Aquis Farm tees up stallion career for Spieth

The Aquis Farm stallion roster in Australia is set to grow, as the increasingly important operation has bought high-class sprinter Spieth.

A five-year-old trained by Bryce Heys, Spieth looked a horse on the way to stardom in the last southern-hemisphere season when he finished a short-head second in two prestigious speed contests – the Darley Classic and Black Caviar Lightning.

However, he has failed to make as much of an impact in several runs since, with his best performance a runner-up spot behind Redzel in the Group 3 Concorde Stakes at Randwick in September.

It is not confirmed whether Spieth will run again or be retired in preparation for his stallion career.

“There's no leaning either way at this early stage. We’ll give him a break and reassesses from there,” Aquis Farm CEO Shane McGrath told Racing New South Wales.

“He’s an outcross, has speed and is an outstanding individual. He’s a ten out of ten physically and went within a lip of being a Group 1 winner.”

“Race credentials are one thing but physical presence is another and that’s what you want to see. If he produces yearlings that look like himself he’ll make a commercial stallion.”

Spieth is by the Spinning World stallion Thorn Park – also sire of champions Jimmy Choux and Ocean Park – out of the Titus Livius mare Stella Livia, a winner in New Zealand.

Stella Livia is a half-sister to German Group 1 winner Ransom O'War from the family of high-class performers Charm Spirit, Russian Bond and Snaadee.

The Aquis Farm roster, spread between New South Wales and Queensland, already comprises 12 stallions including two shuttling to Europe for the first time in 2018 – Divine Prophet (to Tara Stud) and Spill The Beans (to the National Stud in Newmarket).