Matings mix: Eureka Stud

12 min read
Queensland’s Eureka Stud has the vast majority of its mares booked to its two resident sires this spring, the booming Spirit Of Boom and the much newer Encryption. Harry McAlpine walked us through some of the farm’s strategies when it came to mapping the upcoming spring.

On the black soils of the Darling Downs, Eureka Stud is heading into the breeding season with 87 years at the wheel. It’s a long time to be in business, and the steady rhythms of season after season have brought a surefootedness to the McAlpine family.

After years of unspeakable drought, this year they’ve had just the right amount of rain over Cambooya to take the edge off everyone. But they wouldn’t want any more, according to Harry McAlpine. The black soils don’t do very well in the wet.

As such, the upcoming spring is looking good for Eureka Stud. There are around 70 farm-owned or part-owned mares to be bred, and the two resident stallions remain Spirit Of Boom and Encryption.

Both sires will receive a closely even split of Eureka mares through the breeding season, while a small percentage of others will visit outside stallions.

It’s probably what sets apart the annual breeding plans of stallion farms versus broodmare farms. On the former, studmasters are choosing matings around either launching or sustaining a stallion’s career. On the latter, studmasters can send mares wherever they want.

The stallion game

Harry McAlpine is the oldest son of Eureka’s studmaster, Scott McAlpine. Officially, he handles nominations, but in a family business such as this one, everyone does everything every day.

Harry, Scott, Angus and Charlie McAlpine

McAlpine has been finalising the farm’s matings plan for the best part of the winter, and if he’s learned anything from the farm’s long history, it’s the pattern of type.

“I guess we’ve very much been a type-selection farm all along the way,” he said. “When you get into some of these good families, you’re often selecting mares that will suit your own stallions as a stallion farm. You’re having to select mares that will suit your stallions on pedigree as well as type, so that often comes into play for us.”

For Eureka, the resident stallions have a big bearing on the broodmare band.

“If you’re standing stallions, like us, and you’re supporting those stallions heavily, as we do, you’re getting mares first and foremost that will suit those stallions,” McAlpine said. “It’s a second thought as to what other stallions might be used for those mares in between.”

“If you’re standing stallions, like us, and you’re supporting those stallions heavily, as we do, you’re getting mares first and foremost that will suit those stallions. It’s a second thought as to what other stallions might be used for those mares in between.” - Harry McAlpine

Obviously, a quick glance at some of Eureka’s upcoming matings shows a definite loyalty to Spirit Of Boom. The 15-year-old son of Sequalo is approaching his ninth season at stud, and he’s going gangbusters.

His book of 178 last spring was his biggest since 2018 and, off the back of that particular boon season (218 mares), he was just pipped by his neighbour, Better Than Ready, as the leading sire of 2-year-olds by winners.

“Spirit Of Boom is in a nice rhythm now,” McAlpine said. “Since his fee went up, he’s covered good-quality books of mares, and you can immediately see the results of that with the types of foals he’s thrown. It’s rewarding to see that it's been translated onto the track as well.”

Harry McAlpine with John Foote and Tony Gollan | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy

The Spirit Of Boom story will forever be a feather in the cap of Eureka Stud.

This is a farm that stood the likes of Semipalatinsk (USA) in its past, and Piccolo (GB) too. When the first crop of Booms went boom in 2018, the McAlpines fielded offers of $20 million for the horse.

“Dad was very adamant to keep him on the farm and it was more than a monetary decision,” said Harry McAlpine. “If you look at all the mares we have to mate each year, when you’ve got a proven stallion, you can start really building families, especially with a horse like him that can throw stakes winners so readily. You can build black type, and that’s a great asset.”

In good Spirits

In a small way, Spirit Of Boom reminds McAlpine of Seqaulo, who stood at Lyndhurst Stud, and Semipalatinsk. These were brilliant, steady, stakes-producing stallions in Queensland.

Seqaulo

“He’s got a bit of Sequalo about him, but then also Semipalatinsk, who was his great-damsire,” McAlpine said. “Funnily enough, breeding a lot of those mares that carry Semipalatinsk back to him has been extremely successful as well. There are patterns there which have been pretty remarkable.”

One of such mares is Dazzling Display, a daughter of Eureka’s former resident, now retired, Red Dazzler. The 14-year-old mare went to Spirit Of Boom in 2018, and the result was Prince Of Boom, a winner of the G2 Spirit Of Boom Classic last year and, just recently, the G3 Gold Coast Guineas.

Dazzling Display is booked back to Spirit Of Boom, as is the Good Journey (USA) homebred Done Deal, a half-sister to the dam of the Caulfield Cup winner Incentivise (Shamus Award).

