Skyvalley (NZ)

Muscle Yankee (US) - Chiolas Lass (NZ)

"The Skies the Limit" with Skyvalley

1st August 2019 - By Peter Wharton

Skyvalley NZ will again stand at Aldebaran Park, Nagambie (Vic.) in the coming 2019/2020 season.

His service fee of $2,000 including GST with discounts for multiple mares remains as per last season whereby it was reduced to offer breeders providing greater access to this exciting sire of juvenile winners and cup class trotters.

His juvenile progeny and their racetrack results, which continue to impress all concerned, have placed him at the forefront of juvenile producers for the current 2019/2020 season.

Skyvalley NZ is the leading colonial bred trotting sire in Australia and is ranked third on the All Aged sire list. In Australia he boasts 64 percent starters-to-winners ratio and in NZ, a 73 percent winners-to-starters ratio.

Overall, he is sire of winners of more than $3.3million including eight $100,000 earners and numerous Group winners.

With his eldest crop of racing age being seven-year-olds there is little doubt that the ‘skies the limit’ with Skyvalley NZ.

Further details of his successful progeny can be seen in the News Section of the Aldebaran Park website and in the detailed brochures within the Stallion Section of this website.

Skyvalley NZ has been well patronised at stud on both sides of the Tasman and there is little doubt that his successes as a stallion to date should result in astute breeders seeking their mares to be served by him in the 2019/2020 season.

His yearlings continue to sell well at the Yearling Sales and those sold through the Australasian Premier Trotting Sale have achieved success on the track - notably multiple Group 1 winner Aldebaran Eve.

Skyvalley NZ is unquestionably one of the best bred and best performed trotters ever to stand at stud in this country.

From 47 starts he won 24 and was 13 times placed for $322,675 in stakes. He won six races at Group level and was placed a further three times and established three national records.

A dual winner as a two-year-old, Skyvalley announced himself as the next big thing in Australian trotting when he trounced his rivals by 15 metres in the final of the $102,000 Breeders Crown for three-year-olds at Bendigo, rating a brilliant 1:59 for the 2150 metres - an all age Australian record.

Skyvalley NZ really came into his own as a four-year-old winning 14 races, the most by any standardbred in Australia that season. His wins included the 4YO Breeders Crown (by 32 metres), demolishing his opposition with Dan Mielicki describing it as the best win by any horse that season, drawing comparisons to the great Maori's Idol by many who witnessed his thrashing of his rivals that day. He won the Melton Trotters Cup on Tabcorp Park opening day beating the best open age free-for-all horses over the 2760 metre journey, running his last mile in 2:01. He also won the Cobram Trotters Cup and several metropolitan free-for-alls.

One of his memorable wins as a five-year-old was the Bill Collins Sprint over 1720 metres at Grand Cicuit level in a track record 1:56.4, beating Sundons Gift NZ, and wearing no shoes, such was his impeccable gait and manners. At the same age he won the Scotch Notch Memorial at Tabcorp Park and the Freestone Trotters Cup at Moonee Valley. He also finished third in the Inter Dominion Grand Final after an injury interrupted campaign.

Skyvalley NZ is a rare individual who took your breath away with some of his feats on the racetrack.

Skyvalley is a son of the former world No.1 sire in Muscles Yankee 1:52.4, now champion sire of sires and broodmare sire. Muscles Yankee has sired the winners of almost $100million in stakes and at this stage is credited with in excess of 139 on the 1:55 list. In the Southern Hemisphere Muscles Yankee USA is best represented by 2011 and 2012 Inter Dominion Champion I Can Doosit NZ.

Not only is Skyvalley NZ a young son of Muscles Yankee - he was foaled in 2004 - but on his distaff side he can claim equal distinctions. He is a half-brother to a champion trotting mare in Allegro Agitato NZ Tr 1:57.8 ($529,854), a multiple winner at Group 1 level in New Zealand and Australia and herself being sired by Sundon USA, proving that crossing with Sundon USA mares will undoubtedly work.

Their dam, Chiola's Lass NZ Tr 2:04 ($157,779), was one of the leading daughters of a champion trotting sire in Chiola Hanover USA. She won 10 of her 17 starts including the Victoria Oaks, NZ Great Northern Derby and The Holmfield and was voted the NZ Trotter of the Year at 2 and 3.

We look forward to Skyvalley NZ remaining at the forefront of Sires in coming seasons and we wish all Breeders every success with their mares and current racing stock