IT’S OFFICIAL
American Grade-winning son of Claiborne’s Blame to stand at Aquis Farm
Grade 3-winning US sprinter-miler Officiating will stand at Aquis Farm in Queensland, providing Australian breeders with their first son of America’s influential sire Blame (Arch).
The Hong Kong-owned operation undertook a global search for an outcross stallion it deemed would suit the Queensland broodmare population which is dominated by daughters of the state’s premier stallions Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo) and Better Than Ready (More Than Ready).
The five-time winner Officiating, who won the Mr Prospector Stakes (Gr 3, 7f) at Gulfstream Park, the Tom Fool Handicap (Gr 3, 6f) at Aqueduct and the Cornhusker Handicap (Gr 3, 9f) at Prairie Meadows, has been at Aquis’ Canungra stud since January after the Fung family bought the six-year-old last year after a 12-month search.
“It’s an interesting thing to go searching for an outcross stallion to suit a broodmare population rather than searching for a stallion and hoping they’ll work for the mares that they get,” Aquis’ Jonathan Davies told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“That was probably the most interesting thing for us, looking at him in that light, and it’s been a real learning experience throughout the whole process and one that’s been great for the whole team.
“We’re unbelievably confident in him and feel we’ve got the right product for the job we want him to do.”
Officiating, who is a son of juvenile winner Come A Callin (Dixie Union), is a half-brother to Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (Gr 1, 1m) winner and champion two-year-old filly Caledonia Road (Quality Road) and the Listed winner One Of A Kind (Lemon Drop Kid).
Owned by the Vegso Racing Stable, the stallion was initially trained by Bill Mott prior to being switched to the stable of Joseph Saffie Jnr who prepared Officiating to win his four stakes races.
Importantly, Davies believes that Officiating has the physique to suit the Australian Stud Book.
“He’s a smashing type and he’s deep where you want your stallions to be deep,” Davies said.
“He’s got a very deep shoulder and girth and a deep hindquarter with a big forearm and gaskin. He looks fast, he looks powerful, so we’re very happy with him.”
Officiating will stand for an introductory fee of $12,500 (all fees inc GST), one of eight stallions on the Aquis roster.
His own sire Blame, the Eclipse Champion Racehorse, Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and three-time Grade 1 winner, is the sire of 47 individual stakes winners, six of them at the highest level, from his base at Claiborne Farm in America’s breeding heartland of Kentucky.
He is also the broodmare sire of this season’s Todman Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) winning juvenile Switzerland (Snitzel), the $1.5 million Coolmore-owned two-year-old colt who is trained by Chris Waller.
“He’s a very good stallion who has produced a Group 1-winning two-year-old as a sire and as a broodmare sire,” Davies said.
“The deal was already done and the horse was in the country when Switzerland came out in Sydney, being out of a Blame mare, and won a Group 2 Todman Stakes as a two-year-old.
“It really cemented the fact in our mind that Officiating was the right stallion.”
Meanwhile, Kobayashi (I Am Invincible), a stallion who has risen from a lowly $3,300 fee in his third and fourth seasons, will head the Aquis Farm stallion roster at an increased fee of $15,000 following the emergence of this season’s Dalrello Stakes (Listed, 1000m) winning filly Mishani Lily for trainer Les Ross and owner-breeder Mike Crooks.
Kobayashi, who is also the sire of the stakes-placed Midnight In Tokyo, covered 104 mares last year at a fee of $8,800.
After doing it the hard way, Kobayashi is expected to receive a greater number of commercial mares this year.
“He’s a horse that we’re very proud of. In the last two years he’s been one of the better two-year-old sires in Australia and he’ll go from strength to strength now as he gets better quality mares,” the Aquis studmaster said.
“There’s been good interest from commercial breeders over the last six months really about him this coming season. He’s been the stallion that everyone’s been asking what he’s standing for.”
The fee of $13,200 remains unchanged for rostermate Lean Mean Machine (Zoustar) while Jonker (Spirit Of Boom) has had his fee reduced to $12,500 in his third season and Hong Kong Group 1 winner Stronger (Not A Single Doubt) will stand for $9,900, down from $13,750, as he goes into his second season.
Lean Mean Machine’s first crop three-year-old daughter Material Dreams, who is trained by Nick Ryan at Flemington, won the Nitschke Stakes (Listed, 1400m) at Morphettville last month to give her sire his first stakes winner.
“He has some other promising horses to follow through the Queensland Winter Carnival as well,” Davies said.
“Jemoma Alpilage ran a huge race in the Ken Russell on Saturday just gone. She was in the worst part of the track and ran fourth, she’ll continue to race on during the carnival and there’s a few others waiting in the wings.”
Invader (Snitzel), the sire of Group 1-winning mare Sunshine In Paris, will stand for $8,800, Glennfiddich (Fastnet Rock) has had his fee set at $5,500 and The Mission (Choisir) remains on the roster at a fee of $4,400.