Momentum builds for Alabama Express

With a fresh stakes winner, the fifth from his first crop, and a huge boost in numbers among his rising two-year-old crop, Alabama Express (Redoute’s Choice) has been tipped by Yulong to launch into his first Hunter Valley season in irrepressible style in the coming spring.

The nine-year-old’s black type resume increased on Saturday when the James Healey-trained mare Arabian Rose – a four-year-old from her sire’s first crop – claimed the Glasshouse Handicap (Listed, 1400m) at the Sunshine Coast.

It gave Alabama Express seven stakes winners worldwide from 138 runners at over 5 per cent, amid a robust 80 winners. It also gave him four Australian black type victors for the season which, among the nation’s third-season sires, is bettered only by the eight of Too Darn Hot (Dubawi). 

Alabama Express sits third by earnings on that table, behind leader Too Darn Hot and his Darley teammate Blue Point (Shamardal), while among the many sons of Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) currently at stud, he’s outshone only by the runaway success that is The Autumn Sun.

The Orr Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m)-winning Alabama Express will have his largest crop to date hitting the tracks in the new season, and the clamour for his stock was reflected in the fact he recorded his top ten yearling sale prices earlier this year, including his all-time best of NZ$850,000 for a colt at Karaka.

And with Alabama Express set to lure better quality mares this spring as he switches from Yulong’s Victorian base to head up the roster at its newly-acquired Segenhoe property in the Hunter – at an unchanged $66,000 (inc GST) – the green and white army are preparing to see their young stallion rise to new heights on the Australian breeding scene in the near future.

“We’re very excited for him,” Yulong’s sales and nominations manager Harry King told ANZ News.

“Saturday’s result with Arabian Rose is another example of what Alabama Express can continue to do in producing top horses that are competing at the highest level of stakes quality.

“We’re thrilled with the support we’ve had from the breeders in the Hunter but also the Victorian breeders who are still sending mares to him. They’ve noted a bit of value in our roster in the Hunter.

“And he’s positioned very positively when you look at the numbers of bookings we’ve found taking him up there.”

Alabama Express’s most prominent progeny have been females, led by two first-croppers in last season’s Champion Australian 3YO Filly, the four-time Group 1 winner Treasurethe Moment, and New Zealand’s four-time black type winner, the thrice Group 1-placed Alabama Lass. Poster Girl hasn’t won a stakes race but is a Magic Millions day winner who’s earned $1.4 million.

But the stallion’s stakes winners were evenly split by gender at 3-3 before Arabian Rose nudged the daughters ahead on Saturday.

The boys have been led by exciting rising three-year-old colt Alibaba, who won the Blue Diamond Preview (Listed, 1000m) in the autumn, and emerging rising four-year-old entire McWoody, who claimed Morphettville’s Port Adelaide Guineas (Listed, 1800m) in April.

Overall, Alabama Express has had 38 male winners from 66 runners (57.6 per cent), and 42 female victors from 72 runners (58.3 per cent).

“Saturday’s stakes winner was a mare, but we’ve seen the success Alabama Express has had with his two-year-old colts as well,” King said.

“At times, there can be a perception his fillies are outperforming his colts, but when you actually pull it apart his colts are keeping up with his females.

“The consistency between his stats – male or female – is becoming pretty difficult to ignore now.”

King expects the Ken and Kasey Keys-trained Alibaba to show up as one of Alabama Express’s leading lights this spring, in what he’s anticipating will be a bumper season for the stallion – racing and breeding.

Alabama Express sired 116 foals in his debut crop before a distinct drop-off to 72 and 58 in the following two seasons. But after strong patronage following the response to his initial yearlings and early runners, he left 138 live foals in the crop that turns two in four weeks.

“We’re now going through the back end of his lesser-numbered stock. From now on, it’s pretty scary but we’ll see some very high quality horses coming out of those crops that are yet to run,” King said.

“If you look at what’s rising two now, this spring will be where he’s really taking off.

“And his two-year-olds have proven they can compete at the highest level. Alibaba is probably bred to be a three-year-old, and a high-quality one, so to do what he’s done at two is a very high achievement for him.

“He’s a horse that’s got exceptionally potent bloodlines that will take him into that three-year-old career. He did need to mature a bit, not mentally but physically, so to see him come back in the spring, I’ll be really excited to see him put his hand up.

“And Alabama Express’s rising four- and five-year-olds, they’re showing they can continue to race on into their latter years but also be competitive at the start.”

Alabama Express’ stakes winners have shown the versatility of his sire, Redoute’s Choice’s progeny, in scoring from Alibaba’s 1000 metres to the staying trip of Treasurethe Moment’s VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m).

But King says they’ve also been stamped by their soundness – attributes which helped his yearlings average $181,412 this year – off his 2023 service fee of $22,000 – which was his fourth straight rise through as many seasons at the sales, and up from $118,447 in 2025.

“He’s leaving high quality horses, very effortless in their walking – which puts them in good stead when they’ve gone into racing,” King said.

“They’re athletic, not overly heavy horses, which is probably what’s kept a lot of them sound as well. As we see his four-year-olds race, and at a competitive level, soundness is a positive of what we’re seeing. Soundness, good minds and good doers are the comments coming back to me from breeders and trainers.

“One in three colts by him this year sold for over $200,000, so there’s a real high demand there.”

The spring bloom forecast by King for Alabama Express will coincide with the stallion’s first season of standing in NSW.

Fertile with a great libido, Alabama Express was Australia’s busiest sire last spring, with the stud book showing he covered 252 mares – ahead of Storm Boy’s (Justify) 227 – after serving 242 in 2024. Yulong expects that sort of patronage to continue in the nation’s breeding heartland, a move King says was a natural progression.

“When we secured Segenhoe Stud, there was a lot of support coming for Alabama Express, and he was always a horse that people were asking to have in the Hunter,” he said. “There was immense support coming for him from there, so it was a natural evolution for him to go up there.

“When horses have a big two-year-old crop like he did, people really did launch into him. This year, interest has been exceptional. He’s always had a relatively full book going into every breeding season for the last three years.

“This year is no different. In fact, going up to the Hunter Valley, it’s actually amplified him.

“We kept him at the same service fee [$66,000] because breeders did see good value in it and the bookings have reflected that.

“Victorian breeders will still be sending their mares up to him. That support has remained. It’s a great story for him and similar to Lucky Vega and the other sires we’re taking up there.

“Victoria has been a big part of Alabama Express’s story, and to see him now be a very competitive stallion in the Hunter Valley will be the next chapter in his story, and it’s one we’re looking forward to seeing.”

While Yulong has built legions of breeding stock to put to their stallions, King said last season’s hefty book of 252 “very high quality” mares reflected the immense outside demand for Alabama Express.

“Of course we do support them [Yulong stallions] heavily, but the exceptional external support for Alabama Express since those early runners and since his sales results have increased, has been very gratifying,” he said.

“Everyone’s got behind him and there’s a real positivity with what he’s achieving on the track and in the sale ring.”