Former National Stud shuttle stallion Spill The Beans off the mark

Aquis Farm's first-crop sire Spill The Beans, a son of champion Snitzel, got off the mark on Sunday when Tennessee Boy led from the outset at Townsville.

Trained by champion North Queensland trainer Roy Chillemi and owned by well-known Cairns businessman Tom Hedley, Tennessee Boy won the five-furlong two-year-old maiden by three and a half lengths over Molongle Drifter, who is also by Spill The Beans.

Marvellous Heart (by Show A Heart) was another five and three-quarter lengths away in third.

Tennessee Boy was a A$12,500 Magic Millions Gold Coast March Yearling Sale purchase by Group 1 Pty Ltd from the Aquis Farm draft.

Spill The Beans stands for a fee of A$11,000 (inc GST) at Aquis Farm’s Canungra base.

The imposing seven-year-old was an undefeated two-year-old who went on to land a trio of Pattern races at three, including the Group 2 QTC Cup over six and a half furlongs, for trainer Gerald Ryan and owner Arrowfield Stud.

In his first year at Aquis he was the most popular first-season sire in Australia, covering more than 200 mares. In his second season, over 70 per cent of breeders sent the same mare back to him.

Spill The Beans' breakthrough in Australia will have been warmly received in some quarters in the northern hemisphere, as he covered 33 mares last year at the National Stud in Newmarket.

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