A record first-season fee of A$121,000 set for Godolphin’s nine-time Group 1 winner Anamoe

Darley’s head of sales Andy Makiv believes Anamoe is the most exciting Australian stallion prospect to go stud in two decades, his emphatic declaration coming as the racing and breeding goliath announced the service fees for its 2023 two-state roster.

The champion four-year-old, who could yet end his racing career with a Royal Ascot swansong in June, will stand at an introductory service fee of A$121,000 (£65,500/€74,000, all fees inc GST), one of two Darley stallions on the 18-horse roster to command six-figure sums for the upcoming breeding season. 

Anamoe’s fee puts him on a pedestal all on his own, becoming the most expensive Australian-bred first season sire in history, but he also has a unique race record to match - nine Group 1 victories, from ages two to four and from 1400 metres to 2000 metres.

Makiv is in awe of Anamoe, who will stand at Darley’s Kelvinside Stud in the Hunter Valley, and argued that while his feats at three and four put him in rarified air, it is his juvenile season which also bears remembering.

“For me, he is as exciting a stallion prospect in 20-plus years, certainly on our roster, and possibly even in Australia. We’re talking about a nine-time Group 1 winner so far. The only horses comparable to him this century are So You Think and Lonhro, who won ten and 11 [Group 1s] respectively, and neither of them were ‘proper’ two-year-olds,” Makiv told ANZ Bloodstock News.

“We’re talking about a Group 1-winning two-year-old who was a pre-Christmas stakes winner. He’s a phenomenal racehorse, a phenomenal talent. 

“I still think some of his best wins were in the likes of the Merson Cooper and the Todman and he was desperately unlucky in the Slipper, where he drew the outside barrier. If he drew in, he probably wins the Slipper and we might not have seen as much of him in his later [four-year-old] year.

“A lot of his juvenile, early three-year-old wins from 1000 to 1200 metres tell you the phenomenal juvenile he was and I think that’s what sets him apart from a lot of stallions that go to stud with such a record.”

Anamoe won the Inglis Sires’ at two, the Caulfield Guineas and Rosehill Guineas at three before winning six Group 1s at four, a Cox Plate among them.

Veteran Exceed And Excel, whose long-time barnmate Lonhro was pensioned earlier this year, remains at the head of the Darley roster at a fee of A$132,000 after another consistent season with his juveniles, a crop which has already produced nine stakes horses.

“We thought long and hard about Anamoe’s fee and our champion stallion Exceed And Excel deserved to top the roster. Exceed’s had a fabulous year again, he’s an amazing stallion both on the racetrack and in the sales ring with juveniles everywhere,” Makiv said. “He’s an unbelievably good stallion who tops the roster.

“We thought Anamoe needed to be a tick above A$100,000 to give breeders an opportunity to use him because if he was any lower than that we may have been overrun and had a problem in terms of access.

“We’ve priced him where we think he should be and at a price where we think the market will respect that fee.”

With the retirement to stud of Anamoe, his sire Street Boss will return to Northwood Park in Victoria at a slightly reduced fee of A$66,000 after two years in the Hunter Valley.

“Victorians this year are getting Paulele, who is a wonderful horse in his own right, but it’s nice to be able to top the roster in Victoria with a proven horse, the sire of Anamoe, and a horse who, coincidentally, had success last Saturday at the VOBIS day [at Sandown] with Pinstriped and She Dances,” he said. 

“We’ve got [Group 2 winner] Pericles coming through for us, so he’s just an outstanding stallion who can get your mare away; Victorians know him so well, so it is very exciting for the farm and all the Victorian breeders to have him returning ‘home’ again.”

Shuttler Harry Angel has earned a fee increase from A$16,500 to A$33,000 on the back of the success of his first southern hemisphere-bred crop of two-year-olds.

The sire of Inglis Banner winner and Blue Diamond Stakes placegetter Arkansaw Kid early in the season, Harry Angel took his Australian-bred crop tally to three stakes winners when Tom Kitten came from last to take out the Fernhill Handicap and Stretan Angel impressed in the Dequetteville Stakes over the past two Saturdays.

Astern, the sire of Caulfield Guineas winner Golden Mile and Arrowfield Stud Stakes winner Aft Cabin, also earned a fee increase on the back of a strong season with his price doubling to A$22,000.

“I think that group of proven stallions; Astern, Brazen Beau and now Harry Angel, they’re fantastic value. They’re horses who are hitting the board in stakes races all around the country,” Makiv said.

“Harry Angel has three individual stakes winners in his first crop, that’s a wonderful start, and Brazen’s going well, Astern’s had a great season with his three-year-olds and Kermadec, when he gets a good one, they win a Group 1.”

Next season shapes as an important one for the Darley roster, with stallions Too Darn Hot (A$44,000), Blue Point (A$44,000) and Microphone (A$33,000) all to have their first crop two-year-olds step out on the track, while the first weanlings will be on the ground by Bivouac (A$66,000), Ghaiyyath (A$27,500) and Earthlight (A$16,500).

“Those three stallions that we launched that year [2021] who are about to have two-year-olds, it’s pretty exciting times for them,” Makiv said. 

“Their yearlings sold well, they’re out of good mares, they were really good types and they went to the right stables, so the next 12 months will be [fascinating] following the progeny of those three stallions.”

Last week, Darley announced that Winterbottom Stakes winner Paulele would stand at Northwood Park at a fee of A$16,500 at the conclusion of a Queensland winter carnival campaign. 

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