Henry Longfellow to shuttle to Rosemont Stud
Stallion joins Too Darn Hot as only other Group 1-winning juvenile by Dubawi to ever stand in Australia
Victoria’s Rosemont Stud will head into their home yearling sale from Sunday with an extra spring in their step, not only boasting perhaps their strongest Inglis Premier draft to date but buoyed by securing former star European two-year-old Henry Longfellow (Dubawi) for their stallion roster this year.
Supremely bred, with first dam Minding (Galileo) winning seven Group 1s and second dam Lillie Langtry (Danehill Dancer) claiming two, Henry Longfellow will become only the second top tier winning juvenile by the breed-shaping Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) to shuttle to Australia.
The other is the Darley sire who’s become such a sensation he’s not coming back to Australia – Too Darn Hot (Dubawi).
And in sealing the partnership with Coolmore Ireland to stand Henry Longfellow, Rosemont is confident it will offer Australian breeders a sire poised to extend the success at stud of the offspring of Dubawi, who has no fewer than eight sons who have sired Group 1 winners.
“We’re incredibly excited to get him,” Rosemont’s general manager of bloodstock Ryan McEvoy told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“He’d be one of the more attractive shuttle stallions to come to Australia, certainly from a pedigree perspective, his two-year-old rating and profile. We think he shapes up extremely well.”
The timing of confirmation that Henry Longfellow will become their sixth stallion couldn’t be better for Rosemont, who’ll offer 29 lots at a Premier sale which, in keeping with the recent Inglis Classic, they expect to hold up well despite recent softness in the yearling market.
Not only does the Geelong stud steer many of its best produce to Premier, Rosemont can boast some enviable stats out of the sale. Its past ten Premier drafts have fetched a combined $22 million and have accrued $50 million in earnings. Even without the $22 million of their outlier Premier graduate, Everest (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Bella Nipotina, those ten drafts are $6 million in front, stud principal Anthony Mithen points out.
Progeny of Frankel (Galileo), Zoustar (Northern Meteor) and their own stallions including Hanseatic (Street Boss) and Shamus Award (Snitzel) headline a draft this year that Rosemont feel shows their strong commitment to the Victorian sale, especially given several of its yearlings were accepted for Magic Millions Gold Coast and Inglis Easter.
But on Wednesday, Rosemont was abuzz with the news Henry Longfellow would join their roster this year, at a starting price of $22,000 (inc GST) with a live foal guarantee.
Bred by Coolmore Ireland – where he stands for €15,000 (approx AU$25,000) – the imposing looking colt was unbeaten in three starts at two, all at the Curragh, following up his debut victory with a win in the Futurity Stakes (Gr 2, 7f) before streeting his rivals in the National Stakes (Gr 1, 7f), leaving previous-start Group 1 winner Bucanero Fuerte (Wootton Bassett) 7.5 lengths astern in third.
Henry Longfellow ended that season second only to the outstanding City Of Troy (Justify) among Timeform’s highest-rated European two-year-olds. His mark of 120-plus compares similarly to Australia’s finest juveniles of recent seasons, including Shinzo (Snitzel) on 120, and his fellow Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winners Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) on 122 and Stay Inside (Extreme Choice) on 122-plus, along with Anamoe (Street Boss) on 120-plus.
Rosemont believes standing Henry Longfellow in Australia – sealed through a concerted approach to Coolmore and a mission to Ireland by Mithen – will extend the recent success here of shuttlers, in an era of greater speed among visiting sires such as Too Darn Hot, Harry Angel (Dark Angel) and Blue Point (Shamardal).
“The needle has really swung back towards a real appreciation for the shuttle stallion here,” McEvoy said.
“You only have to think of Too Darn Hot, Blue Point, Harry Angel, Justify, More Than Ready, Toronado … the appreciation for a proper horse from the northern hemisphere is back to where it should be.
“And some of the bigger farms have really worked out the horse who works down here – what horse will, one, receive the patronage and, two, have an impact. They’re bringing faster sprinter-miler types – the Dubawi lines, Shamardal lines, More Than Ready, Storm Cat; those who have worked so well with our local domestic speed, which is obviously heavily influenced by Danehill.
“These horses have rated through the roof, and Henry Longfellow fits that mould. When you think he has a two-year-old rating that compares to the likes of Shinzo, Anamoe, Farnan and Stay Inside, that’s pretty attractive. We didn’t want to bring a horse down here who wasn’t rated as highly.
“Henry Longfellow started even money in the National Stakes and won like an even money shot, by five lengths. He trained on at three, including a close [short neck] second in last year’s St James’s Palace Stakes to the season’s leading three-year-old miler Rosallion.
“He was bred to be a superstar, and he delivered in spades.”
That breeding certainly stands out. Henry Longfellow is the only foal to race so far for Minding, the 2016 Cartier Horse of the Year in Europe, and winner of top-tier races including the English Oaks (Gr 1, 1m 4f), English 1,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) and Queen Elizabeth Stakes II (Gr 1, 1m).
