Schwarz fee pending as Rosemont unveils its 2025 stallion roster
With a service fee set to be publicly announced after Schwarz’s swansong in the Doomben 10,000 (Gr 1, 1200m) on May 17, Rosemont Stud is currently offering breeders a unique opportunity for a limited number of broodmares to pre-book a date for a private fee with the “best-looking and best-performed son of Zoustar”.
Schwarz, who will bid to add the Doomben 10,000 to the five stakes wins already adorning his CV, is one of two new additions to the stallion roster at Anthony Mithen’s Gnarwarre operation, with fellow Group 1 winner Henry Longfellow (Dubawi) set to touch down on Australian shores later this season to commence his first season in the southern hemisphere.
As one of only two elite–level juvenile winners by Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) to stand in Australia – the other being a certain Too Darn Hot – Henry Longfellow has already attracted serious interest from farms across the country, with Mithen expecting to erect the “fully booked” signs in the not-too-distant future.
That is thanks in no small part to his highly competitive introductory fee of $22,000 (all fees inc. GST), which is less than a tenth of the figure commanded by Darley’s shuttle sensation and places him below long-term resident Shamus Award (Snitzel) in the price pecking order at Rosemont.
Shamus Award will stand in 2025 for a reduced fee of $33,000 (down from $38,500 in 2024), while both Extreme Warrior (Extreme Choice) ($16,500 in 2024) and Doull (Snitzel) ($11,000 in 2024) have also had their fees trimmed slightly to $13,200 and $7,700 respectively. In contrast, Hanseatic (Street Boss) will remain at $16,500 after his first crop achieved some highly respectable results on the track this season.
It is a guessing game how much Schwarz will stand for – his performance at Doomben on May 17 will, to a greater or lesser extent, determine that – but what seems certain is that he possesses the rare combination of head-turning looks and a deep pedigree required to make his way into the upper echelons of Australia’s stallion ranks.
Described by Mithen as “a needle in a haystack”, Schwarz will be well-supported by Rosemont’s broodmare band to ensure that he hits the ground running, while external breeders now have a little over two weeks to present their mares for consideration.
“It’s a bit of a unique circumstance for us to launch a stallion roster without attaching a price to our headline act,” Mithen told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Given that he’s the pre-race favourite to land another Group 1 and all the signs are that he’ll run very well in the Doomben 10,000, we thought it was in our best interests to wait until after the race to officially announce his fee. If he was to retire off the back of two Group 1 wins, it would substantially alter the dynamic of his profile.
“We are going to sell a limited number of nominations prior to the race, and we would encourage breeders to give us a ring because we think they might be pleasantly surprised. If they’re planning on sending their mares to Schwarz regardless of the outcome of the Doomben 10,000, my advice would be to get in touch with us this week.
“I’ve got a rising confidence about his run in that race, and clearly if he were to justify that confidence then his fee would rise accordingly. So it’s a bit of a tricky one for us to promote at this stage, but the horse really promotes himself anyway. He’s a five-time stakes winner, and we would argue that he’s the best-performed and best-looking son of Zoustar ever to go to stud.
“Everyone is looking for a needle in a haystack at the sales, which is the best son of the best stallion, and fortunately we have managed to find that needle in Schwarz. We’ll be competitive with him because we were able to buy him as a yearling rather than as a ready-made stallion prospect, which would obviously have inflated his fee significantly. So it’ll be a real opportunity for breeders, and we’ve already had plenty of inquiries from farms both here in Victoria and in New South Wales.”
Mithen and his fellow members of the Rosemont Alliance teamed up with Suman Hedge Bloodstock and David Redvers Bloodstock to pay $1.25 million for Schwarz from Widden Stud’s draft at the 2022 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
Although that figure might have appeared eye-watering to some – particularly to those existing outside the breeding bubble – the theory went that if such an impeccably bred colt could live up to his potential, it would represent a drop in the ocean compared to his future value as a stallion.
Now that their long-range plan has come to fruition, there would undoubtedly be a temptation amongst his ownership group to cash in and set the bar high – perhaps too high – with his opening service fee. But Mithen insists that he and his partners are determined to resist that temptation, as it would go against their mantra.
“I’ve heard a lot of talk about value but I haven’t really seen much evidence of it so far in the fees that have been released,” he said.
“Now some of that is circumstantial, because some of the more established stallions don’t have many nominations available to outside breeders because they’re privately owned. So it comes down to supply and demand and they’re entitled to take advantage of the limited number of bookings available.
“We took the view that although there won’t be a huge number of nominations available, we wanted to offer some value because the whole reason for forming our colts’ syndicate was that we wanted to bring A-grade stallions to Victoria and promote it as a viable alternative to the Hunter Valley. We would therefore be a bit two-faced if we started to bleed the stone and get too greedy with broodmare owners.
“Some of our partners have argued that he might deserve a stronger fee, but we wanted to stay true to our approach. Having said that, you would need to present a pretty nice mare for our consideration. Breeders only have a small window of opportunity because May 17 will come round pretty quickly, so hopefully some of them will take up the offer.”
