MEGAMEA WINS FREE HANSEATIC SERVICE FEE
Rosemont Stud’s Anthony Mithen couldn’t have been happier when six-year-old mare Megamea won the 1400m fillies and mares Pendant at Cranbourne’s metropolitan meeting on Saturday.
The stud provided much more than just the naming rights to the $175,000 race, but also donated a free service to second season sire Hanseatic (Street Boss x Itameri) that stands at Rosemont for $17,600.
Connections of the winning mare will be able to use the free service to the in demand Hanseatic next breeding season.
Megamea is raced in partnership with Don Allan and Cranbourne trainer Udyta Clarke who handed over the training of the daughter of former Eden Park stallion Master Of Design after she suffered a life threatening stoke in 2020.
Clarke was found unconscious in a paddock on her property faced a long battle from bleeding on the brain and decided to transfer the mare to fellow Cranbourne trainer Luke Oliver.
Megamea, a $5,000 weanling purchase from Swettenham Stud’s 2017 Great Southern Sale draft, has now gone out for a spell and Clarke is still hoping to win some black type when the mare returns.
And while the mare is also a Flemington winner for Oliver, Clarke is no stranger to winning races at headquarters. She trained and part owned Rich Charm (Danerich x Charmly) which won the Group 2 Linlithgow Stakes (1200m) at Flemington during the 2017 Melbourne Carnival.
Rich Charm won nine races, including three at Flemington, and banked $922,270.
Megamea’s prizemoney is quickly on the rise. Last Saturday’s first prizemoney of $96,250 has pushed the mare’s total bank to $403,160.
Mithen said it was fantastic for Clarke to get the victory as she was obviously a great woman of racing who had health issues recently.
“It was a real feel good story for sure,” he said.
“Udyta has bred to a couple our stallions over the years and I’ve enjoyed chatting to her over the years just on her mares on what they’re best to be mated to.”
Mithen said Hanseatic had been highly sought after and covering more mares than what the stud wanted to this year.
“I just can’t stop the flow and it’s nice when you’ve got the product and it’s only been strengthened by anyone who has had a foal by him wants to go back and use him again,” he said.
“That’s always the best sign when you get repeat customers because of the product they have got on the ground looks the goods.”
Hanseatic covered 195 mares last year and will do similar numbers by the time this breeding season ends.
Mithen said they were mindful that young horses don’t need to be tested like Hanseatic had but they also recognised a bit of dearth of good, young promising stallions.
“If you’ve got one, then you are Mr Popular,” he said.
“So it’s just a matter at this time of the year trying to fit in everyone who wants a spot and he has been tested that’s for sure. We are asking a bit of him late in the season but you have to keep everyone happy.”
Mithen said Rosemont’s other stallions, Shamus Award, Extreme Warrior and Strasbourg had also been well supported,
He said they had learnt with first season sire Extreme Warrior that he could not be over-taxed and needed his book managed more carefully.
“He is a two a day guy,” Mithen said.
“His popularity meant that he could have covered more but we are looking after him and they all have to be treated as individuals.
“Shamus has been extremely popular again and Strasbourg has been quite popular and he has foals and yearlings on the ground, meaning we are getting repeat business too him as well.
“He is a cheap way to tap into the I Am Invincible blood, so he is going well.”
Mithen said they would be accommodating with the way Clarke wanted to use the free service.
But Clarke has no plans to retire Megamea to the breeding barn right now and hopes to race the mare for another couple of years.
“She has been such a good horse,” she said.
“I hope to send another mare to Hanseatic, but she is still on lease and it will be a while before she comes back.
“We hope to do it next breeding season.”
Clarke said Megamea was the most beautiful animal who was already enjoying her time in the paddock where she’ll spend the next five to six weeks before resuming.
The plan is to target VOBIS Gold bonus races where the winning connections receive a $30,000 Sires Boost voucher to go towards a service fee for an approved Victorian sire or the purchase of a horse at an approved sale.
“If you could win two or three service fees, you’d be laughing,” Clarke said
“She has turned into a really nice horse.
“And she is just getting a few dollars all the time now.
“Maybe we’ll keep racing her for another two years.”
Clarke said she knew from early on that Megamea was going to be a good galloper, but she wasn’t sure after suffering the stroke what to do with the mare.
“I woke up and didn’t know where I was,” she said.
“But I was in hospital and didn’t know how long I’d been there, a couple of weeks or whatever but I’d been there for a long time.”
While Clarke said she didn’t know what to do with the mare, a friend suggested giving the horse to someone else to train and it was thought that Oliver was the sort of person to look after her properly.
“And he has,” she said.
“He has done everything I’ve wanted with her, everything.
“You’ve got no idea how much time he puts into his horses.
“He is so kind to them and so nice.”
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