It is no easy feat to stand among giants, but Expert Eye can now call himself king of the castle when holding court at Paardeberg Stud in South Africa.
Having stood alongside titans such as Frankel and Kingman at Banstead Manor Stud, the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner has settled into South African climes with aplomb.
The Racing Post reports that he arrived just as the Paarl-based stud was starting, and it has been some journey for all the residents, both human and equine.
Expert Eye: Breeders’ Cup Mile winner is happy with new life in South Africa (Pic – Paardeberg Stud)
Paardeberg has undergone a massive transformation in the last 12 months, with manager and esteemed breeder Sally Bruss leading the way in conjunction with British businessmen Steve Ajax and Charles Palmer.
Aside from the establishment of essential stud buildings and paddocks to house broodmares and youngstock, it was announced last October that the fledgling stud had acquired Juddmonte’s young sire as its first stallion,
Not bad going for a place which was barely in its infancy at that moment in time.
Bruss says: “I worked for a leading stud called Lammerskraal Farm for over 30 years, I was the stud manager and also a director and shareholder. Mike Rattray, who owned it, reached an age of about 86 and he decided to sell, so then I was approached by these chaps from the UK and I said I’d look for a farm.
“It took a couple of years to find a place and eventually we bought an undeveloped farm; it was very run down. It’s quite remarkable what we’ve done, we moved here in October last year. We’ve had to build all the paddocks and stables from scratch, so it’s been quite an undertaking!
“We started off with about six mares and now we’ve got just under 30 mares – we’ve bought quite a few in the last 12 months and really upgraded our broodmare band now. We went to our first sale in April with ten foals we’d bred on another property. We will mostly sell the yearlings and race the odd filly.”
With all the work being taken to restore the former vineyard, the Paardeberg team wasn’t actively looking for a stallion. However, as can often be the case, an opportunity sprung up through word of mouth and was adjudged not-to-be-missed.
“We weren’t really looking because the stud is so new, but we were approached by my brother-in-law who knew Felipes [Lopes], who worked at Juddmonte, and he said they were looking to sell Expert Eye.”
The son of Acclamation sprung to prominence at an early age, winning for owner-breeders Juddmonte and the Sir Michael Stoute yard on his debut as a two-year-old at Newbury and then running out an impressive winner of the Group 2 Vintage Stakes at Glorious Goodwood.
The following year he won the Group 3 Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot and the City Of York Stakes, then also Group 3, while also placing in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes and Prix du Moulin.
He couldn’t have gone out on any more of a high, winning the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs under Frankie Dettori a shade cosily, as the Racing Post’s in-running comment put it.
His first crops have so far yielded a Group winner in Dick Poole Fillies’ Stakes scorer Juniper Berries and a Royal Ascot-winning juvenile in Chesham Stakes victress Snellen among a host of useful and tough winners.
Other standout progeny includes last year’s Horris Hill Stakes second Witness Stand, a three-length winner of a competitive handicap at Glorious Goodwood this summer, the progressive California-based filly Royal Charter, and 2024 stakes-placed two-year-old Rock Hunter.
“He’s just a chilled guy” (Pic – Paardeberg Stud)
“He gets a good amount of winners and they seem to do well on firmer going,” says Bruss. “He does slightly lack stakes performers, but I thought that, because of his good action and the fact his progeny act on quicker going, he might well be suited to South Africa.
“We also don’t have anything from the Acclamation line. Acclamation has been a good sire and a really good sires of sires, while Expert Eye was a speedy horse with a good frame and good temperament.”
It’s just as well Expert Eye has a good temperament for he had to endure a long journey over to his new home. The long-standing ban on the direct export of horses to the EU from South Africa was lifted in March this year, but the nine-year-old had to tolerate several quarantine hurdles in Europe and South Africa last summer.
“The protocols have improved in the last couple of months, but he had to go through 90 days [of quarantine],” says Bruss. “He still had to do quarantine in Belgium for 60 days, as well as 30 days here, so it was a heck of a haul for him. He left in July and got to us in November!”
Despite all that, Expert Eye has acclimatised and taken well to his new surroundings.
“He’s settled in very well and is very relaxed,” continues Bruss. “When he got here in the summer, because the stud was so underdeveloped, he just lived out from day one. It was quite interesting because the Juddmonte guys were telling me he was really difficult to catch, but often, if you treat a horse like a horse, they can surprise you.
“We built the first barn for the maiden mares to go under lights and blankets for the first season and because we’ve had such bad weather with record rainfalls, I put him in the barn with all the fillies. He’s just such a chilled dude, he’s got fillies next to him and fillies opposite him and he stands with his head out; you would never think he’s in there with a bunch of fillies.”
Excitingly, Expert Eye is set to receive a high-quality book of mares for his first South African book. Having already covered two mares, he has been supported by some of the biggest studs in the country, no small matter given the fierce competition among stallion numbers.
Bruss says: “South Africa hasn’t been able to import stallions for a good many years and also the exchange rate made it difficult to buy anything decent. Of course, we get him in and 11 stallions go to stud in the same year; our broodmare band here is under 2,000 and we’ve got about 65 registered stallions at stud.
“If you do the maths, it’s not really a bright picture, about six stallions cover 120 mares or more; obviously they get the best mares, which cuts it down for the rest. When that happened, we thought he’d get only our mares, but it looks like he’ll get 50, which has exceeded our expectations.
“We’re happy he’s being supported by the bigger studs, Ridgemont and Drakenstein have bought shares in him, and it’ll be more about quality than a bigger book of lesser mares.”
