Testa Rossa’s ranking amongst the most successful sire’s in Australia by number of individual winners and earnings last season has helped cement his reputation as the “trainer’s sire”.

His tally of 124 winners, while eight less than the previous season’s mark, was enough to emulate his 2009-10 final standing in the top five most prolific stallions on the national roster.

One man with his finger firmly on the pulse of what breeders and buyers are thinking at any given time is William Inglis and Son director and auctioneer Jonathan D’Arcy.
He agrees with Testa Rossa‘s hard-won reputation as a favourite with the trainers.

“One of Testa Rossa‘s endearing features is that he has no sex bias, he gets colts and fillies,” D’Arcy said.
“They are good boned horses that can race at two and win two-year-old races, but they train on.
“You often see Testa Rossa‘s winning races at four, five and six years of age, which is what trainers are looking for – those versatile, durable sort of horses.

“Obviously he stood his first few years in Victoria, so he has got a great name down there and you do see them winning across Australia.” D’Arcy commented,
“They are just horses that most trainers who have had one have had some success with them, so they are pretty easy horses to sell when you get to a yearling sale ring.
“He’s probably got the best lot of mares that have ever visited him – those are the dams of the yearlings we are going to be selling in 2012 – so I think he’s only going to get better as a sire because he’s got better mares going to him,” D’Arcy said.
Testa Rossa enjoyed one of his most s

Successful seasons in 2010-11 in the two-year-old department, with stakeswinners on each side of the Tasman, namely Fontelina and Testa Secret.
He also sired the nation’s equal top-ranked two-yearold filly, Pane in the Glass, who placed in the AJC Sires’ Produce Stakes and Champagne Stakes during the Sydney autumn carnival.

The Australian component of Testa Rossa‘s stakeswinning pair, Fontelina, lines-up in tomorrow’s Group 2 San Domenico Stakes at Rosehill and he will attempt to emulate his sire’s 1999 success.
Fontelina won the Listed BRC The Phoenix Stakes (1350m) on May 28 and finished third behind stablemate Smart Missile in a 728m barrier trial at Randwick last Friday.