Territories on The Board in Australia

With sons of Invincible Spirit being all the rage at stud, the Darley-based Territories (Invincible Spirit-Taranto, by Machiavellian) kicked off his southern hemisphere career when the Tom Button-trained Finsceal (Territories-Rosalita, by Danehill Dancer) broke his maiden on Sunday in the Canadian Club Handicap over 1200m at the Sunshine Coast. Having his first start off the back of a 850m barrier trial in January, the gelding settled at the tail of the field before jockey Luke Tarrant urged his mount out wide to make up ground. Wearing down the favourite to record a narrow win, it was a sign of a runner who was going to benefit from further than the 1200m, and like his sire, will be much better at three. While a winner at 2, it was at 3 that Territories, a close relative to Champion Sires Shamardal (Giant's Causeway) and Street Cry (Machiavellian), came into his own with success in the Gr1 Prix Jean Prat, as well as finishing second in both the Gr1 2,000 Guineas and the Gr1 Prix Jacques le Marois. Having covered three relatively small books on average of 67 in his first three seasons at stud, Territories more than doubled those numbers in his fourth book with 149 mares covered and will stand his fifth Australian season at Darley Kelvinside for a fee of $11,000 (inc GST), a very reasonable price considering his yearlings sold for up to $350,000 this year.