Swettenham Stud

Very rarely do you read about Swettenham Stud stallions on the variety of websites unless the articles have originated with us. There is an abundance of sponsored and biased articles on breeding sites which the industry must digest, fortunately there is one thing these sites and journalists cannot influence - “winners”. No amount of sponsorship dollars will give your stallion a winner. The result has to be earned and like everyone you take your chance for luck in running; a good barrier; a good ride and reasonable pace in the race.

So when your stallions consistently sit near the top of the stallions lists for individual winners then you can take pride in the fact that they have achieved this feat on their own merits. For the last three years the Nagambie based Swettenham Stud have had their stallions Bianconi (equal 12th 2008-09), Jeune (15th in 2008-09) and Perugino (33rd 2008-09) consistently near the top. Last year Dash For Cash forced his way up there into equal 21st place on the Australian General Sires Premiership by Winners. Interestingly, Jeune is deceased and Perugino a top 10 stallion in 2007-08 has not shuttled back to Australia; so neither stallion has produced any progeny for the last 4 seasons.

What makes a Stud produce winners on such a consistent basis? May I suggest it is genuine stallions at fair fees; that in turn attract genuine breeders including the industry’s critical component the owner/breeder. Hype, fashion, high profile mares, yearling sales prices etc matter for little when confronted by the test of a winning post. The list of stallions at Swettenham Stud is impressive and the future looks appealing to all those that have walked through their gates this season.

The first week of December while no where near the best week for the Stud just reinforces that the Swettenham stallions are consistently producing good city horses.

Perhaps the highlight of the week was the win of the Court of Jewels 3YO filly Adaline on Avondale Cup day in New Zealand. The filly came off a strong maiden win to tackle a Special Conditions 1600m race worth $30,000. Her time was the fastest of three mile races on the day and despite carrying 57.5kgs the 3YO filly easily accounted for her older rivals.  In doing so Adaline ran quicker than the rating 90 1600m race on the same day. This filly is from the St. Covet mare Red Covet and is a full sister to Regally Red a winner and very unlucky Flemington runner up with David Hayes.

The owner Michael Tong deserves full credit for deciding on Court of Jewels for the two successive foals. Michael then branched out to another resident stallion when Red Covet had a Bianconi colt Theadmiralreturns who is now a 2YO. This year she had an absolutely stunning Bianconi colt. She has since been served again by Court of Jewels; which on the back of Adaline’s win now looks like a stroke of genius from Michael who remains a very loyal client of Swettenham Stud.

Hold That Tiger produced three quality winners in the US led by a 2YO colt Magic Tiger who won his second race when taking the 2YO Allowance over 1200m at Aqueduct worth US$43k. Again he settled off the pace and ran at them 3 wide to draw away in solid fashion. Magic Tiger looks likely to step up to stakes company down the track as he gives every indication he will be better suited over further. Hold That Broad is another colt this time a 3YO who won his fourth race in ten starts with a solid performance in the lead over 1300m at Hawthorne in a US$30k Allowance. While on the same day December 4th Letthetigerparty won his Maiden a US$20k at Charles Town over 1800m. Letthetigerparty became Hold That Tiger’s 181’st individual winner and his winners to runners ratio is 59.34%. His stats are absolutely sensational when one considers that his oldest are 4YO in both hemispheres and his two biggest crops in either hemisphere are still yearlings in this current racing season.

Obviously it is hard for a week to go past without Bianconi featuring in any discussions on winners. After weeks of 10 winners and 7 winners in late November he has enjoyed a relatively quiet week by his lofty standards. However, his real result was the win by Starzando in the Rosehill $70k 1800m race on Saturday 5th December. At huge odds this horse finally got a great barrier hence a great run in transit and postilion Josh Parr deserves all the accolades. Recently in town Starzando has been posted on a limb 3 and 4 wide and his efforts to keep trying to the line were not missed by yours truly. One should never underestimate the benefit of a horse winning and getting his confidence back. A trip to the famous Bong Bong races to win their feature Cup, did just this for Starzando and his trainer looked very smug after taking the cricket score odds on offer yesterday.