Lead Story
Anders defies fee slide with growing stakes momentum
Trevor Marshallsea
ANZ News
He covered 21 mares last year and has had his service fee lowered for the coming spring, but there are few second-season sires faring better than Anders (Not A Single Doubt) at present.
Widden Stud’s low-priced eight-year-old welcomed his third stakes winner - all this season - on Saturday when two-year-old Brave Hustler took Morphettville’s David Coles Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) by 1.5 lengths, remaining unbeaten after claiming a Murray Bridge two-year-old maiden on debut.
And while Anders has taken his time to bear fruit, he’s been making up for it lately - hence Widden are reporting an uptick in early bookings for him this spring.
He’s risen into the top ten on the second-season sires’ table by earnings of late and moved up one spot to ninth thanks to Brave Hustler’s Coles Stakes win.
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But Anders sits equal second by stakes winners, as one of four sires with three of them, and shares second by stakes wins (four) with Darley’s Bivouac (Exceed And Excel). Only that sire's Darley barnmate Ghaiyyath (Dubawi) sits ahead, with five stakes winners of eight black type races.
And on price, dual stakes-winning sprinter Anders is punching well above his weight.
Ghaiyyath is standing for $88,000 (all fees inc GST) this spring, while the other three second-season sires with three stakes winners are Bivouac on $33,000, the late Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), who stood for $385,000 last spring, and Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon), whose fee has risen to $110,000 this year.
Anders will stand for $9,900, down from $13,200 in 2025.
And one rung below him, with two stakes winners this term, is Kia Ora’s Farnan (Not A Single Doubt), with a fee of $77,000.
While his two stakes successes came over 1100 metres at Rosehill in The Rosebud (Listed, 1100m) and San Domenico Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) - with his blistering speed shown in margins of 4.8 lengths and 3.3 lengths - and despite being by a speed sire in Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice), Anders has already shown his versatility through his black type winners.
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The Shane and Cassie Oxlade-trained Brave Hustler appears to fit more into Anders’ expected mould with his two sprinting wins, but the stallion’s other two stakes winners have shone over middle to longer distances.
Anders’ performers are headed by Single Choice, the three-year-old bought by his trainer Matt Cumani and the NZB Ready To Run Sale. The gelding kicked off in orthodox fashion, with his first two wins coming over 1200 and 1300 metres last spring, but he made his stakes breakthrough over 1800 metres in February in Caulfield’s Autumn Classic (Gr 2, 1800m).
That came two weeks after John Blacker’s filly Daytona Diva became Anders’ first black type victor, taking Hobart’s Strutt Stakes (Listed, 2020m).
Single Choice stepped things up even further by winning Caulfield’s Galilee Series Final (Listed, 2400m), and again at the top level at his next start when an unlucky fourth in the South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m).
The gelding was beaten 1.3 lengths on a Soft 7 that day when rider Jamie Mott lost position and covered extra territory in seeking better going out wide before the home turn - in hindsight a questionable move. Given the second and third horses stuck close to the rail, Anders could well have a Group 1 winner by now if Single Choice and Mott had stayed where they were.
Still, Single Choice looks likely to have a chance to atone for that defeat in the Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) at Eagle Farm on May 30. Success there, alongside a likely Brisbane carnival mission for Brave Hustler, would indeed end the second season on a huge high for Anders, who’s achieving a good deal more than might be suggested by his 2025 book of mares and 2026 service fee - not to mention his background in speed.
“He’s tracking along nicely and building a good bit of momentum, and he presents as a great value option really,” Widden Stud owner Antony Thompson told ANZ News.
“He’s got three stakes winners now so he’s going pretty well for this season. He had a nice winner in Hong Kong on Saturday night, and he’s had a couple in New Zealand as well.
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“It’s early days but it’s great to be getting stakes winners and stakes horses, and horses who are doing the job.”
Anders now has three stakes winners in Australia from 92 runners at a fair 3.7 per cent, just below the widely-applied minimum pass mark of 4 per cent, and five stakes horses overall from 104 starters.
He had two representatives in the David Coles Stakes in Brave Hustler and Vandaross, who’s Group 3-placed.
In New Zealand, Anders has three winners from only six runners, including the twice-Group placed two-year-old Parfait Dimanche, while Effortless Win became his first Hong Kong victor on Saturday amid two runners in the territory.
His winners are almost evenly split along gender lines, with 19 males and 17 fillies.
And he’s built momentum after a quiet initial campaign with runners in 2024-25, when he finished 14th among first-season sires with seven winners from 31 starters.
“You never really know what to expect, but he’s a horse who really excelled as a three-year-old,” said Thompson, tipping a fuller book for Anders this spring.
“But now with Anders, it’s certainly happening. Like Not A Single Doubt, a lot of these stallions come into their own with a little bit of time and a few books under their belt
“It’s a competitive market. A lot of people sit and wait and see on first and second-season sires, and wait for it to happen.
“But now with Anders, it’s certainly happening. Like Not A Single Doubt, a lot of these stallions come into their own with a little bit of time and a few books under their belt.”
Widden signed Anders up keen to exploit some Not A Single Doubt blood - that which was represented nearby at Newgate Farm in fairly stunning fashion by the sensational but sub-fertile Extreme Choice.
“Your hopes and expectations when you sign stallions up are that they’ll be good sires. Anders was a fairly electric racehorse and he showed plenty. And with the job Not A Single Doubt has done, and his sons are doing, I guess that’s something you want to tap into. That was a large part of our motivation.
“Not A Single Doubt has a pretty handy one in Extreme Choice. That’s the sort of horse you’re obviously hoping to emulate - albeit with a bit more fertility, which Anders certainly does have. We’re not there yet of course, but with some nice stakes winners coming it’s nice to see him doing the job.”
Anders was well patronised at first with books of 184 and 169 mares at his starting fee of $16,500. He then covered 91 and 98 mares in 2023 and 2024 - the latter of which featured an 81.2 per cent fertility rate - before the market sat back and waited after his relatively quiet first season of runners, with just 21 mares covered in 2025.
Thompson, however, is anticipating considerably more interest this year in Anders, whose third crop of yearlings averaged $76,000 through 14 sold this year, compared to $41,600 from 45 sold in 2025.
“He’s gathering momentum. We’ve had a fair few enquiries for him this spring, and I definitely think people will see him as a good value stallion,” he said.
“For people looking for a good looking, fast horse who’s not too big, I think he’s a great choice in the value hole.”
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As for the stamina of a couple of Anders’ stakes winners, Thompson was - pleasantly - as surprised as anyone.
“To get a 2400-metre winner in Single Choice, who’s out of a Sebring mare who’s out of an Anabaa mare, we probably didn’t expect to see Matt Cumani produce a horse like that,” said Thompson, noting some stamina in Single Choice’s female line.
“But it does show the stallion can have some versatility when put to different mares.”
Cumani - quickly locked in as an Anders fan who bought another of the stallion’s sons at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale this year for $200,000 - agrees.
“He’s starting to show a bit, and when he’s showing versatility like that, you’d think that if he gets better quality mares he’ll do better as well,” said Cumani, who’s green-lighting a Queensland Derby tilt for Single Choice at this point.
“At the moment we’re definitely aiming for it. He seems to have come through the SA derby really well, so we’ll make plans to get him to Brisbane.”
