Are we seeing the passing of the baton? To Exceed And Excel. Or is it too early to say?
All but one of his nine prizemoney earners (including four Group winners) to date have been in Victoria, but this is an aberration due to the EI effect in NSW, which means expect more fireworks to unfold in Sydney this autumn.
Remember Redoute's Choice? Used to be a good sire!
Fine yearling and racehorse that he was, Exceed And Excel does not carry a drop of Australian blood in his veins though, of course, he was bred here and 'proven' under Australian conditions. And he's Northern Dancer 3 x 3 through different sons. Just like Desert King, but two horses more aptitudinally different you couldn't find.
Exceed and Excel was bred by Ananda Krishnan at his Kia Ora Stud soon after he bought the place and set about rejuvenating it back to its former glory. Just last week Kia Ora-bred three-year-olds Acoustical and Playwright won Group races in South Africa and Australia respectively, and from just 11 yearlings of their own breeding offered at last year's sales, two have already won as two-year-olds this season. A force to watch out for. One of Kia Ora's great assets is that it's a big farm deliberately understocked, which gives their developing young horses every chance.
Exceed And Excel's dam Patrona died in 2006 but she has two other young sire sons, Patronise (by Redoute's, therefore three-quarters to E&E) who is at Kia Ora on what you might call an informal basis - though that's sure to change - and Listed winner Enemy Of Average, by FuPeg.
Talking about passing of the baton, Exceed And Excel leads the charge for Darley who are locked in a worldwide battle with Coolmore for bloodstock supremacy. Coolmore will be hoping they have a counterpunch next year in the form of Fastnet Rock. But Darley's resources are such that the pendulum could be about to swing away from the Irish, at least in this part of the world. Sooner or later the avalanche of money must talk.
Today, one of Darley's despised sires Fantastic Light (also the sire of aforementioned Playwright) had a Gr 1 winner in NZ in the form of 3YO Mission Critical who beat a basically weak collection of older horses over 2000m at WFA at Te Rapa.
Mission Critical was bred by Darley and sold on their behalf in New Zealand by Haunui Farm for NZ$75,000 at Karaka 2006.
Darley sold off his dam Trick Taker (USA), by Capote, at last year's Magic Millions Broodmare Sale for just $70,000, in foal to ... you guessed it, Exceed And Excel! Well spotted Paul Willetts, who bought her for Oakland Stud's Neville Stewart (for what will prove a lot less than this year's service fee to E&E), and she produced a filly last September. Trick Taker (USA) is a magnificently-bred mare being out of a Mr Prospector mare out of a Gr 2 winning Northern Dancer daughter of champion Dahlia, by Vaguely Noble.
That's upside with a capital U!!
Bike? Check. Glasses? Check.
Tilly, super cool biker chick.
Melbourne Underbelly?
Looks like it, but actually the Main Man at 'Orange' ... if great coffee, fine food, sumptuous wines, funky atmosphere and fab service are your go, 'Orange' at the Windsor end of Chapel St, Melbourne, is the place. Ask for Anthony and tell him his old man sent you.
SOME RECENT PURCHASES and RECOMMENDATIONS
Thousand Guineas Prelude winner Ortensia, trainer Tony Noonan. Love those nostrils and ears (the filly's).
Fastnet Rock/Rare Insight 2YO colt. Tr J O'Shea
Danzero/Global Dance 2YO colt. Tr G Waterhouse
Canadian 2YO stakeswinner and young broodmare Chelsey's Image (Holy Bull-Lucky Chelsey), in foal to Dylan Thomas (Ire)
Golan/Double Owe 2YO colt, named Double Whisky. Tr C Waller
Redoute's Choice/Volted In 2YO filly. Tr G Waterhouse
Hussonet/Portrayal 2YO filly, named Bolocco Miss. Tr C Waller
Anabaa/Regal Fun 2YO colt. Tr C Waller.
High Chaparral, sire of the Kaapentyne 2YO colt. Tr C Little.
More Than Ready/Rachael's Pride 2YO colt, named Our Corsa. Tr C Waller
Charge Forward/Zerlina 2YO filly, named Passing By. Tr Robert Price
A P Indy's successful sire son Malibu Moon, sire of USA stakeswinner and young broodmare Grant's Moon, booked to Show A Heart.
USA stakeswinner and young broodmare Les Ry Leigh (Broken Vow-Azusa), in foal to Rock Of Gibraltar (Ire)
Hussonet's G1 winning 2YO champion filly La Chiflota
Group winner Rockwood (Rock Of Gibraltar-Foxwood, by Centaine). Tr G Waterhouse
Gr 1 winning mare Absolut Glam (Snowland-Pine Away, by Pine Bluff). Tr D O'Brien.
2 comments:
Exceed and Excel's early results cannot be ignored. They are quite outstanding. But if there is one lesson to be learned from Redoute's Choice it is that we should not get too carried away too early. (I am glad to see you question his perceived dominance). As far as talent goes, I have not seen many racehorses that were as naturally gifted as Redoute's. But I have believed - ever since he achieved a clean sweep of the 2yo races in 2005 with Bradbury's Luck, Stratum and Undoubtedly and his yearling prices went through the roof - that he has been slightly overrated. Please don't misinterpret this statement as meaning I don't believe that he is a high class stallion. I absolutley do. It's just that I don't believe that his service fee of $330,000 is justifiable (I think with the emergence of Exceed and Excel, and to a lesser degree Hussonet, that his fee will increasingly appear uneconomical in years to come in the eyes of breeders). He has produced 35 individual stakes winners but how many of these horses have continued to race at the elite level as 4 and 5yo's?
Redoute's Choice's career thus far has shown him to be an age/sex sire of the highest calibre, i.e. 2YOs, 3YOs, fillies. His relative lack of top level success with his ageing horses is understandable in that light - many of his horses are fully mature at those ages, give their all and have dredged their well empty by four. To date I can think of only a couple which have achieved Group success beyond three, Lotteria and Fast 'n' Famous. Significantly, Lotteria didn't race until three though she showed huge talent in her gallops at two, and Fast 'n' Famous had a couple of outings as a late two-year-old then spent a long time out with a hairline fracture. I had my tongue in my cheek when I made the comment "Remember Redoute's Choice?". He has only five crops of racing age and although he had a quieter year last season (his 'weak' fourth crop) I don't expect to see a dimunition of his sire success this early in his career. I'm sure there is a lot of water to flow under the bridge yet this season, but it is interesting to see E & E throw down the gauntlet in such an emphatic manner. I think many who bred to RC this year (the payers, that is) will sell at nice profits in two-and-a-half years time but if the sire picture evens out somewhat in the intervening period his stud fee can only go one way - down. At this point in time I'd probably prefer to buy one than breed one which I sense to some degree is the way Arrowfield is hoping people go.
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