The accepted profile for stallion success invariably includes an impressive Black Type race record, but as we know there are exceptions to every rule and world renowned sires such as Danzig, Red Ransom and Fairy King have all gone on to greatness having between them graced the racetrack on just seven occasions.
Superb pedigree, outstanding type and natural speed were the key factors behind these mighty stallions being given their chance at stud and having gotten a foot in the door they did the rest.
Those same qualities are what have drawn Newgate Farm and Emirates Park into partnership to present Tassort to breeders this spring at a fee of $11,000.
Bred by Godolphin, the half-brother to Group I winners Astern and Alizee immediately showed the Group I ability of his famous siblings.
Tassort scored a scintillating debut win in the ATC Golden Gift (1100m) in November that earned him instant favouritism for the Golden Slipper.
That performance and his subsequent second in the Group II ATC Silver Slipper was all that we saw from Tassort as a racehorse, but it was enough to convince respected form analyst Daniel O’Sullivan of The Ratings Bureau that he was an elite colt.
“For a horse like him to do what he did as a two year-old, given his siblings Alizee and Astern were dynamic three year-olds, would make me think it was highly likely that he too would have been better as a three year-old which puts him in a basket of potentially being a very special horse,” said O’Sullivan.
“He showed the three key things I look for in identifying a top class horse – speed against the clock, acceleration and being able to run through the line.”
Bryan Carlson of Emirates Park was intrigued by Tassort and in association with Trevor Lobb, who brokered the deal with Godolphin, was able to secure the son of Brazen Beau with Newgate later coming on board.
“Brazen Beau is a horse I believe will be the next up and coming stallion, so Tassort was always on our radar,” said Bryan Carlson, whose opinion of Brazen Beau has been vindicated with the emergence of Golden Rose favourite North Pacific among his nine stakes-winners to date.
“We never really thought we’d get him, but then we did and I was absolutely rapt. We couldn’t be more excited about this horse.”
Newgate Farm’s Henry Field has likewise been an admirer of Tassort since that scintillating debut win.
“He only had two starts, so for us to stand a horse like Tassort is a leap of faith, but in my mind Tassort is a rare animal,” said Henry Field.
“James Cummings and James McDonald though the world of the horse.
“I love the fact he’s from a blue hen mare and statistically so few mares can produce three elite performers on the track, you can count them on one hand and he’s by one of the most exciting young sires in Brazen Beau that is tracking well to his own sire I Am Invincible in terms of stakes-winners and Group winners to runners.”
The first son of Brazen Beau to stand at stud, Tassort stands at a fee of $11,000.
