Record-breaking year for late Redoute's Choice - with son Snitzel champion sire

The racing season has come to a close and just like that a new one has begun, with Snitzel joining elite company in winning his third straight Australian champion sire title - a poignant landmark given that it came in the same season in which the impact of his late father Redoute's Choice was frequently displayed.

Redoute's Choice, a remarkable sire of sires, claimed his first champion Australian broodmare sire title in a record-breaking 2018-19 season, the same year the great Arrowfield Stud stallion died aged 22.

The damsire of 2018 Victoria Derby winner Extra Brut, among 19 stakes scorers, Redoute's Choice claimed his maiden broodmare title with A$23,209,017 in earnings.

That figure surpasses the previous broodmare sire benchmark of A$23,079,332, set last season by Encosta De Lago, who was runner-up this time around.

“Redoute’s Choice's broodmares are absolutely gold, so it is no surprise, but the difficulty he’s got as a broodmare sire is that so many of the good stallions the Redoute’s Choice fillies and mares are deserving of are Danehill-line, so they can’t,” Arrowfield Stud’s bloodstock manager Jon Freyer told ANZ Bloodstock News.

“As a result, his mares don’t necessarily go to the top-of-the-tree stallions, so he has achieved this notwithstanding that fact.”

Son Sun showcases ability

A three-time champion sire himself (2006, 2010 and 2014), Redoute's Choice's best-performing colt The Autumn Sun also showcased the stallion’s ability to deliver an elite horse.

The former Chris Waller-trained now four-year-old entire, who landed the Golden Rose Stakes, Caulfield Guineas, Randwick Guineas and Rosehill Guineas last season, will return to his place of birth at Arrowfield Stud this year as one of the most sought after young stallions.

Freyer remained in awe of the feats of The Autumn Sun when reflecting on the season just gone, and also pondered whether Redoute’s Choice could again deliver with his unexposed stock still to come.

“I think he is going to continue on and, funnily enough, we have got a great crop of new-season two-year-olds by Redoute’s Choice and we have a magnificent crop of foals by him, so I think there is plenty still to come as a sire, let alone as a broodmare sire and sire of sires,” he said.

“Some of those foals we have got at the farm are absolutely to die for and as good as he has ever produced. The story will continue for a little while yet.”

Snitzel: joined exultant company in earning third champion sire titleCredit: Getty Images

As for Snitzel, he has joined Danehill, Sir Tristram, Star Kingdom and Bletchingly as stallions to have earned the coveted champion sire title on three successive occasions.

Snitzel’s consistent sprinter Redzel won his second Everest - and earned A$6,549,000 prize-money in the process - helping take the Arrowfield Stud’s ladder-leader to a balance of A$24,266,320 in progeny earnings last season.

He sired 13 individual stakes winners, including the now Widden Stud-based Group 1 winner Trapeze Artist and the Group 2 winners I Am Excited and Showtime, and is the first Australian sire to top A$20 million in progeny earnings in a season twice. Showtime will stand alongside his champion sire this year.

Terrific two-year-olds

Snitzel was also responsible for providing Godolphin with its first Magic MIllions 2YO Classic winner Exhilarates in January, while she was one of 23 juvenile winners for the two-time leading two-year-old sire in 2018-19.

“There has been some sort of talk that the sires list is distorted by a few big races, but I think on one hand you have got to recognise that the big races are the races that people want to win and you have got to give credit to that,” Freyer said.

“Notwithstanding that, Snitzel would still have been champion sire even if you took out The Everest result. It is a magnificent achievement and he is a horse of a lifetime.”

Snitzel, who had 167 live foals born in 2015, covered 169 mares that year, which will deplete the numbers of two-year-olds set to hit the racecourse this season, but Freyer is optimistic that the story can go on with the Arrowfield flagbearer.

“We have sent nice mares to him, we have managed his numbers well and we’ll bring them back slightly now, as we do with all the horses when they get to a certain point,” he said. “We will concentrate on quality instead of quantity.”

Snitzel held off Yarraman Park Stud's I Am Invincible by A$6,530,622. I Am Invincible - the country’s most expensive stallion in 2019 at A$247,500 (inc GST) - had a brilliant season, achieving a record 28 stakes winners of 40 races, as well as 27 two-year-old winners, to be the nation’s leading juvenile sire.

