February 18th, 2008

STALLIONS takes a look at the outstanding array of talent among the sires with first crop yearlings for sale in 2008. 

This week STALLIONS looks at Elvstroem’s credentials. 

Elvstroem, or Elvis as he is popularly known, was also fleet of foot but, like many of the Danehill racehorses out of mares who offered stamina, was at his best as a middle distance performer. 

He established this with superb performances in Australia and in an international campaign that wound up his career. 

He did his owners’, trainer, jockey and Australia proud abroad in 2005 in winning the Group I Dubai Duty Free Stakes (1777m) off the front. He finished second in the Group I Longchamp Prix d’Ispahan, third in the Group I York Prince of Wales Stakes and fourth in the Group I events the Newbury Lockinge Stakes and Saint Cloud Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

Elvis bagged more than $5.6million for his owners’ and he had won nine races in Australia before venturing abroad including four Group I events the VRC Victoria Derby, MRC Caulfield Cup C.F Orr Stakes and Underwood Stakes.

Elvis was also successful in three Group 2 races, the VRC Turnbull Stakes, MRC St George Stakes and Autumn Classic, and third in the Group I VRC Australian Cup and STC Rosehill Guineas.

His Derby win was all the more meritorious as he is a mid-November foal and was appearing for only the seventh time.

It was a race, however, that he had laid claim to with a close second in the Group 2 MVRC Vase at Moonee Valley the previous Saturday and a two length win the previous month in the Group 3 Caulfield Guineas Prelude.

Typical of the Danehill stock, he was a very clean winded, free moving galloper who could finish on after making or being near the pace.

Trained for a partnership – including his Sydney based breeders Frank Tagg, Gary Moffitt and Frank Meduri – by Tony Vasil, Elvis led all the way in winning the Caulfield Cup at four, fighting on tenaciously to hold out the charging racing queen Makybe Diva and becoming the first Victoria Derby-Caulfield Cup winner for 80 years.

It was a stroke of good fortune that Tagg retained Elvstroem as after he was sold at the 2002 William Inglis Australian Easter yearling sale, the sale was cancelled because the buyer’s veterinary advisers weren’t happy with his x-rays.

Elvstroem is from Circles of Gold, a tough, first class racemare who won the Group I AJC Australian Oaks and finished second in the Group I events the MRC Caulfield Cup, QTC Oaks and WATC Kingston Town Stakes.

Circles of Gold is by the Biscay horse Marscay, one of the most influential Golden Slipper winners and from Olympic Aim, a Zamazaan mare closely related to Bit of a Skite (won the G1 AJC All Aged Stakes) and Polar Success (won the Golden Slipper).

Elvstroem has 50 yearlings on offer at the William Inglis Premier Yearling Sale (March 1st-6th) in Victoria. Two yearlings are on offer at the Adelaide Magic Millions (March 10- 12th) and 16 yearlings are catalogued for sale at the Gold Coast Magic Millions Premier sale (March 24 - April 2nd). At the Inglis Classic Yearling sale (April 3rd – 11th) Elvis has three yearlings on offer while at the Inglis Select Easter Yearling sale he has 12.

June 26th, 2007

  The final of the three major weanling sales is the William Inglis & Son Great Southern Sale which took place at Oaklands Junction on June 24 and 25. 

  Four weanlings by Elvstroem went through the ring, all were fillies. In catalogued order; Lot 35, an October 20 filly out of the Stakes placed Tierce mare Plot, consigned by Kornong Stud Farm she was passed in at $45,000 with a reserve of $60,000. Lot 125, a November 1 filly out of the Geiger Counter mare Survey, a half-sister to multiple Group winner Tickle My (who has an Elvstroem weanling filly and is back in-foal to the horse), consigned by Woodlawn Park.  She was also passed in at $115,000 the reserve listed was $120,000.  Lot 219, a September 24 filly out of the Marscay mare Burscay from the immediate family of Group 1 winner Prince Salieri, consigned by Fulmen Park as agent, sold for $12,000 and lot 400, an August 14 filly out of the Hennessy mare Lettercee, a half-sister to the Group winner Ashkaleta, consigned by Little Plains Stud as agent sold for $140,000. 

  The broodmare section of the Great Southern Sale features six mares in-foal to Elvstroem.

June 14th, 2007

 Some of the many educated breeders that used Elvstroem in his first season at stud are already reaping excellent returns on their investments. At the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale on the Gold Coast recently, progeny of the International Group 1 winning son of Danehill were once again in great demand. Six of his weanlings were offered and subsequently sold returning the excellent average of $92,500. This compares particularly well against the sales average for the two days of the Select Sessions which was $44,566 from 429 lots sold at a clearance rate of 92%. 

  Keep in mind that the sales average includes the record breaking weanling sale of $1.15 million for the three-quarter brother to Dance Hero. That weanling was by Champion Sire Redoute’s Choice who incidentally is bred on the same Danehill – Biscay cross as Elvstroem! 

