Woodside Park stallion Written Tycoon broke Bel Esprit’s long reign in Victoria with a $10 million prizemoney haul in 2015-16.

The newly-crowned champion wasted no time getting back to business when the black-type season started in Sydney and Melbourne on Saturday.  His mare Tycoon Tara graduated to a Group 2 in the Missile Stakes at Randwick following a pair of Group 3 events at Caulfield last year for Victorian based part-owner and breeder Tony Kruska.

Written Tycoon has been based in Victoria since retiring to stud save for a detour to Queensland in 2012.  Just turned 14, his first Woodside-bred youngsters will begin racing this season – there were 102 foals that year – and the numbers have sky-rocketed in subsequent crops.

He broke Bel Esprit’s winning run and is a cinch to take more curtain-calls in the years ahead.

It was wrongly reported Bel Esprit had won 8 titles in a row when he was named Champion Victorian Stallion at Crown Melbourne in August 2015.

In fact, last season’s award made it 6 flags on end for the Eliza Park / Sun Stud champion.

Bel Esprit won his first Victorian premiership with three crops racing in 2009-10.  His rising star Black Caviar was unbeaten that season in the LR MVRC Crockett Stakes, G2 VRC Danehill Stakes and G2 MVRC Australia Stakes.

Jeune was the last Victorian champion before Bel Esprit’s six-year term.  The British-bred Melbourne Cup winner claimed the title in 2008-09.  Jeune retired to Lindsay Park in South Australia and transferred to Nagambie-based Collingrove Stud, the forerunner of Swettenham Stud, in 2004.