Mares purchased for Australian breeders at the Fasig-Tipton broodmare sales have really been proving themselves as high achievers in recent years and faring very well from their purchases has been Kia Ora Stud. We had a chat with Bloodstock and Breeding Manager Shane Wright about their success.

“It has always been the Kia Ora vision to identify international pedigrees from all over the world who we believe will suit the Australian racing scene and complement colonial Australian stallions,” Wright said.

“Even more importantly more recently with our own stallions back standing at Kia Ora, we want to support them not just with the best mares in Australia but the best we can source from around the world.”

“Finding those mares who we believe suit our boys gives them an added edge when their offspring hit the track.”

Having bought fillies and mares at Fasig-Tipton for over 15 years, it is no surprise that Kia Ora’s principals are big fans of the world famous sale.

“The ‘night of stars’ is an amazing sale,” Wright said. “You have the top fillies and mares from all over the world in one ring with the best breeders from all over the world coming together and competing for the most sought-after bloodlines to complement their broodmare band, it really is an amazing atmosphere that has to be experienced.”

“Firstly, when looking at the Fasig-Tipton catalogue we try and delve deep into the pedigree to find some evidence of what works here in Australia,” Wright explained.

“We are not necessarily looking for a stakes-winning 2-year-old, but we do like solid 2-year-old form in the first two dams as not only does it show precocity but also a solid level of soundness of both mind and body throughout the family in question.

“Also, some turf form is very much appreciated for obvious reasons. On type, most mares that we acquire in the US seem to be a little bigger and have above average scope that what we would typically buy in the Australian marketplace.”

“These mares from the US may not have quite the same amount of strength and bone that their Aussie counterparts have at the same age but it does come in time and also we are lucky to have an abundant of stallions that suit these kind of mares in their first few years at stud.”

 

Three Fasig-Tipton graduates for Kia Ora really stand out, kicking off with Decelerator (USA) (Dehere {USA}).

Purchased by James Bester for US$300,000 (AU$455,000) at the 2011 Fasig-Tipton Fall Mixed Sale, Decelerator has done a great job for Kia Ora; her yearlings through the ring fetching between $180,000 and $400,000 and proving themselves to be horses with considerable talent.

Born in 2015, Nafaayes (Exceed And Excel) is a Group 1-placed, dual Group 2 winner based in South Africa having been purchased by Shadwell for $350,000 at the 2017 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.

Now back in Australia, owned by Hirsch Racing who purchased her at this year’s Inglis Chairman’s Sale for $475,000, she foaled a colt by Kingman (GB) in early September.

Two years after producing Nafaayes, Decelerator foaled Stoltz (More Than Ready {USA}) who was sold for $200,000 at the Magic Millions. Winning three races for the Annabel Neasham stable, he headed to Hong Kong where he was recently retired after winning six of his 15 starts including the G3 National Day Cup.

Not having a great deal of luck in recent seasons, Decelerator recently foaled a colt by Exceedance and she has been served by Kia Ora resident Prague.

“Decel has been a very solid producer for Kia Ora (I’m feeling old but who doesn’t love a Dehere mare?!), she is from a truly well-travelled family.

“She had a beautiful Prague filly sold to Philip Stokes for $180,000 at Magic Millions in January and that along with Philip’s glowing reports she has visited him again this year.”

A talented race mare who won five of her 21 starts with a further six placings on her record, Decelerator won the G3 Debutante S. at Churchill Downs as well as a couple of Listed events.

Her grandam is the G1 Susana S. winner Fabulous Notion (USA) (Somethingfabulous {USA}), dam of the G1 Test S. winner Fabulously Fast (USA) (Deputy Minister {Can}) and ancestress of several other stakes winners including the four time Group 1 winner City Of Light (USA).

 

That 2011 Fasig-Tipton Fall Mixed Sale was a very good one for Kia Ora with James Bester also buying on their behalf, for US$675,000 (AU$1,026,000), the lightly raced but talented More Than Real (USA) (More Than Ready {USA}).

The winner of two of her seven starts including the G2 Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf S., the Group 1-placed mare is a daughter of the classy and consistent mare Miss Seffens (USA) (Dehere) who won 11 of her 26 starts; five of her successes coming in Listed company.

Grandam of the G1 Breeders Cup Juvenile Turf S. winner Structor (USA) (Palace Malice {USA}), Miss Seffens is out of the stakes winner Noise Enough (Can) (Bold Ruckus {USA}).

