Fiorente To Stand At Stud In Australia
- Tuesday, 05 November 2013 05:29
Andrew Roberts, managing part owner of Melbourne Cup winner Fiorente is keen to see the horse stand at stud in Australia when its racing career is over.
Like the 2010 Cup winner Americain, 2011 winner Dunaden and 2012 winner Green Moon, Fiorente is yet another entire to have collected the world's premier Group 1 staying race. This trend of importing well performed stallions to compete in the Cup seems destined to continue, which will only increase the breeding opportunities for such horses.
Fiorente Fights Off Red Cadeaux
It is not hard to see that with increasing competition from Australian owners forming syndicates to snap up promising European stayers, their price can only increase and with that the attraction of breeding similar horses here will also grow.
Roberts anticipates Fiorente being in demand as a stud proposition and with a family background in breeding and racing horses does not see the Cup winner being gelded any time soon.
His father John Roberts was the founder and Chairman of Multiplex Constructions until his death several years ago. John Roberts was a prolific racehorse owner in Western Australia with perhaps his best horse being Beaux Art which won the Group 1 WA Derby and the Group 2 AJC St Leger in Sydney.
In the press conference after the Melbourne Cup, Gai Waterhouse bemoaned the dearth of staying races in Australia to support the big staying races.
Gai Waterhouse with the Melbourne Cup
However there is now a well established trend involving the creation of larger syndicates which means that the costs of supporting a staying bred horse until it is mature enough to realise its potential are spread over more people.
With 40 people making up the Fiorente syndicate, the costs of racing such a horse are more affordable for each owner. In fact Roberts and his associates have shares in several such horses, including Glencadam Gold which won the Group 1 Metropolitan last Spring.
Fiorente
With Gai now involved in a retail investment scheme with a stated purpose of sourcing and racing international staying horses, the trend seems unstoppable.
Could it be that the days of a Melbourne Cup winner being an unmarketable commercial sire are over?
