A big consignment of standardbred stallions and racehorses was shipped from Sydney to Chicago on Monday night. The stallions will be dispersed to major stud farms in USA and Canada.

The charter was organised by International Racehorse Transport, the global market leader in horse transport for 45 years with its Australian headquarters at Melbourne Airport.

“It’s a special charter made possible by the Chinese New Year. This plane normally goes via China, but due to the Chinese New Year the Qantas gives us a chance to charter direct to the USA with a quick stop in Anchorage for refuelling,” IRT director Selwyn Wallace said.

“The benefit of this is we don’t have to stop in Asia which makes the flight time 10 hours shorter, and our post arrival quarantine five days shorter than normal.”

The shipment included seven shuttle stallions standing in Australia and four in New Zealand in the closing southern hemisphere season.

The Australian-based horses were the Alabar Bloodstock trio Always B Miki, Pebble Beach and Tactical Approach, the Cobbitty Equine Farm pair Confederate and Cannibal, Catch The Fire (Somerset Farms, Queensland) and the trotter King Of The North (Llowalong Farms).

The NZ quartet –all domiciled at Woodlands Stud near Auckland – are Sweet Lou, Downbytheseaside, Lather Up and What The Hill.

Sweet Lou, Always B Miki, Downbytheseaside and What The Hill all ranked highly in the various sires’ lists in both Australia and NZ for the 2024 season.

Downbytheseaside, Pebble Beach, Lather Up and Catch The Fire will all stand the coming northern hemisphere season at Sugar Valley Farm in Ohio.

Confederate, Sweet Lou and Tactical Approach are slated to stand at Diamond Creek Farm’s Pennsylvania stud, Always B Miki will be the resident sire at Diamond Creek’s Kentucky base, Cannibal will stand his second season at Blue Chip Farms in New York, What The Hill at the famed Hickory Lane Farm, Ohio and King Of The North at Canada’s leading farm Tara Hills Stud, Ontario.

Four of the seven feature races at the Hunter Cup meeting at Melton fell the way of progeny of Alabar Bloodstock sires. They were the A. G. Hunter Cup winner Swayzee (by Rock N Roll Heaven), Watts Up Partytime (Majestic Son), winner of the Great Southern Star) and the Always B Miki pair Aardie’s Express and Miki To Success, who won the Ladyship Cup and 4YO Bonanza respectively

The siblings Wild Ideal and Jilpanger Rose bookended the recent Charlton meeting.  Both were bred by Helen Friend and were sired by American Ideal from the Shadow Play mare Wild Radish

Former HRV Board member Geoff Senior figures as the co-breeder and owner of the three-year-old filly Crayons To Perfume, a winner at Kilmore recently. The filly’s name is derived from a line in the theme song for the blockbuster movie To Sir With Love

Champion trotting mare Maori Time has produced a filly foal by the Swedish Horse of the Year Calgary Games