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New Victorian stallion farm Lovatsville have formed a strategic partnership with the Australian Trainer’s Association (ATA) designed to support trainer’s through a series of stallion nominations aligned to upcoming races in regional Victoria this Spring.

Lovatsville will be providing two (2) nominations to each of the stallions on their 2024 roster for the winning trainers of select fillies and mares races over the coming months. To be eligible to receive the stallion nomination the winning trainer of the select races (or next best placegetter) is required to be a current member of the ATA. The trainer can either choose to use that nomination on a mare that they own themselves, or monetise within their client base.

Lovatsville founder Sam White is excited by the initiative and the opportunity to partner with the ATA "It's a robust time in business for everyone, both inside and out of the racing industry. Trainer’s continue to be at the coal face of absorbing expenses in caring for their horses and their staff and are often the last to get paid.”

White, who has a background in racing having spent the past 5 years with Ciaron Maher, understands the need for the breeding industry and racing sector to support each other  “We just want the trainers to know that we stand alongside them. We see this contribution as another way of doing circular business.”

Stephen Bell, CEO of the ATA, is thrilled with the announcement “It’s fantastic that our members and their businesses will have a chance to compete for a “bonus” through these nominations, on top of the already fantastic prize money available in Victoria. Our trainers now have the chance to compete for an additional $100,000 in revenue created through this opportunity.”

The Lovatsville roster looms as one of Victoria’s most exiting, standing:

Royal Meeting: Champion Victorian 1st Season Sire and the sire of last season's Group 1 Blue Diamond filly, Hayasugi. Standing for $22,000 (incl. GST).

Fierce Impact: Three-time Group 1 winning Champion miler by Deep Impact, whose first crop 2024 yearlings sold up to $310,000. Standing for $13,750 (incl. GST).

Generation: Stunning Snitzel Group 1 performer sprinter out of star 2 year-old filly Fontition. Standing his first season for $11,000 (incl. GST).

Royal Meeting continued his fine first season with Take A Bow producing an extremely impressive 4-length debut win at Gatton. Having been scratched from her initial starting point (a mid-week metro maiden), Take A Bow won in stylish fashion with her co-trainer Matt Hoysted delighted with the performance "We have a very good opinion of her and while we were expecting her to do that, it's always pleasing to see them perform, particularly after she missed the kick badly."

The O'Dea/Hoysted stable will point the $40,000 Adelaide Magic Millions Yearling purchase for Jamie Walter's Proven Thoroughbreds from the Bell River draft at a Saturday city race next before aiming up at black-type targets "We do think she is a stakes filly in waiting and will measure up to that class."

Take A Bow joins fellow Royal Meeting runners with Spring Stakes aims with Clint McDonald this week declaring that his brilliant Group 1 winning juvenile Hayasugi will be targeted at the Manikato and Moir Stakes double, while Chris Bieg's city-winning Royal Majesty is having a Spring plan mapped out to encompass stakes race targets.

Royal Meeting sits comfortably towards the top of the first season sires table and standing at a fee of $22,000 (incl GST) represents exceptional value to the astute breeder mapping his trajectory.

Why does a champion trainer break a self-imposed ‘no spec policy’ to buy a colt Snitzel colt with zero clients in mind and why does he still believe this horse has what it takes to be a leading sire – let’s find out.

Inside mail is what has led a lot of trainers and bloodstock agents over the years to identify their stable stars of the future and that’s also what led Ciaron Maher to splash out $575,000 for a Snitzel colt from Fontiton at Inglis Premier that would go on to become brilliant sprinter Generation.

A fast and precocious filly that won both the Group III MRC Blue Diamond Preview and Group II MRC Blue Diamond Prelude, Fontiton only ever had two foals before her premature passing, but Maher believes she had something special that could be the catalyst in making a stallion of the future.

Ciaron Maher Racing, Australian Bloodstock and new Victorian Stallion Station, Lovatsville, are pleased to announce that Gold Trip will stand this coming season at the Central Victoria-based stud, Lovatsville for a fee of $8,800 (incl. GST).

As a Melbourne Cup winner and weight-for-age Turnbull Stakes victor, Gold Trip retires having demonstrated immense talent and resilience to compete and perform in the Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup in back-to-back years. Racing as a 2 year-old in France, onto multiple Group 1 performances as a Classic European 3 year-old where he ran a gallant 4th to Sottass in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, followed by a glittering Australian racing career.

Providing Champion trainer Maher with the crowning achievement of his training career in winning the Melbourne Cup, Gold Trip retires as one of Maher’s best ever gallopers “He won a Melbourne Cup, was beaten a lip in the Caulfield Cup, was a weight-for-age Turnbull Stakes winner, could have won a Cox Plate and was elite in an Arc. He is a legitimate freak.”

Co-purchaser and owner of Gold Trip, Australian Bloodstock’s Jamie Lovett spoke of the attraction of Gold Trip when sourcing him from Europe “What appealed to us in Gold Trip was his dynamic turn of foot, as we saw in that explosive performance in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes. There is no doubt in my mind that he was beating the best 2000m field assembled in this country in the last 20 years and he beat them with his head on his chest.”

Lovett further added, in qualifying Gold Trip’s stud credentials “Weight-for-age is our measure for the elite, however when he was asked to carry weight in the big handicaps he had the class to do that too and I believe that is a quality that will resonate with breeder’s looking to breed a genuine racehorse.”

Lovatsville’s Sam White is delighted to add Gold Trip to the Lovatsville roster “It is quite rare that the Australasian breeding community get a chance to access horses who have performed so well in an Arc, arguably Europe’s premier race. Gold Trip had the versatility to race at the highest level here for multiple seasons demonstrating his class and toughness, while also displaying obvious speed where he flew past subsequent Cox Plate winner Romantic Warrior in the Turnbull.”

White feels that Gold Trips performance, physique and price point will pique the interest of many breeders “At $8,800 he is priced extremely well considering his ability. We want to inject further value into the opportunity by providing very attractive breeding right packages so that Gold Trip’s supporters can access him for the duration of his career for a modest outlay.”

Alongside the breeding right packages in Gold Trip, Ciaron Maher Racing, Australian Bloodstock and Gold Trip’s ownership group have committed to supporting the horse at stud, ensuring that he starts his career at stud positively.