Playing to Win

The exciting win of debutant two year old Just For Starters at Caulfield yesterday provides a timely reason for Woodside Park to remind breeders of the story and success of his sire Foreplay.

Just For Starters was the impressive winner of the juvenile event at Caulfield yesterday. Just For Starters ' win is a particularly significant win for his sire Foreplay as he is a member of the first crop of foals conceived after revolutionary stem cell treatment to reinvigorate the stallion's stud career.

Foreplay has been a widely travelled stallion and his problems have resulted in a lack of numbers of foals on the ground. However in spite of this, his 152 named foals have resulted in 86 winners from 124 starters- an outstanding 69.4%

We are confident that Foreplay boasts the best runners to winner's statistic in Victoria as outlined in the table below where he is compared to stallions who are standing at significantly higher fees then him.

A well performed and royally bred stallion, Foreplay began his stud career at the famed Yarraman Park Stud in The Hunter Valley. An instant success highlighted by his Golden Slipper runner up Decision Time, Foreplay seemed destined for an outstanding career at stud. However as this industry can so cruelly do, his initial success was immediately followed by severe fertility issues.

Yarraman left no stone unturned in attempting to rectify the problem but conventional veterinary treatments were unsuccessful. Eventually in despair, Yarraman allowed the stallion to be relocated to Woodside Park where he began treatment via a radical stem cell program previously confined to human fertility.

Under the direction of Brett Langan of C4M Laboratories and reproductive expert veterinarian Dr Ian Douglas & Woodside Park Stud Manager Gerard Jones, Foreplay began an extensive course of stem cell therapy in the middle of 2010. Initial results were positive with a marked improvement in the stallion's overall condition and libido, it appeared that his testosterone levels had increased immediately and he displayed all the attributes of a strong healthy stallion whereas before he was more like a docile gelding.

By rounding up a number of empty mares, Woodside were confident that the change in Foreplay could result in some successful pregnancies. The stem cell treatment was performed weekly and results were encouraging.

With expert assistance from the studs vet Dr Ian Douglas, Gerard was able to organise to cover mares with precision in their fertility cycle to ensure the best possible results. The results achieved from the initial group of mares was staggering, ten of the first twelve mares covered were in foal. Belle De Rouge, the dam of Just For Starters was the third mare covered. Foreplay's final in foal percentage for that initial season was 89%.

As mentioned earlier, his current 2 year old crop is the first since he began the stem cell treatment and the quality of the mares covered has improved dramatically.

Foreplay 's fertility is now on par with that of any other stallion. We don't believe that the chance of your mare not going in foal is any higher with Foreplay than it would be going to another stallion.

Woodside are delighted to be standing Foreplay this season and believe his story will only get better. At a service fee of $6,600, he represents outstanding value for stallion that has progeny earnings of $6.2 Million and such a wonderful winners to runners percentage.

Woodside will be conducting a stallion parade on Sunday August 10^that 11am where Foreplay can be viewed alongside our other outstanding proven sire Written Tycoon.

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