Dual Group One winner Ace High has found a home at New Zealand’s Rich Hill Stud.
Prepared by David Payne, Ace High was a winner at two and as a spring three-year-old in 2017, he won the Group One Spring Champion Stakes (2000m) and Victoria Derby (2500m).
He retires with five wins and almost $2.3 million prize money.
“He is a son of High Chaparral and there aren’t going to be any more. He could possibly be the last Group One-winning son of High Chaparral to go to stud anywhere in the world,” Rich Hill Stud’s managing director John Thompson told NZ Racing Desk.
“Ace High is a dual Group One winner in Australia and he won the Spring Champion Stakes, which horses like Dundeel and Savabeel have won, so it is a sire-making race.”
The sire of 23 individual Group One winners, High Chaparral stood for four seasons in New Zealand and clicked with the local broodmare population, with So You Think, Monaco Consul, Shoot Out and Descarado all coming from his first crop.
Champion Dundeel was also a product of High Chaparral’s time in New Zealand.
“If you look at Ace High’s tabulated pedigree, it just doesn’t come any better,” Thompson said.
“He is out of a Redoute’s Choice mare (Come Sunday) who in turn is out of a Sunday Silence mare. His fifth dam is a full sister to the dam of Danehill and his sixth dam is Natalma, the dam of Northern Dancer.
“There is a whole combination of factors that makes him an extremely exciting prospect for New Zealand.”
His owner John Cordina will retain an interest in Ace High and support him with some of his own mares.
“We realise it is late in the piece but the opportunity was too good to turn down,” Thompson said.
“I think he will be well-received at an introductory fee of $10,000 and he will suit a wide range of mares.
“He was a fast-maturing horse that came to the fore as a spring three-year-old and you can’t do that without being extremely physically and mentally mature.”
