Tomorrow will bring to a close the Inglis Digital February (Late) online sale but it will also bring about the beginning of the new chapter in the story of young stallion Winning Rupert.
Unreserved and on the market from the opening bid when the catalogue opened last Friday evening, Winning Rupert presents an exciting prospect for stallion operations across the continent. Even more exciting if you consider there is the chance that this could be history repeating itself.
Back track to May 2009, a young stallion was offered through the Inglis Great Southern Sale with the purpose of dissolving a partnership of owners. The horse in question was Written Tycoon, a sire that at the time of selling had already made an impression in his relatively short time standing at stud but had yet to reach the heights of being crowned Australia’s leading First Season Sire, Australia's leading sire of 2YOs, Australian Champion Sire and eight-time Victorian Champion Sire.
With a list of accolades such as this, there is little surprise that Written Tycoon has also become a sire of sires with his sons at stud including Capitalist, Written By, Rich Enuff and Ole Kirk in addition to this week’s Inglis Digital offering Winning Rupert.
When comparing the two it is easy to draw a line from father to son and be influenced by what Written Tycoon has achieved but in taking a more pragmatic look at their accomplishments as a comparison relative to their humble beginnings, the facts make the mind boggle.
Similarly both had started their careers in leading southern studs where they had a solid foundation of mares. Subsequently both also spent a couple of seasons in Queensland being well supported with mare numbers and quality. However, when analysing the comparison of their early racing crops the figures paint a more intriguing picture.
From their first five crops of racing age Winning Rupert has produced more runners (171 to 162) and more winners (104 to 102) than that of his sire. Winning Rupert also comes up trumps in the 2YOs from both runners and winners. Written Tycoon marginally takes the honours with the 3YO crop but it is the young bull who again leads the way with the older horses at four. This is an argument that becomes even more compelling when you compare the live foals from the first three crops of both stallions and the numbers differ by only seven.
On a tally of Stakes horses and Stakes wins for the period in question, Written Tycoon pipped Winning Rupert on numbers four to two but this point is again arguably comparable when looking at the actual Stakes performed progeny. Written Tycoon’s leading light during those formative years was a well known horse Howmuchdoyouloveme, a G2 and G3 winner, as well as G2 and twice Listed placed. Winning Rupert is championed by Semana who has claimed victory at G3 and Listed level. Twelve horses in total have gone on to be Stakes performed from the analysed crops for Written Tycoon, Winning Rupert is currently tallying eight.
Looking back and comparing the actual numbers or anecdotally speaking about the exploits of their progeny provides a snapshot in time of the stallions’ performance. What isn't on record or can be quantified would have been the thoughts of those who took a well educated guess on a rising star back in May 2009 at the Inglis Oaklands complex.
Of course we all know that there are no guarantees when it comes to thoroughbred racing and breeding but it wouldn't be out of place to draw one last comparison with the line of thought from the prospective buyers and the dreams they may have in place. Come tomorrow, those dreams will become the start of the reality for one lucky buyer and the next chapter of Winning Ruperts story will be written.