  Drawing the most attention of the Elvstroem weanlings were the colts offered by Erinvale Thoroughbreds, Torryburn Stud and Royston Stud. The respective Managers of these farms; John Kenneally, Don Mackinnon and Mitchell Fraser all had the same story to tell. Their weanlings were in great demand and it seemed that everyone wanted to see them. Not surprisingly the bidding on them was very spirited indeed but it was New Zealand interests that held the advantage on each at the fall of the hammer.  

April 15th, 2007

  When the experts are sorting out who is the best three-year-old of the current racing year, the AJC's  Doncaster Handicap winner Haradasun has to be right in the calculations. This lightly raced son of the Mr. Prospector Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus, one of the prestigious visitors to Coolmore in the Hunter Valley, and from one of the best Marscay racemares, Circles of Gold, has now raced nine times for six wins, two seconds and just under $1.9million. 
 The only three starts of this Tony Vasil, Caulfield trained impressive looking colt in Sydney have been three Group 1 races in a space of fourteen days. He won the George Ryder at Rosehill Gardens on March 31, the same day other runners by Fusaichi Pegasus on the same program included Tipungwuti (3.8 lengths winner of the Tulloch Stakes), Zizou, (second in the Golden Slipper) and Just Dancing (third in the Group 1 Arrowfield Stakes), and then succeeded in the Doncaster, starting favourite on Easter Monday. Yesterday at Randwick the colt ran into Desert War, Australia's best weight-for-age performer and finished a gallant second.
  His emergence as potential superstar confirms his immediate family as one of the best of the modern era. To start with Haradasun is a half-brother to the Danehill international star Elvstroem, a very versatile performer who won 10 races (nine stakes, five Group 1s) and earned $5.7million. His Australian performances included wins in the Victoria Derby, Caulfield Cup, C.F. Orr Stakes and Underwood Stakes and his overseas efforts a win in the Group1 Dubai Duty Free and places in two European Group1s, the Longchamp Prix d'Ispahan and York Prince of Wales's Stakes.
  Elvstroem was launched as a sire at Phillip Campbell's Blue Gum Farm, the one at Euroa in Victoria that established Encosta de Lago as a top sire, in 2005 and has had books of over 160 each year. He is one of two new sires from the immediate family, the other being Modern Era, a brother to Circles of Gold who made his debut last year on $4,400 at one of the most respected studs near Sydney, Di Hill's Foxes Hollow near Oakdale in the Camden region, looking after nearly 70 mares.
  Although Modern Era did not rise to the heights on the racetrack attained by Haradasun and Elvstroem, he showed up as a good prospect at three with eight successive prize cheques including four wins, among them successes at Flemington and Caulfield. He was third behind Keep the Faith and Our Smoking Joe in the Schweppervesence Cup at Caulfield.
Modern Era's sister and mother of Haradasun and Elvstroem, Widden Stud bred Circles of Gold, verged on greatness as a racemare, winning six races, headed by the AJC Australian Oaks, Adrian Knox Stakes and MRC Coongy Handicap, and running second in the Caulfield Cup, Queensland Oaks and Perth's Fruit 'n' Veg Stakes.
  She is by Golden Slipper winner Marscay and from Olympic Aim, a winner of four races by leading stamina influence Zamazaan. Olympic Aim was a half-sister to the very good Australian galloper Bit of a Skite, a winner of 11 races including the VRC George Adams Handicap and AJC All-Aged Stakes, and to Polar Maid, grandam of Polar Success (won four races at two, including the STC Golden Slipper and Reisling Slipper Trial, and second in the STC Silver Slipper) and Ain't Seen Nothin' (eight wins including the VRC Let's Elope Stakes, Illawarra Nolan Classic; second AJC Adrian Knox Stakes, third MRC Underwood Stakes, STC Queen of the Turf Stakes, fourth AJC Oaks and VRC LKS Mackinnon Stakes).
  The bottom line of the pedigree goes back to one of the great matriarches of Australasian breeding, the 1911 England foaled New Zealand importation Eulogy, ancestress of hundreds of stakes winners. -Brian Russell

March 27th, 2005

Elvstroem became the first Australian horse to win at the Dubai World Cup meeting by taking out the Group I Dubai Duty Free (1777m) in devastating style.

After a tough run in The Australian Cup at Flemington, Elvstroem lost 20kg on his flight to Dubai and then he was dealt another blow when he drew the outside gate in the 14-horse field.

From his outside barrier the Tony Vasil-trained horse was sent straight to the front by Nash Rawiller, who was quite willing to set a steady pace. Under a tight hold from Rawiller on the home turn, he waited until about 500m before the post then giving more reign to Elvstroem they sprinted hard to claim the historic two and three-quarter length victory over Whilly (Sri Pekan - Santa Rosa by Lahib) with 2004’s winner Right Approach (Machiavellian - Abbey Strand by Shadeed) a further length back in third. 

By the incomparable Danehill, Elvstroem is out of the Marscay mare Circles of Gold. Marscay, by Biscay, is a champion broodmare sire. Circles Of Gold a winner at the highest level claimed the 1995 Group I AJC Oaks along with seconds in the MRC Caulfield Cup, QTC Queensland Oaks and WATC Fruit N’ Veg stakes all at the elite level. Circles Of Gold is a half-sister to the Group 2 winner Gold Wells and a full sister to Rings Of Gold and Modern Era both are stakes placed.