August 2021 is not a month that Rory O’Brien is likely to forget in a hurry.
Earlier this week it was announced that O’Brien had purchased a 50% share in Glen Eden Stud, the Victorian farm which was established and then substantially grown by Sonia O’Gorman since 2000.
“I’ve been the sales and marketing manager at Glen Eden since March but the decision to partner up with Sonia (O’Gorman) has been front of mind for quite some time. It doesn’t seem that long ago since I was mucking out boxes at Danny O’Brien’s stables,” O’Brien says with a laugh.
“Seriously though, this is really all part of a 20 year plan to take the farm to all new levels. There’s a terrific synergy with Sonia … she’s a brilliant horsewoman and farm manager and has assembled what I consider to be a very good roster of stallions in Rebel Dane, Barood and Giant’s Steps.”
Rebel Dane, in particular, is giving O’Brien much to look forward to – both in the long and short term. As a racerhorse he kicked off with a Group 2 win at three (Royal Sovereign Stakes) before continuing on with Group 1 success at four (Sir Rupert Clarke) and seven years (Manikato) … plus top 4 finishes at the elite level on no less than eight occasions.
With his oldest runners having just turned three and only 61 live foals to his name, it was probably expected that his runners would get better as they matured, but Rebel Dane has already produced a Group winning 2YO in Subterranean.
“He (Subterranean) was something of a surprise I might say with initially his thumping win at Doomben last December and then following up with the (Group 3) Ken Russell in May,” O’Brien adds. “(Trainer) Matt Dunn believes he’s going to get even better over a distance and he’s pretty exciting horse. He resumed with a blinder (when fourth) in the Group 3 Up And Coming and, last Saturday, he added to the black type with a third in the Group 3 Ming Dynasty. I reckon he’s in for a really good spring.
“Rebel Dane never won further than 1400m but it just goes to show there are no certainties in this breeding caper. Obviously you improve your chances if you send a Group 1 winning mare to Snitzel, Written Tycoon or I Am Invincible, but horses like Behemoth, who won his third Group 1 in Saturday’s Memsie, was sold for just $6,000 as a yearling. Subterranean is out of a mare (Caves) that cost $1,000.
“That said, we reckon Rebel Dane is ideally priced at $8,800 (inc. GST) and aside from Subterranean he’s also had horses like Rebel Shadow, Lloyd’s Crown, Rebel’s Edge and Witch Day coming through in the last couple of months.”
And O’Brien genuinely believes the best is yet to come: “We put Rebel Dane up on the Breednet Online Stallion Directory this season and I’ve got to say the feedback has been very encouraging and there’s a lot of interest in the horse,” O’Brien points out. “You’re not limited by the number of photos, videos or other material you can put up on the directory and importantly the results are all up to date.
“I’ll look forward to adding quite a few videos and photos of Rebel Dane progeny in his Stud Media page.”
