Stay Inside Turf Monthly October 2022

STAY INSIDE

A GOLDEN SLIPPER WINNER

Stay Inside is pretty much the Holy Grail of first season sires; a Golden Slipper winning colt. He stands his first season at Newgate for $77,000 putting him in the top echelon of stallions at stud in Australia, certainly in terms of the Freshman sires. Golden Slipper winners have always been highly valued at stud, and while we have seen some wonderful successes, the Slipper is no guarantee that a stallion will have a profitable career. As a recent Golden Slipper analogy, for every Capitalist whose fee has almost doubled, there is Vancouver whose fee has halved. Interestingly we saw Farnan go to stud last year with Stay Inside this year. The last time two consecutive Golden Slipper winning colts went to stud was a decade ago with Pierro and Sepoy. But we digress and it is time to look at the exciting Stay Inside.

T he colt had his first race start in a 2yo Handicap over 1000m at Randwick on 23 January 2021. He sat behind the leaders but pulled out on the turn to win comfortably. Three weeks later at Randwick over 1100m he stepped up to the Listed Pierro and again sat behind the leaders in the run. Stay Inside cruised past them in the straight to dominate a good field that saw Vianello and Giannis fill the placings. In the Todman he had little luck, settling last and having a chequered run in the straight but finishing a strong fourth behind Anamoe, Profiteer and Home Affairs. In the Golden Slipper, Stay Inside was able to again sit behind the leaders and explode away as the field entered the straight. This time it was Anamoe who had the hard luck story and was left to chase the winner. Stay Inside returned for

the Spring in the Newgate colours but was disappointing in his return in the San Domenico behind In The Congo and Paulele at Kembla Grange. His last start was again a disappointment this time in the Run To Rose at Kembla Grange. This time he settled outside the lead but he lacked his earlier dash in the straight, fighting on to finish fifth behind Anamoe and In The Congo. Despite how good his 2yo form was, Stay Inside will still have some of that stigma of a Golden Slipper winner who did not return as a 3yo on his resume, and this might have an impact on his stud and sales career.

Stay Inside is a son of Extreme Choice like Extreme Warrior and Tiger Of Malay who also feature in our Freshman Series. Extreme Warrior is the only one of these standing in Victoria and it will be interesting to see if that change in environment will see different results. Extreme Choice who also stands at Newgate has been a sensation despite poor fertility and these three colts may well extend his influence in a way that he has not been able. Extreme Choice is a son of Not A Single Doubt and it is telling that despite that stallion’s success, it is only recently that we have seen his sons at stud with Farnan, Anders and Doubtland yet to have runners.

The female lines of the three sons of Extreme Choice will make a difference in their likely success. Stay Inside is out of an Anabaa mare called Nothin Leica Storm. She did not make it to the track until a 4yo, winning a maiden at Cessnock in May of that season. In all, she was to retire with one win from 20 starts, with her finishing last in a field of 12 at Port Macquarie in her last start. Her dam was Nothin’ Leica by Nothin’ Leica Dane, the star 3yo that won a VRC Derby and was placed in a Melbourne Cup. She won three races including her only start as a 2yo at Canterbury, and her first start as a 3yo at Randwick. She was later to win the Goulburn Cup. This is the family of a colt called Wonderful World by Agnes World who won the Caulfield Guineas and finished second in the Cox Plate before failing at stud and being sent to China. The family also includes the good sprinter, Spartacus by Snippets who won the Australia and Manikato Stakes, and the Oakleigh Plate. He too went to stud with limited success. It is perhaps fair to say that it is not the strongest family that we will see in our Freshman sires, but it is one that came to Australia in the 1920’s and has produced its share of winners under local conditions.

The pedigree of Stay Inside though represents some challenges to breeders, and even a cursory glance will suggest some of these. He traces to a Danehill line stallion, yet also sees his second dam tracing to another Danehill line. In addition, his dam traces to a Danzig sire line. Again, we find ourselves asking the question as to how much Danehill is too much. Nonetheless, it is not drawing too much of a long bow to suggest that this will potentially be an issue that could affect the success of the stallion. Looking for mares that do not carry Danehill is difficult especially in NSW. One stallion that does fit the bill is Written Tycoon, but his daughters will be highly sought-after and it is hard to know how many of these will be available. A key to Written Tycoon is his strong colonial lines, and in this day and age it may be that Written Tycoon could potentially offer too much of this. We would do well to remember that 2yo racing is largely a city phenomenon. Few country regions have the numbers to hold too many of these races, so we need to consider this in terms of a stallion who did not train on at three.

Being in NSW, Stay Inside will have access to many of the Sadler’s Wells line stallions like So You Think and Dundeel who could prove to be important to

his future. These classic style of stallions, who can get progeny that run over some distance, will add to the versatility of Stay Inside’s progeny. We need to remember that Not A Single Doubt as well as siring many precocious 2yo’s was also capable of siring a Doomben Cup and SA Derby winner. Given that we see Nothin’ Leica Dane in the stallion’s pedigree, it is certainly likely that careful breeding can extend many of his progeny past their 2yo seasons and even up to a mile.

U sually with this style of stallion, we would be looking at overseas stallions. In many cases, the US style stallions are going to prove quite difficult as we see Extreme Choice is out of a mare by the US stallion Hussonet by Mr Prospector. Many of the lines that we would consider suitable like Street Cry as an example may find the male duplications of Mr Prospector detrimental. Medaglia D’Oro would be one of the US stallions that could well suit Stay Inside, as would the recently deceased More Than Ready. From a more European standpoint, Teofilo and his sons may suit, but these also could be a little problematic through an extra line of Danehill, albeit through a daughter.

Overall Stay Inside will attract plenty of interest through his Golden Slipper victory, although he is perhaps not the type of stallion who will have success with huge numbers of mares. Given the fertility issues of his sire, it would make sense for Newgate to be very exclusive when considering the mares that he covers. It is possible that he will have greater success with this strategy, and it is easy to see a very selective crop of yearlings by him that will make premium prices. The selective breeding could well see him produce a good percentage of quality runners, even if few of them end in smaller country stables to end their careers.