Cable Bay subject of court order to halt shuttle trip to Australia

High-profile southern hemisphere shareholders in emerging European sire Cable Bay will fight a court order preventing the stallion from shuttling to Australia this year after its British partners launched last-minute action last week to stop the horse from travelling.

On Thursday, Highclere Stud successfully obtained an injunction from the British High Court to stop Cable Bay from leaving quarantine in the UK only hours before he was due to board an International Racehorse Transport flight bound for Woodside Park Stud in Victoria.

Highclere Stud’s John Warren told ANZ Bloodstock News: “As large beneficiaries in terms of ownership of Cable Bay in the southern hemisphere, it is unfortunate that due to injury in quarantine the vets have advised that the horse should not be transported at this stage.”

The court order remains in place until at least early next month, meaning the horse will not be able to be moved for at least another 11 days, pending a further judgement when the Australian shareholders have the opportunity to dispute the claim.

Warren did not disclose the injury suffered by Cable Bay while Woodside Park Stud declined to comment on the matter due to the pending court hearing, which is scheduled for August 8.

If the British High Court overturns its initial judgement and allows Cable Bay to shuttle to Victoria this year, the stallion could depart on another flight from the UK on August 17 and arrive at the Tylden-based farm on August 31, on the eve of the breeding season which starts on September 1.

Cable Bay has shuttled for the past two years to Woodside Park Stud where he has covered 219 mares with the support of shareholders including Black Caviar’s breeder Rick Jamieson of Gilgai Farm, B2B Bloodstock’s Ricky Surace and Woodside Park Stud.

A winner of the Challenge Stakes at Newmarket and the Jury Stakes at Haydock before being retired to Highclere Stud, Cable Bay has made a strong start to his northern hemisphere stud career, with 13 winners among his first crop juveniles so far this year led by Dragon Stakes scorer Liberty Beach.

In 2017, a deal was struck between Highclere Stud and Jamieson for the son of Invincible Spirit to shuttle to Australia.

The move came after Jamieson took up the challenge of applying his own ‘breeding matrix’ principles used successfully on his select broodmare band and instead using them to ‘make a stallion’.

The search led to Jamieson and his partners securing the southern hemisphere breeding rights to Cable Bay. In an unusual move, all mares booked to Cable Bay at Woodside Park Stud had to be approved by Jamieson to ensure they met his genetic formula.

“I wondered for some time whether the same theories I used for mating my mares could apply to a sire,” Jamieson told Racing Post at the 2017 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale.

“The more I peeled back the pedigree, the more comfort I took that we could match mares to Cable Bay.

“So we got him out here and the mission is to turn him into a stallion with double-digit stakes winners to runners. A good horse in Australia might get six to seven per cent; to get over ten per cent is exceptional, then you've got a serious horse.

“It's a bit of a personal challenge, to correctly mate mares to him. I'm pretty confident I'll do it.”

Cable Bay is advertised at a fee of A$13,200 this year.

For complete coverage of racing and bloodstock in Australia and New Zealand, download ANZ Bloodstock News every day