The legendary Fernando Bale retires from stud duties

The legendary Fernando Bale retires from stud duties

The great Fernando Bale has retired from stud duties and will now become a pet at the Paul and Michelle Westerveld household.

It was announced that the 12-year-old would no longer be collected for frozen semen and his place on the sofa awaits.

Bred by the late Paul Wheeler, the 2013 son of Kelsos Fusileer and Chloe Allen reached legendary status on the track in Australia, winning 35 of his 44 starts and landing eight Group 1 races in the process. 

He won biggest races across three states – New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia - and also became the first million-dollar greyhound as his total prizemoney reached 1.3 million Australian dollars.

Fernando Bale’s bloodline goes all the way back to the great Moral Standards, who won the English Greyhound Derby for Tony Meek in 1994 and was subsequently exported to Australia for breeding.

Fernando Bale captured the imagination of the Australian public and crowds flocked to see him race wherever he raced.

He has somehow exceeded those amazing achievements since retiring to stud, with his offspring winning more than 53,000 races and the prizemoney of his progeny closing in on a staggering 200 million Australian dollars.

He’s the only sire to produce four individual million-dollar earners and he has won almost every Group 1 race on the calendar in Australia as a sire, shaping the breeding industry for years to come - both in Australia and abroad.

Paul Westerveld told www.grv.org.au: “It’s been one heck of a ride but the time is right to call time on his stud duties

“He’s still healthy and in great condition but his semen count has dipped a bit so we’ll stop drawing from him now.

“Nearly all services have been done with frozen semen but the last girl he mated with fresh semen, Cairnlea Blue, just had 10 pups three weeks ago and she’s eight years old. So, it’s incredible he has been so fertile for so long.

“From now there will be no AI available and we’ll begin going to market use with the frozen semen we collected from back in 2017 and onwards.

“We managed to store a bit away along the way so that’s what we’ll take to market now, but obviously now there is only a limited amount left.”

In 2019, Fernando Bale received the quickest ever post-retirement induction into the Victorian Hall of Fame and his entry into the Australian Greyhound Racing Hall of Fame is a formality.

“He’s created a legacy that will shape the industry for generations,” Westerveld said.

“And there’s still more to come with what we’ve still got put away.

“I’d like to thank everyone that has supported his stud journey along the way because without all the great breeders using him, he wouldn’t have become what he is today.”

Watch the 2019 Victorian Hall of Fame tribute to Fernando Bale here.