‘We’re just privileged to have had him’ – Vinery mourn loss of More Than Ready
Former shuttle stallion dies at the age of 25 as one of just six stallions in history to have sired more than 200 stakes winners
More Than Ready (Southern Halo), the longest serving shuttle stallion to have ever set foot on Australian shores, has died aged 25.
The striking bay/brown stallion, described yesterday as a ‘unique character’ by Adam White, bloodstock manager for Vinery Stud, where he shuttled for 19 consecutive seasons, died from old age at WinStar Farm in Kentucky on Friday.
A Grade 1–winner as a racehorse, More Than Ready’s successful track career was by far and away surpassed by his prevailing exploits in both hemispheres at stud, where he is just one of six stallions in history to have sired in excess of 200 individual stakes winners.
Among his 216 stakes winners to date, he has sired 26 individual Group/Grade 1 winners and has developed into one of the most successful and sought–after broodmare stallions across the world.
A total of 12 of those Group 1 winners achieved their feats in Australia and New Zealand, where More Than Ready began shuttle duties in 2001 and sired all measure of top-level horses, from Golden Slipper to Derby winners.
He is the only stallion to be named Champion two-year-old sire in both the US and Australia.
“I don’t know where to start to talk about him, to be honest. I’m frightened I’m going to miss something, there’s just so many accolades and achievements,” a visibly emotional Adam White told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday, on the morning of Vinery hosting their stallion parade for 2022.
“We were very lucky and took him for granted a little bit, in that we worked with him for 19 seasons and we saw him every day.
“But it’s that impact he had on people is what I’ll remember most. To have More Than Ready and for him to do what he did, we’re just privileged to have had him here.”
A US$187,000 yearling, Vinery purchased a stake in More Than Ready just a month before his victory in the King’s Bishop Stakes (Gr 1, 7f) at Saratoga in August 2000, one of seven victories, six at stakes level, from 17 starts.
He began northern hemisphere stud duties in 2001 before shuttling south to Australia later that year, standing for a fee of $22,000 (inc GST), a figure he remained for two seasons, before being dropped to $19,250 and $16,500 in his third and fourth seasons.
However, ever since his first Australian-conceived crop hit the track, his popularity soared.
Within his first crop of two-year-olds he sired a Group 1 winner courtesy of Carry On Cutie’s victory in the ATC Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and equalled the Australian record of six individual first crop two-year-old stakes winners on his way to being named champion first–season sire in 2004.
His first-crop also included a VRC Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) winner in Benecio, who was his first foal born in Australia.
In his fifth season at stud, he stood for a fee of $44,000 (inc GST), a figure from which, aside from a season standing for a private fee in 2015, he never dipped beneath again, commanding a career-high fee of $148,500 (inc GST) in 2009, the year he sired his second consecutive Golden Slipper Stakes winner, with Phelan Ready following on from his most successful sire-son, Sebring.
In 2008 and 2009, he was named champion two-year-old sire in Australia, winning the US equivalent in 2010.
“He’s a sire of sires, an outstanding broodmare sire. From the level he started at, when he first started here, he was a $20,000 service fee stallion, and in year three we were dealing him down to the $10,000 mark, but then they hit the racetrack and it was a very quick upward spiral from there,” White said.
“To do it in the way that he did it was just a testament to the quality of stallion that he was.
“He was an amazing horse and his legacy is going to live on in pedigrees in both hemispheres.”
Among More Than Ready’s other successful southern hemisphere-bred progeny, he has produced eight-time Group 1 winner More Joyous, Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Samaready, Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winner and VRC Derby winner Prized Icon, Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Eagle Way, New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winner More Than Sacred and South African elite-level winners Gimmethegreenlight and Entisaar.
In America, his winners included Breeders’ Cup winners Rushing Fall, Roy H, Uni and Regally Ready.
As a broodmare sire he has 136 stakes winners, 64 bred in the southern hemisphere, with his ability to click with Danehill-line mares a potent asset.
His Group 1 winners as a damsire include Bivouac (Exceed And Excel), Forbidden Love (All Too Hard), Miracles Of Life (Not A Single Doubt), Rebel Dane (California Dane), Wellington (All Too Hard), Celebrity Queen (Redoute’s Choice) and Atlante (Fastnet Rock).
But above his success on the racetrack, White believes More Than Ready will be remembered by those closest to him as a gentle, endearing stallion, who brought joy to all those who encountered him.
“For me the biggest memory that I can have with him is how excited people were to see and meet him. He had so much character, and they were just in awe, so happy to see him,” White said.
“A lot of us have been here for a long time. I started at Vinery in March 2000 and in that very first month was when we bought him as a three-year-old and two months later he won his Group 1, and I just remember the joy. To see him get that Group 1 and know that he was going to come out here and be our stallion, that was great.
“I was just thinking this morning, no one would have booked as many mares into him as I did, and I don’t find that as an acknowledgement to myself, but as a privilege to have done so.
“The show must go on, we’ve got a great stallion roster with some young stallions doing some awesome things at stud. The future is looking great for us.”