More Than Real hit the ground running for Kia Ora with her first foal attracting the keen eye of renowned judge Paul Moroney at the 2015 Inglis Asutralian Easter Yearling Sale; purchased for Go Bloodstock’s Sir Owen Glenn for $430,000.

Racing in his yellow and white colours, Miss Debutante (Fastnet Rock) won four races including the Listed Denise’s Joy S. and remains in the Go Bloodstock ownership; well and truly proving a gold mine.

Her first three foals are all stakes winners; Queen Of The Ball (I Am Invincible) winning four times at Group level, Platinum Jubilee (Zoustar) successful in the G3 Gimcrack S. at debut, progressing to a R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic second and Lady Of Camelot (Written Tycoon) proving victorious in this year’s G1 Golden Slipper S.; at her most outing finishing on the heels the placegetters in the G1 The Everest.

Go Bloodstock have retained Miss Debutante’s fourth foal, entrusting Lancelot Du Lac (Flying Artie) to the Waterhouse and Bott stable (trainers of Lady Of Camelot) and she foaled a filly by I Am Invincible last spring.

Coolmore Stud saw the value in investing in this in-form family, at this year’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale putting in the winning bid of $3.5 million to secure Platinum Jubilee. In the meantime her dam More Than Real is still going strongly, in late August foaling a Farnan filly. (pictured)

She slipped her previous foal but has a 2-year-old called Farfetched (Farnan) with Waterhouse and Bott, a $500,000 graduate of this year’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in whose ownership Kia Ora have remained.

“What a mare she has been,” Wright enthused, “not just for Kia Ora but for Australian racing.

“A Breeders Cup Juvenile winner by More Than Ready, who obviously needs no introduction being a top broodmare sire in Australia, she had all the credentials to be successful in Australia.

“The dam of arguably Australia’s youngest Blue Hen, Miss Debutante, she has her 2-year-old coming along well; Gai and Adrian think a lot of her. She possesses the temperament and sharpness becoming typical of the Farnan stock.

“She also has that Farnan filly on the ground and was recently scanned positive to Zoustar to have a close relative to Platinum Jubilee next year. More Than Real is starting to move into her twilight years but she still looks amazing and is producing beautiful, strong and healthy foals.”

“I envision us keeping any fillies from her going forward as this is the kind of family you just can’t buy into and has the potential to be one of the strongest families in the Australian Stud Book.”

 

Two years before the fruitful purchases of Decelerator and More Than Real, James Bester had purchased at the same sale for Kia Ora the $460,000 mare Dream Play (USA) (Hennessy {USA}).

Also a talented race mare, winning three of her six starts including the G2 Comely S. and the Listed Precious S., she is another to have proven instantly successful for Kia Ora with her first foal being the $1.5 million Easter graduate Zululand. A Group 1-placed winner of the G2 VRC Sires Produce S., he is one of the five winners for Dream Play who has continued to provide Kia Ora with great returns in the sales ring; her subsequent foals fetching between $250,000 and $1.1 million.

“Dreamy has been a truly exceptional mare for Kia Ora,” Wright said. “She is the dam of three black-type horses already, with a few very nice younger ones still to hit the track.

“She is a beautiful mare and very easy to mate as she suits a lot of stallions both physically and on pedigree, this is solidified by her three black-type horses being by different stallions.”

Dream Play was recently served by Kia Ora’s Group 1-winning Capitalist stallion Captivant with a scan due in the coming days, Wright having his “fingers crossed for a positive and we will have a three-quarter sibling to the stakes-placed $1 million yearling Makin (Written Tycoon).”

Sadly Dream Play lost her 2024 foal by Farnan having missed the previous year but her latest foal, a filly by I Am Invincible was purchased by Bjorn Baker Racing and Clarke Bloodstock (FBAA) for $400,000 at Inglis Easter this year.

Dam of the stakes placegetters Chicago Star (Exceed And Excel) and Makin and grandam of last year’s Gimcrack S. runner-up Celestial Bling (Capitalist), Dream Play is a daughter of the triple stakes winner Playcaller (USA) (Saratoga Six {USA}).

A half-sister to the stakes winner Cagna (USA) (Sovereign Dancer {USA}), Playcaller is one of those mares to have achieved so much that she fills a catalogue page. All 11 of her foals to race are winners, Dream Play joined by Diplomat Lady (USA) (Forestry {USA}) as a stakes winner; taking out the G1 Starlet S. at Hollywood Park.

Another seven of Playcaller’s descendants are stakes winners including the Group 1 galloper Hunter O’Riley (USA) (Tiz Wonderful {USA}).

 

Story by The Thoroughbred Report