Spirit Of Boom to stand for $55,000

Queensland-based first season sire sensation Spirit Of Boom will remain in his home state and stand for a fee five times higher than he stood for in 2017 after making an immediate impact across Australia with his juveniles.

Eureka Stud on Monday officially announced the service fee for its rising star, the former Tony Gollan-trained Spirit Of Boom, with the son of Sequalo to stand for A$55,000.

The dual Group 1-winning sprinter stood for A$11,000 in his first four years after retiring to Eureka Stud in Queensland’s Darling Downs in 2014.

Already the sire of four stakes winners including the Gollan-trained stablemates Ef Troop and Outback Barbie, who was luckless when third in Saturday’s Percy Sykes Stakes at Randwick, he has so far produced 11 individual first crop winners.

They also include Inglis Premier winner Kinky Boom and Wyong Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner Jonker.

Harry McAlpine, who has returned to Eureka Stud to assist his father Scott and family in overseeing Spirit Of Boom’s career, said there was already a waiting list of 300 mares wanting to go to the stallion.

“It is a bit of a tricky one to price him because you don’t want to overprice him, but you don’t want to undervalue him either,” McAlpine told ANZ Bloodstock News on Sunday.

“Breeders can breed to him with confidence in that he throws you a good type and he works with the Danehill bloodline.

“We have had a lot of big agents and big-name breeders tell us you stand at whatever price, we are coming with as many mares as you will take.”

Not since Yarraman Park Stud’s I Am Invincible emerged on the scene in 2013-14 season has a stallion made such an impression with his first crop.

Now a leading stallion, I Am Invincible had had 17 first crop two-year-old winners including five stakes winners headed by subsequent dual Group 1 winner Brazen Beau.

“What gives us confidence in standing him for a fee like this is that we think he can have a very big winter,” he said.

“He has the likes to Plumaro, Boomsara and Outback Barbie potentially and there are a few horses that haven’t even raced yet who trainers have quite high opinions of going forward.

“He still has a fair bit of ammo there to fire.”

On the back of Spirit Of Boom’s meteoric rise, Eureka Stud and fellow shareholders in the stallion have already rejected lucrative offers for him to relocate to the Hunter Valley.

Buyers have clamoured to secure yearlings by Spirit Of Boom at this year’s yearling sales, with his progeny selling to a top of A$500,000 at an average of A$161,750.

“He was always a horse we have had plenty to do with as we have had the family for three generations,” he said.

“We bred him, sold him to a trainer that trains a lot of horses for us, so we kept a share, and we raced him with some good people and bought him off the track.

“I suppose you always look through rose-coloured glasses when he is your own, but we were always impressed with his foals from the start and they sold quite well for a Queensland stallion.

“The feedback started to come back from the trainers when they started to get them into their stables and we started to get more and more excited and it has kept building.”

McAlpine has formed his own agency, Harry McAlpine Bloodstock, having recently resigned from Inglis to assist his family in managing the rise of Spirit Of Boom.

“I always wanted to become a good auctioneer and that was all I focused on, but this has been a wonderful opportunity that has come up and I needed to put family first at the end of the day,” he said.

Eureka Stud also announced the service fees for its two other resident stallions Defcon, who enters his second year at stud in 2018, and Red Dazzler who will stand for A$6,600 and A$4,400 respectively.