Rebel Dane Relocated to Silverdale Farm

Rebel Dane , a sire whose stakes horses-to-runners ratio rivals the remarkable Extreme Choice with similarly low foal numbers, will relocate to New South Wales in a blow for the owners of his Victorian home of the past three seasons, Glen Eden Stud.

Group 1-winning sprinter Rebel Dane's principal owners Steve Grant and Ken Lowe informed Glen Eden Stud co-owner Rory O'Brien on Sunday that they would be moving the rising 13-year-old stallion north to further his low-profile career.

Rebel Dane, the sire of Feb. 26 Furphy Sweet Embrace Stakes (G2) winner and Longines Golden Slipper (G1) contender Fireburn, as well as group 3-winning juvenile Subterranean, will arrive at Grant's Silverdale Farm in the NSW Southern Highlands today with a decision to be made on where he will stand at stud at a later date.

Feel the burn! Exciting 2YO filly, Fireburn makes it 3 from 4 in the Group 2 @FurphyBeer Sweet Embrace Stakes over 1200m at @royalrandwick. Another exciting juvenile for @GlenEdenStud’s Rebel Dane, Fireburn is bred & raced by @LaurelOakB. pic.twitter.com/IoCS7XynFj

— Aushorse (@Aushorse_TBA) February 26, 2022

The Gary Portelli-trained Fireburn could hold the key as to where and for how much Rebel Dane will stand for in 2022 after she made it three wins from four starts in the Randwick 2-year-old fillies' race.

A diplomatic Grant yesterday reasoned Rebel Dane's owners needed to capitalize on the emergence of Fireburn and that the stallion would be best placed in NSW from now on.

"They worked hard to get him the numbers but unfortunately the numbers just didn't come through for him," Grant said yesterday.

"We now think that if we can get him into NSW and take advantage of the current situation of his results, it will certainly help the horse."

Alongside Fireburn and Subterranean, Rebel Dane is also the sire of the stakes-placed dual winner Lloyd's Crown, who is trained by Rebecca Waymouth, and three other winners from just 13 runners.

His 23% stakes horses–to–runners percentage compares favorably to the 20% of Newgate Farm’s Extreme Choice, who has had seven stakes horses, six of them winners, including Golden Slipper (G1) hero Stay Inside and the highly talented Espiona, from just 35 runners.

Rebel Dane began his stud career at Swettenham Stud in Victoria in 2017, standing at Adam Sangster's Nagambie Farm for two seasons, before Sonia O'Gorman's Glen Eden Stud took him on.

The son of California Dane  covered 49 mares at an advertised fee of AUS$8,800 (approx. $6,354) in 2021, his third year at the Kilmore Stud, and the most mares he had served in his five years in the breeding shed.

"When we started off it was hard to try and find a home for him. Kenny (Lowe) went all the way around New Zealand talking to every studmaster and we talked to people in Queensland and Victoria and so on and Adam Sangster helped us get off the mark," Grant said.

"His first stakes winner (Subterranean) was a mare who cost AU$1,000 and the same with Mull Over, the mother of Fireburn. Louis (Mihalyka) and I sat up at Magic Millions and rushed up to the ring at the last minute to buy her for AUS$22,000 ($16,599) and that's about the quality of mares he's got. What he's producing now is good runners, a group 2 and group 3 winner, you couldn't ask for more off a low base.

"He is going back to Silverdale and we will just sit there for a while until we can see how Fireburn goes and then we'll consider the options from there."

Glen Eden's Rory O'Brien, who became a partner in the stud last September, went from the highs of Fireburn's Sweet Embrace success on Saturday to the shock of losing Rebel Dane on Sunday.

"I'm in insurmountable pain and suffering given the amount of work that I've done to champion that horse," an emotional O'Brien told ANZ Bloodstock News.

"I came in from outside the industry with a racing and punting background that was deeply ingrained in my psyche. I always think that if the market's got something wrong and you can see something that you believe in then that's your edge, and Rebel Dane was my edge."

O'Brien, though, is steadfast in his belief that Rebel Dane, who he says last year was "profitable for the first time" for his ownership group, can defy the odds to become a genuinely commercial stallion.

"Anyone that sends a mare to Rebel Dane is making a really clever investment at this point in time. I have done the data and he is tracking as good as we've seen," he said.

"He has got two 2-year-old stakes winners from 13 runners, and let's be honest about the quality of stock he's covered (being below average), he's on the up and up and he will go from strength to strength. He'll be 19 before he's fully commercial."  

Despite the sudden split, successful businessman Grant gave some words of encouragement to a dejected O'Brien.

"As I told Rory, it is a sad situation, but we've all had that in our businesses," said Grant. "You go through those tough times and you come out the other side."