Everest winner Classique Legend.”
Aquis Farm Managing Director Shane McGrath is equally enthusiastic about the prospects of Farnan, in whose stud career original owners Aquis and Phoenix Thoroughbreds have retained a significant interest.
“He is the sort of horse everyone dreams about,” said McGrath. “He was as dominant a two-year-old as we’ve seen for many a year, the best young colt by a leading sire-son of the southern hemisphere’s best sire-of-sires in Redoute’s Choice. There won’t be a first-season sire at stud next season with anywhere near his combination of precocity, speed and class.”
Nor is the team at Kia Ora any less excited about the stud’s acquisition of Prague, winner at two of both the Canonbury and Pago Pago Stakes and runner-up to dual Group One winner King’s Legacy in the Sires Produce Stakes.
- Commented Kia Ora Stud Manager Shane Wright. “He cost $1.6 million as a yearling and you can see why – he has size, scope and strength and a great action too.”
“He won two Golden Slipper lead-ups and actually beat King’s Legacy home in the Slipper itself. And in the Sires’ Produce, the combination of a heavy track and possibly committing a little early saw him caught close home after looking all over the winner halfway down the straight.”
Kirwan agrees. “Prague was the highest-priced yearling and one of the two best two-year-olds of his year by Redoute’s Choice, who already boasts a number of champion siresons in Snitzel, Not A Single Doubt and Stratum. He will be a perfect barn-mate for Farnan and one couldn’t imagine kickstarting Kia Ora’s new stallion complex with any two more exciting young sire prospects.”
Clearly palpable is the energy and enthusiasm that the acquisition of Farnan and Prague has inspired in the team at modern-day Kia Ora, breeder of such stellar performers as Exceed And Excel, international champion Igugu and exciting young three-year-old sprinter Wild Ruler and consigner from its relatively small, select drafts of some seven million-dollar yearlings in the eight sales seasons from 2013 to 2020.
And there is much anticipation on-farm of the upcoming round of 2021 yearling sales, beginning with a strong consignment of Magic Milllions yearlings, headed by the full sister to star sprinter Loving Gaby.
Out of Group One Goodwood winner Velocitea’s half sister Maastricht, herself runner-up in the Group Two Edward Manifold Stakes, this dark-hued I Am Invincible yearling filly sells as lot 500 and carries the team’s hopes that the famed nursery may have in its draft yet another ‘million-dollar baby’.
“That’s up to the buyers but she certainly looks a million dollars,” quipped stud manager Shane Wright. “She is really athletic but also offers the sort of looks and pedigree that will make her a pearl of great price for many years to come in the breeding barn, whatever she does on the racetrack.”
Very much the same could be said of the draft’s three fillies by USA Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, himself a leading young two-year-old turf sire of Group One winners, proven in England, Ireland, France, America and Japan.
One of those fillies, indeed, is out of More Than Ready mare More Than Real, herself a Breeders’ Cup winner of the Juvenile Fillies Turf race.
- Observed Shane Wright. This filly’s full brother is in training with Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young, who by all accounts have a high opinion of his ability.”
Another of the American Pharoah fillies is out of She’s a Fox, Listed stakes-winning full sister to Group One winner and Group One sire Foxwedge, while the third is a daughter of multiple USA stakes-winning Dehere mare Decelerator, whose daughter Nafaayes is already a Group Two winner and Group One placed in South Africa.
“Our American Pharoah colt is also a stand-out,” advises Wright. “He’s a really eye-catching individual out of USA Grade Three winner Ashley’s Kitty, a Tale of the Cat halfsister to Grade One winner and Coolmore sire Cupid.”
“He and the Zoustar colt out of USA Grade One-winning two-year-old Mani Bhavan are my idea of outstanding colts and right up there with the I Am Invincible colt out of Villa Verde.”
Last-named, of course, is out of a Not a Single Doubt filly who was once an early Golden Slipper favourite – a speedster who won the Group Two Challenge Stakes and placed in the Group One Galaxy. Villa Verde is also a three-parts sister to exciting young three-year-old Doubtland, winner this season of the Group Two Danehill Stakes.
Speed, from the best of Australian and American influences, appears very much a feature of the modernday Kia Ora mindset. And speed is certainly the essence of the stud’s new stallion acquisitions.
Given that speed is so essential a feature of the Australian racing and breeding landscape, Kia Ora’s future looks brighter than ever.
