American Pharoah making a splash in Australia

Three years after he captured the imagination of the racing world, Triple Crown hero American Pharoah is continuing to make waves worldwide, with commercial success in his young stallion career now extending to Australia.

American Pharoah, who entered stud in 2016 and is based at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky, shuttled to Coolmore’s Australian farm for the first time last year. Mares carrying foals from what will be his resulting first Southern Hemisphere crop made a splash at the Magic Millions Gold Coast national broodmare sale this week, led by Sabatini selling for $850,000 to Kia Ora Stud.

“We supported [American Pharoah] with our American-bred mares and in November last year, I looked at a lot of American Pharoah foals while I was over there, and I was very happy with them,” Kia Ora’s Alex Kingston told ANZ Bloodstock News.

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Sabatini, a well-bred multiple group stakes winner, is one indicator of the quality of mares sent to American Pharoah in his first Australian season, for which Coolmore said he was booked full. The daughter of Street Cry put together a solid 2014-15 racing season, winning the Group 2 Polytrack Angus Armanasco, Group 3 Kevin Hayes, and Group 3 Lister Quezette Stakes. All those races were at Caulfield Racecourse, where she also finished third in the 2014 Thousand Guineas.

Sabatini is out of Group 3 winner Royal Sash, making her a half-sister to Group 3 winner Vivi Veloce. The latter mare also was offered in foal to American Pharoah at Magic Millions, fetching $500,000 from Dean Hawthorne Bloodstock. It is the family of Australian champion Valley of Georgia, Hong Kong Derby winner Valley of Gospill, and multiple Group 1 winner Happy Trails.

Another mare in foal to the Triple Crown winner, Better Alternative, sold for $750,000 to YuLong Investments. The winning Flying Spur mare is the dam of four-time Group 1 winner Preferment and Group 3 winner Rezoned. Better Alternative is a half-sister to three stakes winners, including Group 1 winner and stakes producer Ancient Song.

American Pharoah will again shuttle to stand the Southern Hemisphere season, which begins June 1, at Coolmore’s farm in the Hunter Valley, north of Sydney in New South Wales. He will enter mandatory pre-export quarantine at Ashford’s on-site facility in late June before making the trip over the summer. He returns to Kentucky in December.