Building a stallion roster that is competitive over the Spring Carnival is the goal of any Stallion farm and Cornerstone Stud is no exception. In the past three months much of the work of the previous four years has started to bear fruit for the clients of Cornerstone Stud.

Cornerstone stallions accounted for a total of nine Australian stakes race wins since the beginning of Spring and an additional two stakes race wins in Hong Kong and USA.

“There is no better feeling than watching those horses win on the big days. The amount of support we have had from clients and friends is humbling and it is nice to see them get rewarded with such positive results,” explains Sam Hayes from Cornerstone Stud.

“You can spend all you like on advertising and promotion, but at the end of the day, without winners the business does not work”, Hayes said.

The Spring kicked off with a stakes victory in the Show County at Warwick Farm for the Peter Moody trained Moment of Change, a son of Cornerstone’s emerging young sire Barely a Moment. He quickly progressed to take out the Group 1 Rupert Clarke Stakes at the end of September to give his sire a first Group One victory.

While Barely a Moment started the Spring with Group 1 glory, Good Journey ended it in fine fashion when his son Happy Trails built on previous Group 3 and Group 2 victories in the Spring Stakes and Dato Tan Chin Nam Stakes to culminate in Group 1 glory when he won a spine-tingling renewal of the Emirates Stakes.

Early Spring stakes winners for Hussonet included a Saturday double when both Members Joy and Tatra notched up victories in Melbourne and Sydney Listed Races respectively. Members Joy went on to run 2nd in the Group 2 Edward Manifold and Tatra managed to go one better when he grabbed an authoritative victory in the Group 2 Sandown Guineas.

This victory for the son of Hussonet meant that Cornerstone Stud stallions have now sired consecutive winners of the race, won last year by Barely a Moment’s son So Swift.

Adding to Tatra’s victory nearing the end of Spring was that of Hussonet’s lightly raced daughter Walk With Attitude who improved upon her 2nd in the Morphettville Guineas when taking out the Lexus Hybrid Plate (LR) on Melbourne Cup Day.

Hussonet then notched up his 87th Stakes winner when his son Glorious Days took victory in the Group 2 Hong Kong Jockey Club Mile at Sha Tin. In this race he beat the reigning Hong Kong Horse of The Year, Ambitious Dragon, possibly laying down a marker for the season ahead in HK as the heir apparent to the title.

This victory also lifted Hussonet into this season’s Top 5 sires by earnings in Hong Kong, Fastnet Rock and Encosta De Lago being the only other two representatives from Australia in the Top 5. On a global scale, this victory was Hussonet’s 56th International Group winner, moving him 2 clear of Redoute’s Choice (54).

Meanwhile in Singapore, Hussonet finished as Champion sire for 2012 by virtue of winners, mainly due to the exploits of winners such as Arowana Dot Com and Cash Dot Com. Barely a Moment’s Group 2 placed son Awakened also returned recently to secure two valuable handicaps and he looks sure to continue Cornerstone Stud success in the competitive arena of Singapore.

Speaking of imminent new stakes winners, such as Awakened, another son of Barely a Moment named Khalifa, trained by Mark Kavanagh, made it three wins from three career runs during October. This powerful gelding actually came through the same draft for Sovereign Thoroughbreds as Moment of Change did as a yearling.

Good Journey has also been notching up winners abroad, including the exciting 3YO filly Bella Viaggia who recently won the Listed California Cup Distaff Stakes at Santa Anita to become Good Journey’s 5th individual stakes winner. Classy 2YO Home Journey (by Good Journey) also made it 2 wins from 2 runs when easing to victory in a good Allowance race at Hollywood Park this month.

Good Journey has also made his mark in Asia thanks to his speedy 3YO son Sino Brilhante. Trained by Gary Moore, he was twice a winner as a 2YO and has resumed recently as a 3YO with 2 wins from 2 starts in recent weeks, another Cornerstone Stud stakes winner waiting to happen.

Face Value has been well represented also during the Spring. Good Value backed up a previous good handicap win when he took out the valuable Flemington handicap The Momentum Energy Trophy on Emirates Stakes day.

Back to back wins for his prolific mare Dream Face and further success in Hong Kong handicaps for full brothers Full Value and Loads of Joy made it a successful Spring for their sire who is currently standing alongside Shrewd Rhythm at Stable Hill Thoroughbreds in South Australia through an alliance with Cornerstone Stud.

Under the guidance of Stud Manager David Burke, and with the support of a loyal client base, the team at Cornerstone Stud have been working on establishing a quality band of broodmares for the farm.

With the dams of racehorses such as Bel Sprinter, Moment of Change, Sistine Angel, coupled with that of well related broodmares such as the stakes producing Azardi (half-sister to Glorious Days) residing at the stud, in addition to those of the calibre of Duchess Cara from Summerset Park Stud consistently supporting the stallions, it will not be long before we see another stakes winner emerge from Cornerstone Stud.