Aquis Farm and prominent international thoroughbred investor Phoenix Thoroughbreds have joined forces in securing for stud duties Snitzel’s Champion 2YO Colt Invader.

The Group One Sires’ Produce Stakes winner certainly boasts credentials unmatched by any other son of Australia’s multiple Champion sire and two-year-old sire – Snitzel.

Last season’s Champion two-year-old colt, Invader is not only one of Snitzel’s three juvenile Group One winners to date, he is also the only two-year-old by Snitzel to have won a Group One race at a sprint distance.

And he is, for good measure, also Snitzel’s highest Timeform-rated two-year-old ever, rated 119 at two, superior to Group One speedsters like Snitzerland (118), Sizzling (118), Summer Passage (117) and Hot Snitzel (116).

Aquis CEO Shane McGrath said Aquis was both proud and privileged to have secured an exciting young son of Snitzel.

“Snitzel is the best and most commercial champion sire currently at stud in Australasia and Invader is his best and fastest two-year-old son,” he said. “Invader easily beat Group One horses and stand-out two-year-old’s like Trapeze Artist, The Mission, Summer Passage, Tulip, Frolic and Menari.

“He is out of stakes winner Flame of Sydney, a very fast and precocious two-year-old herself by Champion broodmare sire Encosta de Lago. And he is a half-brother to locally- and internationally-successful Group One sprinter Not Listenin’tome”.

“That combination of sire power, performance and pedigree is extremely rare; factor in his impeccable conformation and athletic physique, his ‘quality’ and action and you can understand why we’re so thrilled to have him.”

Phoenix Thoroughbreds who have been involved in large thoroughbred investments globally, view Invader as commercially appealing investment.

“We have observed the Australian market for quite some time now, and it is evident that both from the point of breeding to race and breeding commercially, precocity and speed is paramount,” Phoenix Thoroughbreds CEO, Amer Abdul Aziz said.

“The opportunity to partner with Aquis to launch the stud career of Invader who was the Champion two-year-old Colt of his generation and also the best ever two-year-old by Snitzel till date was an offer we could not refuse”.

“He is a stallion that we will support with our best southern hemisphere mares and also in the sales ring when the time comes to purchase his progeny”.

Invader’s trainers Peter and Paul Snowden and his rider Hugh Bowman are no less admiring of Snitzel’s most precocious, fastest and best two-year-old son.

“He has been there for everything from the Breeders’ Plate and the Magic Millions and is still here now, winning a Group One,” said Peter Snowden after Invader’s Sires’ Produce Stakes win.

Paul Snowden still believes that Invader might have been unlucky not to have won the Golden Slipper after having been beaten only a fast-diminishing nose in the Todman Stakes, in front a stride past the post, with Menari, himself 3rd past the post in the Golden Slipper, a well-beaten 4th behind Invader.

“He’d qualified for the Slipper and we thought he’d be in it up to his ears. Then he got a foot abscess the day before the race and had to be scratched on race morning. I really think, the way he ran away from Menari in both the Todman and the Sires, that he’d have gone close to winning the Slipper.”

Adding credence to that belief is the fact that in the Sires Produce Stakes, Invader easily beat all of Frolic, Menari and Tulip, respectively 2nd, 3rd and 4th across the line in the Golden Slipper.

Hugh Bowman called Invader “…the best colt of his era, as a two-year-old, so that makes it very exciting for connections; and to be a part of his ride is very special to me.”

China Horse Club’s Michael Wallace, who selected Invader as a yearling, was obviously taken with the son of Snitzel and had no hesitation in going to $475,000 for the colt at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

“He was a stand-out,” explained Wallace: “Invader was a well-made, strong, short coupled colt as a yearling. An attractive colt with power, he caught the eye. He had the look of a two-year-old, which I was after.”

“He proved this with his G1 two-year-old victory in the Sires’ Produce. I look forward to seeing his progeny in coming years”.

Similarly, Henry Field Managing Director of Newgate said: “It was a great thrill to race Invader – the highest rated two-year-old by Snitzel ever with Aquis and partners. We have enjoyed early success together with the likes of himself and Extreme Choice and I look forward to supporting the horse through his Stallion career”.

A service fee for Invader will be announced in the coming months along with the full Aquis Stallion roster for 2018.

INVADER