Hot Victorian Sires Reverse Trend

A hot crop of new Victorian sires, combined with great race track and sales ring results for Victorian bred horses, has lead to an increase in mares covered by Victorian sires in the 2015 breeding season.

The number of mares covered by Victorian sires in 2015 was 4,801, representing an increase of 1.6% when compared to 2014. This increase reverses the trend of consecutive decreases in recent years.

The Victorian breeding industry's positive result is also in contrast to a national fall of 3.1% including a decrease of 4.8% in New South Wales.

In 2011, Victorian sires were responsibly for 23% of mares covered in Australia. This has now increased to almost 26% in 2015.

TBV President, James O'Brien, said the increase in mares covered by locally based sires was a fantastic result for the Victorian breeding industry.

"This great result is due to the hard work and investment by Victorian broodmare and stallion owners over recent years," Mr O'Brien said.

"It also reflects a positive mood and confidence in the State's industry. And why wouldn't there be with a record $20 million plus available annually through Racing Victoria's VOBIS schemes and another $1.5 million coming in 2019 through the new VOBIS Sires.

"These aspects have come about due to a positive, cooperative approach between State Government, Racing Victoria, owners, trainers and breeders."

Victorian Sires

The Victorian sire which covered the most mares was Chatswood Stud's Reward for Effort (209 mares covered) followed by Woodside Park's Written Tycoon (184 mares).

Victorian 1^stSeason Sires

Victoria's crop of first season sires in 2015 was one of the best ever seen and this was reflected in their popularity. Al Shaqab's UK shuttle sire standing at Swettenham Stud, Toronado, lead the way (174 mares) followed by Darley Victoria's Brazen Beau (139 mares).

A number of high and low profile Victorian sires stood out with percentage increases in their stud duties from 2014 to 2015.

Noor Elaine Farm's Oamaru Force almost doubled the number of mares he covered from 16 to 33. No doubt the flying performance (and value) of VOBIS Gold Rush winner The Big Dance played a part in this success.

Meadow Farm's Delightful Choice (18 mares to 34) and Riverbank Farm's Redente (43 mares to 80) also had significant increases.

Canford Cliffs , the Irish shuttle stallion standing in Victoria at Blue Gum Farm had a breakout first crop of 2-year-olds racing in the Northern Hemisphere during 2015 with multiple stakes winners. This helped increase his book at Blue Gum from 83 mares in 2014 to 136 in 2015.

Also of note was the first appearance of star three-year old sprinting sire Zoustar at Woodside Park (he stands alternative seasons in NSW and Victoria). He covered 156 mares at Woodside, a large proportion of these mares coming from interstate.

The above breeding statistics are sourced from the Australian Stud Book and include all stallion returns to end of December 2015.