The KZN Breeders Club are extremely proud and excited to be able to report the acquisition of the very first son of world leading sire Wootton Bassett to come to stud in South Africa. But that is only a part of it, he is out of nothing less than a Gr1 winning daughter of Champion Sire Redoute’s Choice out of a daughter of More Than Ready. Add to this the fact that he is great looking colt and a Gr1 performer as a two year old, hard to believe we managed to secure him, but sometimes things are just meant to be.
Wootton Bassett (GB) needs very little introduction to any racing person anywhere in the world, but it’s certainly worth a recap. Unbeaten in 5 starts as a two year old including the Gr 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere he retired to stud after being unable to add to his tally in a couple of starts at three. He only received moderate support at stud in France initially with a first foal crop of just 23, but for him that was enough, for amongst them was triple Gr 1 winner Almanzor and a host of other Gr performers. At this point Coolmore saw value in him and bought him to relocate to Ireland, they pushed his service fee to €100 000 and was duly inundated with mares. The resulting foals ripped up the rule book once they reached the track. This first Irish Bred crop of two year olds produced 10 juvenile Group winners surpassing the record of 7 held jointly by super powers Danehill and Galileo! He went on to be named Europe’s best ever sire of Two year Olds! Shuttled to Australia he became a leading sire of two year olds there with only his first crop running, little surprise that he was highest priced stallion in Australia in 2025 with a stud fee of $385 000 (R4.5m) before his untimely death. But this also means they not making any more of them!
State Visit (Aus) is the first foal of the mare Celebrity Queen (Aus) who is by Redoutes Choice out of a stakes winning More Than Ready daughter! After a stellar racing career Celebrity Queen was sold as a filly for stud for $2 500 000. She had 14 career starts and won 7 of these (3 on the trot) and included the Gr 1 MRC Oakleigh P. and the Colonel Reeves S. Gr3 as well as 2nds in the Gr1 WATC Winterbottom S. and the the Gr 3 AJ Scahill S. A young mare at stud there is every chance this pedigree is going to continue to grow as she has progeny of top class sires in the pipeline, a colt by Justify, a filly by Wotton Bassett and in foal now to Home Affairs. The depth of the pedigree does not end there though as Celebrity Miss is not only a stakes winner herself, but out of a dual Gr1 winning daughter of Marscay!
The potency in the sire lines of this pedigree are simply unbelievable:
Wootton Bassett – champion 2yo sire in Europe.
Redoute’s Choice was champion 2 yo sire in Australia in 2004 and claimed the champion sires title in 2005-06; 2009-10 and 2013-14. He was four times champion Broodmare Sire and was the first to crack the $30 million earnings record in June 2023.
More Than Ready – sire of South African champion sire Gimmethegreenlight. More Than Ready is the only sire to have an Eclipse Champion four years in a row, and is the sire of the most Breeders Cup winners in history.
Marscay – Champion sire in Australia twice, and four times Champion Broodmare sire.
It comes as no surprise that State Visit was a true Gr 1 performing two year old in Australia – the land where juvenile races are king. It is purely thanks to a short head that we had any chance of securing State Visit for in the ATC sire Produce Stakes Gr 1 he was beaten a short head by Vinrock – net result we got State Visit – Vinrock’s gone to Yulong at a stud fee of R 250 000!
This is confirmed by the below comments from the yard:
“At his first start he was very impressive running good sectionals but he was still very new,” Gerard-Dubord said.
“Second start he had to go all the way back and make his run on the outside, which is not easy to do, and last start he was very good. Jason (Collett) said he actually didn’t see the horse (winner Vinrock) on his inside and that’s why he came back again in the end.
“He’s got the best attitude, a beautiful action. He is a lovely colt so we will try to get that Group One win.”
The summary of that is he won his first start impressively (1250m), second start 1200m Gr3 he came from last to run 3rd, and his next start Gr1 (1400m) again came from back of field and wide to run second. Only two weeks later he was in the Gr 1 Champagne S. over 1600m in the soft going, which he didn’t enjoy, but ran 4th. In short, in the space of just under two months at the start of his two year old career he won, placed 3rd in a Gr 3, placed 2nd in a Gr 1 and 4th in a Gr 1, against what proved to be the best two year olds in Australia in that generation. He developed an issue after that pressure and they could never quite get to the bottom of it meaning his career was cut short. He only had 9 career starts of which only his first start was not a stakes race. Retired as a winner, 2nd Gr1, 3rd Gr3, 4th Gr1, 4th Listed, 5th Gr 2.
With Eden Roc, the first KZN Breeders Club stallion purchase, having had his first crop so well received at the sales this year we believed the time was right for the next step. The mandate was to buy something that would introduce new blood and broader appeal to the breeding ranks of KZN, we really believe that State Visit will do this and offer something special not only to our members but to the greater South African breeding fraternity. State Visit is currently in quarantine and will be in KZN in time for the upcoming breeding season.
