Stradivarius confirmed to stand at the National Stud in 2023

The National Stud has confirmed that the decorated Stradivarius has joined its roster in Newmarket for the 2023 season.

His owner-breeder Bjorn Nielsen announced on Monday that the chestnut, three times a winner of the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot and of four Goodwood Cups, along with a plethora of other staying titles, had been slow to recover from a bruised foot and would not be asked to stay in training as an eight-year-old veteran of the ranks.

The news comes as a bonus to the National Stud as two of its residents, Advertise and Aclaim, are moving to Martyn Meade’s Manton Park Stud. Stradivarius will take the roster to five when he joins Time Test, Rajasinghe, Lope Y Fernandez and Flag Of Honour.

Studs habitually wait until the European Flat season and the major yearling sales have concluded by around early November before announcing the following year’s covering fees and there will undoubtedly be anticipation at where Stradivarius is pitched.

It seems very unlikely to rival that of another son of Sea The Stars, his top-rated progeny Baaeed, who is also set to run his last race next month.

Zelzal, his Prix Jean Prat winner, has been standing for €15,000 at Haras de Bouquetot, while his crack middle-distance performer Crystal Ocean moved straight into National Hunt circles and has been at a steady €8,000 at The Beeches Stud. A large handful of his other stallion sons, such as Cloth Of Stars, Harzand and Fifty Stars, are available at four-figure fees around Europe.

It is Nielsen’s hope that discerning Flat breeders will give Stradivarius a chance and he will be able to point out that his horse won over a mile as a two-year-old and struck at ten furlongs on his three-year-old reappearance before landing the Queen’s Vase and finishing a narrow third to Capri in the St Leger as he settled into longer trips.

Nielsen produced Stradivarius out of the Listed-placed Bering mare Private Life, who died before leaving him a direct female successor.

His Monsun half-brother Persian Storm was a dual Group 3 winner in Germany over ten furlongs and his third dam is the brilliant Pawneese, who carried all before her in 1976 by winning the Oaks at Epsom and Chantilly as well as the King George. Melbourne Cup winner Protectionist is among those to have been emerged from a fine Wildenstein family.

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