Interesting breeding stats

Melbourne Cup winner Fiorente began his new career as a stallion yesterday when the Australasian breeding season began. Fiorente, Dundeel and Zoustar are among the high profile horses starting their Australian stud careers this year. Last year, 637 individual sires across Australia covered 20,060 mares, with more than 13,500 foals expected to be born this spring, a 67 per cent success rate. Basil Nolan, chairman of Thoroughbred Breeders Australia, said the multi-million dollar breeding industry was important to the wider economy. “This is a vitally important industry to Australia, especially in rural areas where these stud farms are based,” Nolan said. “The hundreds of millions generated in stallion fees is only one part of the economic input. There’s also the thousands of people who work in the breeding industry, the agistment fees paid by breeders and, of course, the money spent on buying the horses.” Australia’s most expensive sire, Coolmore Stud’s Fastnet Rock, covered 212 mares at an advertised fee of $275,000 last year. His fee for this year is private but he is expected to cover about 200 mares at around $200,000, generating approximately $40 million for his owners. Arrowfield Stud’s Snitzel covered the most mares in 2013, serving 226 at a fee of $49,500. Of the 21 new sires this season, Zoustar will command the highest price, standing at $44,000 at Widden Stud. Dundeel will stand his first season at Arrowfield for $27,500 while Fiorente will command $17,600 at Eliza Park in Victoria.

Wet weather challenging Waller

Sydney’s recent wet weather has been challenging for all trainers including Chris Waller, who has a big team heading to the spring features. Waller will nominate some of his Gr I stars for races in Sydney and Melbourne on Saturday as insurance against further rain this week. “Foreteller will go to the Dato Tan Chin Nam at Moonee Valley and we will probably nominate Sacred Falls, Hawkspur and Royal Descent as well,” Waller said. “But the latter three are unlikely to go to Melbourne with the Chelmsford Stakes the preferred option. Our Voodoo Prince will be entered for a 1600m race in Melbourne as well as the Chelmsford. It is a balancing act but all the horses are well. Jim Cassidy will be back on Hawkspur in Sydney and Kerrin McEvoy will ride Sacred Falls.” Cassidy has been on an extended holiday since the end of the Brisbane winter carnival and will rejoin the Sydney riding ranks at Canterbury tomorrow. Royal Descent, Sacred Falls and Hawkspur ran second, fourth and fifth respectively in the Warwick Stakes (1400m). The race was won by Gr I winning sprinter and wet track specialist Tiger Tees. New Zealand bred Australian Derby winner Criterion, third in the Warwick Stakes, will also be entered in the Dato Tan and the Chelmsford, both over 1600 metres. But trainer David Payne said he was more likely to stay in Sydney before heading to Melbourne to continue his Cox Plate preparation. The Waller-trained Weary, sixth in the Warwick Stakes, will have another 1400m start on Saturday when he runs in the Tramway Stakes. The winner of the Tramway earns automatic entry to the Gr I Epsom Handicap (1600m) in October. “Vilanova will also go to the Tramway while Whittington runs in the Concorde and Winx in the Ming Dynasty,” Waller said. Winx had two starts as a late two-year-old, winning over 1100 and 1400m.

Cauthen trials well

Cauthen’s win in an 800m jump-out at Flemington last Friday morning provided a strong indication that he was on target to resume his injury-interrupted career. “Very happy with him and he jumped nicely, eased back in behind them then Ollie [Damien Oliver] gave him a little squeeze at the top of the straight and he kicked clear,” Cambridge co-trainer Natalie Young said. “We wanted to give him a good hit-out - he’s still pretty heavy, but Damien was very positive and was happy with him.” Wet tracks at home resulted in the connections of Cauthen switching the entire to the Melbourne camp of Young and training partner, Trent Busuttin. “We got him a couple of weeks ago from Andrew Campbell and he had him in great condition,” Young said. “He came to us looking fantastic and at this stage we think he’s fit enough to go to Moonee Valley on Saturday for the Chandler McLeod [1200m]. It’s probably going to be quite a tough race, but he’s won at Moonee Valley before and the way he’s worked is showing us he should be up there and running a good race.”