Rich Hill Stud: Headling Karaka With Vadamos Yearlings
Rich Hill Stud, a family-run operation, with John and Colleen Thompson at the helm, is one of the most recognized thoroughbred nurseries and stud farms in Australia.
Although Rich Hill Stud has bred and sold over 16 Group One winners, Melbourne Cup-winning Prince of Penzance remains of their most well-known graduates. Thompson has been showing at the Karaka Yearling Sale every January for over two decades.
The 2009 New Zealand Horse of the Year, King Mufhasa who was sold for just NZ$50,000 collected 10 Group One wins and over NZ$2.8 million in prize money. They also bred Australian Guineas winner, Ferlax.
The Impact's Publisher Pallavi Shevade spoke to John Thompson about his 2020 Karaka Yearling Sale draft and their plan for the upcoming year.
Q: How do you plan matings?
A: Physical characteristics have a lot to do with the perfect mating. We try to blend the stallion and mares physical set. We always want to produce a beautiful physical looking athlete type. If the coupling looks good on paper but the result may not be as good, we don't go ahead with the mating. We also try to replicate previously successful matings. We are always analyzing successful progeny. There is a lot of passion and hard work which goes into all our matings. When a stallion is young, we prefer to send our more successful and mature mares to him. But once he's proven we send our young mares.
Q: Although American stallions are all the rage these days, which bloodlines are you more inclined towards?
A: For the past 100 years, we have imported European horses because of New Zealand's history with Europe. They have worked well with us. We stand Vadamos, and his progeny have been doing well.
Recently Japanese horses have come into the market, and they are proving their mettle. They won 3 out of the four big races in Hong Kong recently. We stand Satono Aladdin, which I bought from Shadai Stallions as I have an ancient relationship with them. He is the only Group 1 winning son of Deep Impact at stud in New Zealand, and we are excited to have him.
Q: Please tell us about your draft highlights?
A: We have the six yearlings by the best-bred son of Monsun (GER), Vadamos who was the leading sire at the 2019 Karaka weanling sale. Then we have a few beautiful looking horses by Group One performed Proisir and Shocking. We will be selling our entire draft in Book 2.