Wootton Bassett to stand in Australia for a record-breaking fee of A$385,000

Wootton Bassett has been sweeping most things before him in a sensational start as a shuttle stallion in Australia.

Now, he has the country’s record service fee as well.

Coolmore Stud has confirmed their star stallion will stand this spring for a mammoth A$385,000 (all fees inc GST).

It smashes the previous mark shared by Extreme Choice - also for this season - and his grandsire Redoute’s Choice in 2006 and 2007.

Coolmore Australia boss Tom Magnier revealed the fee while speaking to media at the Inglis Chairman’s sale on Thursday, while confirming the stud’s new acquisitions Tiz Invincible and Estriella would be going to Wootton Bassett this spring.

“I don’t have to explain Wootton Bassett - we’re very fortunate to have a stallion like him,” Magnier said. “He’ll be standing at A$350,000 (plus GST) this year and we hope to send our best mares to him.

“To be fair to Dad and the team, they went out and got Wootton Bassett and it’s turned out with good rewards.”

Bought by John Magnier’s Coolmore as a proven 12-year-old sire from France in 2020, Wootton Bassett stands at Coolmore Ireland for €300,000.

Now 17, he’s quickly been a hot ticket in Australia, where he stood for A$71,500 in his first two seasons of 2021 and 2022, A$93,500 in 2023, and by fee on arrangement last year, when the going rate was believed to be around A$275,000.

The new fee reflects the enormous buzz around Wootton Bassett in Australia, an impact made more remarkable considering that despite a list of impressive achievements, he’s yet to sire a stakes winner in this country.

France’s champion two-year-old colt of 2010 sits second on Australia’s first-season sires’ table, with his highest earner Wodeton. By winners, with eight from 21 runners, he ranks third to overall leader Ole Kirk, who has ten, and the nine of Farnan.

Wootton Bassett ranks third on the two-year-old sires’ table by earnings, behind Snitzel and Ole Kirk.

With 14 northern hemisphere sired Group 1 winners, Wootton Bassett’s highest honours in Australia are the top-tier seconds on Wodeton in the Golden Slipper and State Visit in the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes. 

The clamour for the stallion appears to only grow stronger. 

“The who’s who of mares has been put on to Wootton Bassett’s book,” Tom Magnier said. “It’s pretty exciting what he’s doing. I haven’t seen a horse do this for a long, long time."

After his purchases of Tiz Invincible and Estriella, Magnier said of Wootton Bassett: "Having a stallion like that gives you the confidence to go out with your partners and try to find the best mares for him."

Magnier also said Amelia’s Jewel - who he bought for the second-top price in Chairman’s Sale history on Thursday at A$3.8 million - would be a candidate for a cover from Wootton Bassett next year after an initial southern-timed service from another Coolmore heavyweight in Justify in the US this year.

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