Patience Rewarded In The Case Of Monsun

There are few stallions who have played a more significant part in a single country's breeding industry than Monsun (Ger) has in Germany. His name has come to dominate the thoroughbred scene in his home nation, just as Sunday Silence did in his adopted homeland, Japan.

But every great stallion needs his legacy to be maintained through his sons. Monsun's strength as a sire was his ability to impart soundness, stamina and durability to his offspring, and in many ways this has also been his downfall in attempting to establish a dynasty of Flat stallions. In a bloodstock world so increasingly blinkered in its pursuit of speed and precocity, these qualities have become overlooked and under-valued when it comes to supporting stallions who actually have a chance of producing a top-class middle-distance horse. And that is exactly what Monsun did with frequency.

To the frustration of some German breeders, a number of Monsun's best colts have ended up standing as National Hunt stallions in Britain, Ireland and France. Boosted by the success of Network (Ger), sire of the outstanding Sprinter Sacre (Fr), the GI Breeders' Cup Turf and G1 Deutsches Derby winner Shirocco (Ger) was sold by Darley in 2014 to stand at Glenview Stud, where he has routinely covered three-figure books of mares. His popularity in that sphere has been greatly enhanced by his Champion Hurdle-winning daughter Annie Power (Ire).

Two more top-class sons, Getaway (Ger) and Schiaparelli (Ger)––with a total of 21 victories between them in 43 starts––went straight to the National Hunt division in the same year, the former to Coolmore's Grange Stud, where he was the busiest stallion in all of Ireland and Britain in 2014, covering 295 mares. Schiaparelli retired to Overbury Stud in Britain, where a smaller pool of jumps mares means he will struggle to match Getaway for number of runners.

Shirocco's brother September Storm (Ger) is also gaining a foothold in the jumps market, as is Gentlewave (Ire), who moved to Yorton Farm in Britain after spending eight seasons at Normandy's Haras du Thenney.

Arcadio (Ger) has covered huge books of jumping mares, and he has been joined at Arctic Tack Stud by another son of Monsun, Aizavoski (Ire), while Ocovango (Ger) has recently been recruited to another Coolmore wing, Beeches Stud, and has his first yearlings this year.

Darley's French base at Haras du Logis retains two of Monsun's better Flat hopes. Manduro (Ger), who won Group races between eight and 12 furlongs during his four seasons in training and was Horse of the Year in 2007, continues to be under-rated despite being the sire of six Group 1 winners, while Masterstroke, who has his first runners this season, can boast Galileo and Sea The Stars as his close relations.

Despite Monsun having been responsible for a German champion sire in Samum, the hunt goes on for a son who can come close to emulating his father's exploits.

Alexandra Bresges-Jung, whose family's Gestut Zoppenbroich bred Monsun's sire, the German Triple Crown winner Konigsstuhl (Ger), conjures up images of Highlander when she says that she believes, “There can be only one.” She has a point.

Sadler's Wells passed the baton to Galileo (Ire), Sunday Silence to Deep Impact (JPN), but who will be Monsun's most significant heir? As we've seen, he's not short of representatives at stud. At last count there were at least 21 sons scattered around Europe and one––Fiorente (Ire)––at Sun Stud in Australia. That number has been boosted by three this year with Vadamos (Fr) being an intriguing addition to the ranks of Tally-Ho Stud in Ireland, while Triple Threat (Fr) joins Haras du Mont Goubert in France and Protectionist (Ger) bolsters the home guard by retiring to Gestut Rottgen.

But at present it is another German-based stallion who looks to have a decent chance of becoming the heir apparent, and that is Gestut Fahrhof's Maxios (GB). The Niarchos Family homebred from the family of Machiavellian was a sharper sort than his Arc-winning half-brother Bago (Fr) (Nashwan), recording his eight wins between a mile and 10 furlongs, all in France for trainer Jonathan Pease. Remaining in training until he was five, he rewarded his owner-bredeer with two Group 1 victories that season––in the Prix du Moulin and Prix d'Ispahan.

