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International Stallion Updates

3 minute read

Librettist; Echo Of Light; Cactus Ridge; Scat Daddy; Giant Oak; Main Aim

* DUAL G1 winner LIBRETTIST has been transferred to Italy to stand at Allevamento Fattoria di Renaccino this year.

Librettist (Danzig) was retired to Dalham Hall Stud at Newmarket in 2007 and had been based at Haras du Logis in Normandy for the last three years.

Librettist began shuttling to Australia in 2008 before transferring to Westbury Stud in New Zealand.

A half-brother to Dubai Destination, he won twice as a 2YO but was sidelined at three.

Back on deck in 2006 he recorded front-running G1 victories in the Prix Jacques le Marois and Prix du Moulin.

Librettist has two northern crops racing for 39 individual winners at a 32% strike-rate. His top colt Libranno won at G2 in the 2010 July Stakes and Richmond Stakes and returned last year to claim

G3 victories in the Criterion Stakes and Supreme Stakes

Librettist is already off the mark in Australia with his first-crop youngster Carried Away winning on debut in December.

There are 7 Librettist yearlings entered for the 2012 NZB Karaka Select and Festival Sales next month.

* PROMISING first season sire ECHO OF LIGHT was put down on January 3 after fracturing a hind leg in a paddock accident at Kildangan Stud in Ireland.

He was one of only two sons of the late brilliant Dubai Millennium due to stand in Europe in 2012.

The Group 2 winner had just turned 10. To date, his first crop includes four winners led by the stakes placed Sound Advice.

* SUCCESSFUL Kentucky sire CACTUS RIDGE will stand the 2012 breeding season at Calumet Farm in Kentucky, according to an announcement made Jan. 3.

He stood at Vinery in Kentucky the last two years and at Walmac Farm for six years prior to that.

A graded stakes winner who was undefeated in four starts as a 2-year-old, Cactus Ridge is an 11-year-old son of Hennessy.

He went to stud in 2004 and to date has sired 13 stakes winners and 38 stakes horses in five crops to race. His top runners include Canadian champion Hollywood Hit, G1 winner Hot Cha Cha and multiple stakes winner Peyote Patty.

In 2011 Cactus Ridge was represented by 17 stakes horses, including five stakes winners.

* ASHFORD Stud's SCAT DADDY took the 2011 US first-crop sires' championship and also topped the freshman list by winners (29), repeat winners (seven), stakes winners (five), graded/group winners (three) and stakes horses (11).

The son of Johannesburg was represented by the UK Group winner Daddy Long Legs in the G2 Royal Lodge Stakes and another son, Shared Property in the G3 Arlington-Washington Futurity.

Hard Spun, ranked second on the first-crop sires' list with $1,510,235 in progeny earnings and was runner-up by number of stakes horses with nine. Hard Spun also sired a G2 winner and a graded winner.

The deceased Lawyer Ron ranked third on the freshman list. His runners were led by Drill, who won the G1 Del Mar Futurity and ran second in the G1 Norfolk Stakes.

The top three were followed by Gainesway Farm pair Corinthian and Hat Trick. Rounding out the freshman sires whose runners earned $500,000-plus were Flashy Bull, Sunriver, High Cotton, Master Command, Street Sense, Saint Anddan and English Channel.

* MULTIPLE US G1 winner GIANT OAK has been retired and will stand at Millennium Farms this year.

Bred and owned by the Virginia H. Tarra Trust, Giant Oak won two G1 events on dirt in the the 2010 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs and 2011 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park.

Giant Oak also won on turf and synthetic while placing in 15 graded events including the G2 Breeders' Cup Marathon at Churchill Downs in his last start.

* DUAL G3 winner MAIN AIM has finished quarantine in South Africa in preparation for his stallion career at Highlands Farm Stud near Cape Town.

A dual winner of the John of Gaunt Stakes split Fleeting Spirit and J J The Jet Plane when second in the G1 July Cup. He was also placed in the Duke of York Stakes, Celebration Mile and Challenge Stakes.

Main Aim is out of the G3-winning Selkirk mare Orford Ness and is a half-brother to stakes-winners Home Affairs and Weightless. He is the second son of Oasis Dream to stand in South Africa after Italian G1 winner Querari.

Main Aim will stand at Highlands alongside Antonius Pius, Great Britain and Windrush.