MORE THAN READY - A Living Legend !
All-time TOP 5 in the World by Stakes Winners !
3 time Champion 2YO Sire
Breed Shaper & Sire of Sires
More Than Ready (USA) (foaled in 1997; Southern Halo-Woodman’s Girl by Woodman)
Stakes winners - 182
Group 1 winners - 21
Commenced stud duties - 2001
Lifetime progeny earnings
$193,371,955 (up to March 18)
Since retiring to stud in the US as a four-year-old in 2001, as a winner of seven of his 17 starts including the King’s Bishop Stakes (Gr1, 7f), More Than Ready has never missed the journey, shuttling from Kentucky – to Australia. Every single year he returns to Vinery’s historic base in the Hunter Valley and in July he will arrive for an astonishing 18th time in succession.
Peter Orton, general manager of Vinery Stud, says
“More Than Ready just handles everything as well now as he has always done.”
“He has a great temperament and intelligence and he doesn’t allow himself to be overworked or get too stressed.
“When he arrives and just goes into his paddock he seems unfazed. He’s an amazing horse, he’s always great to deal with. His libido is always good and his fertility is the best in the barn.”
More Than Ready has sired 182 stakes winners, surpassing the mark of 173 set by his own sire Southern Halo (by Halo) and placing him fifth on the list of all time stakes-winning sires, bettered only by Danehill and his sire Danzig (Northern Dancer) and fellow father and son Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) and Galileo.
Stakes Winners STALLION
347 Danehill
294 Sadler’s Wells
267 Galileo
198 Danzig
182 More Than Ready
178 Mr. Prospector
177 Storm Cat
177 Giant’s Causeway
173 Southern Halo
172 Danehill Dancer
So how did More Than Ready become so successful in Australia?
In a time where Danehill blood was dominating Australian breeding, Orton explains that Vinery Stud specifically sought the perfect outcross stallion to provide breeders with a viable alternative.
“We started with Red Ransom and then Mossman,” Orton recalls.
“At the time there had been some Southern Halo bloodlines that had been very successful in Australia so we then turned our attention to source a Halo-line horse and More Than Ready came on the radar – we thought he’d be perfect to have here.
“The key to him coming down here when we first started looking at him was certainly the Halo line, but also he was a great physical match. When you breed you’ve got to take into account strengths and weaknesses in horses and the great thing about More Than Ready is that he’s a great blender.
“We were really just trying to find that niche in the market and to strike with a horse like More Than Ready was a lucky result.”
The influence More Than Ready has had and is having in Australia is enormous. His first crop alone contained 12 stakes winners, three of them at the highest level, including Carry On Cutie, who won the Gr1 Champagne Stakes (1600m) as a two-year-old.
His other notable successes include two Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr1, 1200m) winners in Sebring and Phelan Ready, Samaready, who won the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr1, 1200m), two VRC Victoria Derby (Gr1, 2500m) winners in Prized Icon and Benicio, a Queensland Derby (Gr1, 2400m) winner in Eagle Way and two Oaks winners More Than Sacred and Dreamaway.
One of many trainers who has enjoyed immense success with the progeny of More Than Ready is
Gai Waterhouse, most notably with Sebring, who she saddled to win the 2008 Golden Slipper.
The legendary trainer also trained the talented mare More Joyous to win eight races at Group 1 level and Gai says the sire’s success in Australia is extraordinary.
“He comes down here year after year and performs well and has done something where a lot of others before him have failed,” says Waterhouse.
“To do what he’s done is quite exceptional. Some of the greatest stallions in Europe and around the world have tried it and failed, so it just goes to show how difficult it is to achieve what More Than Ready has done.
“When you’re buying a horse by More Than Ready you have that knowledge that they’re consistent and you can always get a good fun horse.
“He produces stock with a brilliant turn of foot and very good temperaments. They seem to take to work very well and when they’re good they’re very good,” Waterhouse continues.
“They get the results and that’s why I just keep returning to him. I have great admiration for him.”
“More Than Ready is a champion sire in Australia and in America, being crowned champion two-year-old stallion in both hemispheres.
“It’s very, very rare to find a stallion who works in both hemispheres, especially given the different styles of racing, but the beauty of More Than Ready is his portfolio of winners at different distances – he has had two Golden Slipper winners but he has also had two VRC Derby winners and a whole array of other Derby and Oaks winners as well.”
