There is good reason to believe that Riverdene Stud is currently standing the finest selection of stallions in the outfit’s history following developments taking place on a number of fronts. Though the 2009 breeding season is still some months away, we feel that our roster is well placed to cater for the needs of a wide cross section of broodmare owners when the time arrives…

The announcement of BON HOFFA retiring to Riverdene Stud has been particularly well received, with the news making for countless columns in industry journals and on many internet sites.

The Group 1 winning grandson of Danzig was a tremendously popular racehorse during his time on the track and possesses the attributes needed to prove a huge success as a sire.

We can confirm that BON HOFFA is to stand his first season at stud at the introductory service fee of $8,800 (inc. 10% GST).

Under the current economic climate and with the thoroughbred industry set to go through some turbulent times ahead, we believe that BON HOFFA represents genuine value for broodmare owners.

After all, there will not be too many Group 1 winning freshman stallions standing the 2009 covering season at a four-figure fee.

The stud would like to thank the many broodmare owners that gave ENEMY OF AVERAGE such a successful start to his tenure at Riverdene Stud.

Acquired this time last year and initially made available to our clientele for season 2008, ENEMY OF AVERAGE proceeded to cover no fewer than 134 mares in his first stud season on our books.

Of course, ENEMY OF AVERAGE’s introduction coincided with the brilliant stud start of his half-brother Exceed And Excel, who, if anything, continues to go from strength-to-strength.

In fact, Exceed And Excel was responsible for his first Group 1 winner recently when Reward For Effort won the 2009 MRC Blue Diamond Stakes.

Not surprisingly, Exceed And Excel has surged to a clear lead in the second season sires listing for 2008/09 and has already been represented by six individual stakes winners of seven stakes races.

The ongoing performance of Exceed And Excel only augurs well for those among you who recognised the considerable potential ENEMY OF AVERAGE offered in his debut season at Riverdene.

The progeny of ZARIZ is proving to be more and more prolific and is now frequently among the winners posted in Australia on a daily basis.

One recent occurrence that best illustrates this point is a double double posted by the offspring of ZARIZ towards the backend of February.

On a Friday afternoon card at Queanbeyan, both Zaratone and Zate won contests, the former over 1100 metres, the latter at a distance equivalent to the metric mile.

Just 24 hours later, Izgrey took a Maiden over 1600 metres at Wagga Wagga, before Wyora scored over 1400 metres on the same program.

Notably, ZARIZ had eight individual winners for the month, with the distances of their victories ranging from 800 metres up to 1600 metres.

Riverdene Stud would like to take this opportunity to extend our congratulations to trainer Bede Murray on the Group 1 New Zealand Derby winning performance of Coniston Bluebird.

In a brilliant piece of placement, Bede sent the 3-year-old over the Tasman a few weeks back and had the son of Scenic (Ire) cherry ripe for the Kiwi Blue Riband after a preliminary outing against the locals.

Of course, it was Bede that also trained HALF HENNESSY for his Group 1 Derby victory in Queensland, showing a similar degree of horseman and timing.

The progeny of HALF HENNESSY are also beginning to hit their straps, five winning during the month of February. This quintet included a 2-year-old winner from the stallion’s second crop, a youngster by the name of Halfashot that won over 1010 metres at Moruya.

Bede has HALF HENNESSY’s 3-year-old daughter Lavished heading towards the AJC Oaks over the coming weeks and we wish him the best of luck in his pursuit of another 2009 Classic.