Coolmore Stud has included some of its supreme world-wide stallions for the southern hemisphere season, spearheaded by last year's magnificent Cox Plate winner Adelaide.
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Joining Adelaide in the Hunter Valley will be the brilliant US-bred colt Verrazano, a son of the tried and tested Vinery shuttler More Than Ready. Verrazano won six starts as a three-year-old – including two group 1s – by a total of more than 46 lengths.
Wedged in between the two newcomers is the tried and tested son of Danehill, Holy Roman Emperor, which came to Coolmore's Australian farm in 2007 and is returning after several recent triumphs.
Adelaide, however, is the star addition to the roster which has Fastnet Rock, Pierro and So You Think heading the list of super stallions.
He becomes the second Cox Plate winner standing at Coolmore, joining So You Think.
"Adelaide's win in the Cox Plate was spectacular," Coolmore's Michael Kirwan said. "He beat 10 individual group 1 winners, including Criterion, Wandjina and Sacred Falls. It was the best field of horses that had been assembled all season.
"To think he did it on his first Australian start, having been drawn in the car park and forced to endure the run he did. It marked him down as a special horse. He's from a sireline that consistently produces group 1 stallions."
Holy Roman Emperor's bloodlines are impeccable and his son Mongolian Khan is the top three-year-old performer of the Australasian season after taking out both the New Zealand Derby and Australian Derby for the Murray Baker stable.
Kirwan has also enjoyed tremendous success in Hong Kong with John Moore's stayer Designs On Rome, the winner of three major staying events there during the past 15 months.
"Designs On Rome will appeal to breeders looking to use a sire with a proven track record of producing high-class racehorses," Kirwan said.
He believes Verrazano will appeal to Australian breeders after More Than Ready paved the way for him earlier by siring so many group 1 winners, including Golden Slipper winner Sebring.
"I went to Kentucky last November to inspect Verrazano with James Bester and we were blown away by his physique," Kirwan said. "He's a big, powerful horse with very good limbs and we thought he was the sort of horse that Australian breeders would love.
"He's been incredibly popular in his first US season and we at Coolmore are very excited to getting him down here."
Kirwan said the stud's ranks had suffered from an Australian viewpoint last year with the death of High Chaparral and retirement of proven sires Encosta de Lago and Spinning World,
"We are extremely excited at the bolstering of our 2015 stallion ranks who will join 2014 newcomers Camelot and Declaration of War who stood their first seasons in Australia last year with excellent support from breeders.
"Coolmore will stand 12 stallions this year and we are debating on another prospect which will be decided upon over the weekend and we're hopeful our stallion prices will be decided early next week." Kirwan said.
Poetic justice
Shuttle sire Poet's Voice, one of the most sensational looking stallions to stand in the southern hemisphere, kicked off his career on a tremendous note on Monday with a first-up winner at Pontefract in Britain.
A son of the great Dubawi, the stallion's winner was a two-year-old colt Black Magic, which led throughout for a three-length win on his debut.
The pedigree and appearance of Poet's Voice has made the Darley-owned sire an extremely popular member of its huge stallion string and served 319 mares in three seasons at his Aberdeen base.
His first crop of yearlings went to the sales this year in Australia where four sold at a $73,750 average at the Magic Millions and two yearlings at the Inglis Session 11 sold for $80,000 each.
Rock solid
Fastnet Rock, still out in front of the Australian Stallions Premiership with earnings of more than $7.8 million, registered his 75th stakes winner at Cologne in Germany on Sunday.
Three-year-old filly La Saldana won the Karin Baronin von Ullman, continuing his fine run in European tracks over the past fortnight.
His other winners were Cape Clear Island in the £200,000 Tattersalls Millions at Newmarket last Thursday and the Heritage Stakes the day before when Fascinating Rock scored for Dermot Weld.
As reported earlier in Bloodlines, Fastnet Rock is taking a year off at Coolmore's Irish base and is again its headline stallion at their Hunter Valley property.
