A clean sweep for Armidale Stud sires at the 2024 Tasmanian Racing Awards

The 2024 Tasmanian Racing Awards held on Saturday, 5 October, saw Armidale Stud resident stallions, Alpine Eagle and Needs Further, make another clean sweep of the sire awards.

Alpine Eagle took out the Leading Tasmanian Sire title for the second-year running, adding to his list of achievements after previous success in the Leading Juvenile Sire category in 2022 and 2023.

The leading sire’s season was headlined by the achievements of his dominant daughter The Map (ex This Moment), who is on track to make her G1 Melbourne Cup debut after three stakes wins in 2024 for trainers Dan Clarken & Oopy MacGillivray. Her convincing performance in the G3 Queen Elizabeth II Cup this season was backed up by her wins in the Listed Lexus Andrew Ramsden Stakes in May and the Listed JRA Plate back in February.

Alpine Eagle is a proven sire of winners at two, three, four and beyond and is able to lay claim to multiple stakes horses, including dual 3YO stakes winner Alpine Wolf and 2YO stakes placegetter Eye of the Eagle (2nd Listed MRC Redoute’s Choice Stakes at Caulfield). He sired 44 individual winners in Australia during the 2023/24 season who, between them, achieved 74 wins.

“To see Alpine Eagle named the leading sire in Tasmania for a second year is really thrilling and something we’re very proud of,” said Armidale Stud’s David Whishaw.

“The achievements of The Map, and in fact all of Alpine Eagle’s progeny, are testament to his ability to sire winners at every age.

“He’s represented by stakes horses and city winners in four states and continues to offer breeders a great opportunity to access a proven bloodline at an affordable price.”

Needs Further added to the Stud’s celebrations with his win in the Leading Juvenile Sire category after last claiming the title a few seasons back.

His status as a producer of precocious and fast sprinter-milers was further emphasised across the 2023/24 season with the sire outperforming any other Tasmanian-based stallion on winners last season and he is the leading Tasmanian-based sire of overall 2YO stakes winners (6.4% 2YO stakes winners to runners) to date.

“His ability to sire dominant two-year-olds is remarkable and he’s accumulating quite the list with the likes of Needs Sugar, The Spirit Of Zero and Mystic Journey all flying the flag for him, ” said David.

“His progeny are built for speed, have great brains and love getting stuck into their work. They can get up and run early, then go on to have long and successful racing careers as older horses.”

Armidale Stud stallions are remarkably consistent, winning the Leading Juvenile Sire title four times and the Leading Sire title three times since 2019 at Tasmanian racing’s biggest celebration.

David credits the Stud’s success to the ongoing support they receive from Australian breeders.

“We couldn’t achieve these results without the support of our loyal breeders,” he commented.

“Armidale can proudly claim decades of success and these most recent accolades only further cement our commitment to ensuring the longevity of our industry both here in Tasmania and throughout Australia.

“It’s been a wonderful night for me and the family and we couldn’t be prouder of the boys.”

The Stud’s night of success was rounded out by The Map (Alpine Eagle x The Moment) being named the recipient of the Leading Race Filly or Mare award and her dam, The Moment, the Leading Broodmare award.

The Map is owned by Mrs J A MacGillivray, D J Clarken, R A Sadek, P Cousins, G V Davidson, Mrs B R Davidson, B R Hayden, South East Connections (Mgr: R S Dix) & Gambling Graziers (Mgr: A B Prior) after being sold at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale.

This Moment is owned by Michael Crossin and Richard Sadek, and resides at Armidale Stud.

Alpine Eagle and Needs Further are standing for a fee of $4,400 inc GST and $5,500 inc GST respectively this season and, with Group targets lined up for their progeny, look set to continue to offer incredible value to breeders.