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We’ve been passionate about Australian stallions at Plaintree Farms since the day we opened our doors.

It seemed pretty logical to us. If you knew anything about conformation, then you knew we needed to breed horses that were physically capable of racing on our hard and fast Australian turf conditions. We don’t have American dirt tracks or heavy Irish bogs: we have Australian tracks, plain and simple. So we need to make sure we’re producing horses that actually work here.

Which is why we are standing what we call Australian sons for Australian soil: Australian horses bred for Australian racetracks.

If you took a close look at the figures, Australian bred stallions have done much better than the shuttler stallions – with the single exception of Danehill – right from the very beginning. Despite the fact they never had the opportunity of the best broodmare bands, our humble homebred stallions have still managed to come up with the goods.

While the shuttle stallions have never been marketed harder or stood for more exorbitant service fees, the Australian General Sires list spells it out in fairly plain English: six of the top ten sires are Australian bred (with 13 of the top 20). The hottest stallions in Australia right now are the sons of the shuttle stallions – Flying Spur, Redoute’s Choice, Lion Hunter, Commands, Choisir etc.

We are standing three exceptional young stallions at Plaintree Farms in 2007. They are all sons of the shuttle stallions – in one way or another – and we firmly believe that they are Australian sons for Australian soil.

Plaintree Farms stands two very different sons of Danehill, the greatest horse ever to shuttle to Australia. We selected these stallions specifically because they are from two of the finest mare families we have seen in Australia. PLATINUM SCISSORS (Shantha’s Choice (Canny Lad) comes from the Best In Show family, which has already shown its dominance through Redoute’s Choice, full brother to Platinum Scissors.

Despite the fact that his first crop numbered only eight foals, the first yearlings by Platinum Scissors have already produced a sales topper and good judges everywhere are impressed. Several of his first crop are already in the Gai Waterhouse and John O’Shea stables with positive reports. Despite being limited by fertility issues, Platinum Scissors still managed to get 60% of his mares in foal last season.

Our second Danehill sire CONATUS (Light Up the World (Rory’s Jester) represents the extraordinary Denise’s Joy family, now the greatest G1 producing family in Australia. According to John Messara – who knows what it takes to make a champion sire – “Denise’s Joy is the matriarch of all matriarchs and one of the greats of modern Australian breeding.” Light Up The World – a multiple Group winner herself – is a half sister to both Tycoon Lil (dam of the multiple G1 sprinter Bentley Biscuit), and Joy (dam of G1 sprinter Thorn Park).

In one sense, SUNDAY KNIGHT is not a typical ‘shuttle son’ because his dam Wrap Around was shuttled to Japan instead when she was bred to Sunday Silence. As the only Australian bred son of Sunday Silence in the world, Sunday Knight comes from a wonderful Australian family of tough Group winning mares. His 2YO’s have already stepped out in style: 66% of his first starters have placed, and the eight to trial so far has resulted in five wins, three winners and three place getters.

After another round of booming yearling sales, major Australian stud farms have taken stallion service fees to record levels, and many breeders have been left scratching their heads wondering where it is all going to end. The truth is, no matter how rich the pickings of the commercial sale ring might be right now, the thoroughbred industry still runs on one thing: the ability to produce winners on the racetrack.

Here at Plaintree Farms, we have a long memory – and a sense of humour. We’ve seen enough big droughts in our lifetime to remind us that it will rain again – eventually. We’ve also seen enough beef crashes, wool crashes, stock market crashes and thoroughbred market corrections to remind us to remain cautious and tread carefully, especially in boom times like these.

As lifetime breeders ourselves, we have tried to keep the perspective of our clients in mind. Which is why the service fees for both Sunday Knight and Conatus have remained the same. The owners of Platinum Scissors have decided to halve his fee in order to give clients an even better opportunity to use this extraordinary horse.

Like the most of Eastern Australia, the Darling Downs is still waiting for drought-breaking rains. The sight of rich chocolate soil reminds us we still have the most perfect mineral-rich soils to breed horses anywhere in Australia. As Gai Waterhouse said recently, her father Tommy Smith always said ‘If you can’t buy horses bred on the Darling Downs, then at least try to spell them there.”

Finally, we would like to wish the very best of luck for a successful 2007 Breeding Season to both our clients and our partners, Mr John Messara of Arrowfield Stud, Mr Gerry Harvey of Baramul Stud and Mr Mussafar Yaseen and Mrs Iris O’Farrell of Teeley Assets.

No matter where you choose to breed your mare in 2007, we wish you the very best of luck – and the sound of soaking rain drumming on the roof again.

Heather Pascoe