The sire in question is Iffraaj (GB), whose top seller at Karaka last year, a colt (pictured as a yearling) from Danasia that made $540,000, will line up in the Listed MRC Emirates Chairman's Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday.Trained by Mark Kavanagh, If I Could, finished a good second to Formidable on debut and can be expected to improve with the step up to 1100 metres, although may be even better suited in the future over longer given he is a half-brother to Group I STC Rosehill Guineas winner Zabrasive.
If I Could is the first runner in Australia for Iffraaj, who has already broken the ice in New Zealand with his first Southern Hemisphere bred winner Liberating, who scored at Wanganui back in October.
A regular shuttler from Darley to Haunui Farm, Iffraaj was all the rage at Karaka last year (10 yearlings in Premier averaging $208,500 and 35 in Select averaging $75,729, click here to see them), in part as he was coming off the back of a record breaking first crop in Europe that yielded 38 individual winners.
That success, coupled with his strong sales in New Zealand ensured Iffraaj covered a full book last year at a fee of $17,500, but his current yearlings were conceived in 2009 when he was in a commercial no man's land and as a result there aren't as many and the quality of mare in most cases was not up to Premier Sale standard, hence the turnaround for him at the sales this year.
A Group II winning sprinter by Zafonic, Iffraaj sprung a big surprise with his first crop success in Europe and it will be interesting to see if he can go on with the job there and achieve similar success here.
As often happens with a sire that emerges from obscurity to achieve success, they can go into a lull after the initial blaze of glory as a result of lack of follow through numbers. It takes three years from when the success is initially achieved on the track and the better mares are booked to the stallion for those progeny to hit the sale ring and then go on to the racetrack, so quite often what looks like a horse not quite living up to his early potential is in fact the calm before the storm.
More Than Ready (USA) (pictured) is a good example of this phenomenon.
He was a dominant Champion Australian First Season Sire in 2004/2005 with a first crop conceived off a $22,000 fee, but with only two small crops from some pretty average mares to follow up, he was stuck on a slow burn until crop number four arrived containing Golden Slipper winner Sebring and from that point he was made.
One prominent sire currently enduring the slow burn is High Chaparral (IRE)(pictured).The English Derby winner shot to fame two seasons ago with a stellar collection of three year-olds from his first crop in So You Think, Monaco Consul and Shoot Out and they trained on at four with Caulfield Cup winner Descarado joining the group of high achievers.
Up until the spring of 2009, nobody knew whether High Chaparral would make it as a sire or end up on the scrap heap as have so many high profile shuttlers and as a result, the numbers and quality of mare he covered in New Zealand dropped off and he missed a year as well owing to EI, so in fact has no three year-olds at all to run for him this season.
Those factors combine to make us think he's gone cold, but looking at the quality of his yearlings sold in the past week at Karaka it won't be long before he's back cooking with gas!
