Melbourne Cup winners, once shunned as commercial breeding prospects, are now becoming shining lights for the future of the staying breed in Australia.
The emergence of Fiorente, the 2013 Melbourne Cup winner, as a sire of classic talent adds to the breeding resurgence being enjoyed by horses who have won Australia’s greatest race over the last decade.
Also at stud and receiving popular support from broodmare owners are the 2009 winner Shocking, 2010 winner Americain and 2014 winner Protectionist.
Shocking, by Winx’s late sire Street Cry, has been a success standing at Rich Hil Stud in New Zealand while Americain, the US-bred son of Dynaformer, is proving a commercial success for Victoria’s Swettenham Stud.
Protectionist, like Fiorente a son of the influential German sire Monsun, stands at Gestut Rottgen in the country of his birth.
Monsun is also the sire of the 2016 Melbourne Cup winner Almandin and his sons may well become a major source of local staying talent as another of his sons Vadamos is standing with Shocking at Rich Hill Stud in New Zealand.
For now the focus is on Fiorente after his first crop three-year-old son Stars Of Carrum became his first stakes winner when he burst into Victoria Derby considerations with his maiden win in the G2 Drummond Golf Vase at Moonee Valley last Saturday for trainer Robbie Laing.
Stars Of Carrum is set to back up in the $2 million Derby at Flemington on Saturday in a bid to give Laing his second win in the classic after his success with Polanski in 2013.
Stars Of Carrum was placed in the Listed Hill Smith Stakes in Adelaide at his previous start on October 13 and will join another first crop son of Fiorente, the recent winner Alessandro trained by Robbie Griffiths, in the Derby field.
Stars Of Carrum, a $75,000 Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale purchase by Laing, is the second winner from two to race out of the Anabaa mare Signoret, a seven-time winner who won from 1050m to 1900m.
Stars Of Carrum Photo by Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images
Stars Of Carrum’s second dam Jameela is a G2 winner by another Melbourne Cup winner Jeune and is a sister to Hobart Cup winner Jeune’s Mark. His third dam is also by yet another Melbourne Cup winner At Talaq.
The versatile Fiorente is standing at Sun Stud in Victoria where there is a strong belief that Monsun’s bloodlines can reinvigorate the staying breed in Australia.
"The idea of Monsun blood coming to Australia I think is the catalyst for the resurrection for breeding staying horses,” Sun Stud’s Mark Lindsay told TDN.
"Anybody who says we can’t breed a stayer in Australia is wrong, it is just that we haven’t had the right approach.
“Australia has had this whole perception that Melbourne Cup winners don’t work at stud but there is hope that the industry can focus on diversifying, not just on two-year-old speed."
Fiorente was a wfa winner at 1600m in the G2 Dato Tan Chin Nam Stakes and 2000m in the G1 Australian Cup and he also finished second in the WS Cox Plate at 2040m.
He had just one 2YO winner last season from only 13 starters but is making his mark now his progeny are coming to the fore as expected as three-year-olds with three winners in the last two weeks.
