Annual Awards
2023 Champion First Season Stallion - Encryption
Top Performer: Cifrado (c. 2020 – Madame Fly). 8 starts. 3-2-1. A$892,525
Encryption sired six winners from 24 starters including one stakes winner. They won nine races and $1,241,075 in prizemoney. Not only did he win the Queensland Champion Freshman sire, but he placed second overall on the national table.
His best performer was the Rex Lipp trained colt, Cifrado who won three of his eight starts including the Group 2 Champagne and Group 2 Sires Produce. He placed in a further three.
Encryption is an impeccably bred stallion being by the mighty Lonhro and out of the Champion Filly of her time Guelph. He won Group races as both a 2 and 3 year-old when saluting in the Group 3 Black Opal and Group 2 Danehill Stakes respectively. He stands at one of Queensland’s premier farms for the McAlpine family, Eureka Stud near Toowoomba.
2023 Champion 2YO Stallion - Better than Ready
Top 2YO Performer: Skirt the Law (f. 2020 – Outlaw Kate). 4 starts. 3-0-0. A$1,672,284
Better Than Ready’s two-year-old crop of 2023 was a real breakout year for the Warwick based stallion, yielding 20 winners from 48 starters, winning 31 races including one stakes winner and prizemoney totaling $3,339,314.
In addition to being crowned Queensland Champion 2YO Sire, Better than Ready challenged for the title of Australia’s Champion 2YO Sire, eventually finishing a very close third behind the superstar stallions I Am Invincible and Snitzel.
His filly, Skirt the Law was amongst the top echelon of juveniles in the country, winning three of her four starts including the prestigious, Listed $2million Magic Millions Classic on the Gold Coast.
From only five crops to race, this is the third time that Better Than Ready has been crowned Champion 2YO Sire in the Sunshine State. He has previously won the award with his first crop juveniles in 2019 and again in 2021.
Congratulations to both the Kruger and Forster families who originally combined to stand this amazing young sire at Queensland’s time-honoured Lyndhurst Stud at Warwick on the Darling Downs.
2023 Champion Stallion - Better than Ready
Top Performer: Skirt the Law (f. 2020 – Outlaw Kate). 4 starts. 3-0-0. A$1,672,284
In a nice double for Better than Ready, he has been crowned 2023 Queensland Champion Stallion, along with Champion 2YO Stallion.
Amassing a record Queensland seasonal prizemoney haul of $11,423,297, Better Than Ready has certainly deserved his inaugural Queensland Champion Stallion title.
This season, the prepotent son of More Than Ready has had 283 runners for 145 winners including three stakes-winners. His top performers included 2YO Magic Millions Classic winner, Skirt the Law, Better Get Set who won the Ladbrokes Just Now Stakes at the Gold Coast and winner of the Listed Daybreak Lover at Eagle Farm, The Vowels.
Better than Ready has made every post a winner since his runners hit the track, having now taken out at least one of the Queensland Champion Stallion categories, every year since being crowned Champion Freshman Sire in 2019.
Better Than Ready, by Australia’s twice-champion Two-Year-Old sire, More Than Ready, has passed on his brilliant racetrack ability to his progeny. Better Than Ready started sixteen times for eight wins with one of those victory’s being the Listed Brian Crowley Stakes at Randwick, smashing Northern Meteor’s 1200 metre track record, running a blistering 1.08.19 for the journey.
Better than Ready has taken out at least one of the Queensland Champion Stallion categories, every year since being crowned Champion Freshman Sire in 2019.
Congratulations to the Kruger family at Lyndhurst Stud at Warwick on the Darling Downs and Richard Forster at Yarramalong Park for this great achievement.
2023 Broodmare of the Year - Love of Liberty
Dam of ELLSBERG
By General Nediym out of Zoffany mare Prodigious, Love Of Liberty, was a three-time winner on the track from 1200m to 2100m. She is a full-sister to Group 3 Coloney Reeves Stakes winner Electric General - winner of seven and over $438,000 in prizemoney.
As a broodmare, Love Of Liberty’s third foal to race was a chestnut entire by the late Spill The Beans named Ellsberg. Bred in Queensland at Hillside Downs by Luke Trevanion, Ellsberg was sold as a weanling before being presented as a yearling at the Magic Millions 2019 Gold Coast Yearling Sale. It was there he was acquired by Gerald Ryan Racing for $280,000, a record sales price for his late sire.
Trained by Gerald Ryan & Sterling Alexiou, Ellsberg hit his racing peak last season (2022/2023) winning three feature races in a row. He claimed the Group 1 ATC Epsom Handicap over 1600m at Randwick; the $1 million ATC Five Diamonds Prelude at Randwick; and, the $2 million ATC Five Diamonds at Rosehill over 1800m, breaking the long-standing track record held by the great Intergaze.
The winner of nine races and more than $3.3 million in prizemoney, Ellsberg retired to stud for the 2023 breeding season at Murrulla Stud.
Love Of Liberty, now based at Chatsword Farm, Victoria, is currently in foal to champion Queensland sire Spirit Of Boom.
The other 2023 Nominees included:
Gaudeamus - dam of Golden Sixty (Element Hill)
Huss on Fire - dam of Rothfire (Gleeson Thoroughbreds)
Pickabee - dam of Uncommon James (Caitlin Hoysted, Lavin Park)
To produce a Group winner is every breeders’ dream. Congratulations to all involved!
You can read about the awards criteria here TBQA Awards Criteria - Thoroughbred Breeders Queensland Association (queenslandbreeders.com.au)
