Sire sensation Starspangledbanner might not have shuttled back to Ireland this year, but he hasn't been sitting on his laurels at Rosemont Stud in Victoria either.
Timing is everything.
Never a truer adage especially in the world of successful horse breeding and Victoria's Rosemont Stud had a touch of getting the moment right this week when the first of the northern hemisphere-bred STARSPANGLEDBANNER mares were pregnancy tested.
A couple of mares with very current families have tested positive to the champion sprinter, making a mouth-watering star for the future, one of those being High Chaparral mare Krispy.
Testing 14 days positive yesterday, Krispy was identified by Rosemont as the ideal mare for STARSPANGLEDBANNER given the success of the High Chaparral cross with the stallion.
From limited STARSPANGLEDBANNER runners, the cross has already produced the 2yo G1 winner and key forth-coming European summer 3yo runner, The Wow Signal.
Not only that, the mare - a winner for the Jason Warren stable before injury forced her retirement - is a close relation to Sunday night's explosive Japanese G1 winner Aerovelocity.
Krispy's mother is a half sister to the mother of dual G1 winner Aerovelocity as well as stakes winners Kapitain Kash and Dante's Paradiso. With such an international pedigree and now a pregnancy of some importance, it's no wonder the Rosemont team were jumping yesterday.
"We tend to make a fuss over every pregnancy that "Star" gets but there were high fives all-round yesterday," Rosemont's Anthony Mithen said.
"She is a lovely style of mare straight off the track so she makes up as a very attractive proposition now. We were cheering for Aerovelocity Sunday night and then brought the house down when the scanning results came back yesterday morning!"
Krispy's pregnancy isn't the only one that Rosemont have celebrated this Autumn though. Late last week Marcia Proba, the Falbrav half-sister to recent G1 Galaxy winner Sweet Idea, also returned from the crush with a green tick.
"She's another young mare with a great pedigree that is sure to produce a fast horse to the stallion. We all know he is hard work to get them in foal, but it's rewards like these that make it worth the fuss," Mithen said.
"So far he has a handful of Northern Hemisphere pregnancies that I'm certain will be strongly sought after in Europe, so breeders taking a punt with their dry mares are being rewarded," he said.
STARSPANGLEDBANNER stands in conjunction with Coolmore at Rosemont at a fee of $27,500 northern time. A fee for the Southern Hemisphere season will be announced shortly. For more information contact Anthony Mithen on +61 413486767