Annual Awards
2024 Champion First Season Stallion - SUN CITY
Top Performer: Mishani Eclipse (g. 2021 – Mishani Allure). 9 starts. 1-0-1. A$126,400.
Sun City made his mark as an early-performing young two-year-old at the Brisbane summer carnival, and has emerged as a trail blazer among his young stallion rivals by being crowned Champion First Season Stallion for Queensland. His first crop yielded four winners from 10 starters that earned A$309,015.
Runner-up was Dubious whose progeny earned A$305,740 with seven winners from 25 starters.
Sun City ran second on debut in the Listed Maribyrnong Trial at Flemington, and trainer Tony McEvoy set his sights on the 2019 Magic Millions Classic at the Gold Coast. First-up on his northern campaign he was runner-up in the Listed Phelan Ready Stakes at Doomben won by The Odyssey, and then won the Group 3 B.J. McLachlan Stakes over 1200m at that course. However, his Magic Millions campaign had to be aborted when an infected joint forced him out of training.
He returned to racing as a three-year-old and in three starts managed only a third at Sandown before being retired to stand at Dan Fletcher’s Telemon Thoroughbreds’ burgeoning breeding farm at Innisplain near Beaudesert.
Three of his four first-crop winners were from the Mike Crooks-Les Ross QTIS-focused stable – Mishani Suspect, Mishani Eclipse and Mishani Fearless.
Sun City is a son of Zoustar, winner of the Coolmore Stud Stakes and Golden Rose Stakes at Group 1 level as a three-year-old and on retirement the leading Australian first-season sire in 2017-18.
2024 Champion 2YO Stallion - KOBAYASHI
Top 2YO Performer: Mishani Aloha (f. 2021 – Hawaiian Princess). 6 starts. 3-0-0. A$525,550.
Consistent winner producer Kobayashi from Aquis Farm has secured the Champion 2YO Stallion award with his third crop yielding eight winners from 16 starters and earning A$1,459,545.
Runner-up was Better Than Ready whose juveniles earned A$821,395 and numbered nine winners.
Kobayashi’s 2YO flag-bearers were Mishani Lily, which won the Listed Dalrello Stakes at Eagle Farm and three other city races, and Mishani Aloha which won the QTIS 2YO Jewel at the Gold Coast. It was the second successive season that a youngster by Kobayashi had won the Jewel, as Mishani Aloha emulated the 2023 feat by Mishani Royale.
As the “Mishani” prefix indicates, five of his winners were home-bred by leviathan owner Mike Crooks at his well-appointed stud and stable complex at Veresdale near Beaudesert and all were trained by Les Ross as they targeted the QTIS-boosted prizemoney for Queensland-bred two-year-olds.
Kobayashi became the first son of I Am Invincible to stand at stud in Queensland when Aquis acquired him in 2018 for its Canunga farm after a light racing career that yielded two wins at successive starts at Caulfield including the Listed Thoroughbred Club Cup.
2024 Champion Stallion - BETTER THAN READY
Top Performer: Chrysaor (g. 2020 – New Wings). 8 starts. 1-1-0. A$668,775.
Better Than Ready has gone back-to-back by being crowned 2024 Queensland Champion Stallion. He sired 141 winners of 237 races and $9,396,662 in the season. Runner-up was his keen rival Spirit Of Boom whose progeny earned $9,200,085.
Better Than Ready’s highest earning competitor was the Chris Waller-trained Chrysaor which won the Group 2 Callander-Presnell Stakes at the Randwick spring carnival.
As the 2023-24 season came to a close, earnings by Better Than Ready’s progeny soared above $44 million on the back of 350 winners of 995 races.
Chrysaor became his 10th black-type winner following the earlier Group and Listed successes of Apache Chase, Alpine Edge, Tiger Legend, Skirt The Law, The Vowels, Better Get Set, The Odyssey, Better Reflection and Jagged Edge.
Better Than Ready was foaled in 2009, sired by the shuttle stallion More Than Ready who was leading sire of 2YOs in the USA in 2010 and leading sire of 2YOs in Australia in 2007-08 and 2008-09.
Trained by Kelly Schweida in Brisbane, he won one from two as a two-year-old before a remarkable season at three when he won five races including the Listed Brian Crowley Stakes at Randwick in a track record 1.08.19 for 1200m and the Listed Falvelon Handicap and Mick Dittman Plate at Doomben before finishing third in the Group 1 BTC Cup at Doomben. At four, he won two of three starts including the Listed Keith Noud.
He was retired to stand at Lyndhurst Stud, Warwick, in 2016 in syndicated ownership managed by his largest shareholder Richard Forster of Yarramalong Stud and Jeff and Griff Kruger of Lyndhurst Stud.
To date, he has earned six Queensland Stallion awards: Champion First Season Stallion and Champion 2YO Stallion in 2018-19, Champion 2YO Stallion again in 2020-21and 2022-23, and now for the past two years Champion Stallion.
2024 Broodmare of the Year - Ready To Rule
Top Performer: Southport Tycoon (c. 2020 – by Written Tycoon). 8 starts. 3-3-0. A$872,250.
Ready To Rule has earned Queensland’s Broodmare of the Year award on the back of her colt, Southport Tycoon’s success in the Gr 1 Australian Guineas and other performances at Gr 2 and Gr 3 level.
When Southport Tycoon won the Australian Guineas at Flemington, it was a wonderful result for Daandine Stud, as he had been sired by Daandine-bred Written Tycoon from the stud’s US-bred Ready To Rule (by More Than Ready).
Southport Tycoon, a $300,000 yearling, won the Guineas after being runner-up in the Gr 2 Australia Stakes at Moonee Valley and the Gr 2 Autumn Stakes at Caulfield. Earlier in his three-year-old season Southport Tycoon won at Geelong and Sandown at his first two starts and then ran second in the Gr 3 Guineas Prelude at Caulfield.
He became the second Gr 1 winner produced by Daandine and sired by Written Tycoon in recent years, following on the success of Capitalist in the 2016 Golden Slipper.
Daandine has been part of the Queensland breeding industry for the past 100 years since being founded by current principal Jan Clark’s great-grandfather.
Jan Clark purchased Ready To Rule in 2015 for $260,000 in the mare’s first season at stud. The mare has a pedigree rich in black-type, being a sister to the US Listed winner Grace And Power, the dam of Gr 1 VRC Darley Classic winner Delectation and grand-dam of Blue Diamond Stakes winner Artorius.
The other 2024 Broodmare Finalists included:
Wilrace Pty Ltd’s Cellargirl (dam of Gr1 Queensland Oaks placed Miss Joelene),
Hutchins Thoroughbreds’ Gaudeamus (dam of Gr 1 Hong Kong Golden Mile winner Golden Sixty),
Yarramalong Stud’s New Wings (dam of Gr 2 Callander-Presnell winner Chrysaor)
To produce a Group winner is every breeders’ dream. Congratulations to all involved!
You can read about the awards criteria here TBQA Awards Criteria - Thoroughbred Breeders Queensland Association (queenslandbreeders.com.au)
