On the 21st April I published a post titled "Queensland realign Queensland strategy". The story was as follows:

Queensland's Raheen Stud has adopted an interesting strategy in past years by 'adopting' stallions (usually with a Woodlands or Invermein connection) who didn't quite cut it on the Hunter Valley circuit yet sired a decent enough swag of winners to guarantee breeder support; the fertility-plagued Shovhog their most recent example.

A new addition to the 2005 Raheen roster sees a familiar NSW name hoping to leverage from the Raheen brand. Arrowfield tried (unsuccessfully I have to say - it was almost as if Queensland breeders made a point of refusing to patronise the stallions Messara sent to Plaintree Farm - Count Albrecht and Sunday Knight [whose stud figures for 2003/4 are appalling] - breeders perhaps mildly incensed that Queensland was being treated as a breeding backwater or, as some were heard to mutter darkly, a dumping ground for sub-par stallions).

Nevertheless the Hunter Valley name is again wading into Northern waters in 2005, this time using Raheen to stand their 3YO stallion Stromberg Carlson (Redoute's Choice-Bo Dapper, by Sir Dapper). Stromberg Carlson's track career was restricted to 8 starts for a win in class record time over 1100 metre at Rosehill Gardens & 2 placings (including the Listed Doomben Slipper) plus 4th in the Gr1 QTC T.J.Smith Stakes. On the pedigree page the young stallion has 2 advantages - he is by boom sire Redoute's Choice and he is also a half-brother to Yallambee Stud's champion Australasian sprinter & prominent current 1st season sire Testa Rossa. Stromberg Carlson will stand his 1st season for a fee of $5,500.

I have since been contacted by someone close to the deal who said that Stromberg Carlson has actually been sold to Raheen with a "right to match clause" should the stallion ever be sold again. My comment that Arrowfield is standing another stallion in Queensland (using Raheen as the base) is therefore incorrect.