Plenty of people have already taken up the offer of booking their mare for a date with Henry Longfellow, who was produced by arguably Galileo’s (Sadler’s Wells) greatest ever daughter in Minding, the winner of no fewer than seven Group 1 contests.
Henry Longfellow was labelled “a very special colt” by his master trainer Aidan O’Brien after an unbeaten juvenile season which culminated in his effortless victory in the National Stakes (Gr 1, 7f).
While he was unable to add to his Group 1 tally during his three-year-old campaign, his two-year-old feats were more than sufficient for Coolmore to retire him to stud in Ireland, where he is currently serving his first book of mares at a fee of €15,000 (approx. AU$26,660). After reaching an agreement to present him to an Australian audience, Rosemont are hopeful he can follow the same trail blazed by Too Darn Hot.
“We’re probably only a week or so away from closing his book, although it’s a bit of a moving target because we’re monitoring what he’s doing in Ireland before finalising his numbers,” said Mithen.
“So far all the reports have been positive, he’s striking at a good rate and handling his workload well. So any interested parties probably need to move pretty quickly because there may not be much time left to book your mare in.
“He’s an unbelievable get for us, and when I spoke to [Segenhoe Stud’s] Peter O’Brien earlier in the week, he couldn’t stop raving about him after seeing him in Ireland recently. He said he’s got everything you need to succeed out here in Australia, he’s got class and quality in abundance and we can’t wait to get him out here on the farm.
“Hopefully he’ll arrive here in early August so that we can present him as part of our stallion parade. We haven’t yet determined which of our mares we’ll be sending to him, but Tom [Magnier] and I will put our heads together soon and come up with a prospective list of suitable matches from the upcoming broodmare sales in Sydney and on the Gold Coast.”
Rosemont’s general manager of bloodstock, Ryan McEvoy, has been tasked with drawing up a mating plan for Henry Longfellow, with Group 2-winning mare Brooklyn Hustle (Starspangledbanner) floated as one potential match for the high-profile visitor.
“We’re massive supporters of Too Darn Hot, we have six mares currently in foal to him, but he’s now potentially out of reach for a lot of breeders,” McEvoy told ANZ Bloodstock.
“You’ll pay more in GST by sending a mare to Too Darn Hot than you would on Henry Longfellow’s entire service fee, so he’s clearly a much more affordable option and we believe his value is absolutely off the charts.”
Ever the salesman, Mithen is keen to expand on the competitive price point which in many ways was dictated by his current service fee of €15,000 at Coolmore Ireland.
“I jokingly asked MV [Magnier] what on earth he was doing standing the horse of his calibre so cheaply in Europe,” said Mithen.
“We couldn’t really stand him for much more than $20,000 over here, I probably had a figure nearer to $30,000 in my head but our hands were tied to a certain extent during the negotiations with Coolmore after they had set his price in Ireland.
“MV’s theory was that if you make him available at that price, you give breeders a great opportunity to make some money and he becomes the feelgood story of your roster. So we’ve followed his sound advice, and I think a lot of people will be getting a lovely little gift this breeding season.”
Turning to other stallions on their roster, Shamus Award has shown himself to be “one of the most affordable proven stallions on the market,” according to McEvoy.
“Off the back of some quality mares, we’re seeing him produce some really lovely weanlings and yearlings and I do think we’re going to see a real resurgence from him in the next six-to-12 months,” he added.
Thanks chiefly to the exploits of Befuddle, who finished runner-up behind Mcgaw (I Am Immortal) in the $1 million VOBIS Platinum Showdown (1200m), and Lindsay Park’s stakes-placed filly Rohesia, Hanseatic sits comfortably inside the top ten of the first season sires’ premiership.
That, allied to some impressive results in the sales ring, gives the team at Rosemont every reason to believe that the future is bright for a horse once described by Anthony Freedman as his “best two-year-old since Alinghi”.
“He’s going sneaky well,” said Mithen.
“He’s covered 500 mares across the course of his first three seasons, which is a big number and gives plenty of upside to the breeders jumping in this year. His yearlings last year sold up to $375,000 and this year a couple sold for more than $200,000, so the buyers like what they see.
“We’ve seen enough from his two-year-olds to know that he can produce some very fast horses, and I’m sure once they get even stronger and learn more race craft, they’ll only improve further. There’s a lot of positive talk about him from people whose opinions I respect, and his pedigree – as a close relation to Ole Kirk – will also take him a long way in this game. So we’re very optimistic about his next 12 months.”
Rosemont Stud 2025 roster
2025 2024
Schwarz: TBA (NEW)
Shamus Award: $33,000 ($38,500)
Henry Longfellow: $22,000 (NEW)
Hanseatic: $16,500 ($16,500)
Extreme Warrior: $13,200 ($16,500)
Doull: $7,700 ($11,000)
*All fees inc. GST