Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Australia embraces Pharoah
American Pharoah was well traveled during his racing career, making the eight starts of his 2015 championship season at seven tracks in five states. The heart of that campaign was the three-tracks-in-five-weeks crucible of the Triple Crown.
American Pharoah is now a young stallion for the international Coolmore operation, and his nascent stud career has him traveling again – this time to the outfit’s Australian farm in the Hunter Valley, north of Sydney in New South Wales, for the breeding season beginning Sept. 1. As during his racing career, American Pharoah has attracted crowds. The horse lit up social media during a weekend of stallion parades the final weekend of August – and few seemed immune to his charms.
“American Triple Crown winner looking sensational,” prominent trainer Gai Waterhouse tweeted, accompanied by a hearts-in-her-eyes emoticon.
American Pharoah is the first American Triple Crown winner to stand in Australia, a fitting accomplishment for Coolmore. The outfit was an early pioneer in the practice of building dualhemisphere careers for stallions, and the practice took off when its prolific sire Danehill shuttled from Ireland to Australia for the 1990 season. The concept took root with other major operations throughout that decade. But by then, the two Triple Crown winners active at stud in Kentucky, Seattle Slew and Affirmed, were nearing the end of their stud careers; they died in 2002 and 2001, respectively.
American Pharoah entered stud at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky for the 2016 breeding season, standing for an advertised fee of $200,000. He covered 208 mares, led by 47 Grade 1/Group 1 winners or producers. He stood for a private fee this past season, and highlights of his book included Leslie’s Lady, dam of four-time champion Beholder and Grade 1 winner Into Mischief.
American Pharoah’s fee for his initial Southern Hemisphere season is $66,000 in Australian funds, or about $52,570 in U.S. dollars at the current exchange rate. Most stallions who raced solely in the U.S. debut at lower fees in the Australian market before proving themselves. As one example, More Than Ready, now an immensely successful shuttle sire, stood his first season at Vinery Australia in 2001 for roughly $11,220 at that time’s exchange rate, after entering stud for $25,000 in the preceding Kentucky season. According to Coolmore officials, American Pharoah has been swiftly embraced by Australian breeders.
“We announced him in the morning, and at lunchtime we had to close the book,” Tom Magnier said in a video posted by Australia’s Racing.com. “It was oversubscribed. The mares that are signed up, he’s got a who’s who on his book. . . . He was a champion at 2 and 3, and that’s what the Australian industry wants, a sire that can produce a 2-year-old.”
At the time of the shuttle announcement, Magnier had also noted that the son of Pioneerof the Nile, from the resurgent Unbridled classic line, provides an outcross opportunity for breeders.
“He is a faultless physical specimen and free of Danehill blood, so is a perfect complement to our own band of Fastnet Rock and Danehill mares,” Magnier said. “We will be supporting him with our own quality mares.”
American Pharoah shuttled to Australia with two other Ashford stallions. Australian champion Vancouver was returning to his homeland, where he entered stud in September 2016, after standing his first Northern Hemisphere season at Ashford. European champion juvenile Air Force Blue was shuttling for the first time after entering stud this past season at Ashford. Prior to traveling, the three underwent three weeks of mandatory pre-export quarantine. Ashford has its own quarantine facility on its farm, where the shuttle stallions were stabled around the end of June, maintaining a fairly normal daily routine while being closely monitored by vets and quarantine officials. Ashford stallion manager Richard Barry, in a video produced by the farm, said the time in isolation is like a “mini vacation” for the stallions.
“They don’t have any visitors, the grooms go up with those horses that have been taking care of them all through the breeding season,” Barry said. “The horses obviously know the grooms. They actually find it very restful in quarantine. They put on weight. When they leave the quarantine, they’re a very relaxed group of animals.”
While making the long flight to Australia, the stallions are accompanied at all stages by a veterinarian and Coolmore staff, have their own supply of familiar hay, and are given electrolytes as a matter of course to prevent dehydration. Barry noted that shuttle stallions are mainly top-class racehorses who have traveled extensively, meaning they tend to handle the trip well.
“These horses have more frequent-flyer miles than most people,” he said.
Upon arriving in Australia, American Pharoah underwent two more weeks of compulsory post-arrival quarantine. He then traveled to Coolmore’s Australian farm, which will be his latest frontier until returning to Ashford in December.