Woodlands Stud reveal 2024 Stallion Roster

Off the back of another exceptional season for their world class stallion roster, Woodlands Stud has announced their service fees for the fast approaching 2024-25 breeding season. While the stallion roster remains unchanged, Woodlands Stud couldn’t be prouder of the seven harness racing sires that represent their world-renowned brand.

Harness racing’s greatest sire, Bettor’s Delight is once again spearheading their roster. His fee remains unchanged as he is set to return to New Zealand on a one-way ticket this August. The 26-year-old will continue his stallion duties for now, and when time comes, he will have a home for life on farm at Woodlands Stud. He remains the Leading All Age sire in New Zealand, Australia and North America for 2024 and continues to leave champion progeny, sire sales toppers and break records across both hemispheres. He is the most influential sire of our time, and Woodlands Stud are so privileged to have a sire of his calibre on their roster and available to Australasian breeders.

While there is plenty of excitement surrounding the upcoming season, it does come with an element of sorrow with it being the first season without American Ideal. A true siring star, American Ideal had 17 shuttle trips to Australasia and has left a legacy that will live on for a lifetime. Woodlands Stud do have a limited amount of frozen semen in both New Zealand and Australia for breeders wanting to breed to him. His fee has changed slightly and will now be on a pay-on-live-foal basis, and it is suggested that breeders contact the team direct for any initial enquiries and terms and conditions.

Sweet Lou is a sire who continues to take the harness racing industry by storm in both Hemispheres. 2023 was dubbed “The Year of Lou” and 2024 has started off on good footing again for the sire and his progeny. He is second on the All Age Sire Leaderboard in North America for 2024 and with just a fraction of the progeny, he is third on the All Age Sire Leaderboards in both New Zealand and Australia, only behind Bettor’s Delight and Art Major. Sweet Lou’s service fee has had an increase, he is in huge demand in both countries, served the most mares in New Zealand for 2023-24 and has a full book in Australia for the upcoming season.

The sire making a big splash in Australasian harness racing is Downbytheseaside. The young stallion already has many feature race winning progeny to his name early on in his career. His third crop is just hitting the track, and already he is consistently near the top of all leaderboards. He is also starting to make a name for himself as a sire of talented fillies with yet another Group race going to one of his daughters at Ashburton on Sunday when Gone Surfin won the Group 3 Helen Pope Classic. His fee remains unchanged in New Zealand and has seen a slight decrease in Australia, in a show of support to Australian breeders to offer them an exciting sire under five figures.

Trotting results don’t get much better than what What The Hill has been achieving in New Zealand recently. He has taken the industry by storm and kicked off the 2024 season impressively. At the time of this release, he is the leading trotting sire of both two and four-year-old’s and second on the All Age and 3-year-old Leaderboards, all with just three crops on the track. He is also the sire of the current leading 2-year-old trotter (Ya Rite Darl), leading 3-year-old trotter (Inasinglemoment) and leading 4-year-old trotter (Bet N Win), all of whom have picked up feature races already this season. Even with these tremendous results, his fee has seen a small decrease to continue to encourage further strong foal crops in what is a very populated trotting stallion market.

For the first time in his siring career, Lather Up is set to call New Zealand home. After starting his Australasian siring career in Victoria under the wonderful care of Kath McIntosh and her team at Llowalong Farms, Woodlands Stud have made the decision to base their whole roster at their Auckland farm for the upcoming season. Lather Up is a sire who is just starting his career off as his debut crop hit the track in Australasia. His fee remains unchanged, and he continues to be one of the best value pacing sires in the industry.

Closing out the roster for 2024-25 is Woodland Stud’s own Speeding Spur. A champion trotter in his own right who won nine Group 1 races during his career. He won over $1 million in stakes and won feature races in New Zealand, Australia and North America. His debut crop are just starting to hit the track, and while small on numbers, trainers are very positive about the progeny. His fee also remains unchanged and great value for the upcoming season.

WOODLANDS STUD’S 2024-25 SERVICE FEES

FRESH SIRES NZ SERVICE FEE (+ GST) AU SERVICE FEE (INC GST)

BETTOR’S DELIGHT     $25,000 $27,500

DOWNBYTHESEASIDE   $10,000 $9,900

LATHER UP   $4,500 $4,950

SPEEDING SPUR     $1,000 $1,100

SWEET LOU   $11,250 $15,400

WHAT THE HILL     $5,000 $5,500

FROZEN (LIMITED AMOUNTS AVAILABLE)

AMERICAN IDEAL   $9,000 POLF* $8,800 POLF*

• Early bird, multiple mare and other discounts may apply

• Any applicable HRA Tax is additional for Australian mares

• American Ideal is available via frozen semen. *Terms & conditions will apply

• All other sires stand in NZ and are available via fresh, chilled semen

From Woodlands Stud