Coolmore Stud has reacted to the poor response towards Henrythenavigator at the Australian majors by re-routing him to Chile this year.

Henrythenavigator (USA) will shuttle to Haras Don Alberto in Chile for the upcoming southern hemisphere season.  He has been covering Australian books since 2009 at a fee that has dipped from $38,500 to $22,000.

Coolmore advertised his 2013 fee at $13,750 in April, however, a fifth season has since been rescinded in favour of a stint in South America.

Henrythenavigator (Kingmambo) started his northern stud career with 16 first-crop winners in 2012 highlighted by Group 1 stars George Vancouver (Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf) and Pedro The Great (Irish Phoenix Stakes).

Nevertheless, that promising start didn’t impress Australian buyers earlier this year.  The knock on his yearlings was palpable as reported by www.thoroughbredexpress.com.au after the Gold Coast Magic Millions.

Henrythenavigator had 8 of his second-crop yearlings on offer during the select sessions on the Gold Coast – three were passed-in and the other five made between $35,000 and $85,000.  He followed up with paltry averages at the Inglis Classic ($16,667) and Inglis Premier ($39,000) and, more tellingly, not one of his yearlings made the cut for the Inglis Easter.

With only two months of the season remaining, his only Australian – NZ first-crop winner among 11 starters has been Sandown Hillside winner Donna Madeira.

Dylan Thomas (Danehill) is another former Coolmore shuttler heading to Chile.  His oldest Australian progeny are three year-olds and there have been 25 winners from that crop at a 29% strike-rate.  None of them have saluted at black-type level.

– Karl Patterson