McAlpine bullish on Spirit Of Boom and Encryption as Eureka maintains status quo
Eureka Stud will keep an unchanged two-horse stallion roster for the 2022 breeding season with the state’s top stallion Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo) and young sire Encryption (Lonhro), whose first crop two-year-olds will hit the track next season.
Spirit Of Boom will remain at $33,000 (all fees inc GST) while Encryption, whose yearlings have sold up to $320,000 this year, will also stay at last year’s fee of $13,200.
Queensland’s leading stallion by progeny earnings and individual winners, Spirit Of Boom has sired 104 individual winners in Australia so far this season, while his best-bred crop to date, his current two-year-olds, has produced 12 individual juvenile winners, plus another in New Zealand, which makes him second only by that metric to Better Than Ready (More Than Ready), who has 14 to his name.
Among his juveniles this season are Phelan Ready Stakes (Listed, 1000m) winner Palazzo Spirit and the Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (Listed, 1000m) winner Get In The Spirit, a filly trained by Mick Price and Mick Kent Jnr, and the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Sydney winner Sweet Baby Boom.
Eureka Stud’s Harry McAlpine expects a strong finish to the season with Spirit Of Boom’s two-year-olds and he has been buoyed by the amount of early bookings he has received from breeders wanting to send mares to the stallion later this year.
“He has probably been a bit unlucky, the one of Mick Price’s who won a stakes race in the spring chipped a fetlock and Tony Gollan obviously went out and tried to buy every nice Spirit Of Boom that there was last year and I think he’s only had three runners by him so far, so he has a lot in the system that haven’t come out just yet,” McAlpine told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“To be fair, I have been receiving quite a lot of bookings in the last month, so I am bullish that we will get a full book with him as I think he’s well priced in the market compared to the other proven stallions out there.”
Among the top ten Australian sires by winners and top 20 by progeny earnings, Spirit Of Boom has averaged more than $120,000 this sales season from 72 yearlings sold and he had two yearlings sell for $440,000 this year.
“He’s got the best ahead of him and his best crops are back-to-back-to-back now and the first ones are already doing the job and, as we know, they’re not just two-year-olds, they’re training on and throwing Group 1 winners when they turn six (Jonker), just like himself,” McAlpine said.
“There’s a lot of good still to come.”
Roster mate Encryption won the Black Opal Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at two and the Danehill Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) down the straight at Flemington at three before Eureka Stud’s McAlpine family was able to negotiate a deal to buy him as a stallion prospect and he has been well supported in his three seasons so far, covering a combined 388 mares.
The son of four-time Group 1 winner and champion three-year-old filly Guelph (Exceed And Excel), Encryption is also from the same family as Darley’s young multiple Group 1-winning stallion Bivouac (Exceed And Excel).
“There is very little risk at that fee ($13,200) and, being fourth season, he’ll be judged on the stallion’s results (on the racetrack) by the time his yearlings are sold,” McAlpine said.
“But you can breed to him with confidence because he throws an attractive type and you have got access to one of the best-bred stallions in the country at that fee level.”
McAlpine said Eureka was comfortable standing two stallions this season from the Darling Downs, having knocked back overtures from owners of some stallion prospects.
“You have always got to have an eye on a new stallion, however, this year we didn’t want a new stallion because we wanted to continue to support Spirit Of Boom and Encryption heavily,” he said.
“What we do at Eureka is if we stand a stallion, we throw everything behind them, so we’re sending 25 or 30 of our own mares to each stallion this year.
“We owe that to Encryption in his fourth season as well as Spirit Of Boom, so we just wouldn’t have had the capacity with our broodmare band to support another horse this year.”