Stanley gears up for a huge November

With a strong family connection to a Melbourne Cup runner and then a headline-grabbing draft going through the sale ring at Karaka, Woburn Farm’s Adrian Stanley is looking forward to an enormously exciting month.
Stanley’s father Noel and uncle Ron have raced a long line of quality racehorses with New Plymouth trainer Allan Sharrock, including multiple Group One winners Wahid and Grout. Another of their top performers, transtasman Derby placegetter Woburn, lends his name to Adrian Stanley’s growing business.
The most recent addition to this list is Ladies Man, who the Stanleys race in partnership with fellow long-time Sharrock clients the O’Learys. An impressive last-start winner of the Gr. 1 Livamol Classic at Hastings, Ladies Man is set to fly the New Zealand flag in the famous Flemington two-miler next Tuesday.
“It’s pretty exciting for the family to have a Melbourne Cup runner,” Adrian Stanley told RaceForm. “My dad and uncle and the O’Learys have all put a lot of money and time into this industry over a number of years, so it’s great to see them have this opportunity. I’m supporting them every step of the way and can’t wait to see how he goes.
“My dad and uncle have had a lot of really good horses with Allan Sharrock over the years. That’s really how I became involved in this game – following them and their horses. It’s been a great ride.”
That family connection with Sharrock paved the way for the younger Stanley to sell his best-performed sales graduate to date – and now to offer an eagerly anticipated half-brother at the Ready to Run Sale at Karaka later this month.
Sharrock teamed up with Luigi Muollo and Paul Dombroski to breed Lucky Sweynesse. A son of Sweynesse and the stakes-winning mare Madonna Mia, he was offered in Woburn Farm’s draft at the 2020 Ready to Run Sale and fetched $90,000.
Lucky Sweynesse has since soared to the top of Hong Kong sprinting ranks, winning 13 of his 19 starts and more than HK$53 million – the equivalent of NZ$11.6 million. Lucky Sweynesse strung together super-impressive Group One victories in the Centenary Sprint Cup, Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup and Chairman’s Sprint Prize earlier in the year.
Now Woburn Farm will offer his half-brother by Contributer, who will go through the ring as Lot 116 on the opening day of the 2023 Ready to Run Sale on November 22.
“That family association with Allan is a big part of how I ended up selling Lucky Sweynesse,” Stanley said. “I’ve built up a relationship with him of my own, where we inspect his young horses and decide which ones should be sold and which ones to retain. He trusts me to sell the ones that he puts on the market.
“It’s been pretty amazing what Lucky Sweynesse has gone on to do. He’s an absolute top-line horse. He hasn’t had the ideal start to his new preparation this season, running a couple of placings, but weight can stop a train. That’s what I’d put that down to, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he resumed his winning sequence in his next start and never looked back from there.
“I’m excited to be selling his half-brother at this year’s Ready to Run Sale. He’s a lovely, big colt by Contributer. We all have a huge opinion of him, and he’s shown some good ability on the track so far.
“Madonna Mia could be a bit of a blue hen mare. She’s thrown Lucky Sweynesse and the Queensland Oaks placegetter Signora Nera, while Allan also has one by Per Incanto that’s had some little niggles but he thinks has black-type potential as well.
“She just keeps throwing high-quality horses, and we’re optimistic that this one might be more of the same.”
There are 15 two-year-olds in Woburn Farm’s 2023 Ready to Run Sale draft, including the progeny of the likes of Sweynesse, Russian Revolution, Proisir, Deep Field, Per Incanto, The Autumn Sun and Shamus Award.
“I think we’ve got a lovely line-up this year, a good mix of New Zealand-breds and Australian-breds,” Stanley said. “I targeted the Australian sales this year, trying to buy nice types that I thought would be good racehorses – not just sales horses, but racehorses.
“They’re nice, athletic types and have all shown good ability. I’m hoping that whoever buys from our draft will be able to look forward to a bit of fun on the racetrack.
“The preparations have been spot-on. They all handled the breeze-ups really well and have settled in perfectly. Their X-rays and scopes are spot-on as well. I couldn’t be happier.
“Outside of the half-brother to Lucky Sweynesse, I also think quite a lot of the son of Shamus Award and Caesour’s Promise (Lot 358). He’s got a lovely action and is a beautiful horse to look at. His breeze-up time wasn’t the fastest, but he did it so easily.
“The Russian Revolution (Lot 61) and the Deep Field (Lot 161) have shown a lot of promise as well and look like they won’t take long to get to the races.”