Trelawney Stud announced on Thursday that the Storm Cat-stallion Van Nistelrooy (USA) will not be returning to New Zealand for the 2007 breeding season.
 
“We still have enormous faith in the horse,” said Brent Taylor of Trelawney Stud, “however, we and our partners thought that for this season, we will take the opportunity to sit back and see how his progeny perform over the next twelve months,” he said. 

“We have obviously been in consultation with Coolmore and they were happy to support this decision and we have every opportunity to bring Van Nistelrooy back to New Zealand in the future,” said Brent.

Van Nistelrooy was brought to New Zealand by a partnership including Chequers Stud, Curraghmore Stud, Fairdale Stud, Haunui Farm, Pencarrow Stud and of course Trelawney. 

As a result, he covered some of the best mares in the New Zealand studbook throughout his four seasons at stud including Melbourne and Caulfield Cups-winner Ethereal (NZ) (Rhythm), La Suffragette (NZ) (Palace Music), the dam of Railings (Aus) (Zabeel), Coogee Walk (NZ) (Success Express) – the dam of Activation – multiple Group One-winner Fayreform (NZ) (Tights), Group Two-winner Gordon’s (NZ) (Kaapstad), Jazzmatazz (NZ) (Citidancer) – the dam of Jazzella – Midnight Babe (NZ) (Kaapstad) – the dam of Perlin – to name but a few.

“His first crop of yearlings sold very well at the sales last year and as a result, have ended up in some of the best stables in New Zealand and Australia,” said Brent. 

From this crop, Van Nistelrooy has already produced a winner and three place-getters in New Zealand from eight starters whilst he has also had placegetters in Australia and Singapore. 

“He has had a total of fourteen starters from his first crop in New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Singapore,” said Brent, “and he has had a good number of trials performers of late,” he said. 

“The feedback from trainers has been very positive all along,” said Brent. 

“They are strong, athletic horses, that move well, have great temperaments and I’m sure we will see them doing the job over the next twelve months and with that being the case, we expect to be bringing him back next season” said Brent. 

Trelawney Stud Media Release Published 10/05/07