REIGNING USA Champion First Season sire and A.P. Indy son Congrats will shuttle to Vinery from 2011.
He becomes only the second ever stakeswinner by two-time Champion USA Sire A.P Indy to be imported to Australia after Darley resident Bernardini who finished fourth on the 2010 USA First Season Sires table behind Congrats.
Originally based at Vinery Florida, Congrats proved to be the surprise packet among North America’s elite freshman, many of whom, were afforded far more opportunity than he was in his debut season.
And yet by the end of the 2010 season Congrats had earned the Champion Freshman tag with;
Sired Group One winners Turbulent Descent and Wickedly Perfect from his first crop
Sired 15 individual stakes horses from his first crop
Sired 22 individual 2YO winners in his first crop
Crowned Champion USA First Season Sire (2010)
“Congrats was a Group 2 winner who started his stud career off at Vinery in Florida before moving to the Kentucky farm” Vinery Stud general manager Peter Orton explained. “The quality and class that he put into his stock has obviously come through and now he is getting phenomenal results.
“For him to be Champion First Season with 15 stakes horses including two Group One winners is a remarkable performance.”
Orton said Congrats satisfied a number of crucial criteria that Vinery look for when adding a stallion to their roster, not least that his own sire, A.P Indy, is a giant in breeding.
“A.P. Indy has been one of the great sires in America for a good while and we have been keen to get one of his sons,” says Orton.”And we have already seen the benefits of Bernardini and of course Congrats himself who was Champion First Season sire.”
Congrats is bred on the same cross as Pulpit and Malibu Moon, the leading sire sons of A.P. Indy, and like him, out of mares by Mr. Prospector.
“Congrats is from the La Troienne line which we have done well out of with More Than Ready. It is a really well balanced pedigree and we think it should work quite well down here.”He is essentially an outcross,” Orton noted, “and that has been our modus operandi in the past when choosing to stand a stallion. Vinery have always looked for an outcross and this one has been very successful already.”
Pedigree and race performance aside, Orton stressed that the underlying motive for adding Congrats to their line-up was his record.
“Proven stallions like Congrats reduce the amount of uncertainty that you get with unproven horses – and he is a particularly good looking horses and has obviously stamped that in his stock as a sire and upgraded his mares significantly.”
CONGRATS PDF – ESSENTIAL INFORMATION, PHOTO’S, SIRE’S TABLES & RACE RECORD.