Incentivise whose dam is the half-sister to Done Deal | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy

From a Semipalatinsk mare, Done Deal is the dam of the Listed Queen Adelaide S. winner Heaven’s Deal (Spirit Of Boom).

Express Air (Piccolo {GB}) is another Eureka mare that will visit Spirit Of Boom on this reliable cross with Semipalatinsk. She is a great-granddaughter of Semipalatinsk, and her union with Spirit Of Boom has already produced this year’s Listed Chief De Beers winner, Simply Fly.

This important nick is one of two identified by Eureka as working well with Spirit Of Boom. The other is the star sire over mares that feature the grand, old sire from Colin Hayes’ era, Without Fear (Fr).

Without Fear stood at Lindsay Park through the 1970s and 1980s, and he’s still felt heavily in female pedigrees. McAlpine says that Spirit Of Boom, who himself features Without Fear in his fourth generation, has produced eight stakes horses bred on that replication from 35 runners.

Without Fear (Fr)

“That’s about 20-something per cent,” he said, “and it includes Outback Barbie and Miami Fleiss, so he’s had some very handy ones bred that way.”

At Eureka, the Tsuimai mare Passara is a great-granddaughter of Without Fear and, with Spirit Of Boom, she’s the dam of the G3 Vo Rogue Plate winner Boomsara. But McAlpine also flagged Spirit Of Boom’s good record with Exceed And Excel mares.

“Exceed And Excel has been one of Spirit Of Boom’s best crosses,” he said. “He’s had six runners for six winners, and two of them have been stakes winners. All but one of them have been city winners, so it’s a pretty phenomenal cross and we’re always on the hunt for good Exceed And Excel mares where we can find them.”

“Exceed And Excel has been one of Spirit Of Boom’s best crosses. He’s had six runners for six winners, and two of them have been stakes winners. All but one of them have been city winners, so it’s a pretty phenomenal cross and we’re always on the hunt for good Exceed And Excel mares where we can find them.” - Harry McAlpine

The Group and multiple Listed-winning mare Kulgrinda (Exceed And Excel) is a resident at Eureka these days, bought by McAlpine for just $35,000 from an Inglis Digital catalogue last year. Her granddam is Ride The Rapids (River Rough {NZ}), so there is plenty of pedigree below the line.

Kulgrinda was bought with what McAlpine says is ataraxia and she’s quite blind. She is managed calmly and carefully at Eureka Stud, and she was sent to Spirit Of Boom after her arrival last spring, with a repeat booking this spring.

“You do tend to identify those good crosses to your stallions,” McAlpine said. “Spirit Of Boom has obviously got that with Exceed And Excel, and also mares with any General Nediym, for example, for that influence of Without Fear.”

Building Encryption

With all the attention that Spirit Of Boom invites, Eureka Stud is also building the profile of its other resident, the 7-year-old Encryption.

Encryption is a Group 2-winning, Group 3-winning son of Lonhro from the outstanding race filly and producer, Guelph (Exceed And Exceed), the latter providing Godolphin Australia with one of its finest, most valuable continuing families.

Gallery: Encryptions sire and dam

The first crop of horses by Encryption will be hitting the racetracks this season and, as such, breeding plans for the stallion revolve around building him up.

At Eureka, he will cover the likes of Diva Dee (Encosta De Lago) this spring, as well as Regal Tier (Royal Academy {USA}), whos stakes-winning offspring is the G3 Ken Russell Memorial Classic winner Wisdom Of Water (Headwater).

Encryption will also cover one of the farm’s grandest mares in the shape of Lucky Toss (Dash For Cash), who is the dam of the Listed Debutant S. winner Champagne Boom (Spirit Of Boom), now a broodmare at Kingstar Farm.

At 18 years old, Lucky Toss, who is from a Semipalatinsk mare, represents the family of Just Now (Semipalatinsk {USA}), an AJC Oaks and Turnbull winner for Eureka in 1986. Just Now was a full sister to the dam of Lucky Toss, and this has been a loyal family for the farm.

Lucky Toss will visit Encryption this spring for the first time, one of the more established, proven mares heading to the young sire.

“We’ll send probably 25 mares apiece to each of our stallions,” McAlpine said. “When it comes to a young horse like Encryption, you probably don’t want to load a mare up to an unproven stallion three or four years in a row. But we’ve gone out and bought mares that we certainly think would suit him, and we’ve got others already on the farm that suit him physically and pedigree-wise.”

“When it comes to a young horse like Encryption, you probably don’t want to load a mare up to an unproven stallion three or four years in a row. But we’ve gone out and bought mares that we certainly think would suit him...” - Harry McAlpine

The logic is straightforward.

