Pace and class combined with the looks to match his precocious pedigree have made Fully Fledged a perfect stallion fit for Fairdale Stud.  The Fell family’s Palmerston North operation have secured the handsome chestnut for stud duty this season.

“Fully Fledged had speed, brilliant two-year-old form and is an outstanding-looking individual,” said Fairdale studmaster Duncan Fell.  “We are very fortunate to get him as he possesses all the ingredients necessary to make a successful stallion.”

Fully Fledged was retired as the G1 Ford Diamond Stakes winner of three races and was also placed four times in his 13-start career.  His racing career was prematurely ended by injury during his three-year-old autumn campaign in Sydney.

“That was a great shame because he was a top-class animal and never had a lot of luck,” Cambridge trainer Murray Baker said.  “He’s a gorgeous-looking horse with a ton of quality about him and a lovely temperament.”

Fully Fledged finished third in Australian Listed company in both the Fireball Quality and Strada Stakes – each time giving weight under his 58kg.  He then ran a gallant fourth, again from a wide barrier, in the G2 Phar Lap Stakes at Rosehill behind G1 Australian Guineas winner Hearts Of Dreams.

“He raced very well in strong company and drew the outside all the time – that makes it so tough in Sydney,” Baker said.  “The form out of all his races was outstanding and it went to show with no luck at all how good he was.”

He’s a gorgeous-looking horse with a ton of quality about him and a lovely temperament

His fourth placing in the Phar Lap was all the meritorious as he suffered the career-ending tendon injury during the race.

Fully Fledged had six starts as a two-year-old and began his career with a runaway win at Taupo and stepped up to end his campaign with back-to-back G1 starts.  He was an impressive winner of the Ford Diamond Stakes and then ran fifth when hampered by a shifty track in the Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes at Awapuni.

Fully Fledged returned as a three-year-old to finish runner-up in the G2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas before a stylish victory in the Listed Sarten Memorial at Te Rapa.  He further showed his class when second against the older horses in the Listed Newmarket Handicap at Ellerslie.

Fully Fledged hails from a family of top-quality sprinters on both sides of his pedigree.

His sire Align, by the Northern Dancer horse Night Shift, won the G1 AJC Sires’ Produce Stakes and the G2 Todman Slipper Trial.  Align was the champion two-year-old of his year and headed the 1998-99 Australasian Free Handicap.  He met with instant success at stud with his son Nightlign heading the NZ 2YO Free Handicap after victory in the G1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes.

Fully Fledged is out Fledged, a winning daughter of the European G1 winning sprinter Bluebird (King’s Stand Stakes).  He is also the dam-sire of hot young stallion Thorn Park (G1 Stradbroke Handicap) and G1 winning sprinters Yell and Universal Queen.  This season’s Randwick and Rosehill Guineas winner Metal Bender is also out of a daughter of Bluebird.

Group 1 winning two-year-olds and stallion sources of speed are plentiful in Fully Fledged’s immediate pedigree with his maternal line also including Snippets and Lunchtime.

“It’s a pedigree full of speed and high-class sprinting form,” Fell said.  “Fully Fledged is a horse that that will suit breeders looking for two-year-old speed and precocity at an affordable fee.”

Fully Fledged will stand his first season at Fairdale at $4000 (+gst) alongside proven sire Howbaddouwantit.