Simon Sweeting, manager of Overbury Stud, has reined in the stud fees for several of his stallions ahead of the 2021 season. Ardad (who has stood three seasons at £6,500) and Cityscape (previously at £5,000) will both stand at £4,000 Oct 1, SLF, while the G1 Irish Derby winner Jack Hobbs stands his fourth season at £3,000 Oct 1, SLF, having been at £4,000. Frontiersman, the son of Dubawi and Ouija Board, stays at £1,000 Oct 1, SLF, while Schiaparelli – who had three jumpers on the board at the Cheltenham Festival – sees his fee return to £2,000 Oct 1, SLF after a year at £1,500.

‘Our stallions have actually enjoyed many successes in 2021, and we certainly wouldn’t be reducing their fees if it weren’t for the pandemic,’ said Sweeting. ‘But just about every business is having to be cautious about the future, and we hope breeders will find our fees as good value as ever. Take Cityscape, for instance: his best horse so far is rated 124 by Timeform – there are plenty of stallions at far higher fees who can’t boast that. And we can hardly wait to see the first Ardads get to the racecourse next spring. His yearlings went down very well with proper judges, and it’s exciting to see so many trainers who are famed for their Royal Ascot two-year-olds stocking up on them.’ Ardad, the G2 Flying Childers and Windsor Castle winner, is by Kodiac, whose four freshman stallion sons in 2020 all sired Group horses with their first juveniles.

Sweeting also had good news about the beautifully bred Frontiersman. ‘This horse might be flying under the radar, but he covered 60-odd mares in 2019 and then over 100 in 2020 – purely on the back of how much the breeders liked his foals.’

Overbury Stud’s long-standing stalwart, Kayf Tara, is now living in retirement having taken 11 Champion UK jumps stallion titles. ‘Jack Hobbs is, we hope, his ready-made replacement,’ said Sweeting. ‘He’s been patronised by top breeders and his stock certainly look the part. As for Schiaparelli, well, his offspring are doing so well – they share the same head-down attitude to racing that he had – and it’s particularly fortunate they seem to excel at Cheltenham. His Stayers’ Hurdle runner-up, Ronald Pump, and Indefatigable – who won the Martin Pipe off top-weight – are two of his flag-bearers, and are horses any jumps breeder would be thrilled to have produced.’

For more information, please call Simon on 07796 174926.