(Credit: Rich Hill Stud)
Exciting three-year-old Blind Raise’s (Ace High) dominant win in Saturday’s McKenzie Stakes (Listed, 1300m) not only stamped him a potential star of the spring but a leading light in what could be a boom time for his sire.
That’s the opinion of John Thompson of New Zealand’s Rich Hill Stud, who says Ace High (High Chaparral) is starting to build some highly impressive momentum.
The 12-year-old dual Group 1 winner had experienced something of a lull last year, with his book of mares dropping by almost half as breeders waited to see a little more, from 120 in 2024 to 67.
But that’s turned around sharply now.
Following a wait of more than two years after his first elite winner, his daughter She’s A Dealer became his second one in March, taking Manawatu’s New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m).
Nine days later the gelding Blind Raise emerged, blitzing his Sandown debut and following up with a black type victory in Flemington’s Anzac Day Stakes (Listed, 1400m) for two-year-olds, by two lengths.
And deep into last spring, a little late to spark an upturn for his 2025 breeding season, Ace High’s daughter She’s A Hustler won three of four starts including Moonee Valley’s Tesio Stakes (Gr 3, 2040m) and Caulfield’s Zipping Classic (Gr 2, 2400m), with a second in Flemington’s Matriarch Stakes (Gr 2, 2000m) in between.
All of this helped Ace High post some eye-catching statistics for Australia’s 2025-26 season.
For stallions with 20 or more winners, he ranked second by his stakes winners to runners ratio, with three from 38 at 7.9 per cent. Only Darley shuttler Ghaiyyath (Dubawi) was ahead of him, on 8.6 per cent.
And by his winners to runners ratio (again for stallions with 20 or more winners), Ace High topped the charts, with 24 from 38 at 63.2 percent. Former Coolmore shuttler Justify (Scat Daddy) was second, on 62.4 per cent, with 73 from 123.
Overall, Ace High now has a solid global SWTR ratio of 4.51 per cent, with six from 133, while in Australia it sits at 6.38 per cent, with three from 47. In New Zealand, he has four from 95.
His 2026 surge in results not only moved Rich Hill to keep his service fee unchanged at $15,000 (plus GST), but has led to a sizeable increase in mares booked to him this season, with Thompson expecting a return to three figures.
And the Waikato stud is tipping that to be reflected by exciting times on the track for Ace High.
“People are getting the hang of him a bit now, so he’s really starting to build some momentum,” Thompson told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“He’s had Group 1 winners in his first two crops, and it’s pretty exciting to be able to get those elite-level horses. And it wouldn’t surprise me to see Blind Raise heading in the same direction, with the way he won on Saturday.
“He’s got a lot of horses coming through the grades in New Zealand, with another nice winner for us at Ellerslie on Saturday in the mare Allaces, and he’s certainly heading in the right direction.
“He’s really starting to more than hit his straps. It’s quite an exciting stage in his career really. He’s certainly going to be a good stallion, but he could turn into a very good stallion, the way he’s going.”
While Allaces won her second of eight starts at Ellerslie on Saturday, Thompson was also heartened by the return to racing of She’s A Dealer in the race named after Rich Hill’s newly minted dual New Zealand champion sire, the Proisir Plate (Gr 1, 1400m).
The five-year-old mare, who ran fifth in the 2025 Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m), was having her first start since her lone Australian autumn run - a fifth in Randwick’s JRA Plate (Gr 3, 2000m).
While finishing ninth in the Proisir, she travelled off the track and was forced extremely wide on the home turn but still ran through the line, hinting she’d be better suited by the longer trip second-up in the middle leg of New Zealand’s spring Triple Crown, the Howden Insurance Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) at Hastings.
The Busuttin-Young trained Blind Raise - part-owned by former New Zealand Test cricket captain Ken Rutherford - was shortened to the fourth line of betting at $9 for the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) following Saturday’s win.
And Grahame Begg’s She’s A Hustler is preparing to resume from a solid, if non-winning, autumn-winter campaign. The now six-year-old finished just off the pace in four runs highlighted by a fourth in Randwick’s Queen Of The Turf Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) in her first try at the top level, and a third in the Hollindale Stakes (Gr 2, 1800m) at the Gold Coast.
“I heard She’s A Hustler trialled really nicely the other day and they’ve got big hopes for her in the spring,” Thompson said.
“And we were happy to see She’s A Dealer run how she did on Saturday. That’ll top her off nicely for the Howden Insurance Mile.”
Ace High’s fillies have been outperforming his colts so far, with Blind Raise his only male stakes winner among six.
Thompson expects that to balance out, while conceding the stallion’s stock appear to blossom as three-year-olds.
“I don’t think there’ll be any gender bias with the horse. He’s had a lot of promising looking colts, and a lot of the better colts got sold to Hong Kong,” he said. “But he’s got reasonable numbers out there now, with four crops running.
“A lot of them take a little bit of time to mature but they’re really coming to the fore now. Blind Raise won a stakes race at Flemington at two, which was a feather in Ace High’s cap, but generally they’d be better as three-year-olds; probably the traditional New Zealand horses that people come to buy.”
While Ace High scored his top-level triumphs in the Spring Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) and the VRC Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) of 2017, he’s shown considerable versatility as a sire. His progeny’s most successful distance bracket is 1201-1400 metres, with a winners to runners ratio of 40.17 per cent. Granted, that range holds a lion’s share of races, but Thompson says the stat reflects that Ace High holds a powerful hand as a stallion.
“People might say that’s a surprising amount of winners in that distance range for him, but if you look at his bloodlines - he’s out of a Redoute’s Choice mare, his second dam is by Sunday Silence, and he himself is by High Chaparral. There’s a helluva lot of versatility amongst that lot,” Thompson said.
“Quite a few of his fillies have speed, which is not a surprise really.
“If you breed a fast mare to him you can get a fast horse, and if you breed a staying type of mare to him you can get a horse with stamina.”
“If you breed a fast mare to him you can get a fast horse' -JOHN THOMPSON
Thompson said Ace High’s drop in coverings last year was not too surprising, but that normal service would resume this year for the stallion with a career fertility rate of 82 per cent through seven standing seasons.
“Last year happened because of the stage he was at going into the spring, and then the good horses - She’s A Hustler, She’s a Dealer and Blind Raise - came through after the breeding season,” he said.
“Breeders had been perhaps hanging off a little bit to see where he was heading, as can happen. Certainly they’ll all be jumping back on board now.
“It’s looking like he’ll get around the 100 mark this spring. If things continue to go well we might get more.”
