Spieth on the board with two-year-old trial winner
Owner Man holds long term Hong Kong aspirations for juvenile he bred by Aquis’ first-season sire
New season stallion Spieth (Thorn Park) drew first blood at yesterday’s barrier trials at Aquis Park on the Gold Coast with his two-year-old colt Victory Moments winning the opening heat of the morning impressively.
With three of the five runners in the 900-metre trial sired by the Aquis stallion, there was always a high chance of a winning outcome, but that didn’t detract from the genuine excitement his trainer Kacy Fogden and other good judges felt after the performance.
“He’s a colt that’s constantly improving. I didn’t think any of our Spieths would be that early. They are really robust types of horses and they just keep on improving.
“I always had a bit of an opinion of him, so I thought he could do it but it was nice to see him go away from the farm and step up publicly and do it,” Fogden said.
Having tracked the early pace, Victory Moments was pushed into the clear by Mark Du Plessis to finish a length clear of Spieth filly Wild Botanica, who is also prepared by Fogden and races in the Aquis colours, in 53.98 seconds.
“I think the filly that ran second jumped out of the ground, she surprised me the most,” Fogden continued.
“They have all come off the farm and it was good to see them so professional.
“It’s testament to the Spieths, they have always been easy to train. They are quite versatile and for them to do what they are doing now makes it exciting because they are only going to mature.
“They have scope and I think that’s what makes them exciting. They are only going to get better,” she said.
Fogden also trained the fourth placegetter in the trial, a colt named Acotango, who is also by Spieth.
She said she will wait and see how the winning colt recovers from the outing before deciding when he will make his race debut for Hong Kong–based owner Sebastian Man, a close friend of Aquis’ Tony Fung.
Man bred the colt from his Group 3-winning Street Boss (Street Cry) mare Tris on the advice of Avesta Bloodstock’s Jimmy Unwala who was working with Aquis at the time.
Tris, a winner of four of her 22 starts, was retired from racing in 2018 and was subsequently sold at the 2019 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale for $200,000.
“When Sebastian and I sat down in Hong Kong and spoke about a plan to breed a few mares with a goal of getting a nice colt to eventually race in Hong Kong, I remember telling him that breeding needs patience,” said Unwala.
“Luckily he has plenty of patience and we picked three mares for him to get the project underway. Tris was a fast Group winning two-year-old and physically I felt Spieth was a lovely match up for her.
“It would be her maiden foal, so I wanted to make sure the stallion was well put together and had enough size but not too big, he fit the bill perfectly. The cross also gave us double Machiavellian, which I really like in a pedigree.”
Man has raced horses with success in Hong Kong with his best being Victory Magic (Savabeel) which ran second in the 2016 edition of the Hong Kong Derby (Listed, 2000m)
“I have been good friends with Tony Fung for a long time. I met Jimmy when he came to Hong Kong for a research project. We chatted and I expressed my wish to get a nice horse to race in Hong Kong,” Man told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“I wanted to breed my own horse to go to Hong Kong and not just buy it. I have started to enjoy the breeding side of things and I hope someday Victory Moments can make it to Hong Kong but at the same time, if he measures up, I am happy to race him in Australia if he has the talent to win black–type races.”
Spieth covered a book of 149 in his first year at stud, where he stood for $16,500, and 35 of his first crop have already been named, while 23 are nominated for the 2022 Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m). His yearlings sold up to $180,000 this year and he stands at Aquis in Queensland for a fee of $8,800 (inc GST).
Twice runner-up in Group 1 company, Spieth won five of his 18 starts, including the City Tattersalls Lightning (Listed, 1100m) in 2016. He was retired after finishing eighth in the 2018 Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1, 1350m) and finished his career with earnings of more than $626,000.
The official two-year-old trials will take place at Kensington on September 20, with the Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) and Breeders’ Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) on October 2 at Randwick.