Arrowfield Stud and Blue Gum Farm have announced the transfer of Group 1 stallion Manhattan Rain to Victoria.

Manhattan Rain won the 2009 Group 1 AJC Sires Produce Stakes at two and ran a slashing second to So You Think in the G1 Cox Plate later that year.  He was also Group 1 placed in the Golden Slipper Stakes, Champagne Stakes and Caulfield Guineas.

He retired to stud as Encosta De Lago’s leading entire prizemoney earner with over $1.31 million in stakes.

Manhattan Rain has sired numerous Group winners including this season’s flying 2yo filly She Will Reign, last season’s Group 2 winning 2yo Scarlet Rain and 4yo Whisky Baron who triumphed in South Africa’s G1 Sun Met at Kenilworth last week.

“We put forward a proposal to stand Manhattan Rain when he retired,” Blue Gum owner Philip Campbell said.  “We rated him highly then and we rate him even more highly now that there’s no guess-work involved.”

Encosta De Lago sired 15 of his 26 Group 1 winners from his original base at Blue Gum Farm.  His first-book service fee was $8,500 and that increased to $38,500 by the time he was relocated to Coolmore Stud’s Hunter Valley headquarters in 2004.

By 2008, it had risen to $302,500 but gradually declined to $38,500 before his death in December 2014.

“This really does feel right for us,” Campbell explained.  “The Encosta De Lago legacy, that started here so successfully with the amazing support of Victorian breeders, is ‘coming home’ so to speak through his best son at stud.  It just seems like a wonderful fit.”

Manhattan Rain’s 2017 service fee has been set at $16,500.