Already leading the second-season sire race so far this season, Danzig stallion Ad Valorem went and added another two individual winners to his tally on August 24, taking his overall haul to six winners from 12 runners this season, three winnerss clear of fellow Darley stallion Gonski.
The first of the two impressive winners took place at Canterbury, when the Chris Waller-trained Rolston broke his maiden over 1100m. The well-backed favourite after an encouraging second the start prior against the highly-touted Rekindled Alliance, Rolston went on to score a head victory over Exceed And Excel colt Masterstroke.
Bred by B R Gamer Investments Pty Ltd, Rolston is out of the winning Bigstone mare Glenbawn. A half-brother to the four-time Hong Kong-winning Commands gelding First In Command, Rolston comes from an international pedigree which includes Stakes winners Vision In Flight, Missile Bay, Fantasy Angel, Elusive Tales and Gris Grande.
A few hours later, this time at Eagle Farm, the Brain Smith-trained State Of Wealth created a huge impression scoring by four lengths at only his second start. Nominated for the G1 Caulfield Guineas in October, a race won in the past by the likes of Show A Heart, Lonhro, Redoute’s Choice and in more recent times Street Cry's Whobegotyou, State Of Wealth still has a long way to go, but his trainer holds the colt in high enough regard to consider this a realistic option.
Bred by Darley Australia, the colt is out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Girona, a daughter of the G1 Newmarket Handicap winner Ruffles. Girona has a two-year-old by Dubawi, a yearling by Street Cry and was rested the following year in readiness for the upcoming breeding season.
Sire of the G2 winner Free Wheeling, the G3-winning G1-placed Uate, as well as the recent Stakes-placed filly Detours, Ad Valorem was the winner of the G1 Middle Park Stakes as a two-year-old and the G1 Queen Anne Stakes as a four-year-old. Standing the forthcoming breeding season at Darley Kelvinside at a fee of $11,000 inc GST, Ad Valorem was the only first-season sire of his year to record two Stakes-winning juveniles.
