Champion sire Barcia Bale has been retired from stud duties, but the good news for breeders is that enough semen has been collected from him to last two more years.

Barcia Bale is of Australia’s greatest stud dogs of the past decade, with his progeny including Dyna Double One, Aston Dee Bee, Raw Ability, Mepunga Blazer, Barooga Brett, Fast Times, Mystic Riot, Nervous An Weird, Barcali, Beast Unleashed and Miss Splendamiro to name a few.

Michelle Westerveld said it has been an ‘absolute honour’ that she and husband Paul have had the opportunity to stand Barcia Bale at stud.

“He’s going to be nine at the end of this month and he has been a very busy stud boy having served 1200 females, so we just decided it was the right time to retire him,” Michelle told Simone Fisher on RSN’s Talking Greyhounds this morning.

Interestingly, the demand for Barcia Bale’s services has ramped up since the announcement of his retirement from stud duties.

“He has been in huge demand. Since advertising that he has retired I’ve been inundated with requests and for the last two quarters he has sold out,” Michelle said.

The Westervelds have plenty of experience managing in-demand sires, as they also stand once-in-a-generation stud dog, Fernando Bale.

“We’ve decided to manage him (Barcia Bale) the way we manage Fernando Bale. We are allowed to sell up to 54 vials (of semen) per quarter for each sire through Greyhounds Australasia Rules. So we’ve been prioritising females that are on season, and whatever vials haven’t been sold we allocate to a waiting list.”

Simone also caught up with Horsham Greyhound Racing Club Manager, Justin Brilliant on today’s show along with Andrew Paraskevas, trainer of Nervous An Weird, who will line up from box one in tonight’s Horsham Cup at 9.38pm.