‘If we can’t get the old man, let’s go for Vandeek’ – Arrowfield’s bold new sprint bet
John Messara is a byword of Australian breeding, a man who founded Arrowfield Stud in the 1980s and built it into not only one of the thoroughbred powerhouses of the famed Hunter Valley, but this nation and indeed the world.
His reputation on stallions is unsurpassed, with the now 78-year-old having brought Danehill (Danzig) to Australia along with other highly successful imports in the South American Hussonet (Mr Prospector) and Japan’s Maurice (Screen Hero), while also standing local legends including Redoute’s Choice (Danehill), Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) and, more lately, The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice).
So when Messara – an Egyptian-born 1950s immigrant of Greek descent, who parlayed his stockbroking business into the horse world – talks stallions, it’s best to listen.
His latest play in the foreign stallion market is Vandeek (Havana Grey), who’s begun serving his first book at Arrowfield for AU$22,000 (inc GST). He shuttles on arrangement from Cheveley Park.
Vandeek, Messara says, fitted both the Australian profile and Arrowfield’s needs.
Bred in Wales by Maywood Stud, the flashy son of the sensational Havana Grey (Havana Gold) was a runaway success as a two-year-old, unbeaten in four starts capped by back-to-back elite six furlong successes in Deauville’s Prix Morny (Gr 1, 1200m) and Newmarket’s Middle Park Stakes (Gr 1, 6f).
Gallant third placings at three over six furlongs in Haydock’s Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes and against older horses in Newmarket’s Group 1 July Cup followed.
Vandeek has already proven hugely popular in Australia, with his book full at a capped 150 mares even before southern breeders could clap eyes on him at Arrowfield’s Open Day, a week before breeding kicked off on September 1.
There were some hitches and changes of tack before it happened, but Messara was finally delighted when Arrowfield secured the four-year-old as one of six stallions to be standing there this spring.
The chase was precipitated by one near inevitability. The great Snitzel had been four times Australian champion sire – uninterrupted from 2017-20 – and has been crowned its leading two-year-old sire five times from to 2017 to the most recent season that finished on July 31.
But the son of Redoute’s Choice (by that nine-time Australian Champion sire Danehill) was growing long in the tooth, and his increasing health problems would eventually lead to him being euthanised three months ago, aged 23.
Arrowfield’s other stallions promised much in the way of class and stamina but were perhaps short on precocity, including Maurice – a six-time elite-level winner from a mile to ten furlongs – and The Autumn Sun, whose five elite victories comprised one at seven furlongs, three at a mile, and one at ten furlongs.
As any self-respecting Australian stud would, Arrowfield made enquiries about Havana Grey himself, who’d scorched up the stud charts as Europe’s champion first, second and third-season sire, from 2022-24. Unsurprisingly for a stallion this hot, Whitsbury Manor Stud wasn’t inclined to send him to Australia.
Arrowfield looked a generation lower – to Vandeek – and to their considerable excitement, discovered a chance had arisen to buy into the new sire, with a stake Messara recalls as around 25 per cent being put up for tender.
“We thought he was the best son of Havana Grey, and if we can’t get the old man, let’s go for Vandeek,” Messara said.
“He was a champion sprinter, and with a nice pedigree. And, while we’ve got stallions who would get a two-year-old, we didn’t really have an obvious, or a specialist, two-year-old getter, with Snitzel starting to look like he might be on the way out.
“We thought Vandeek would fit well into our roster.”
Aside from his two-year-old racing record being suited to Australia’s near obsession with that caper, Vandeek’s pedigree contained a major lure for the country’s market.
Vandeek’s dam Mosa Mine (Exceed And Excel) is out of Baldemosa (Lead On Time), whose half-sister, French Group 1 winner Balbonella (Gay Mecene), is the dam of champion sprinter and leading dual hemisphere sire Anabaa (Danzig) (as well as French 1,000 Guineas Group 1 winner Always Loyal).
Anabaa, by Danehill’s sire Danzig (Northern Dancer), enjoyed much success in 11 seasons of shuttling to Australia, siring 30 stakes winners at 7.1 per cent of runners, with seven Group 1 victors in Australia and New Zealand.
