• last week
Transcript
00:00Throughout his racing career, Stradivarius had people flocking to the race course.
00:07His performances were the perfect combination of athleticism and talent, and we are so thankful
00:12to his connections who kept him in training for so long.
00:16As he embarks on his second career as a stallion base at the National Stud, we were fortunate
00:21enough to go along and visit him and see how he's settling in.
00:25With a horse like Stradivarius, I mean, everybody across the world knew about Stradivarius,
00:30but here in Newark, in particular, he was a huge personality on the Heath City, a very
00:34important horse to a lot of people.
00:37So for him then to come to the National Stud, just as I was starting my role as well, was
00:42quite poignant, and it's amazing and it's great to have him here, and we're excited
00:47to launch his stallion career at the National Stud.
00:50Stradivarius, we don't shy away from what he achieves, we're really proud of it.
00:54It's the basis of what we are trying to launch him as, as a stallion.
00:58In terms of the quality that he had, we tell people that he finished races in a certain
01:03way that most horses couldn't.
01:06People understood the quality that he has.
01:09He's by an amazing stallion in Sea of the Stars.
01:12He's got a fantastic pedigree.
01:15He's got the race performance, and physically he's an exceptional animal.
01:19We've had owner breeders who have raced horses for a long time in the sea, and have used
01:24horses like Stradivarius in the past, and have had a lot of success with them, targeting
01:28those mile races, those mile or quarter races, that there's an abundance of prize money to
01:32be won in that area.
01:34And then we get the commercial breeders who are happy to send mares that they know can
01:40produce a nice sales horse, a nice quality, athletic, good walking horse, because as everybody
01:45is well aware, he can move exceptionally well.
01:48So we've had a range of breeders that provide mares from a range of distance, from six foot
01:53long right up to a mile and a half.
01:55We're expecting to cover 100 mares of great quality, and he's looking forward to his new
02:01role here.
02:02He's settled in really well to life here at the National Stud, our new stallion unit manager
02:07Niall Kennedy.
02:08He's gotten to know the horse very well over the last few weeks.
02:12He's got a really simple, but really effective routine, and he's very happy here with the
02:16other stallions that we have.
02:19With Time Test, it is the biggest and best books are coming for him.
02:26He covered 160 mares in 2021, which should lead to a lot of two-year-old runners this
02:32year.
02:33We're hearing great reports back from the trainers.
02:35He's got some leading horses for the big races and the best races in the summertime.
02:42Rajasingh has been an amazing horse for Phil Culligan.
02:46He's a very, very fast horse, one of the Coventry in the fastest time, and now I think people
02:52are starting to connect those dots because he's had an amazing first crop with 80% winners
02:58to runners with horses that has really shown a really good turn of foot.
03:04He's built like a sprinter and he's producing sprinting horse.
03:07We fully expect him now to go on and have some stakes performing on winning horses in
03:122023.
03:13Lopi Fernandes is a horse here at the National Stud that we're hugely excited by.
03:19We are in a great partnership with Nick Bradley, with Whitsbury Manor, and what we're doing
03:25is we're combining what we have to really give a horse that deserves every chance to
03:32be a very successful stallion.
03:34He's had his first foals just this last week.
03:38They are exactly what we thought they would be.
03:40We've been telling breeders over December that Lopi Fernandes will put plenty of bone
03:43and quality into your mare and into the progeny, and that's exactly what we've got.
03:49We're going to see a lot more of the foals coming out over the next few weeks, so we're
03:54really excited for him.
03:55My role here at the National Stud, I started back in October as head of bloodstock, and
03:59incorporates a variety of things that are directly related to the farm, and also dealing
04:04with clients and sales and nominations, so it's really an all-encompassing role, which
04:09I'm very much enjoying, and look forward to hopefully contributing to the National Stud
04:14in the future.