With first-five duplications of Mr. Prospector (Raise A Native), Northern Dancer (Nearctic) and Shirley Heights (Mill Reef), he’s also bred on the same Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) cross of one of Dubawi’s finest Group 1-producing sons Night Of Thunder, with Dubawi’s others including Zarak and New Bay.
“This horse’s pedigree is second to none,” O’Brien said of Henry Longfellow. “Minding was the best mare we ever trained and this was the best out-cross that she could go to. He’s got a lot of her and his dad, Dubawi, in him, so he looks a very special horse.”
Physically, Henry Longfellow is an imposing specimen.
“He bears resemblance to both Dubawi and Galileo,” McEvoy said. “He’s 15.3 hands, has a great depth of girth, and great movement, power and balance. He’s very much a real Australian style of sprinter – a big hindquarter, big overstep, good bone and he’s just really powerful.”
McEvoy said the move for Henry Longfellow was “significantly” inspired by the success in Australia of Too Darn Hot. Also, his fellow Dubawi son Night Of Thunder, who shuttled just one season in 2016, has eight stakes winners in this country from 65 runners at a superb 12.3 per cent.
“We’re big fans of Too Darn Hot at Rosemont,” McEvoy said. “We have six mares in foal to him – three who we sent to the UK when it was announced that he wasn’t shuttling again, and three who were already there.
“When you compare Henry Longfellow to Too Darn Hot and Night Of Thunder, the similarities are quite extraordinary.
“If you were to stand Too Darn Hot and Night Of Thunder in Australia this season, they’d be among the first to have full books. So to be able to present a horse like Henry Longfellow, who shares those similarities, is unbelievably exciting.
“Plus, if Too Darn Hot was standing here this season, he’d be standing for at least ten times Henry Longfellow’s fee.”
One British stallion already phenomenally proven figures among the headlines of Rosemont’s Premier draft.
Lot 201 is a Frankel colt who’s the second foal of Heavenly Curlin (Curlin), a Grade 3 winner in Canada over 2000 metres who brings one of the great Australian families back to this country. Her second dam is the blue hen Shantha’s Choice (Canny Lad), dam of three Group 1 victors – the breed-shaping Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) plus Platinum Scissors (Danehill) and Manhattan Rain (Encosta De Lago), a brother to this colt’s winning second dam.
“He’s got great size, shape and substance, and doesn’t look like he’d take too long,” McEvoy said. “Frankel is famous for putting great movement in his progeny, and this colt is no different.
“It wouldn’t surprise if he’s an autumn two-year-old, and certainly wouldn’t surprise if he was in those late-season two-year-old stakes races in Queensland.”
McEvoy said the colt was accepted for the Gold Coast and Easter sales, as was Lot 115, a son of Zoustar (Northern Meteor) whose first dam was Caulfield Group 3 victor Crack The Code (I Am Invincible). The colt’s triple stakes-winning second dam threw four stakes winners including WATC Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) heroine Covertly (Metal Storm).
“He’s got all the quality you’d come to expect from Zoustars, with power and substance. He’s medium-sized with a good bit of growth in him, and a great mover with a lot of presence,” McEvoy said.
Among other Rosemont yearlings attracting plenty of looks at Oaklands on Wednesday was Lot 145, a chestnut filly by Written Tycoon (Iglesia) out of Flemington Group 3 sprint winner Divine Quality (Sepoy). The filly’s sister Summer Flame, retained and sent to Chris Waller, won on debut at Mornington last month.
“She’s a medium-sized, racy type. Her mother was a three and four-year-old but this filly looks like she’ll get up and go a bit earlier,” McEvoy said.
Rosemont also offers seven yearlings by their second-season sire Hanseatic including Lot 11, a colt from three-time winner Zoujea (Zoustar), and Lot 337, a son of the triple stakes-placed More Radiant (More Than Ready).
“Hanseatic’s ticking along well,” McEvoy said. “He’s got a couple of stakes horses in Rohesia and Bermondsey, and a lot of trial and jump-out winners lately, so I think he’s in for a good couple of months.”
McEvoy said Premier was a sale Rosemont “really strongly supports”.
“We try to ensure we have a draft here that has a strong resemblance to horses that could have easily gone to Gold Coast or Easter, and the feedback we’ve had this week certainly supports that,” said McEvoy, expecting a healthy sale despite market softness this year.
“I think we have reason to be optimistic. Inglis has put together a really strong catalogue, and vendors have done a really good job selecting which horses are suited to the sale.
“The Classic sale was stronger than some people expected, so we should be optimistic the buyers will be here. Year after year, this sale really delivers.”
So, too, does Rosemont, as illustrated by those $50 million earnings from the $22 million outlay for their past ten Premier drafts.
“The old line is – how do you make a small fortune in racing? Start with a large one,” Mithen told ANZ. “Well, if you start with a small fortune and you buy from Rosemont, then you’re going to make a large one.
“It’s unheard of that you can go to a sale and double your money. I don’t know that any other farm could spruik those figures.
“I think it comes from us focusing on Melbourne the past few years, and taking nice horses there, to make sure we’re a major player at our local sale.”