Aquis puts Royal stamp on Victorian offering

Cover image courtesy of Aquis Farm

Royal Meeting, who won the G1 Criterium International at Chantilly, will begin his breeding career at $11,000 (inc GST) joining Needs Further and Lean Mean Machine at its Aquis Seymour base and becoming the 18th stallion on its Australian roster.

Key to getting the former Godolphin-owned and Saeed Bin Suroor-trained stallion to stand in Australia was a major group of partners, who will support Royal Meeting through his breeding career.

That group is headed by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum and also includes Seymour Bloodstock, Mangalore Park, Yarran Thoroughbreds, Damian White, Ralph Portaro, Paul Crawford, David and Kathy Brown and Erinvale Thoroughbreds.

Aquis CEO Tony Williams is confident Royal Meeting measures up very well to the quality of other stallions which will stand elsewhere in Victoria this season.

"A couple of months ago, there looked like being a lack of quality horses in Victoria and while we have had a host of them announced in the past couple of weeks, if you look at Royal Meeting, a horse with a Group 1 race performance, with a Group 1 pedigree, he has got to be above a lot of those horses," Williams told TDN AusNZ.

"The sireline is absolutely working in Australia through I Am Invincible. All of those positives should make him very appealing to the breeders in Victoria.

"We've got a really high-profile group of breeders wanting to take an interest in this horse and support him. We have got a really strong breeder base that have partnered with us. That's really positive."

Royal Meeting will be one of seven sons of Invincible Spirit to stand in Australia in 2020, a list which includes Yarraman Park's phenomenally successful I Am Invincible, who himself has nine sons standing this season, including Santos at Aquis in the Hunter Valley, along with one grandson.

"Invincible Spirit himself stood at Chatswood Stud in Victoria originally and did a good job but got a run on in Ireland and they decided not to send him back. Australia is missing his blood and this is another horse, like Olmedo, who is owned here and he won't be lost to the industry here," he said.

"Royal Meeting is a Group 1-winning 2-year-old from the right sireline and who is the right physical. In my opinion, he is superior than most that have gone to stud in Victoria. I'm not downgrading other stallions as we are all in there doing our best, but I can see his horse at his value, really should be swamped."

Group 1 quality on both sides of pedigree

The quality of Royal Meeting's pedigree is backed up on his dam's side. He is out of South Africa’s Champion 2-year-old filly Rock Opera (SAF) (Lecture {USA}), who like her son, was an unbeaten Group 1-winning juvenile, achieving victory four times at two highlighted by success in the G1 Allan Robertson Fillies Championship.

Rock Opera is also the dam of Exceed And Excel’s multiple stakes winner and 15-time winner Heavy Metal (GB). Grade 1-winners Van Halen (SAF) (Oratorio {Ire}) and Gulf Storm (SAF) (Sail from Seattle {Can}) also feature on his page.

International Bloodstock agent Dermot Farrington gave Aquis a glowing appraisal of Royal Meeting, who raced in Australia twice last spring, including a third in the G3 Moonga S. behind subsequent Group 1 winner Streets Of Avalon (Magnus).

Williams said those looking for the quality of Royal Meeting need look no further than his win in the G1 Criterium International at just his second start.

"That race is over 1400 metres, which from a French perspective, makes him a precocious horse. He does have precocity, he's got the physique and he's got everything around him to suggest he will be a good a prospect as any stallion that has gone to stud in Victoria for a long time," he said.

"Being a Group 1-winning 2-year-old and he was unbeaten at 2, he is ideal for what Victoria needs and what we need in Australia."

Finding the balance

Royal Meeting is the 12th new stallion in Victoria this season, while he is one of two new faces at Aquis' Seymour farm after Needs Further recently relocated from Armidale Stud in Tasmania, joining Lean Mean Machine, who stood his first season in 2019. Williams feels Royal Meeting fits the balance of Aquis stallions available to Victorian breeders very well.

"With the three stallions, we have a really attractive roster that suits all comers. We have a first-season horse in Royal Meeting, then we have Needs Further, who is a proven horse at a similar fee and then Lean Mean Machine, who had a good book last year and will do well again this year," he said.

Williams said Aquis had been very mindful of the uncertain state of the market when setting its fees this year, but with a sense of optimism returning after the COVID-19 shutdown, he feels 2020 presents an excellent opportunity for breeders.

"We could have got greedy and put Royal Meeting at $15,000, but we decided to keep him at an affordable fee, where people can see he is a value stallion. People can see that Aquis are looking after the general breeding public in these times," he said.

"We think he’ll cover a nice book of mares, a good number and nice pedigrees across the board, because everyone in him is going to support him."

Royal Meeting is expected to arrive in Australia in early August.

"As soon as people will come and look at him, I'm sure he will take their eye and capture their imagination," Williams said.