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The National Stud – Home of Stradivarius

03/01/2023

Discover Newmarket welcomes Stradivarius to the National Stud as new tour season opens.

 Never has a season of guided tours of the National Stud begun with such excitement! Yes, the mighty Stradivarius is now one of the resident stallions and will no doubt be an enormous draw for visitors this year.

Tours re-open on Friday 17th  February and run every Friday, Saturday and Sunday until the end of October. Priced at £15 per adult and £35 for a family of four. Alternatively, private tours can be booked throughout the year, on a date of your choice, for just a one off fee of £50 on top of the individual tour price. Click here to book.

Thank you to Martin Stevens for this comprehensive and insightful summary of all the resident stallions you could be meeting this year on a Discover Newmarket tour.

 

Stradivarius at The National Stud

Stradivarius at The National Stud

 STRADIVARIUS

Stradivarius requires no introduction to racing fans – the exceptional son of Sea The Stars is a modern racing icon with no less than 7 Group 1 wins to his name. Over his incredible seven season racing career he earned close to £3.5million in prizemoney along with two £1,000,000 bonuses courtesy of Weatherbys’ Hamilton.

The three time Ascot Gold Cup winner has settled into his new surroundings extremely well and will cover a solid book of mares in his first season. Interest from breeders has been very strong and he will also be well supported by his owner breeder Bjorn Nielsen.

Stradivarius will stand at the National Stud for a fee of £10,000 live foal.

 

Stallions at the National Stud

Stallions at the National Stud

LOPE Y FERNANDEZ

Lope Y Fernandez represents an outstanding opportunity for commercial breeders in Britain and beyond, as he ticks the boxes of pedigree, physique and performance.

Taking his breeding first, he is by Lope De Vega, who took his tally of Group 1 winners to 17 in 2022 thanks to Dreamloper, Hypothetical, Place Du Carrousel and Sweet Lady joining the roll of honour, and whose yearlings recorded an average price of around 246,000gns.

Furthermore his dam is Black Dahlia, a Listed-placed daughter of influential sire Dansili who produced four other winners including Dark Vision, who struck in the Vintage Stakes, Liffey River, a useful performer in Hong Kong, and Al Hayyah, who was Listed-placed.

As for his looks, it says it all that MV Magnier was forced to pay €900,000 to secure him at the Arqana August Yearling Sale.

Lope Y Fernandez justified that price tag by developing into a top sprinter-miler who ran with distinction at two, three and four.

He showed tremendous precocity when winning on debut at the Curragh by a wide margin and then finding only subsequent champion Pinatubo too good in the Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot. Later in his juvenile season he took the scalps of the smart Guildsman and Fort Myers to win the Round Tower Stakes.

Lope Y Fernandez raced exclusively in Group 1 company at three and finished a close second in the Prix Jean Prat, just failing to reel in Pinatubo at Chantilly, and ran third in the Irish 2,000 Guineas, Prix Maurice de Gheest and Breeders’ Cup Mile.

At four he scored in the Heritage Stakes and gave best only to another future champion in Palace Pier in the Queen Anne Stakes.

Lope Y Fernandez retired to the National Stud in 2022 with earnings of £424,000 and a well-earned reputation as a tough and versatile competitor who notched Group 1 placings in four different countries over sprint distances and a mile.

He received strong support from his partnership of owners, which comprises the National Stud, Whitsbury Manor Stud and Nick Bradley Racing, and with so much in his favour and a value fee of £8,500 it was no surprise to see outside breeders clamour for his services too.

He covered 134 mares and got 90% of them in foal in his first season in 2022. They included the dams of stakes horses Baileys Jubilee, Crackerjack King, Dubai Poet, Grey’s Monument, Gypsy Spirit, Mauiewowie, Motakhayyel, Ropey Guest, Spain Burg, Stratum and Take A Deep Breath, as well as half-sisters to stars Kodi Bear, Showcasing and Subjectivist.

That debut book should provide a solid foundation for his career as a stallion, and his fee remains at a highly competitive £8,500 for his second season in 2023.

