Twin Hills Stud release 2025 stallion fees
Twin Hills Stud have released their service fees for the 2025 breeding season, with all but one of their stallions set to retain last season’s fee.
Preparing to stand his third season at the Cootamundra farm, Blue Diamond (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Daumier (Epaulette) heads the roster at an unchanged fee of $16,500 (all fees inc. GST), while proven sires Smart Missile (Fastnet Rock) and Hallowed Crown (Street Sense) will retain fees of $13,200 and $8,800 respectively.
Yet to register his first winner, having had just two starters to date in Australia, first-crop sire Peltzer (So You Think) will stand for $11,000 down from $16,500 in 2024.
“We’ve got four very nice stallions, two proven stallions who have produced Group 1 winners, one of whom has just produced a Group 1 winner in the last two weeks in possibly Australia’s best sprinter Briasa. And then two nice, unproven horses in Daumier and Peltzer,” Twin Hills’ owner Olly Tait told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“We are very proud of the stallions that we stand, you have to be. You have to believe in them and we certainly do.”
Daumier – who scored two black-type victories at two in the royal blue silks of Godolphin – was the only colt of his generation to score at Group 1 level as a juvenile, and is set to have his first weanlings hit the ring at the upcoming Inglis and Magic Millions weanling sales.
“They are very nice horses, they look forward and powerful,” Tait said. “Obviously there is going to be a fair selection of them at the upcoming weanling sales.
“Once they get to the racetrack is when we’re really going to know, but we’re very pleased with what we’ve got at home.
“We’ve obviously got a lot of foals by him on the stud and we’ve got a nice selection going to the sales so it will be interesting to see how the market reacts to him.”
A sire of 27 stakes winners to date including rising-star sprinter and recent TJ Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Briasa, Tait says Smart Missile is ‘incredible value’ for breeders again this season.
“I think he’s the best inexpensive stallion in Australia,” Tait said. “The number of stakes winners he’s had compared to stallions that are far more expensive than him. He’s got an absolute top-class horse in Briasa.
“Briasa is obviously his headline horse, Aviatress is running on Saturday in Adelaide in the Group 1 [Robert Sangster Stakes], she’s a very good filly and he’s had a large number of good horses over the years so he’s incredible value at $13,200.
“He’s a horse who has been very important to our business, we stood him in our second year of operation and he had us going from zero to 100 kilometres an hour fairly quickly, so we’re very grateful for what he’s done for us.”
Peltzer and Hallowed Crown round out the Twin Hills roster for 2025 and Tait believes both stallions are priced to meet the current market.
“He [Peltzer] is still unproven, he’s only had two runners. So you’ve got to try and meet the market and putting him down at $11,000 including GST, we think we’re doing that,” Tait added.
“[Hallowed Crown] a horse that is capable of getting an absolute top liner, Colette was obviously an Oaks winner, Kintyre last season was a top-class three-year-old and is a high-class horse, so he is very well priced at $8,800.”
Twin Hills also announced during the week that after 15 seasons at stud, Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m) winner and sire of 18 individual stakes winners Denman (Lonhro) has been retired from stallion duties.
“He was the most beautiful horse. A capable stallion, but a lovely horse, a real gentleman. He’s a lovely horse to have on the farm and he’d been a good servant to us,” Tait said.
“But it’s nice that he’s going back to Woodlands where he was born to be retired, that seems fitting, so we’ll say a fond goodbye to him but really happy that he’s going to have a good life up at Woodlands.”