FROM STUD AND STABLE Eight First Crops Among Sale Entries

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30312, 12 December 1963, Page 4

FROM STUD AND STABLE Eight First Crops Among Sale Entries

Eight sires will be represented for the first time at the New Zealand National Sales of thoroughbred yearlings at Trentham in January.

They are Agricola, Alcimedes, Comte deGrasse, Ismone, Macquario, Pharamond, Rousseau’s Dream and Stunning. All are importations. Agricola, Alcimedes, Macquario and Stunning were bred in England. Comte deGrasse was bred in the United States, Ismone in Italy, Pharamond in France, and Rousseau’s Dream in Ireland.

The syndicated Agricola, which stands with Sabaean at the Te Parae Stud, Masterton, is a son of Precipitation and the Hyperion mare Aurora, the dam also of the champion sire, Alyddon. Agricola will be represented by seven colts and four fillies from various drafts at the sales. The Te Parae Stud draft will include three colts and a filly by Agricola. The star attraction will be his colt out of Sunbride, the dam of Straight Draw and Ilumquh. This youngster will be offered on the second day of the sales.

The first crop of Alcimedes will comprise 12 colts and 10 fillies. These youngsters will be offered on behalf of the Trelawney Stud, Cambridge, and various other vendors.

The other Trelawney Stud sire, Rousseau’s Dream, will be represented at the sales by four colts and three fillies. Alcimedes is from the same family as the champion sires, Fairway and Pharos. He is by Alycidon from Honey Hill, a Panorama mare.

Rousseau’s Dream is by a Derby winner and is a halfbrother to another Derby winner. He is the only son of the champion stayer, Tulyar, in New Zealand. He is out of the Precipitation mare Skylarking, whose other progeny incluaed Larkspur. Largest Draft The largest draft at the sales will be 13 colts and three fillies from Mr W. Fisher’s Ra Ora Stud, Auckland. Ten of the offering—nine colts and a filly—are by the French-bred sire Pharamond. Another Pharamond colt and seven fillies will be offered on behalf of other vendors. Pharamond is by the French Derby winner Sicambre, out of Rain (by Fair Trial). He was a winner of more than £ 14,000 in stakes and was rated the second best colt on the French Two-year-old Free Handicap in 1959. The draft from the Santa Rosa Stud, Longburn, is comprised of seven colts and four fillies by Macquario, a son of Precipitation and White River (by Fair Copy). Macquario is out of a halfsister to Even Star, an Irish One Thousand Guineas winner, and is descended from Marchetta like the champion sires Alycidon, Amiobix and Sayani. Pharamond is also descended from Marchetta. Comte deGrasse The American-bred Comte deGrasse, which is now standing in the South Island at Hambletonian Farm, Amber-

ley, has 14 colts and five fillies in the sale. Eight of these —six colts and two fillies—are from Mr N. J. Taylor's Terraton Stud draft.

Comte deGrasse, which has already sired a number of winners in the United States —including Count deßlanc (Arkansas Derby)—is the only son of Count Fleet, a Kentucky Derby winner and champion sire in the United States in 1951, in New Zealand or Australia. He is out of the Beau Pere mare la Liberte, one of the best American two-year-olds of her year. The first crop of the Italianbred Ismone, which stands at the Te Rapa Stud, comprises two colts and four fillies. Three of these—a colt and two fillies—are in the Ra Ora Stud draft.

Ismone, which was rated second to the champion Braque in the 1957 Italian Three-year-old Free Handicap and twelfth —above Ballymoss and Round Table —on McGowan’s World Handicap for three-year-olds, is by Sky High from Indigofera, a mare by the former champion Italian sire, Navarro Stunning, which stands at the Highway Lodge Stud, will be represented by four colts and two fillies at the sales. He is the first son of Stardust, which is also the sire of the brilliant Australian stallion Star Kingdom, to stand at the stud in New Zealand.

Costs Spiralling No-one will be surprised if some very high prices are realised for some of the lots offered at the December sales at Newmarket this year. It has been confidently predicted that another record total is likely to be established. But this does not necessarily mean that breeders will reap vast profits from the sale of stock, wrote Dare Wigan in an article entitled “The Economics of Breeding” in the “Financial Times” early this month.

Sales prices have certainly spiralled in England in postwar years. But so have the costs of producing a yearling fbr the sales.

On the eve of the December sales in 1956, Sir Richard Sykes, controller of the

famous Sledmere Stud, who had obtained 22,500 guineas for six yearlings—an average of 3750 for each lot—pointed out that the costs of raising high-class bloodstock in the previous 10 years had nearly doubled. He assessed that it was impossible to put a class yearling into the ring for less than £2600.

Five years later, Mr C. R. Parsons, of the Sezincote Stud, Gloucestershire, who sold seven yearlings at the September sales for 39,300 guineas—an average of nearly 5615 guineas—made the following statement: “In England, the average weekly earnings of stud workers in 1960-61 nearly trebled compared with 1947; the average cost of service fees to high-class stallions and the cost of keep for mares visiting stallions nearly doubled. The cost of feed more than doubled and incidental expenses, such as transport, went up in the same proportion.” Stud Fee Increases Stud fees have simply “skyrocketed” over the years. Whereas in 1947 it was rare for a breeder to pay as much as £5OO for a nomination — Owen Tudor, winner of the war-time Derby and St. Leger in 1941, and sire of the 1947 2000 Guineas winner Tudor Minstrel, was standing at the Egerton Stud, Newmarket, at 300 guineas. At the same time Precipitation and Persian Gulf were quoted at 400 and 300 guineas respectively. Things are very different today. For instance, a list of available nominations circulated early this month by one of the leading bloodstock agencies offered St. Paddy at £2525, Alcide and Crepello at £2500 each, and Grey Sovereign at £2OOO. Those who felt like taking a chance with Exbury, winner of this year’s Prix de TArc de Triomphe, can send a mare to him next covering season at £3150.

So it is not hard to understand that, because of the high stud fees charged for stallions, it is imperative that commercial breeders receive high prices for the yearlings they have reared if the industry is to remain on a sound financial basis.