Of course, Maxios has yet to have a runner, so it's dangerous even to start to compare him to his father, but if he fails, it will not be for lack of decent support and good management. The Fahrhof team has been pro-active in its approach, acknowledging that many breeders outside Germany may not have the chance to see Maxios, so they brought him to the National Stud in Newmarket during the December Sales of 2015 and he accompanied his stud-mate Pastorius (Ger) (Soldier Hollow {GB}) to Deauville during the Arqana December Sale that same year.

A decent number of his first crop made it to sales outside Germany and were well received, but it was at last year's BBAG Sale in September that the buzz really started. Maxios's explosive debut at Iffezheim included three top-ten yearlings and a total of 16 sold for an average just shy of €74,000. Buyers included South Africa's Mayfair Speculators and Australian Bloodstock, who won the Melbourne Cup with Protectionist and bought a Maxios colt out of a half-sister to GI Man O'War S. winner Wake Forest (Ger) (Sir Percy {GB}) who has been sent into training with Andreas Wohler.

With the Niarchos family having retained a significant share in Maxios, and support from many of Germany's leading owner-breeders, there will be a decent number of well-bred individuals who have not yet been seen in public. This year he will have his first runners and, as important as it is for any stallion to make a good early impression, Fahrhof's General Manager Stefan Ullrich is not overly concerned if he doesn't have masses of juvenile winners.

“It's much more important here to have a Derby runner––that's what many of our clients want,” he says, refreshingly.

With luck, it won't just be next year's German Derby in which Maxios will be represented as he also has six entries for Epsom at this early stage.

In finishing runner-up to Lando (Ger) (Acatenango {Ger}) in the 1993 Desutsches Derby, Monsun himself failed to land the Classic won by his sire, broodmare sire, three of his sons and various grandsons. With members of his final crop having just turned four there will be no more Classic chances for his sons but Monsun's influence as a broodmare sire remains strong, not least through the herd of mares at Gestut Schlenderhan, where he stood his entire stud career until his death in September 2012 at the age of 22.

It is entirely appropriate that a stallion of Monsun's calibre should have served his country so well from Germany's oldest stud farm. Founded in 1869, Schlenderhan has remained under the ownership of the same family throughout its near 150-year existence. The historic farm's current owner Baron Georg von Ullmann, in whose colours Monsun and a number of his most successful offspring raced, is the great grandson of the stud's founder Baron Simon von Oppenheim.

One of Schlenderhan's most prodigious thoroughbred families, that of the homebred German Derby and Oaks winner Asterblute, is very much still in existence at the farm and has been hugely influential via the great mare's fifth-generation descendant Allegretta, the dam of Urban Sea (Miswaki), Allez Les Trois (Riverman) and King's Best (Kingmambo).

Schlenderhan currently stands just one stallion, Adlerflug (Ger) (In The Wings {Ire}) and he too represents this family. His third dam Anatevka is also the dam of Allegretta. Two homebred stallions stand just down the road in Bergheim at Gestut Erftmuhle, including Allegretta's grandson Tertullian and his son Guiliani (Ire), out of the Monsun mare Guadalupe (Ger) and thus from the family of Getaway.

Schlenderhan's General Manager Gebhard Apelt is quite candid in his assessment of Monsun's contribution to the continuation of the farm. “If he hadn't been here we would be bankrupt,” he says quite simply.

“Monsun effectively lived on an island––he was a complete outcross. When I saw his first two-year-olds in training and they were such easy gallopers I knew he would have a good chance. He had the champion two-year-old Sommernacht in his first crop of only 28 foals. But it is important to remember that they got so much better at three and older and it was important not to push them too hard too soon.”

The virtue of patience with the stock of Monsun has been amply illustrated in three of the last four runnings of the Melbourne Cup. The Ballymacoll Stud-bred export Fiorente was second in the race in 2012 and went one better the following year, while Protectionist and Almandin, who were reared together in the same paddock at Schlenderhan, triumphed in 2014 and 2016 respectively.

Throughout their careers, the Cup-winning trio chalked up cumulative earnings of almost £8.5million, and each changed hands privately as horses in training, presumably providing their breeders with a handsome profit in the process. Certainly worth the wait.