Shuttle stallions take flight during turbulent pandemic-induced period
Coolmore and Darley big guns on way ahead of second shipment next week
Planes carrying the first wave of shuttle stallions, including champion sires Exceed And Excel (Danehill) and Fastnet Rock (Danehill), were expected to touch down in Australia early this morning, much to the relief of breeding industry stakeholders, and more are on their way.
Flights from Europe with Coolmore and Darley stallions landed last night and the horses have begun a quarantine period at Donnybrook near Melbourne ahead of being transported to the respective stud farms in Victoria and NSW early next month.
American Pharoah (Pioneerof The Nile), Justify (Scat Daddy) and the Godolphin-owned Astern (Medaglia d’Oro), Frosted (Tapit) and Street Boss (Street Cry) are aboard flights from the US which are scheduled to arrive in Australia later today.
Spendthrift Australia’s Omaha Beach (War Front) and Vino Rosso (Curlin) are also in the air on their way from the US to start their maiden southern hemisphere seasons at stud.
Darley’s first season shuttlers Blue Point (Shamardal) and Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) have landed while Exceed And Excel, Harry Angel (Dark Angel) and Territories (Invincible Spirit) have returned for another southern hemisphere season.
Coolmore’s new sires Magna Grecia (Invincible Spirit) and Calyx (Kingman) were joined by Churchill (Galileo), Fastnet Rock and Saxon Warrior (Deep Impact) on the flight from Ireland.
The Godolphin-chartered flight from Europe was also transporting Belardo (Lope De Vega) and Ribchester (Iffraaj) (Haunui), who will both stand at Haunui Farm in New Zealand this year, while the Coolmore flight had Rosemont Stud’s Starspangledbanner (Choisir) and Swettenham Stud’s Highland Reel (Galileo) on board.
Darley head of sales Alastair Pulford was relieved that the organisation’s international stallions had arrived in Australia as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rattle the world.
“Horses are fine to travel and it’s just managing the movement of people around that and that was always going to be the issue,” Pulford told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“There’s plenty of competent people who have been at the helm managing that from within our own transport company and also at IRT. You are very happy when they get here safe and sound but we were always confident that it was going to happen.
“Any talk of them not coming was only talk and talk by people who weren’t in the know.”
Spendthrift Australia general manager Garry Cuddy is grateful that the two US sires, the best-credentialled shuttlers to stand at the Victorian stud since opening in 2015, were on their way Down Under even though the lockdown of Melbourne and closure of the state border had made operations challenging.
“It’s obviously very difficult with all that’s going on (with the pandemic),” Cuddy said.
“But it’s the other minor factors that are making it tough for us and that is us missing out on seeing your clientele at the Melbourne Gold sales and the Great Southern Sale.
“There’s also running the gauntlet about what to do with stallion parades and those types of things? It’s definitely not ideal, but as you do with everything, you just roll with the punches and hope come December that we are looking back on a successful season and away we go.”
Pulford said Darley’s mare booking numbers were holding up remarkably well, but conceded the number of mares covered industry-wide would fall in 2020.
“Our overall numbers are tracking almost exactly the same as last year, but we do anticipate that there will be fewer mares bred in Australia this year than in previous years,” he said.
“You can’t imagine that that won’t be the case, but certainly the top-end of the market has remained very strong and the outlook is still positive.
“The sales have been surprisingly buoyant all the way through and next week at the Magic Millions sale will be telling … Hopefully the market will remain resilient through that and, while racing continues, the industry seems to be in pretty good shape.
“We’ve always said the basis for the industry here is very sound and that has been borne out through this period.”
The first batch of shuttle stallions will be released from quarantine in Victoria on August 4 with the Darley contingent set for a road trip to the Hunter Valley that same day. It will be broken up by a 12-hour stay at Twin Hills Stud at Cootamundra before undertaking the final leg of the journey to Kelvinside.
The two Haunui Farm stallions, Ribchester and Belardo, are booked on a trans-Tasman flight on August 5.
Another flight from the UK carrying the next shipment of stallions – Toronado (High Chaparral), Zoustar (Northern Meteor), Shalaa (Invincible Spirit), Cable Bay (Invincible Spirit), National Defense (Invincible Spirit) and Royal Meeting (Invincible Spirit) – is due to arrive next week. Those stallions will exit quarantine on August 11.
It was confirmed earlier this month that Japanese stallions Al Ain (Deep Impact), who was to stand his first season at Chatswood Stud in Victoria, and the Rich Hill Stud (New Zealand) shuttler Satono Aladdin (Deep Impact) would not be coming this year due to the difficulty in overcoming travel restrictions in place due to Covid-19.