Our outfit has made a very pleasing start to the 2008 breeding season with matters mostly going to plan. Commencing a new season on the right terms generally makes life easier for all concerned, whether you are a studmaster managing stallions for maximum effect or a broodmare owner looking for a successful mating…

Riverdene Stud is constantly preaching the effectiveness of placing dry mares under lights during the run-in to a new covering season. Thankfully, most clients take heed.

During the preliminaries of the latest breeding season, some 75 mares were put under lights at Riverdene Stud and the outcome has been a win-win situation for us all.

Of the 75 mares afforded this tried and tested procedure, 72 had been covered before the end of September. Moreover, some 90 percent of all pregnancy tests so far undertaken have proven positive.

The obvious consequences are twofold.

Firstly, a broodmare owner gets an early foal and should continue to reap the benefits with the mare over many future seasons.

Secondly, the workload of stallions is spread over an even amount of time between September 1 and Christmas in some cases.

Breeders with dry mares just arriving on the property to be served have missed out on these considerable advantages. Many of these mares have not begun to cycle and it may be several weeks before they are ready to serve. Owners are well advised to act much earlier in future seasons in order to help themselves.

The progeny of ZARIZ continues to go from strength-to-strength and had another good month of success in September.

Besides Monterey Road winning a nice metropolitan race in Sydney, Ace in the Hole and Grey Thunder opened up their winning accounts with victories in maiden events staged in different racing regions of New South Wales.

On the BOBS activity listing for the new season, ZARIZ sits in 10th position with bonuses of $15,000 from three positive results. Notably, fellow Riverdene Stud stallion HALF HENNESSY sits just half-a-dozen places behind him with $10,000 worth of bonuses for the same period.

ENEMY OF AVERAGE’s half-brother Exceed And Excel enjoys a worldwide profile these days after being a first season sire sensation during the 2008 European flat racing season as well as domestically. Here are two examples to take on board…

In the Group 1 Newmarket Cheveley Park Stakes, England’s leading juvenile contest of the year for 2-year-old fillies, Exceed And Excel is likely to be represented by not one but two runners with a winning chance.
In addition, at the 2008 Tattersalls October Sales this month, Exceed And Excel has a bay colt entered from an Australian-bred daughter of Sunday Silence closely-related to this year‘s Epsom Derby winner New Approach.

PEDIGREE OF THE MONTH: Monterey Road

Monterey Road, a son of ZARIZ successful on a Sydney metropolitan program staged at Canterbury Park in September, has a pedigree with numerous discussion points for Riverdene Stud clients.

For the second time in three months our ‘Pedigree of the Month’ is a notable winner by ZARIZ produced from a mare carrying both Biscay and Lunchtime (GB) in the top half of her tabulation. This is very encouraging for broodmare owners with daughters of both MARWINA and HIGH ROLLING, stallions which are continually looking to be very suitable partners for our son of Mukaddamah (USA).

Monterey Road’s female line traces directly back to a celebrated New Zealand mare by the name of Rosehill (NZ). In addition to producing one of the great weight-for-age performers of the 1980s in Prince Ruling, she also threw the stakes winning fillies Rosie’s Girl (NZ) and Lavendar Hill (NZ). The latter proved to be an outstanding broodmare herself, producing two stakes winners, in particular Khamacruz (NZ) who end-up standing at stud at Tarcutta.

Any broodmare owner with a daughter of Khamacruz (NZ) from his time in the region should definitely be looking to use ZARIZ in light of Monterey Road’s performances.