Alamosa Stock On The Rise

By John Berry

There are promising young stallions aplenty in Australia, but it can be harder for New Zealand studmasters to attract the next generation of star sires. The shoes of horses such as Zabeel (NZ) (Sir Tristram), O'Reilly (NZ) (Last Tycoon (Ire)) and Volksraad (GB) (Green Desert (USA)) take some filling – as, indeed, do those of the one-time shuttler Montjeu (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) who was a massive boon to the NZ breeding scene during his time at Windsor Park Stud . Happily, though, there are some good young sires working their way up through the ranks. These include both Tavistock (NZ) and Alamosa (NZ), sons of Montjeu and O'Reilly respectively who have both had some good recent results. Alamosa enjoyed a red-letter day on Saturday when siring the winners of both stakes races at Ellerslie, Alamer (NZ) and Stolen Dance (NZ). For Tavistock, November was ushered in at Flemington by the G1 Victoria Derby victory of his son Tarzino (NZ). Now the month is ending with the success of Tavago (NZ) in the Wellington Stakes at Otaki.

The shape of Alamosa's racing career spoke volumes for the balance of power in Australasian racing. Initially he did about as much as even the most exacting examiner could require in New Zealand at both two and three. In his first season he won one of the country's two Group 1 juvenile races and finished third in the other. At three he was beaten a head in the G1 NZ 2,000 Guineas before landing Group 1 victories against older rivals both in handicap company (in the Thorndon Mile) and at weight-for-age (in the Otaki-Maori WFA). However, Alamosa's connections felt that their horse, particularly with his stud career in mind, needed to win a Group 1 race in Australia, preferably in either Melbourne or Sydney, to be established at the highest levels. Consequently he left Peter Mackay's Matamata stable in advance of his 4-year-old campaign in the 2008/'09 season, joining Mick Price's team in Melbourne. When he won the G1 Toorak H. at Caulfield in the spring, therefore, it was a case of mission accomplished.

With the oldest of his offspring now aged five, Alamosa is well on his way to becoming part of New Zealand's bloodstock establishment. He made a very smart start in the 2012/'13 season when he was New Zealand's leading first-season sire by every reckoning; progeny earnings, individual winners and races won. His first-crop daughter Kirramosa (NZ) then consolidated this excellent start the following spring when her trainer John Sargent sent her to Melbourne, a venture which saw her land the time-honoured quick-fire double of the G2 Wakeful S. and the G1 Victoria Oaks at the VRC Carnival at Flemington. The good start to Alamosa's stud career is a joy to those who admire the on-going influence of great mares because he, like Tavistock, descends from a true blue hen. Tavistock, as his name implies, is part of arguably the biggest British breeding success story of the modern era. Mrs Moss (GB) (Reform) was not an obviously top-level prospect when Lady Tavistock started to breed from her at Bloomsbury Stud at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, but she turned out to be a gold-mine. Mrs Moss bred 11 winners including the 1986 Japan Cup winner Jupiter Island (GB) (St Paddy) as well as the stakes-winning juveniles Pushy (GB) (Sharpen Up), Precocious (GB) (Mummy's Pet) and Krayyan (Tower Walk). Several of her daughters became very good producers too. The Bloomsbury Stud NZ-bred Tavistock, a Group 1 winner in 2010 of the Waikato Sprint, is a grandson of her non-winning daughter Pedestal (GB) (High Line).

Alamosa too descends from a very special mare. His fifth dam Chicquita (Aus) (Blank) will never be forgotten as long films remain of the Melbourne Cup field racing past Chicquita Lodge along the far side of Flemington racecourse; she was so good that her trainer Tony Lopes named the stable after her. Like Kirramosa, Chicquita won both the Wakeful S. and the VRC Oaks, but she won 14 other races too including the VATC Thousand Guineas, and she finished second in both the G1 Caulfield and G1 Melbourne Cups at four. She did equally well at stud, breeding 1964 Golden Slipper winner Eskimo Prince (Aus) (Todman) and 1962 Melbourne Cup runner-up Comicquita (Aus), to whose sire Comic Court (Aus) (Powerscourt) she had finished second in the Melbourne Cup. Starquita, the result of her mating with five-time champion sire Star Kingdom (Ire) in 1958, was thus the best bred horse in Australia of her day, and she ranks as Alamosa's fourth dam.

Alamer, one of Alamosa's recent stakes winners, also descends from a champion. Her Irish Group 3-winning dam Clerio (GB) (Soviet Star (USA)) came to New Zealand after breeding several winners in Europe, and that was a kind of homecoming for her. Her granddam La Mer (NZ) (Copenhagen (GB)) still ranks as one of the greatest fillies ever to race in New Zealand before spending her stud career at Airlie Stud in Ireland, becoming ancestress of several top-liners including Nahrain (GB) (Selkirk (GB)). These recent results have been particularly good news for Te Runga Stud of Pukekohe, whose draft of yearlings at January's NZB Select Yearling Sale at Karaka will include a colt by Tavistock out of Clerio.