Hussonet Lands On His Feet In Australia
The Age
Friday October 12, 2007
John Messara's punt on a stallion from racing backwater Chile is paying handsome dividends.
FIVE years ago a horse on the other side of the Pacific Ocean was carving out a big reputation as a sire. For most thoroughbred enthusiasts, however, being big in Chile doesn't really rate, so few Australians had heard of him.But for Arrowfield's Stud's emerging stallion, Hussonet, a win by one of his three runners in tomorrow's Caulfield Guineas could stamp him as the next big thing in the local stallion ranks.There are no certainties in racing but with those three entrants from his first Australian crop, headed by the long odds-on favourite Weekend Hussler, it is likely that people with even a passing interest in racing will know of him by tomorrow evening.When told by a bloodstock agent that a successful stallion in Chile might be available for purchase, the name Hussonet meant nothing to Arrowfield Stud supremo John Messara."I pricked up my ears when he said the horse was by Mr Prospector and when we looked at his figures we were just incredulous," Messara recalled this week.The figures haven't lost any shine since then. Hussonet's lifetime statistics in Chile give him an almost-unheard-of 91.6 per cent winners to runners and 23.6 per cent stakes-winners to runners, along with seven champion sire titles.After completing due diligence on the horse, Arrowfield bought him outright.The amazing thing is that Hussonet was not an emerging stallion. He had been champion sire several times and had enjoyed some group success in the US.As Messara explained, Haras de Pirque, the stud where Hussonet stood, had used him almost exclusively on its mares and had kept most of his fillies, so needed to look for new blood.When Arrowfield offered the right money, the then 11-year-old was on his way to Australia.While he might have been standing in something of a thoroughbred backwater, he had the credentials to be a successful stallion. His sire, Mr Prospector, has been one of the best stallions in the world in the past 50 years, siring more than 180 stakes-winners and proving to be an outstanding sire of sires.His dam, the Raja Baba mare Sacahuista, won six group 1 races and was the champion US three-year-old filly of her year.Prepared by hall of fame trainer Bill Mott for Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al Maktoum, Hussonet did not miss a place in seven outings. He won two races and was twice placed in listed company before breaking down when third at his first run as a three-year-old.He might have had plenty going for him, but it was something he didn't have that made him all the more attractive to Messara - he didn't have a drop of Northern Dancer blood.Having stood Danehill and his sons Flying Spur, Danzero and Redoute's Choice, Arrowfield was looking for a stallion to provide an outcross.The Northern Dancer-Mr Prospector cross has proved highly successful over many years and Hussonet has been no exception. Of his 24 group 1 winners, 13 have been bred on that cross.Messara's new horse might have ticked most of the boxes that breeders would look to in a prospective sire, but given that practically all his progeny raced in Chile, Arrowfield's boss was under no illusion he was any certainty to attract custom.Arrowfield conducted an aggressive marketing campaign to promote Hussonet to breeders, who no doubt harboured reservations about the Chilean form. Having convinced himself about the horse's record, Messara had to convince Arrowfield's clients. "We had to get out there and explain to people that I had not gone completely mad. His figures were so good he had to be something special," Messara said.The presentations must have been good because Hussonet attracted 126 mares in that first season and that has been his smallest book to date. His first local yearlings sold for up to $500,000 and the 67 sold averaged more than $112,000.They didn't take long to show their ability with one of the first being Husson Lightning, who won the group 3 Maribyrnong Plate at Flemington last spring.Despite having fewer runners, Hussonet finished third on the first-season-sires' table behind Choisir and Rock Of Gibraltar, producing nine individual winners from 23 runners.Such is the confidence in him, that when Redoute's Choice's season was curtailed by injury late last year, one of Arrowfield's prize broodmares, Alinghi, and champion New Zealand mare Sunline were switched to Hussonet. Both are due to foal next month. Messara admitted that given Hussonet was unproven in Australia, the mating with Alinghi was not the most commercial decision but said it was the right mating for the mare."They were just a perfect match so we bit our lip and went for it," he said.While Hussonet has started his Australian career in promising fashion, he needs to produce a group 1 winner to step up to the upper echelons of the local stallion ranks.Of his runners tomorrow, Weekend Hussler looks the one to beat on form and his pedigree reads just as well for a Guineas.His dam Weekend Beauty was unraced, but she is a daughter of Helissio, the Northern Dancer grandson who sired 2002 Caulfield Guineas winner Helenus. And his granddam Not On Friday ran third in the 1995 Thousand Guineas.Weekend Hussler was bred in a joint venture between Arrowfield and Katsumi Yoshida, giving the prominent Japanese breeder a degree of interest in the spring carnival despite the fact that there are no Japanese runners this year because of equine influenza.The odds say Weekend Hussler will win but if he doesn't live up to expectations, then Husson Lightning, who returned to form last weekend, and Emjay Hussey provide some solid back-up.The comments in Messara's yearling sale catalogue regarding Weekend Hussler read "nice horse, good mover, needs time".This week Messara added that "he was a nice yearling but no superstar".After tomorrow's race, superstar might just be the tag for him . . . and a stallion unknown to most just a few years ago could be on his way to being the next big thing.
© 2007 The Age