Following on from our story yesterday about the continual rise and rise of exciting stallion prospect
REWARD FOR EFFORT, today there appears a feature story in the
Breeders Guide of the SPORTSMAN Newspaper by Shayne O’Cass regarding Chatswood Stud’s Dynamic stallion.:
REWARD FOR EFFORT is off to a flying start at Stud
MUSCLE on muscle – that’s how studmaster Greg Willis described resident sire Reward For Effort, who took centre stage at Sunday’s annual Chatswood Stud Open Day and Stallion Parade.
The 2009 Blue Diamond Stakes winner was on show for breeders at the Seymour nursery with associate sires Purrealist and Caulfield Guineas winner Anacheeva.
“People are just in awe of him,” Willis said. “He’s got muscle on muscle and is just a freak.”
Reward For Effort is on the cusp of another busy season, having covered opening books of
150 mares in 2011 and
173 last year.
Willis has consistently forecast the son of Exceed And Excel would have the same sort of immediate impact as past Chatswood Stud sires Flying Spur, Danzero, Geiger Counter and world champion two year-old sire Invincible Spirit.
“His sire Exceed And Excel, his grandsire Danehill and his dam-sire Rory’s Jester were all champion first-season sires, so it’s in the family,” Willis said.
Reward For Effort also follows in a line of successful stallions to have won the $1 million Group 1 MRC Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m).
Notables include two-time champion general sire Redoute’s Choice, Black Caviar’s sire Bel Esprit and Newhaven Park stalwart Zeditave.
When Willis acquired Reward For Effort, his sire Exceed And Excel was ranked 15th on the national sires rankings.
“He (Reward For Effort) was his only Group 1 winner … he’d had a lot of other winners at the time but was a bit of a one-hit wonder,” Willis said.
“Since then, however, he’s (Exceed And Excel) just gone from strength to strength.
“At the time (we bought Reward For Effort), Exceed And Excel had covered a lot of good mares at Darley and they had a lot of good ones coming on, so it just worked out really well.”
Exceed And Excel, Australia’s reigning champion sire and stallion of choice for Black Caviar this spring, will have seven sons at stud this spring.