Widden announce opening fee of $35,000 for dual Group 1 winner Southport Tycoon
Widden Stud are hopeful that their dual Group 1 winner Southport Tycoon (Written Tycoon) can follow in the footsteps of his father after announcing on Thursday that the recently retired four-year-old will stand at an opening fee of $35,000 (plus GST) when commencing stud duties later this year.
Champion sire in the 2020-21 season and last season’s leading sire of two-year-olds, Yulong’s Written Tycoon (Iglesia) has made a name for himself in the Australian stallion ranks, chalking up 72 individual stakes winners from 1,253 starters since having his first runners in the 2010-11 season, with 47 of those winners at Group level, including 17 at the elite level.
One of those 17 Group 1 winners is Widden’s Southport Tycoon, whom the stud owns in partnership with numerous others including Bennett Racing, in whose colours he races, Qatar Bloodstock and Australian Bloodstock.
Beginning his racing career with a brace of wins at Geelong and Sandown-Hillside, Southport Tycoon then tried his hand in a quartet of Group-race events but narrowly fell short as runner-up on three of those outings, incredibly being beaten less than a half-length accumulatively in that trio of second-placed runs.
However, the Ciaron Maher trainee’s luck changed dramatically when he ran out a dominant winner of the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m), defeating old rival Veight (Grunt) – who had beaten him previously in the Australia Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) – by 1.3 lengths as a $19 chance under Jamie Kah (now Melham).
Returning as a four-year-old, Southport Tycoon had new part-owners with both Widden and Australian Bloodstock deciding to buy into the colt, and how timely a move it would prove.
Sent off a $21 chance when second-up for his preparation in the Manikato Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), just his third-ever start at 1200 metres, Southport Tycoon fully secured his future career at stud with a last-gasp victory over stablemate Growing Empire (Zoustar) under Mark Zahra.
“He was an elite racehorse, and Ciaron Maher and Mark Zarha back that up, they’re really effusive when they talk about the horse, from Ciaron and his team working with him and Mark riding him, they’ve all been so positive on everything they’ve had to say about him,” Widden Stud’s Antony Thompson told ANZ Bloodstock News.
Maher trained Southport Tycoon for all 15 of his career starts, which yielded four wins and a further four placings and $2,447,100 in prize-money, and was full of praise for the two-time Group 1 winner who he described as: “An imposing colt with an explosive turn of foot. He is typical of Written Tycoon.
“Southport Tycoon’s data was off the charts, possessing a stride length and speed profile that’s only exhibited by exceptional horses.
“He’s just an elite athlete, with a fantastic temperament and incredible recovery powers that made him a dream to train. His adaptability was highlighted when we had to debate whether to run in the Newmarket or the Guineas, as he would have won either!”
Thompson confirmed on Thursday that Southport Tycoon will stand at Widden’s stud in Victoria, the state where he enjoyed his best achievements on the track.
“Southport Tycoon is a very successful horse in Victoria and has very memorable victories at Flemington and Mooney Valley at Group 1 level and some of his other peak performances have been in Victoria,” Thompson said.
“So he will be very well known to the breeders and the public in general down here and it’s certainly, I think, a great boost to the Victorian industry as a whole.
“Written Tycoon has been the stalwart of the Victorian industry for many years and being a champion sire from Victoria, the industry down here has been very proud of his achievements, and he’s been a massive part of the industry generally. So as now he’s private, and there’s no access for breeders to him, it’s the right time to hand over the baton to arguably his best son, and a dual Group 1-winning son.”
As well as Southport Tycoon resonating with breeders in Victoria, Thompson feels that an introductory fee of $35,000, $38,500 when including the GST, is one that provides all breeders with ‘incredible value’.
“He is incredible value,” Thompson said. “That’s certainly a fabulous introductory fee and it’s a fee we will be able to maintain down here until he gets runners.
“I think being mindful of the pressure on stallions in their second and third season, you have to sort of bring them in at a slightly lower fee so they can maintain it. It gives you an opportunity to attract the best mares to him and for him to be very popular.”
Alongside his Group 1 wins on the track, Southport Tycoon is also a very attractive stallion prospect for Australian breeders via his pedigree, being from a hugely successful US bloodline and also being Danehill (Danzig)-line free.
The famous line starts with Southport Tycoon’s fifth dam, Priceless Gem (Hail To Reason). Born in 1963, she won two stakes races in the US, including the (subsequent Grade 1) Futurity Stakes (6f), before becoming the dam of champion mare Allez France (Sea Bird), who won a total of 11 stakes races in France – eight of them Group 1s, including the 1974 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr 1, 2400m).
Put to another Futurity Stakes winner – the legendary Secretariat (Bold Ruler) – in 1975, Priceless Gem threw Lady Winborne, the dam of no fewer than five stakes winners, headed by her colt Al Mamoon (Believe It), winner of seven stakes races, including a Grade 1.
Lady Winborne also threw Lady Lady (Little Current), dam of one stakes winner and the winning mare Lady In Power (Defensive Play), with the latter herself being the dam of one stakes winner, the Grade 1-placed Grace And Power (More Than Ready).
Grace And Power was brought to Australia and proved a big hit in the breeding shed, throwing Delectation (Shamardal), winner of the Darley Classic (Gr 1, 1200m) and the Royal Sovereign Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), and second in the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
The mare is also the dam of the unraced Gracie’s Lass (Redoute’s Choice), herself the dam of Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and Canterbury Stakes (Gr 1, 1300m) hero Artorius (Flying Artie), and is a sister to Southport Tycoon’s dam Ready To Rule.
“He is a horse that ticks all the boxes. He has a very good pedigree, a great depth of pedigree,” Thompson said.
“He’s a horse that’s going to work very well with the Danehill-line mares being free of Danehill, and Written Tycoon’s have clicked beautifully there as we have seen the one season he did at Arrowfield. He’s had so much success off Snitzel mares, Fastnet Rock, Redoute’s Choice and Not A Single Doubt. So, he’s a horse that I think anyone who studies pedigrees will be really excited by.
“I think he’s going to be a very popular and commercial horse as well. He is a nice imposing type of horse, very much in the Written Tycoon mould. He even reminds me of a bit of Marscay to look at and he sort of carries Marscay through that sire line.
“So he has that great presence about him and strength, he’s a horse that I’m sure there’s lots of things to like about him and lots of genuine reasons to breed to him.”