'Bookings had started to pick up' - Melbourne Cup winner Half Yours' sire St Jean dies after paddock accident

Irish-bred St Jean, sire of this year’s Melbourne and Caulfield Cup winner Half Yours, has following a freak paddock incident at Brackley Park in Australia on Monday. He was 15. 

Brackley Park principal Grant Dwyer, who had stood the previously unheralded son of Teofilo since 2017, confirmed the news on Thursday. 

“It is with great sadness that I wish to announce the passing of our beloved stallion St Jean, a mere three weeks after his gelded son, Half Yours, won the Melbourne Cup,” he said.

“On the morning of November 25 it was discovered that for reasons unknown, St Jean had run into a fence post overnight, breaking it off at ground level and shattering his near side front leg around the elbow region. Nothing could be done for the horse. The stallion was then humanely euthanised.”

St Jean had covered a mare, Memory Lane, the afternoon before the accident and had been in consistent work during what was shaping as his most commercially significant season.

“His death was very untimely as breeders were only starting to recognise what an incredible pedigree this stallion had,” Dwyer said. “I lament the fact that more breeders did not take the opportunity to breed to this stallion in the first few seasons at stud at an incredibly low price.”

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Imported from Ireland after seven starts and one win for trainer Kevin Prendergast, St Jean was brought to Australia by Aaron Purcell, for whom he won four times.  

His biggest career victory came as a seven-year-old in the Group 3 City Of Auckland Cup for New Zealand-based trainer Donna Logan in 2017. He retired early due to injury and covered only modest books in his early years at stud. 

Interest in the stallion exploded after the Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained Half Yours showed his talent last season. The gelding’s success prompted Brackley Park to lift his service fee from A$3,300 to A$11,000. He had already booked 35 mares this season, having only covered five mares last season. 

"Bookings had started to pick up and he was due to cover a mare by Desert King that afternoon which would have given the same cross as Half Yours," Dwyer said. "He was due to cover five mares by Desert King this season. 

“St Jean was the first Victorian stallion to sire a Melbourne Cup winner since 1973 and his achievement created a real buzz around the Victorian breeding industry.”

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