These results have laid the platform for what could be an enthralling battle between the pair in 2019-20, with a number of emerging stallions coming through behind them.

Sidestep takes centre stage in stellar first season field

The first-season sire title was also an intriguing one to watch unfold and it was the 'underdogs' who came out on top. Telemon Thoroughbreds’ Sidestep was crowned champion sire by earnings courtesy of his Golden Slipper-winning daughter Kiamichi, while Better Than Ready was a sensation from his Queensland base at Lyndhurst Stud Farm, siring 23 winners - the most since Without Fear in 1976.

Sidestep observes proceedings from his box at Dalham HallCredit: Edward Whitaker

Sidestep, who is also the sire of European Listed winner Real Appeal, had 86 first crop live foals born in 2016 when standing at Darley. The son of Exceed And Excel, who won the ATC Pago Pago Stakes and the Royal Sovereign Stakes for Godolphin, was a victim of the plethora of new stallions in the Hunter Valley and, amid declining breeder support, a deal was struck for Sidestep to move to Telemon in 2018.

Stud manager Joe Heather and owner Dan Fletcher went searching for a stallion that would suit Queensland and landed on Sidestep, but even Joe Heather admits that his first crop results have far exceeded expectations.

“It is really exciting for us to have our foundation stallion come on in his fourth season and have the dream situation where he sires a Group 1 horse and becomes champion first-season sire,” he said. “It is definitely a bonus that you hope for but you don’t rely on.”

He added: “We always hoped that he would do the job and when we were looking for stallions he was one that we thought had the characteristics that we think can make a good stallion. You have to back your own judgment and for it to come off like this is really exciting.

“Obviously the lack of numbers [when at Darley] was a factor in the decision-making process but all it takes is one good horse. You can have 200 foals and not get a good a horse or you can have 120 and get a good horse. There is no rhyme or reason to that.”

Stepping up

Heather said Sidestep would cover a much better book of mares this year at an increased fee of A$22,000 (inc GST).

“There are some really nice mares coming from Godolphin and there is a raft of mares coming from the Hunter Valley and Victoria, as well as some top-level Queensland mares coming back to him too,” he said.

“With Kiamichi doing it and then having those two French stakes winners as well in the northern hemisphere with another couple in the wings ready to strike here in Australia, I think people can recognise a rising talent and are wanting to jump on board. It has worked out really for everyone involved.”

Better Than Ready was runner-up to Sidestep by earnings and sired the most stakes winners (four), with his first crop taking out the Phelan Ready Stakes and the Calaway Gal Stakes on the same day last December.

Lyndhurst Stud Farm’s Jeff Kruger said Better Than Ready had been rewarded for his success with a full book of quality mares awaiting him when the breeding season begins on September 1.

“Right from the early-season trials last year we thought we might have something special as his horses were showing so much potential,” Kruger said.

“The fact he is the first to get more than 20 first-season winners since Without Fear in the 1970s is even better because there was such a strong line-up of new sires this season.”

Overall, there appears to be plenty of depth in the first-season sire ranks, with the Hunter Valley-based young blood of Rubick and Deep Field coming in third and fourth on the table.

Darley’s Brazen Beau came in fifth after siring stakes winner Accession and the promising Tassort, while his barnmate Shooting To Win - a brother to Deep Field - surged late in the season to finish with 12 winners, highlighted by J J Atkins Plate runner-up Kubrick.

Zoustar proves a star again

Zoustar, the champion first-season sire of 2017-18, continued his trajectory up the ranks by taking out the second-season sire title.

His successes were highlighted by his first crop three-year-olds running the top three in the Coolmore Stud Stakes as well as the winner of that race, Sunlight, adding to her record this year by taking out the Newmarket Handicap during the autumn.

David Redvers with Tweenhills' reverse shuttler ZoustarCredit: Bill Selwyn / Tweenhills

Zoustar’s progeny earned A$7,459,655 in 2018-19, which saw him finish 17th on the general sires’ table.

Eureka Stud-based Spirit Of Boom was again runner-up to his Widden Stud-based foe, with the Group 1-winning sprinter achieving big-race success last season with Boomsara taking out the Magic MIllions 3YO Guineas.

Dundeel, whose progeny include ATC Champagne Stakes winner Castelvecchio, was third with 37 individual winners, four of whom won at stakes level.

He was also the sire of New Zealand’s Sistema Stakes and Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes winner Yourdeel.

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