Sioux Nation secured for shuttle to Swettenham Stud in Victoria

European Group 1-winning two-year-old Sioux Nation will shuttle to Victoria in Australia in 2019, giving the state’s breeders access to the influential Scat Daddy sire line for the first time.

Swettenham Stud concofirmed it had reached an agreement with Coolmore for the former Aidan O’Brien-trained Phoenix Stakes winner to stand at the Adam Sangster-owned property this year.

Scat Daddy, who died aged 11 in December 2015, has sired 112 stakes winners to date including 26 at Group or Grade 1 level, highlighted by last year’s US Triple Crown winner Justify and brilliant sprint filly Lady Aurelia.

Sangster said Sioux Nation, who raced seven times for three wins as a two-year-old, would provide a genuine outcross option for breeders and that his physique would also suit Australian mares.

“He stands over good ground, he is big, he is raw and he fills the eye. He's very correct and is a great mover,” Sangster said.

“His jockey Ryan Moore said he was a natural athlete who possessed speed and he did it on turf in the highest-quality races you can get - a Group 1.

“He is an ideal fit being a speed son of Scat Daddy and he will complement our other stallions at Swettenham Stud.”

Sioux Nation is one of two winners out of the Oasis Dream mare Dream The Blues, herself victorious over six furlongs, while his second dam was the Group 3-winning, Group 1-placed Catch The Blues, the champion older female sprinter in Ireland in 1997.

A long-held relationship between Sangster and the Magnier family of Coolmore led to Sioux Nation standing in Victoria.

Swettenham Stud already stands the Coolmore-owned seven-time Group 1 winner Highland Reel, who will enter his second season at stud this year.

Last year, Coolmore had two sons of Scat Daddy shuttling to the Hunter Valley in the shape of Caravaggio and No Nay Never.

First crop southern hemisphere-bred yearlings by No Nay Never, who has sired 37 winners with his first crop of northern hemisphere two- and three-year-olds including seven at stakes level, have sold for up to $220,000 this year.

Caravaggio covered 143 mares in his first season at Coolmore Australia and Sangster said it was that endorsement of the Scat Daddy sire line that helped prompt the shuttling of Sioux Nation.

“I went across in November to have a look at the Coolmore stallions over there in Europe and it is really only in the last week where this deal has really gathered pace,” he said.

“I know Coolmore Australia really wanted to stand the horse but Mr [John] Magnier and Tom [Magnier] knew how well Victorian breeders had supported Highland Reel and on Friday they said it would be an honour for Swettenham to stand him for them.”

Sioux Nation is the second coup for the Nagambie-based Swettenham Stud this year having previously announced that the promising Goldin Farms-owned Akeed Mofeed, a son of Dubawi, would be joining its 2019 stallion roster.

Sangster said Sioux Nation had proven extremely fertile so far in his first season at stud in Europe in another tick for the stallion’s stud credentials.

The premature death of Scat Daddy more than three years ago saw leading northern hemisphere owners including Coolmore scrambling to secure yearlings from his final crop at the 2017 sales in a bid to land another potential sire son.

Coolmore also raced Scat Daddy’s recently retired Ashford Stud-based first-season sire, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Mendelssohn.

Sioux Nation, who will arrive at Swettenham Stud in August, will stand for an introductory fee of A$17,600 (£9,325/€10,920).

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