“More Than Ready was a turf-style of horse, he ran like a turf horse, he just skipped across the top of the dirt. We try to breed the right type of horse – physically they’ve got to have the ability to act on different types of surface, it’s a major problem for some breeds.”
Waterhouse, like Orton, believes More Than Ready is not only a good sire himself but is already beginning to build a deep legacy on the Australian breeding industry.
“He really has been a huge success. His legacy is already beginning to show beyond him with his sons at stud. Sebring is becoming one of the most successful stallions in Australia. He, like his father, is proving a good sire of everything – colts, geldings and fillies,” says Waterhouse.
More Than Ready is also beginning to prove himself a good broodmare sire, his daughters having produced five Group 1 winners, namely Blue Diamond Stakes scorer Miracles Of Life (Not A Single Doubt), Manikato Stakes (1200m) winner Rebel Dane (California Dane), Delection (Shamardal), Atlante (Fastnet Rock) and Luna Rossa (Written Tycoon).
This year had six lots sell at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale at the Riverside Stables complex.
They have been well sought after with an average of $262,500 and a top of $375,000.
At this year’s sale More Than Ready will not only be represented by those ten yearlings but also through the progeny of his Slipper-winning son Sebring, who stands at Widden Stud and has 34 lots catalogued.
However, the connection does not stop there.
The sales this year marked a dawning of a new era for the stallion with one of his grandsons,
Dissident (Sebring) having progeny on offer for the first time. Newgate Farm’s Group 1-winning sire had 10 yearlings sell from his first crop catalogued at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale for an average of
$222,000.
More Than Ready’s other sons now standing at stud include the very exciting Champion son of the Champion sire
VERRAZANO along with Pluck and Better Than Ready and Orton says a lot of what makes More Than Ready a great sire has been inherited by his stallion sons.
“A lot of his amazing temperament has come through on his other sons too and this is also true of fertility,” says Orton.
“He’s not only done so much for the industry but for us as a farm. We all here at Vinery owe him a great debt of gratitude and it’s nice for us to see him continuing to live a very happy and active life.”
Dynamic Syndications in association with GAI WATERHOUSE and ADRIAN BOTT have at the yearling sales this year purchased from VINERY STUD a sensational son of MORE THAN READY x ELAN GRENADINE.
Our Colt
The Bay Colt is a sensation to look at and moves like true equine athlete. Bred on the super cross of More Than Ready over Danehill line mares our colt’s Dam ELAN GRENADINE is 1000m winning city class mare and a half-sister to dual SW and Gr2 placed CELEBRITY GIRL and stakes placed LADY LAKSHMI and ALBAICIN (dam of GENERALIFE – Gr3 and dual LR Winner and dual Gr1 placed).
ELAN GRENADINE is a daughter of Stakes winner Gr2 placed and dual Gr1 performed DASHING GRANADA. Her full sister is Gr3 and LR winner NORTHEAST SHEILA (dam of SW JACQUELINE ROUGE and SP SHEILA’S STAR) and a half-sister to SW KABLAMMO.
This colt had the looks to match a sensational pedigree with an excellent A+ 665% genetic rating score and a Best of Sale rating of 2 stars placing him in the Top 20 rated lots in the 1,062 catalogued lots in the catalogue.
5% Shares in our sensational colt are $12,200 inc GST and ALL COSTS to 30 June and the way these More Than Ready yearlings continue to sell this colt as an elite individual by the sire in 2018 now looks incredibly good value.
To have a chat about becoming involved in this colt with GAI and ADRIAN give Adam Watt a call on 02 9540 1511 and find out how easy and affordable racehorse ownership at an exclusive level really is.
MORE THAN READY PROGENY SALES / Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale
Year No. sold Total ($)
2004 7 1,210,000
2005 7 1,255,000
2006 9 1,120,000
2007 2 460,000
2008 20 7,920,000
2009 10 1,785,000
2010 19 3,145,000
2011 25 7,255,000
2012 21 5,540,000
2013 22 5,699,090
2014 31 8,485,000
2015 21 6,825,000
2016 11 3,065,000 ave $278,636
2017 15 2,695,000 ave $179,666
2018 6 1,575,000 ave
$222,000
Total 226 58,034,090 ave $256,788