Coolmore sire Choisir pensioned after 17-year stallion career

Australia’s trailblazing sprinter and Coolmore stallion Choisir (Danehill Dancer) has been pensioned after a 17-year career in the breeding shed, it was announced yesterday.

On the eve of Australia’s most prolific international race in which raiders from abroad, particularly Europe, swoop in to try and take local riches, it was the first horse to reverse the trend in Choisir who attracted headlines yesterday.

Choisir was not the first Australian trainee to travel abroad, far from it. But his effort to travel to England and win twice at their most prestigious flat meeting, Royal Ascot, in the space of a week – taking the King’s Stand Stakes (Gr 2, 5f) and the Golden Jubilee Stakes (Gr 1, 6f) in 2003 – was the modern gold standard by which all other international feats are measured.

It was the culmination of a stellar career for the Paul Perry trainee, a brilliant and consistent two-year-old who developed into a world-class sprinter at three. At stud, he was a remarkably durable dual-hemisphere shuttler, serving eight seasons in Ireland, initially at Coolmore’s Castlehyde Stud and then at Coolmore’s base in Tipperary.

“Choisir was a wonderfully tough and talented racehorse who did great things for the Australian industry by winning two races in a week at Royal Ascot in 2003,” Coolmore Australia principal Tom Magnier said yesterday.

“He has been a great stallion at Coolmore for many years, siring stakes-winners from each of his 14 southern hemisphere crops and 11 individual Group 1 winners amongst 97 stakes winners worldwide.”

Starspangledbanner: a high-class son of ChoisirCredit: Coolmore

Among those top-level winners are Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) heroes Divine Prophet and Starspangledbanner – the latter who followed his sire as a Golden Jubilee Stakes winner – four-time European top-level victor Olympic Glory, juvenile Group 1 winners The Last Lion, Choice Bro and The Mission and Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (Gr 1, 6.5f) conqueror Obviously.

Another son, Japonisme, joined his sire as a Flemington straight course Group 1 winner in taking out the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), while Sacred Choice, Historian and Kushadasi all were competitive at 2000 metres and beyond.

While his last foals are set to be seen over the next couple of seasons, his legacy continues on as a broodmare sire. He has already been the damsire of four Group 1 winners – Winter (Galileo), My Dream Boat (Lord Shanakill), Persuasive (Dark Angel) and Oxted (Mayson).

“Even in 2020 his yearlings sold for up to $450,000 and we are hopeful that his 100th stakes winner is just around the corner,” Magnier said.

“He has developed into a leading broodmare sire and successful sire of sires, so we will be seeing his name in pedigrees for many years to come. He is happy and healthy and will live out the remainder of his days in the stallion barn at Coolmore where he loves his routine.”

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