Alta Christiano to stand in New South Wales.
FORMER brilliant pacer Alta Christiano, who is now making an impact at the stud with his first Victorian crops, will stand this season at the newly established Tipperary Equine Stud, Young (NSW), of Luke Primmer and Seryn Adams. Alta Christiano – a member of NZ’s noted Black Watch family – could make a real contribution to the NSW breeding scene.
His service fee is $2,200 including GST and his progeny are eligible for the $500 Colonial Stallion rebate being a colonial bred Group 1 winning New South Wales-based stallion.
Alta Christiano, a striking bay horse, foaled in 2009 in New Zealand was represented by his first crop as two-year-olds last season. In his first season he left 78 foals, and of these he had 30 to the races half-way through their three-year-old season, and 20 were winners – a remarkable 66 percent winners-to-starters and 26 percent winners-to-foals.
Of 16 two-year-old starters this season, five are already winners and they have won in four different States, while eight have been placed from only 59 foals.
From his first crop he sired a talented colt in Im Sir Blake, who has won six races this season including the $25,000 Northern Region Championship and Mildura Guineas, and a smart filly in Fake News, who won seven of her 19 starts including the WA Country Derby.
Martys Party, winner of the SA Southern Cross Consolation, the $100,000 Westbred 2YO Classic placegetter Lady Valasca, Ginatiano (Albion Park), Georgie Mae and Our Virtuoso have been other winners by Alta Christiano from his initial crop.
While his second crop is headed up by the smart Will The Wizard, winner of the $25,500 QBred Breeders Classic in 1:57.5, Suing You, who has won three of her four starts, and Aces Daughter, a heat winner of the Southern Cross and runner-up in the $50,000 Final.
Alta Christiano, who won 13 races and was twice placed in a brief career, could have developed into a Grand Circuit performer, but for a leg injury sustained as a two-year-old.
He won his first four starts as a juvenile including the Group 3 NZ Kindergarten Stakes in 1:57.6 and the NZ Yearling Sales Graduate and was placed in the $250,000 NZ Yearling Sales Series Final.
After being sold to Perth interests for a huge amount, Alta Christiano had a further 10 starts as a three and four-year-old in Western Australia and tasted defeat only once!
Among his successes were the $200,000 WA Derby, in which he sat parked before scoring in runaway fashion, and the Group 2 $50,000 Western Gateway in a track record rate of 1:55.4 for 2130 metres. He took his lifetime mark of 1:54.2 racing three-wide and winning under a hold at Gloucester Park.
Gary Hall, who trained him throughout his Australian career, said: “Of all the top sons of Christian Cullen he had the gait that was closest to ‘Cullen’ himself as I’d seen. He’s got all the attributes you could want in a horse – he’s fast, he can stay and he’s great gaited.”
By Christian Cullen, a multiple 1:50 sire and a 1:50 broodmare sire in a notable stud career, Alta Christiano, a grand type of individual is out of Right This Time, by Fake Left from Able Reason, by Vance Hanover from She’s Reasonable, by Noodlum from a grand producer in Black Watch, who founded a family which has met with success not only in NZ, but in Australia and in America.
The branch of the Black Watch family to which Alta Christiano belongs has probably been the most successful. A top racemare in her own right, Black Watch left six individual winners and is the grand-dam of the ‘Cups King’ The Unicorn, the NZ Oaks winner Pacific Flight, Reba Lord (ID Cons.), NZ 2YO Filly of the Year Megaera, and others.
