Everest-Winning Yes Yes Yes Retired With Tendon Injury

The Coolmore hierarchy is disappointed that Tab Everest winner Yes Yes Yes did not get the chance to race on the international stage nor add a group 1 to his CV, but they believe the 3-year-old son of Rubick has done more than enough to warrant a spot on their stallion roster.

There were plans for the Chris Waller-trained colt to resume in the Feb. 15 Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (G1) at Flemington in a campaign that was directed towards the Diamond Jubilee Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot in June.

But the racing career of the group 2-winning juvenile, who cemented his stallion credentials with a victory in last year's $14 million Everest, came to an immediate halt with news the colt had sustained a tendon injury to his nearside foreleg.

Coolmore's Tom Magnier said Sunday that while a "wonderful journey has ended" for Waller and his team "another was just beginning."

"Like all at Chris Waller Racing and anyone else ever involved with this son of Rubick, we are certain that Yes Yes Yes takes to his new career at stud with credentials that will see him succeed in transmitting to his progeny the same qualities of speed and precocity, allied with a wonderful temperament, that took him to the pinnacle of achievement on the track," Magnier said. 

Coolmore bought a 50% stake in Yes Yes Yes after he won last season's UNSW Todman Stakes (G2). He subsequently came from last to finish seventh in the Golden Slipper Stakes (G1) two weeks later.

He returned in the spring to finish second twice to Bivouac in the Sydney Markets Run To The Rose (G2) and De Bortoli Wines Golden Rose (G1) before the gamble to run him in the Everest paid significant dividends.

Yes Yes Yes' introductory service fee has already been discussed by Coolmore decision-makers, but a firm price and public release will most likely be made around Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in April.

With competition from potential first season stallions this year, including group 1-winning 3-year-olds Bivouac, Exceedance, as well as Microphone, Super Seth, and Castelvecchio, how Yes Yes Yes' service fee is priced will be one of the key talking points.

Randwick Bloodstock Agency's Brett Howard believes the fact that Yes Yes Yes does not have a group 1 victory on his record is more than counteracted by his track record-breaking Everest win where he defeated 10 elite level winners.

"I think the Everest is the premier 1,200-meter sprint in Australia," Howard told ANZ Bloodstock News. "It's run at weight for age and it attracts the best possible field, so if anything, it's the equivalent to a 'super group 1' without actually having the group 1 tag next to its name."

Howard predicted a game of cat and mouse between stud masters as they attempt to set competitive service fees for the 2020 breeding season.

"There's a lot of water to flow under the bridge before they announce the fee (for Yes Yes Yes)," he said. "What Rubick does in the next month or two might have a bearing on the service fee as well. It will also depend on what some of the other horses going to stud stand for. Traditionally, Coolmore tends to be near the end in terms of farms announcing their fees."

How emerging stallions such as Rubick, Deep Field, and first crop 2-year-old sires including Vancouver, Pride of Dubai, Headwater, and Press Statement perform in the coming months could also determine the price bracket the new brigade fit into. 

"It just gets down to how some of the stallions with now 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, and even 4-year-olds—the first, second, and third crop stallions—fare over the next three or four months. They will have an influence on how the first season stallions are received (by breeders)," Howard said. "If some of those horses really fire up, it draws breeders' focus to those horses. People are then happy to support those stallions and likewise the proven horses as well.

"Ideally, breeders can't send all their mares to unproven stallions. Given the choice, I think every breeder in Australia would love for there to be more proven stallions in the market. But the fact is, that's not the case, so you have to mix it around with the unproven and proven stallions."

Yes Yes Yes was set to participate in an exhibition gallop at Randwick's Expressway Stakes meeting Saturday, but Waller called that off after heat in a leg was detected in the morning. Scans subsequently confirmed the tendon injury, which forced connections to retire the valuable colt.

A AU$200,000 (US$156,840) Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale graduate bought by John Foote and the colt's former trainer Darren Weir, Yes Yes Yes was bred by Wagga-based Brett Bradley who raced his mother Sin Sin Sin before retaining her as a broodmare. A half sister to the stakes winners Hot As Hell, Flaming Hot, and Craig's Dragon, Sin Sin Sin is also a half sister to juvenile winner Hell It's Hot, the dam of dual group 1-winning sprinter In Her Time.

Sin Sin Sin's three foals to race are all winners headed by Yes Yes Yes and the stakes-placed mare Dee Nine Elle.

Sin Sin Sin's yearling colt by Sebring was purchased for AU$700,000 ($480,088) at the recent Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale by trainer Lloyd Kennewell and Group 1 Bloodstock. The mare is in foal to Zoustar after missing to Not A Single Doubt the previous year.