Equiano heads roster at Swettenham Stud

Swettenham Stud has announced the service fees for its front-line stallions will remain unchanged this year.

EQUIANO (Fr) heads the roster at $16,500 (inc gst) on the back of an outstanding sale at the Inglis Melbourne Premier in March.

He topped the first-season leader-board at Oaklands Junction with 15 yearlings averaging $105,200. Top price was the $420,000 colt from Hidden Energy that was the highest price ever paid for a yearling by a freshman sire in Victoria.

Equiano was straight out of the blocks with his first English-bred two year-olds when speedy filly Moving Melody won on debut at Newcastle. And his colt Lightning Stride then led home a quinella for the sireline when beating Town Crier (Acclamation) at Leicester on May 19.

“The Melbourne Premier results have sparked an even higher level of interest in Equiano,” Swettenham Stud owner Adam Sangster said. “He’s an exciting stallion for us and for the Victorian industry.”

AMERICAIN (USA) will stand his second southern season for $13,750 (inc gst).

A magnificent stamp of a stallion, he covered 155 mares in his first book at Nagambie before shuttling back to Calumet Farm in Kentucky.

“Americain was a superior stayer with a sensational turn of foot,” Sangster explained. “He’s from the Red Ransom sireline and his damsire Arazi was a Champion 2YO in Europe and North America.”

Sangster believes Americain will be an asset to the Victorian industry with initiatives like the Inglis Blue Riband Sale and VOBIS Gold appealing to breeders of quality middle distance horses.

“There were a significant number of broodmare owners who were unable to secure a nomination to Americain last year,” Sangster continued. “Those who missed out have been proactive and he’s sure to be busy again at the same fee in 2014.”

MASTER OF DESIGN is priced at $12,500 (inc gst) after serving a total of 278 mares in his first two books at that fee.

A splendid physical specimen, Master Of Design was originally purchased for $2.10 million by Sheikh Mohammed at the Inglis Easter yearling sale. He won the Group 1 T J Smith (1200m) at Randwick and the winning time of 1.08.83s has only ever been bettered by Black Caviar!

Master Of Design leads the second wave of Redoute’s Choice sons at stud following Snitzel, Stratum and Not A Single Doubt.

Swettenham has fielded a string of superlatives from outside breeders praising his first foals. And that feedback matches the home-grown product at Nagambie.

Master Of Design’s second-dam Princess Tracy was a Group 3 winner in Swettenham’s silks and her descendents include Champion South African Filly Tracy’s Element, Australian Horse of the Year Typhoon Tracy and the Group winning sires Danasinga, Towkay and Red Element.

HOST (Chi) is remarkable value at $8,800 (inc gst) for a Top 10 stallion on the third-season premiership in Australia.

His first crop have built up a 65% winning strike-rate and heading them is Philippi. He won to Group 2 level at Moonee Valley and Rosehill before finishing second in last year’s Group 1 Australian Derby behind It’s A Dundeel.

He was then sold off-shore and broke through in Hong Kong on Sunday under the new name Vanilla.

Other Hosts include Hosting who won at Sandown and Rosehill and was stakes placed at Caulfield and Flemington before going amiss. Host Of The Party also weighed in with victories in last year’s Darwin Guineas and Northern Territory Derby.

Those spearheads sparked a resurgence in bookings to Host and he has averaged over 100 mares in his last two seasons at Swettenham.

Host is a son of Hussonet and has sired 32 individual winners of 55 races this season for over $1.05 million in prizemoney.

KAPHERO rounds out the roster and he’s also rounding up the winners. He leads Victorian based second-season sires with the winners of 20 races so far this season.

And the Kaphero winners keep winning after they’ve found the line. You Will Be Queen has saluted four times in Perth and Swing With Me has won three of her last four starts for Bendigo trainer Kym Hann.

Pop Hero, Piccolo Miss, Tankster and Stingray are some of his other winners who have doubled up this season.

Kaphero (Danzero) was bred at Swettenham and was a Group 3 winner at Moonee Valley where he was crowned Horse of the Year. He will stand for a $5,500 (inc gst) fee.

Swettenham Stud – 2014 roster

EQUIANO - $16,500

AMERICAIN - $13,750

MASTER OF DESIGN - $12,500

HOST - $8,800

KAPHERO - $5,500

All prices include GST.

“The Swettenham brochure for 2014 will be available in the next few weeks,” Sangster said. “We are always available to speak with broodmare owners about their mating plans and to discuss what deals are available.”

ADAM SANGSTER – (0418 543 633)

CHRIS BELLI (0417 514 552) Sales & Marketing Manager

BRIAN GORMAN (0429 660 266) Stud Manager

TIM JONES (0427 435 445) Assistant Stud Manager