 

Guided Tours of the National Stud

TIME TEST

Time Test has really captured the imagination of breeders, and it’s not hard to see why when you look at what he’s already achieved in his first few seasons with runners.

The beautifully bred son of emerging sire of sires Dubawi and Criterium de Saint-Cloud heroine Passage Of Time was a multiple Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed on the track for trainers Roger Charlton and Chad Brown and owner-breeder Juddmonte Farms.

His first crop of two-year-olds suggested he could be a sire of serious consequence, as a large number reached the winner’s enclosure and a phenomenal 9% of his runners notched black type, headed by stakes winners Rocchigiani, Romantic Time, Tardis and The King’s Horses, and Moyglare Stud Stakes third Sunset Shiraz.

Time Test confirmed that promise as a sophomore sire in 2022, with the tough and top-class Rocchigiani giving Germany a rare winner at Glorious Goodwood in the Thoroughbred Stakes and later selling for €575,000 at the Arqana Arc Sale, and the impressive Beresford Stakes scorer Crypto Force emerging as a legitimate Classic contender from his second crop.

The sire was also represented in the past 12 months by progressive handicapper Okeechobee, who has won three of his four starts and is seen by trainers Roger and Harry Charlton as a Group horse for the future, and wide-margin Chelmsford backend maiden winner Sea Eagle, who is in the capable hands of William Haggas.

His third crop of yearlings proved popular at the sales, with Alex Elliott paying 130,000gns for his most expensive lot, a colt from the family of Time Charter, and Gary Moore giving 100,000gns for a half-brother to Horris Hill Stakes runner-up Grey’s Monument.

Time Test has numerous well bred runners in the pipeline, thanks to sustained support from breeders since he retired to stud and a significant boost in quality in his book in the afterglow of his freshman season.

He covered 125 mares in 2020, 160 in 2021 and 181 in 2022, when his dates included top-class racemares Lavender’s Blue, Middle Club, Miss Marjurie, Most Beautiful, Pilaster, Pongee, Sariska and Ventura, and the dams of star performers Aesop’s Fables, Harlequeen, Love So Deep, Michelangelo and Vaucelles – not to mention Rocchigiani.

 

National Stud Guided Tours

National Stud Guided Tours

Time Test stands at the National Stud at a fee of £15,000 in 2023.

RAJASINGHE

Rajasinghe turned heads with an outstanding strike-rate of winners from his small first crop of two-year-olds in 2022.

Up to mid December, he had fired in seven winners from ten starters at a sensational ratio that even the prolific freshman sires Havana Grey and Sioux Nation couldn’t match.

There was plenty of quality among those runners, too.

Waiting All Night ran second in the Pat Eddery Stakes and was a close fifth in the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot, Hougoumont achieved back-to-back victories when carrying a penalty in a novice race, and Spioradalta finished in the first three in seven of his nine outings, including when second to the smart Grey’s Monument in a pair of nurseries.

It’s no surprise that Rajasinghe should be so effective as a sire of two-year-olds, as he was bred to be precocious himself and proved himself to be just that in his racing career.

He is by the brilliant sprinter Choisir, who came from Australia to take Royal Ascot by storm by winning the King’s Stand and Golden Jubilee Stakes in the same week, and is one of nine winners for his dam Bunditten, a stakes-placed two-year-old by Soviet Star out of the Listed-winning sprint juvenile Felicita.

He broke his maiden by four lengths on debut and then, like so many by his sire including Group 1 suppliers Olympic Glory and Starspangledbanner, he proved a dab hand at Royal Ascot when beating the likes of Romanised and US Navy Flag to take the Coventry Stakes in a new two-year-old course record time.

Rajasinghe has covered only small, select books throughout his stallion career so far, but has received invaluable sustained support from his owner Phil Cunningham.

He represents exceptional value for breeders looking to produce fast, early runners, standing at a fee of just £3,000 at the National Stud in 2023.

 

For more information about the Stallions and Breeding Services contact The National Stud.

 

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