New stallion to complement Auret stable
INTERNATIONAL group one winner Unusual Suspect is on his way to the Auret family’s thoroughbred operation on the outskirts of Wanganui.
The well-performed horse has been purchased for stud duty at Letham Thoroughbreds, where it will stand alongside Montjeu’s stakes-winning son Mettre En Jeu.
Nigel Auret said their decision was made after a thorough process.
“We had been keeping an eye out for another horse and one that we could send all our mares to,” Nigel Auret said.
“We weren’t going to take anything just for the sake of it. We wanted the real deal and we had all but given up when this horse came along.
“We know it’s a very late addition, but we are excited by him and better late than never. He’s head and shoulders above anything else we looked at.”
Unusual Suspect was the winner of the Group One Hollywood Turf Cup and the Group Three Hollywood Turf Handicap in its native North America before the horse was sent to Australia where it continued the career under leading Victorian trainer Mick Kent.
Auret said Kent gave a glowing recommendation of the horse, which helped make the purchase easier.
“He said he was sorry he didn’t get the horse earlier and he probably had the nicest temperament of any colt he’s ever had,” the trainer said.
Unusual Suspect won the Listed Werribee Cup for Kent, finished third in the Listed Sandown Cup and fourth in the Group Two Dato Tan Chin Nam Stakes.
The horse was also fourth in the Caulfield Cup and although only ninth in the Melbourne Cup, he was only four lengths off the winner Dunaden.
“He won seven stakes races and placed in another 10 so he was a very, very good horse,” Auret said.
“In his first full season in Queensland he served 80 mares and 60 in his second.
“We’re lucky to get a horse of his quality and my wife Adaire, our son Hamish and I own the horse outright and he will be serving all 15 of our own mares.”
Unusual Suspect, who will arrive at Letham later this week, won 10 races from 1200 to 2600 metres.
He is a son of the Nureyev stallion Unusual Heat, the group one-producing sire of 43 stakes winners, and the New Zealand-bred Crested Wave mare Penpont.
She is also the dam of the Group One winner Golden Doc A and a grand-daughter of the Group One Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes winner Black Willow.