“Having Anabaa in the third dam was another attraction,” Messara said. “He’d been a really good stallion in Australia over the years.
“Plus, I always get a bit of comfort by seeing a stallion in the family, when I’m looking for stallions. It shows the pre-potency of the family.”
Another enticement was the cross that produced Vandeek – by a Galileo (Sadler’s Wells)-line stallion out of a Danehill-line mare in Mosa Mine, who packs a highly successful Australian flavour.
She’s by a son of Danehill in Exceed And Excel, Australia’s champion sire of 2013, an enduring shutter to Britain and Ireland over many seasons, and now a successful broodmare sire.
And Mosa Mine is now the producer of two stakes winners from six (all winning) runners. Gstaad – son of Australian shuttler Starspangledbanner (Choisir) – this year joined Vandeek as a black-type winner by taking the Coventry Stakes (Gr 2, 6f) at Royal Ascot, before Group 1 seconds in Deauville’s Prix Morny and Curragh’s National Stakes (Gr 1, 7f).
That cross was attractive to Arrowfield as it reversed that of The Autumn Sun, who’s by a Danehill sire (the aforementioned Redoute’s Choice) out of a Galileo mare. Again, The Autumn Sun hasn’t set the two-year-old world alight – his three elite winners have been Oaks and Derby horses – but you can’t deny quality.
And so Arrowfield moved to buy that stake in Vandeek that would hopefully help them secure him as a shuttler.
And they missed.
Fortunately, an old friend hit.
“The farm that won the tender was Cheveley Park, and one of our favourite people runs it in Chris Richardson, an old friend from way back,” Messara said.
An approach would be made to have Vandeek shuttle. But before that, Messara’s right-hand man, Arrowfield’s bloodstock manager Jon Freyer, was dispatched to Newmarket.
“We’d seen videos and photos of course, but there’s no substitute for having an in-person look,” Messara said.
“I have a lot of faith in Chris as a judge, but when you’re going to stick your neck out and recommend a stallion to clients, and when we’re going to send 30 or 40 of your own mares to a stallion, you have to do your due diligence.
“We heavily support our stallions. We don’t ask others to support them if we don’t support them.
“Jon had a look and said to me: ‘You’re gonna love him. He’s good looking, well-balanced, is a lovely horse with a deep grey colour, and has athleticism beyond doubt’.”
Negotiations unfolded and Vandeek arrived in Australia on July 17, armed with a ballistic fertility rate from his first season in Britain exceeding 90 per cent.
One aspect of Vandeek’s pedigree catching the eye is that he carries double Danehill, at 5f x 3m. Through the top line, he’s the damsire of Havana Grey’s grandsire Teofilo (Galileo), while, as mentioned, he’s the sire of Mosa Mine’s father, Exceed And Excel.
This is interesting since merely doubling Danehill can be a tricky business, and so many Australian broodmares have the great stallion somewhere in their pedigree, meaning triplications will likely ensue. (At one point a few years ago, a study found 55 per cent of all Australian thoroughbreds carried Danehill).
But at least Vandeek has statistically the best way of doubling Danehill – gender-balanced, with two sons being the worst. Mercifully, three sons won’t be happening in matings with Vandeek.
Furthermore, Danehill’s influence, and potential pitfalls of repetition, are these days being diluted as we all grow older and he recedes deeper into pedigrees – in Vandeek’s sireline’s case, into the fifth remove.
“That’s a fair way back, so it shouldn’t be an issue,” Messara said. “Plus some of the best mares in Australia are daughters of Danehill-line stallions.”
All told, Messara said, Vandeek “ticked all the boxes for us”.
“I think he’s a horse who suits our local conditions,” he said. “If I didn’t think that, I wouldn’t have chased him.
“He’s good looking, sound looking, a very classy-looking individual. He’s athletic and was an early goer.
“And at his price he’s great value, and the market has franked that now. He’s filled up completely, with 150 mares.”
Messara says definitively that’s “the maximum we’re going to take”, before pausing for a moment and adding: “Oh, I might get down on bended knee and see if they’ll give me another ten.”