Winning weekend after Westbury confirms fees
Richard Edmunds - Raceform • May 15th, 2025 3:30 PM • 4 min read
With their service fees locked in for the 2025 breeding season, Westbury Stud’s stallions had a hugely successful weekend on racetracks across New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong.
The stud’s marquee stallion is Tarzino, whose service fee has been increased from $20,000 to $25,000. The son of Tavistock played a starring role on Champions Day at Ellerslie on March, where Willydoit took out the New Zealand Derby to become his third individual Group One winner. Willydoit now heads Tarzino’s progeny alongside two other classic stars – South Australian Derby winner Jungle Magnate and Queensland Oaks winner Gypsy Goddess.
Willydoit is one of four new stakes winners for Tarzino this season, lifting his overall total to seven. Torranzino took out the Easter Cup at Caulfield, Kadavar the Listed Christmas Cup at Randwick, and on Saturday at Rotorua, Tomodachi joined that list with a brilliant performance in the Gr. 3 Rotorua Stakes.
Tomodachi is a great granddaughter of the legendary Ethereal and has shown limitless potential winning six of her nine starts to date.
“Tarzino is doing everything we hoped he would do,” Westbury’s general manager Russell Warwick told RaceForm.
“His four crops from the ages of three upwards have now produced three Group One classic winners. He’s becoming a terrific classic sire, which is what he was bred to do. His sire Tavistock had six individual Derby winners and an Oaks winner, and we know the classics were always the forte of his broodmare sire Zabeel too.
“Tomodachi has a lot of brilliance, which is allowing her to do the business over the shorter trips at this stage of her career. But Ethereal is her third dam, so on her pedigree, you’d expect her to get up over ground too. It’s exciting to think what she might be capable of when she works it all out.”
Across the Tasman, Redwood had his name put up in lights again by Antino in the Gr. 2 Hollindale Stakes. The six-year-old outclassed his opposition by three and a half lengths, replicating the dominance of his six-length romp in the Gr. 1 Toorak Handicap last spring.
Now the winner of 12 of his 25 starts and more than A$2.5 million, Antino is establishing himself as the best of Redwood’s 14 individual stakes winners. The High Chaparral stallion will stand for a $10,000 fee in 2025.
“Antino is a very, very good horse,” Warwick said. “Tony Gollan has had enormous success, dominating Queensland for a long period along with interstate Group One wins, so it’s a big statement for him to label Antino as the best horse he’s trained.
“We’re very proud of Redwood. Even as he’s getting older, he’s produced a couple of high-earning Group One winners – Sharp ‘N’ Smart was Horse of the Year and has earned $3 million, while Antino has banked A$2.5 million.
“Redwood’s been a very good horse to us and we’re looking forward to the new season. At $10,000, he offers good value for breeders looking for a proven sire.”
El Roca’s fee was trimmed from $15,000 to $10,000, after which he sired a flurry of winners.
“He had five winners between Friday and Sunday,” Warwick said. “He’s proven he’s well capable of producing quality horses. He’s had the Group One winners Travelling Light and Romancing The Moon, plus another five Group One placegetters. His 11 runners in Hong Kong have included nine winners including the Group winner Lucky Patch, and he’s had 60-odd winners in Australia.”
Reliable Man will also stand for $10,000, while Swiss Ace and Ferrando have been set at $5,000 each.
“Swiss Ace does it every day, every week and every year,” Warwick said. “He had three new stakes winners last season and three more this season. He just keeps getting good horses. He’s developing a big following in Hong Kong, where he had another winner over the weekend with Dragon Air Force. There’s a strong market for him in the sale ring and out of trials.
“Reliable Man has had a quiet 12 months by his standards, but he had Erle win the German Oaks last year to give him a fourth Group One winner. He’s sired three Oaks winners now. He’s been a very, very good sire.
“On the strength of his fillies’ performances, you’d think they’d make very good broodmare. His stakes-winning daughter Lekvarte went through a broodmare sale in Sydney recently and fetched $750,000.”
