AT what point does a stallion go from supersire to breed shaper?

With well over 100 stakeswinners, champion sire sons and Group 1 producing daughters, More Than Ready is tapping on the door.

His efforts to land a Group 1 double via one of his own progeny (Samaready) and as the maternal grandsire of Rupert Clark winner Rebel Dane stamps him as a stallion whose legacy may be bigger than once thought.

More Than Ready is the youngest stallion among them Top 10 and 20 ranked broodmare sires in Australia in 2013/14 aged 16.

Daughters of More Than Ready have supplied just 34 runners so far this season, well below the 118 starters of 9th placed Last Tycoon and Woodman’s 94 underneath him.

He boasts a 61.4 percent winners-to-runners with three stakeswinners among his more than 50 individual winners including the aforementioned Rebel Dane, last season’s Blue Diamond Stakes winner Miracles of Life and recent Mona Lisa Stakes winner and $600,000 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling graduate, Impetuous.

More Than Ready’s sire sons are few in number but large in stature.

Widden is home to the Runner-up Leading First Season Sire, Sebring, while Vinery’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Pluck is seen as a short term partner but long term replacement for his sire.

That said, there is no challenge to More Than Ready’s authority at Vinery.

He is the leader and the magnet for some of the best mares in Australia and New Zealand or Bollinger case – America.

Bollinger (by Dehere/Bint Marscay) carried Vinery’s green and white silks to win the 2003 Coolmore Classic.

She left for Kentucky two months later spending the next four years there visiting stallions like Gone West, Smart Strike and Congrats’ champion sire A. P. Indy.

That mating resulted in multiple Group winner Friesan Fire who started favourite in the 2009 Kentucky Derby on the strength of his 7 1/4-lens Louisiana Derby win.

“It’s great to have Bollinger back here at Scone,” Vinery’s Conor Phelan said.

“Daughters of Golden Slipper winners are hard to come by more so ones that have thrown international class Group winners like she has.”

Bollinger foaled a More Than Ready colt last season and is due to foal to the same sire later this month.

 

HOOFNOTE: THE fastest of the three 2YO trial winners at Tuesday’s Rosehill heats was the Testa Rossa colt out of More Than Ready mare Blizzardly named Unencumbered.

The colt was purchased for $70,000 by trainer Bjorn Baker at the 2013 Magic Millions Yearling Sale.