Yulong announces fees: Written Tycoon to stand privately, Pierata $44,000

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

Off the back of another year of purchasing some of the finest broodmares and broodmare prospects at major auctions across the world, the paddocks at Yulong are stacked with quality, and Written Tycoon will once again be exposed to the cream of the crop in 2023.

Having stood for $165,000 (inc GST) last year, the news that the son of Iglesia will be kept private this breeding season comes just two years after he was crowned Champion Sire for the first time, but with the rising 21-year-old entering the twilight of his stallion career, Fairgray has cited age as the driving factor behind the decision.

“This year he is going to be private and we’ll only be taking a handful of outside mares to him,” Fairgray revealed.

“As stallions get older it’s about doing the right thing by the stallion, and he’s getting on in years, so we’re going to look after him.

“We’ll use him ourselves and serve some of our very nice mares to him. He’s been a fantastic stallion here in Australia and if we can keep breeding some nice foals by him then we’ll be thrilled.”

His multiple Group 1-winning Royal Ascot-bound daughter Coolangatta is continuing to fly the flag for him at the very top level, and only two stallions have sired more Australian winners than him so far this season. Despite all that he has achieved in his stud career to date, Fairgray remains optimistic that the best is yet to come from the sire of 12 individual Group 1 winners.

“He has still been churning out the winners, which is something he consistently does, and he’s going to have a bumper 2-year-old crop next season, plus a couple more to follow behind that,” Fairgray added.

“His yearlings are the crop from when he was at Arrowfield, which I’d say on paper was probably the best quality mares that he served in his career. Then with us, he has served a lot of our high-class mares that we have bought, so he’s had some beautiful mares go to him in the last few years.

“Good stallions bounce back and he will. We’re going to see some really nice Written Tycoons on the racetrack in the next couple of years.”

Exceeding expectations

As the farm’s foundation stallion, Grunt (NZ) will always be held in special regard by the Yulong team, something which has made his promising start to life at stud even sweeter than it normally would be.

Standing at a fee of $22,000 (inc GST) in 2023, Grunt is the only stallion on the Yulong roster to have his fee increased this year, and that increase is not without good reason.

From just a handful of runners to date, the G1 Australian Guineas winner has already unearthed a stallion prospect of his own in Veight, who became his sire’s first winner when bursting onto the scene with a 6l maiden win in February, before backing that up with a dominant success in the G2 Sires’ Produce S. at Flemington last month.

The Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained colt looks destined for a big 3-year-old campaign next season, and given the improvement that Grunt himself made from two to three, there is plenty to be excited about as his oldest crop enter their Classic year.

“Grunt was a very good 3-year-old and nobody expected him to have horses up and running early as 2-year-olds, but for him to get a Group 2 winner in Veight, he has started off tremendously well,” Fairgray said.

“He’s going to go up to $22,000 on the basis that he has started very well, and we believe that he is still very good value at that fee. He’s had two placegetters in the last two weeks as well, who have been very promising on their first starts, and the feedback on them has been very strong.

“There’s a couple who have been put away as 2-year-olds to be aimed at the Caulfield Guineas and so forth next season, so that tells you that trainers have high opinions of them.

“He’s a stallion that has been very popular since he went to stud and he’s very fertile, so that all helps.”

With Grunt off to such a promising start at stud, there is growing excitement surrounding the progeny of his Yulong barnmate Alabama Express, who will be represented by his first 2-year-olds once the new season begins on August 1.

His debut crop were well-received at the yearling sales earlier this year, spearheaded by a Yulong-bred colt out of Ghadaayer (Ire) (Shamardal {USA}), who sold to Ballymore Stables Australia, Catheryne Bruggeman and Paul Moroney Bloodstock for $400,000 at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale. That figure - the highest price among the first-season sires - helped him finish the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale as the leading first-season sire by average (three or more sold).

A winner of the G1 CF Orr S., just like his breed-shaping sire Redoute’s Choice, Alabama Express will stand the 2023 breeding season at an unchanged fee of $22,000 (inc GST).

A first look

The coming weeks and months promise to be very informative for two of Yulong’s young stallions in Tagaloa and Lucky Vega (Ire), both of whom will see their first weanlings go under the hammer at Riverside Stables on Monday as the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale gets underway.

Both stallions have had their service fees reduced slightly from last year’s numbers, with Tagaloa available at $27,500 (inc GST) this year (down from $30,250 {inc GST} in 2022) and Lucky Vega set to stand for $16,500 (inc GST), which is down from the $19,250 (inc GST) figure he stood for in 2022.

Fairgray revealed that Yulong has some “very nice” weanlings by Lucky Vega in the paddocks at Nagambie, including a filly out of G1 Australian Oaks heroine Unforgotten (Fastnet Rock) who is bound for the yearling sales in 2024, while the early feedback surrounding Tagaloa’s first weanlings is providing plenty of cause for optimism.

The son of Lord Kanaloa (Jpn) was Victoria’s busiest sire last season, covering 192 mares, and with two large crops already under his belt, Fairgray is particularly excited about the G1 Blue Diamond S. winner’s future at stud.

