Group 1-winning Invincible Spirit colt Royal Meeting to stand at Aquis Farm

Aquis Farm has partnered with a consortium of breeding heavyweights to purchase and stand Group 1-winning two-year-old Royal Meeting as a new sire at the operation’s base in Victoria.

The group, which includes Sheikh Khalifa Al Maktoum, Seymour Bloodstock, Yarran Thoroughbreds and Erinvale Thoroughbreds, has joined forces with Aquis Farm to secure the former Godolphin-owned sprinter-miler who is by the influential sire Invincible Spirit and hails from a prodigious stakes-winning family.

A son of South African Grade 1-winning mare and champion two-year-old Rock Opera and a half-brother to six-time stakes winner Heavy Metal, Royal Meeting stamped himself as a high-class colt with victory over future dual 1,000 Guineas winner Hermosa in the 2018 Criterium International at Chantilly on just his second start to complete a perfect two-start juvenile season.

Royal Meeting will stand at an introductory fee of A$11,000 (£6,000/€6,700).

“French racing does have parallels with Australian racing," Aquis Farm chief executive Tony 'Tubba' Williams said. "They probably race on, at different times of the year, some pretty good tracks as opposed to England and Ireland and this horse was quite precocious.

“He's f romthe right sire line. He’s a Group 1 winner, he’s by a Group 1 winner and he’s out of a champion two-year-old and it’s a Group 1 pedigree. He’s a really exciting horse for us in a price bracket that offers everyone an opportunity.”

Royal Meeting will be the third stallion at Aquis Farm’s Seymour property this year, joining Victorian foundation sire Lean Mean Machine and the relocated former Tasmanian Needs Further.

Williams believes Aquis Farm’s latest acquisition has the right credentials to make his mark with his progeny on the racetrack and in the sales ring.

“With I Am Invincible doing the job that he is doing, being by Invincible Spirit, we haven’t had a stallion as hot as him for a long time and when I say ‘hot’ I mean I Am Invincible does something that a lot of stallions don’t,” he said.

“He gets two-year-old speed; he’s got horses going on at three and four and he consistently produces a sales horse. If you look at the sire line, this is what it does - it consistently produces high-level racehorses but also high-level sales horses.

“The physicals complement what the pedigrees say that the racehorses should do.

“We have a lot of good stallions all around the world but they aren’t necessarily the best sales horses. However, this sire line, through I Am Invincible in this country and Kingman in the UK, produces sales horses as well as high-level racehorses.”

Renowned international agent Dermot Farrington inspected Royal Meeting for the syndicate and recommended the deal proceed.

“When you look at thousands of horses for a living and then you come across a Royal Meeting you suddenly realise what you’ve spent so much time looking for; he’s stunning,” Farrington said.

Seymour Bloodstock, whose principal is Darren Thomas, was happy to join the syndicate members which also includes Goulburn Valley breeder Damian White, Ralph Portaro, Mangalore Park and David and Kathy Brown.

“Seymour Bloodstock is delighted to share in the Royal Meeting journey," Seymour Bloodstock agent Mark Pilkington said. "Like all owner-breeders we’ve been approaching our 2020 mating plans with caution.

“Tubba has identified and sourced a beauty. Proper type, proper pedigree, proper performance and importantly the right price. Without compromise, Royal Meeting is a horse for the times.”

Williams was delighted with the support of the breeders who have backed Royal Meeting by taking a share in the four-year-old, who raced just five times after his two-year-old season including a first-up third in last year’s Moonga Stakes last October at Caulfield. He also contested the Cantala Stakes at Flemington.

“Make no mistake, Aquis has taken a big portion in the stallions that are being stood, but in this one we’ve partnered up,” he said.

“Aquis has got a good shareholding and we have partnered up with breeders and people who can really support the stallion because, at the moment, with the Covid situation this year, none of us know how it is going to pan out.

“We’re getting a lot of interest in the horses that we have and to bring partners in like this who are going to support him and really help make it. That’s what it’s about it.”

Royal Meeting is the latest new sire to be announced in Victoria, with Swettenham Stud’s I Am Immortal and Rosemont Stud’s Strasbourg both sons of I Am Invincible joining stallion rosters for the first time this year.

Fellow Victorian operations Spendthrift Australia, Woodside Park Stud and Sun Stud have Overshare (I Am Invincible), Cable Bay (Invincible Spirit) and National Defense (Invincible Spirit) also standing at stud this year as options for breeders seeking the successful Green Desert sire line. Brazen Beau, the first son of I Am Invincible to retire to stud, spearheads Darley’s Victorian roster.

Williams is confident that Royal Meeting, who was trained by Saeed Bin Suroor, compares favourably with his Victorian peers.

He said: “When you look at all the other first season sires - and I hate making comparisons and I'm certainly not degrading anyone else’s horse who has gone to stud because everyone’s doing their best - but across the board when you look at where this horse fits (in Victoria), he’s at the top of the tree of those young horses going to stud and he’s not the most expensive.”

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