Coolmore sire Antonius Pius will shuttle to South Africa instead of returning to Australia for a fifth season this year.  He will stand at Graham Beck’s Highlands Stud near Cape Town.

Antonius Pius is a son of Danzig and Yorkshire Oaks winner Catchascatchcan and has sired just four individual winners from 20 starters in his first Australian crop.  He was off the mark early on when the Trevor Miller trained Big Tony scored at Eagle Farm last November.

But there’s been next to nothing to write home about since then.  His only other winners have been Gorborsaan and Kypria at Port Macquarie and Aelius who scored on debut at Orange in March.

Trained by Aidan O’Brien, Antonius Pius won the Railway Stakes at the Curragh and was G1 placed the Breeders’ Cup Mile, St. James’s Palace Stakes and Prix du Moulin.