“Really, really good,” Fairgray responded when asked what he made of Tagaloa’s first crop of foals. “It’s always great when you get feedback from breeders that they’re super impressed with the foals that they have at home, and that’s what we keep hearing.

“He has been really well supported. It’s a good sign when a stallion covers more mares in their second year at stud than the first - it shows you that people are impressed with the physical types that he is leaving.

“He’s thrown plenty of size and substance into his progeny and we have some beautiful weanlings on the farm that we will present.

“He’s certainly going to have every chance based on the progeny that he’s leaving.”

New faces

Earlier this month it was announced that Yulong’s burgeoning roster would be bolstered by the arrival of multiple Group 1 winner Pierata, who had stood the previous two breeding seasons at Aquis Farm’s Canungra property in Queensland.

Despite his first yearlings selling for up to $800,000 this year, helping him to be crowned leading first-season sire by aggregate at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, Yulong has opted to keep the son of Pierro’s service fee unchanged at $44,000 (inc GST), a move that has already been well received by Victorian breeders.

“It’s fantastic to have him join the team,” Fairgray said. “When he won the Sydney Stakes he ran a faster time than Redzel did in The Everest that day - he was a very good sprinter and a very tough competitor.

“He has been very popular since it was announced that he was joining the team and that’s off the back of how well his yearlings sold. We bought a couple of his yearlings at the (Inglis Australian) Easter Sale this year and we like them as types.

“He’s an easy horse to mate to, being out of a Flying Spur mare, and he has really impressed people with the physical types that he has been leaving.

“It’s exciting, and now we just have to wait until October and see how we go with his first 2-year-olds.”

The second of two new additions to the Yulong roster for the 2023 breeding season comes in the shape of Diatonic (Jpn), who will be introduced to the Australian market at a fee of $13,750 (inc GST).

A son of Lord Kanaloa (Jpn), who currently sits atop the Japanese Sires’ Premiership, Diatonic is bred on the same cross as two-time Japanese Horse of the Year Almond Eye (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) and was twice a winner of the G2 Swan S. in his native Japan, the same race won by Rich Hill Stud’s exciting Group 1-producing stallion Satono Aladdin (Jpn).

News of Diatonic’s arrival in Victoria has already garnered plenty of attention according to Fairgray, who is hoping that Yulong’s new addition will become the latest Japanese-bred stallion to take the Australasian breeding industry by storm.

“He was a fast, very consistent horse by a good stallion, and because of his bloodlines he has created a lot of interest,” Fairgray said.

“Obviously, with the performance of Japanese sires in the last couple of years here in Australia, people are understanding that the Japanese racehorses are probably the strongest in the world right about now. Whenever they travel them, they are very competitive.

“It’s great that we are able to introduce these different bloodlines here in Australia. With the saturation that we’ve had of Danehill and so forth, I think getting away from that a little bit is going to be a good thing for our genetic pool.”

Identifying the right introductory price point for a new stallion is by no means a simple task, particularly when that stallion raced in a different jurisdiction, but Fairgray is confident that Diatonic’s introductory fee of $13,750 (inc GST) will give breeders every opportunity to breed a nice racehorse and make a handsome return on their investment.

“We looked at where we thought he would sit within the market place and where breeders can breed to him and do relatively well,” he added.

“I think breeders will be able to breed a nice type because physically he looks like an Australian sprinter. He’s got a big hind-end and shoulder on him.

“He himself is a medium-sized horse and he’ll put plenty of strength into mares, so I think as long as the mare has got a bit of leg, it will suit him very well.

“He’s going to be following off the back of Tagaloa having his first couple of crops racing, so if he takes off then I’m sure the Diatonics will be very popular at the yearling sales.”

Wanting the best for breeders

When the Yulong team went about setting its stallion fees for the upcoming breeding season, the market correction that has been observed at the majority of yearling sales on the Eastern Seaboard so far this year was at the forefront of their thinking, according to Fairgray.

That correction was a contributing factor as to why only one of Yulong’s seven-strong roster received a fee increase this year, but in a slightly trepidacious market, breeders can rest assured that Yulong will once again throw heavy support behind its septet of stallions.

“It’s just about making sure breeders are going to be able to do well out of it,” Fairgray said when discussing the fee-setting process. “Longevity for the breeders is important and we want them to be able to breed to our stallions with the confidence that they’re going to do well.

“We might be going through a bit of a tougher time in the industry as we go through a correction in the market, and we want to help the breeders. If people are finding it hard to make a decision financially, then they can speak to us and we can try to work out a way that is mutually beneficial for us and them.

“A major thing for breeders is to be able to breed to these stallions off the back of the support that Mr Zhang has given them with these quality mares. It’s a bit of a guarantee, as such, that they have been given every opportunity.

“If they come out all guns blazing with their first crop and you’re selling off the back of it, then you’re going to reap the benefits.”

Table: Yulong Stud's stallion roster in 2023, *all prices inclusive of GST