American Pharoah will shuttle to Australia later this year

Triple Crown winner American Pharoah will stand at Coolmore Australia during the 2017 Southern Hemisphere breeding season, which begins Sept. 1.

American Pharoah, a son of Pioneerof the Nile, is in the midst of his second Northern Hemisphere season at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky, where he is standing for a private fee. He stood his initial season for an advertised fee of $200,000, and covered 208 mares, including 47 Grade/Group 1 winners or producers. The champion will head to Australia this summer before returning at the end of the year, and his fee for his initial Southern Hemisphere season will be $66,000 in Australian funds, or about $50,668 in U.S. dollars at the current exchange rate.

“We have been overwhelmed by interest from Australasian breeders in American Pharoah ever since he retired to stud in Kentucky,” Coolmore Australia’s Tom Magnier said. “It’s well-recognized that he is a once-in-a-lifetime horse and the opportunity to bring him to Australia is an irresistible one.

“I was at Belmont Park the day he won the third leg of the Triple Crown, and I can honestly say I have never seen a racehorse like him in my life” Magnier added. “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. We will be supporting him with our own quality mares and we have already had a number of top breeders approach us with the intention of supporting him heavily.”

American Pharoah will become the first American Triple Crown winner to stand in Australia. Coolmore was an early pioneer in the practice of building dual-hemisphere 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.

:: DRF BREEDING LIVE: Real-time coverage of breeding and sales

American Pharoah will head to Australia at a time when breeders have optimism in the long-term health of their local industry, as the New South Wales Planning Assessment Commission recently rejected a proposal to build an open-cut mine in the Hunter Valley area, which breeders stated would have had a negative impact on farms in the area. The mine would have been less than a kilometer from the Coolmore and Darley stud operations, which worked together to lobby against the proposal. Australia’s Thoroughbred Breeders Association is calling on the local government to place protection zones around key Thoroughbred farms. In the meantime, however, there is cause for excitement with American Pharoah’s upcoming arrival.

“He excelled in everything he was ever asked to do,” Magnier said. “He won a Grade 1 over 1,400 meters on his second start and was nothing short of a phenomenon from that point onwards. I couldn’t be more excited at the prospect of offering him to Australian breeders and can’t wait for people to have the opportunity to see him in the spring.”