Exciting National Stud sire Aclaim to shuttle to Aquis Farm in Australia in 2022

Group 1-winning sprinter and exciting sire Aclaim will shuttle to Aquis Farm in Queensland this year, three years after he was initially slated to do so.

ANZ Bloodstock News can reveal that Aclaim, the sire of 1,000 Guineas winner Cachet and the unbeaten stakes-winning sprinter Royal Aclaim, will stand alongside the likes of Pierata and Brave Smash on the 18-horse roster at Aquis’ Canungra-based operation in 2022.

Aclaim, who is based at the National Stud in Newmarket, was due to shuttle to Aquis Farm in 2019, but his southern hemisphere trip was aborted before the start of the breeding season and was likewise halted in 2020 or 2021. However, his progeny’s success in the northern hemisphere has prompted a re-evaluation of his worth down under.

He will stand for a fee of A$24,200 (£13,600/€16,100) in his maiden southern hemisphere stint.

Aquis Farm director of sales Jonathan Davies said Aclaim’s northern hemisphere results “have been too hard to ignore”.

“He has got a lot of promising horses coming through. Royal Aclaim looks to be one right out of the box and she is the current favourite for the Group 1 sprint at York, the Nunthorpe Stakes, a race Ortensia won [in 2012],” Davies said on Wednesday.

“To also get a Group 1 Classic winner in his first crop with Cachet is exceptional, so it makes him a very exciting proposition for Australian breeders.”

Victorious at his only start as a juvenile, Aclaim won the Listed Dubai Duty Free Cup at Kempton and the Group 2 Challenge Stakes at Newmarket at three before racing on as a four-year-old for trainer Martyn Meade, a move which paid the ultimate dividend.

Bred and raced by a partnership which included Queensland’s Canning Downs, Aclaim rounded out his 15-start career with a win in the Group 1 Prix de la Foret, having landed Group 2 Park Stakes at Doncaster on his previous outing. He was also runner-up in the Prix Maurice de Gheest during his four-year-old season.

The leading British-based first-season sire in 2021, Aclaim will be restricted to a book of 100 mares during his Australian stint and high-profile mares Loving Gaby, a Group 1 winner, and Tallow, the dam of 2020 Golden Slipper winner Farnan, have already been confirmed among his southern hemisphere coverings.

Only 45 vacancies remain in his southern hemisphere book.

“The mares that are already booked to him are pretty exciting, with the likes of Tallow, Loving Gaby and numerous other stakes winners and stakes-producing mares,” said Davies.

“The farm’s had a big influx of high-quality mares over the past couple of weeks who are here ready to visit Aclaim.”

Royal Aclaim: promising filly is the latest to advertise her sire's prowessCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

Out of Danroad mare Aris, a stakes placegetter at the Curragh who is a half-sister to the dual Group 1 winner Again, who in turn is the dam of stakes winners Delphinia and Indian Maharaja, Aclaim is also from the same family as proven sire Montjeu.

“At his fee, he fits really nicely into the market for a proven Group 1 sire and he should suit breeders over here as he is nicking with a lot of bloodlines well-known to the Australian market,” said Davies.

“Both Royal Aclaim and Cachet have Danehill in their first four generations and his stakes horses are carrying the blood of Special, Rainbow Quest, Sadler’s Wells, Nureyev, Green Desert, Roberto, Mr. Prospector and Be My Guest. They’re all bloodlines that are prevalent in Australia.”

Aclaim has the two aforementioned first-crop stakes winners as well as four other stakes performers among his first crop three-year-olds of 50 winners from 88 runners.

Royal Aclaim made it three wins from as many starts with a two-length Listed City Walls Stakes success last Saturday at York, a performance which underlined the confidence trainer James Tate has in the filly, leaving him to declare the three-year-old the fastest horse he’s ever put a saddle on.

The George Boughey-trained Cachet, who finished fourth in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar, is expected to return to the US later this season.

“She ran at the Breeders’ Cup meeting as a two-year-old and ran an exceptional race, finishing fourth, and she’s come back a lot better and a lot stronger this time in,” said Davies.

Aclaim also four juvenile winners so far this year from 15 runners and in 2022 he stood for a fee of £6,000, a figure which is certain to increase next year.

His own sire Acclamation also has sire son Dark Angel - himself a prolific speed influence and has his own son Harry Angel shuttling to Darley’s Kelvinside in the Hunter Valley again this year - and the Tally-Ho Stud-based Mehmas, the European champion first- and second-crop sire in 2020 and 2021.

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