At your service – the new stallions embarking on Australian stud careers

This article first appeared in The Straight on September 02, 2024.

In the first month of the new southern hemisphere breeding season, Coolmore’s freshman sire Shinzo will likely earn more from service fees than he did on the racetrack.

Retired after an autumn cameo that resulted in an unplaced return against older sprinters at Group 3 level, Shinzo is one of 26 new sires who have made their way to stud in 2024.

As the 2023 Golden Slipper winner, Shinzo commands the highest-priced introductory fee.

He has joined Coolmore’s Hunter Valley roster at $55,000. By the end of September, should he kick off with an average of three covers a day, Shinzo will have collected almost $5 million in potential service feed for the international breeding conglomerate.

Across eight starts for his trainer Chris Waller, Shinzo banked $3.9 million but he was destined for the breeding barn rather than a long racing career after his Slipper victory.

It is a similar story with the next four horses across the line. Runner-up Cylinder (Darley), the minor placegetter King’s Gambit (Newgate), Don Corleone (fourth – Eureka Stud) and Empire Of Japan (fifth -Hopetoun Farm) also have their first season at stud in 2024.

Militarize finished last in the race but he, too, has started his stud career at Newgate as a three-time Group 1 winner.

Shinzo’s first-season service fee matches three other Golden Slipper-winning colts retired in the past decade.

Vancouver, Capitalist and Farnan also commenced their stud careers at $55,000.

The 2021 winner Stay Inside, a veteran of just six starts, is an outlier, offered at $77,000 when was added to the Newgate Stud Farm roster two years ago.

Based on matings recorded in the Australian Stud Book, Stay Inside covered 189 mares in his debut season with Capitalist the busiest of the aforementioned sires with 229 in 2017.

All things being equal, Shinzo, who is one of five sons of the champion sire Snitzel among the class of 2024, can be expected to attract a similar number.

Of the five colts who cleaned up Australia’s Group 1 juvenile races in 2023, all but the Blue Diamond winner Little Brose, who ended up in Hong Kong, have been retired to stud in 2024.

Little Brose is now trained in Hong Kong where David Hayes is hoping to enhance the entire’s racing record before a return to Australia for stallion duties.

Militarize, a son of Dundeel, who won the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes and Champagne Stakes before claiming the Golden Rose as an early-season three-year-old, has found a place on Newgate’s jam-packed roster at $38,500.

The JJ Atkins winner King Colorado will stand at Widden Stud’s Victorian farm for $16,500.

In all there will be 12 Group 1 winners standing their first season this year with Darley Stud’s Cylinder and Newgate’s Ozzmosis the second most expensive at $44,000.

Cylinder is part of a new generation at Darley’s Australian operation after two high-profile retirements and a decision not to shuttle champion first season sire Too Darn Hot.

Exceed And Excel, the sire of Cylinder, has been withdrawn from the Darley roster as has Lonhro, leaving a void hoping to be filled by Cylinder and other newcomers such as the Caulfield Guineas winner Golden Mile ($16,500) and northern hemisphere Group 1 winners Native Trail ($27,500) and Triple Time ($22,000).

There’s no reason why Cylinder won’t be popular with breeders.

He mixed it with the best juveniles with his Golden Slipper placing and wins at Group 2 level in the Silver Slipper and the Todman Stakes.

His three-year-old season was just as productive with Group 3 Vain Stakes and Group 2 Run To The Rose success before emulating his sire as the winner of the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap.

While sprinting bloodlines are littered throughout the list of newcomers, at the other end of the spectrum, Gold Trip’s retirement to Lovatsville will offer breeders prepared to be patient with an entry-level fee that will give the Melbourne Cup winner every chance to put numbers on the ground.

Gold Trip is the most inexpensive Group 1 winner among Australia’s elite racetrack stars going to stud for the first time.

He will stand at $8800 in Victoria, an enticing rate for a horse with evident stamina mixed with a speed influence gained from his grandsire Exceed And Excel.

That brand of acceleration was on display in Gold Trip’s Turnbull Stakes win last year, the second victory in an Australian career that included Caulfield Cup placings in 2022 and 2023.

Gold Trip becomes the first Melbourne Cup winner to stand at stud in Australia since Fiorente commenced stallion duties in 2014.

Fiorente’s Australian record was not dissimilar to Gold Trip’s before covering 186 mares at a $17,600 fee in his first season.

Another new addition to the 2024 stallion ranks will stand alongside Gold Trip at Lovatsville with Generation, a Group 3-winning son of Snitzel, introduced at $11,000.

The other sons of Snitzel to debut in 2024 along with the aforementioned Shinzo, Empire Of Japan and Generation, are Lofty Strike at Swettenham Stud at $22,000 and Doull at Rosemont Stud at $11,000.

There are two sons of another champion stallion I Am Invincible, debuting as well. King’s Gambit, as mentioned, kicks off at Newgate, while Hawaii Five Oh begins at Vinery.

Mo’unga is also a stallion entering the stud arena for the first time after an extended racing career that included Group 1 wins in the Winx Stakes and Rosehill Guineas.

The son of Savabeel will stand at Newhaven Park in NSW for $27,500.

Other Australian-bred stallions to join rosters this season, include Blue Gum Farm’s Oxley Road, Clear Mountain Fairview’s Alpine Edge, General Beau at Maluka, Ingratiating at Oakland Park Stud, Red Resistance at Telemon and Sweet Ride at Widden.

Of the overseas brigade new to Australian breeders in 2024, Yulong’s Panthalassa is an intriguing addition as a Japanese-bred stallion who was a Group 1 winner on turf and dirt racetracks.

Panthalassa is one of three sons of champion Japanese sire Lord Kanaloa on the Yulong roster with Tagaloa and Diatonic on its 2024 roster. Lauda Sion adds to the Japanese flavour at Larnuek Stud.

Aquis has brought American-bred Officiating, the first son of Blame to stand in Australia, to its Canungra base in Queensland.

In a competitive freshman landscape, studs are finding ways to incentivise breeders to support their stallions. There is a bonus worth $500,000 to the breeder of the first two-year-old stakes winner by Officiating from his first Australian crop.