Spirit Of Boom, with a high chance of producing a stakes-level horse, can get younger, unproven mares to upgrade. Encryption, on the other hand, requires momentum with both young and also proven females.

For any farm, launching a stallion is a challenging enterprise, and Encryption hasn’t had stock on the racetrack yet. These are the years when Eureka is almost flying blind, committing good stock to an as-yet unproven sire as it waits for the first lot of results.

“You’ve got to give them every chance in those years before they can prove themselves,” McAlpine said. “If you weaken off in those second, third and fourth years when they’re only getting started, it can be really detrimental to them when they get into the middle of their careers.

“We always want to make sure that when we stand a stallion at Eureka, we have the resources to really give them a chance through every year. And that was one of the reasons why we didn’t stand a new stallion this year. We wanted to make sure that we still had 20 to 25 mares to send Encryption in his fourth season, which is when he might be in the greatest need of support.”

The outside options

Give or take, about 20 of the Eureka broodmare band will head to outside stallions.

This spring, they include the likes of the Listed winner Tiyatrolani (Captain Sonador), who is booked to Bivouac at Kelvinside, and the G1 Queensland Oaks winner Tinto (Red Dazzler), who will also head to Godolphin Australia, in this instance to Too Darn Hot (GB).

Tinto | Image courtesy of Racing Queensland

Joining them is Fitna (Fastnet Rock), a daughter of the G1 Champagne S. winner Carry On Cutie (More Than ready {USA}), and she is going to Pinatubo (Ire).

Coupe Express (Ne Coupez Pas {USA}), who is the valuable dam of the dual Group 1 winner Pippie (Written Tycoon), is booked to Capitalist, and Ana’s Mail (Anabaa {USA}), already the dam of the G3 Kingston Town winner She’s Ideel (Dundeel {NZ}), will visit Dundeel (NZ) again for a full sibling.

There’s also the stakes-winning Notonyourlife (Sebring), who is going to Coolmore’s debut sire Home Affairs.

“We’re mating her in conjunction with the Huddys, who are great supporters of ours,” McAlpine said. “They’re in Home Affairs, obviously, and she’s been to Spirit Of Boom a few times already. It was time for her to go somewhere different, and Home Affairs is the most appealing new horse going to stud this year.”

The agenda of using outside sires rests on a number of factors for Eureka.

It’s about diversifying future yearling drafts or replicating important genetics. As an example, McAlpine has found that sending Fitna to Pinatubo will produce six influences of Natalma (USA) (Native Dancer {USA}), who is exceptional as the dam of Northern Dancer (Can).

Northern Dancer (Can)

In the conversation about outside stallions, however, McAlpine admitted that the Eureka sires are doing well on bookings this year because more than a few breeders are finding the southern states’ service fees significantly more expensive.

“The stallions are very expensive this year, and I guess we’re lucky that we’ve got our own good horses at home,” he said. “Spirit Of Boom is priced exceptionally well ($33,000 inc GST) and he’s very full as a result of that.

“He’ll be covering a lot of mares for southern breeders that are using our horse because they’ve said the Hunter Valley is too expensive for them, so it’s been a good result for us, to be honest.”

Ana's MailAnabaaDundeelToronadoSpirit Of Boom-
Coupe ExpressNe Coupez PasCapitalist-Written TycoonSpirit Of Boom
Dazzling DisplayRed DazzlerSpirit Of Boom-DefconEncryption
Done DealGood JourneyShamus AwardEncryptionImpending-
Diva DeeEncosta De LagoEncryptionDundeelCapitalistSpirit Of Boom
Express AirPiccoloSpirit Of BoomSpirit Of BoomEncryption-
FitnaFastnet RockPinatuboSpirit Of Boom-Rubick
KulgrindaExceed And ExcelSpirit Of BoomSpirit Of Boom-Lean Mean Machine
KyleaseChoisirSpirit Of Boom---
Lucky TossDash For CashEncryptionSpirit Of Boom--
NotonyourlifeSebringHome AffairsSpirit Of BoomSpirit Of Boom-
PassaraTsuimaiSpirit Of BoomSpirit Of Boom--
Pure PurrfectionGeneral NediymSpirit Of Boom-Spirit Of BoomSpirit Of Boom
Regal TierRoyal AcademyEncryptionBivouacHeadwater-
TiyatrolaniCaptain SonadorBivouacSpirit Of Boom-Spirit Of Boom
TintoRed DazzlerToo Darn Hot-Spirit Of Boom-

Table: Some of the matings Eureka Stud is planning for the 2022 season

Matings Mix
Eureka Stud
Harry McAlpine
Spirit Of Boom
Encryption