Snitzel Shatters Earnings Record To Be Champion Australian Sire
For the past four seasons Arrowfield Stud’s consistent Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) has looked a champion Australian sire in waiting and in the 2016-17 season, which ended on Monday, he finally reached the coveted top spot on the list.
Snitzel did not just win, he blitzed his rivals in all categories to be overall champion sire with record earnings of more than $16,100,000, was also champion sire of two-year-olds, leading sire of three-year-olds and had more winners, 159, than any other stallion.
But the former crack sprinter’s seasonal achievements did not end there as he also set a record for number of juvenile winners in a season with 32 (plus three more in New Zealand) and equalled the seasonal record of his breed-shaping grandsire Danehill (Danzig) by having 26 individual stakes winners during the racing year.
Group One winners in New Zealand (Summer Passage) and South Africa (Heavenly Blue) plus a dual Group Three winner in Japan (Young Man Power) added to Snitzel’s remarkable results in 2016-17 as did supplying the trifecta in one of Australia’s key tests for two-year-olds, the ATC Inglis Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) with Invader, Summer Passage and Trapeze Artist.
Retired to Arrowfield in 2006, Snitzel is the stud’s fourth resident to become champion Australian sire following his celebrated father Redoute’s Choice (Danehill), winner of titles in 2005-06, 2009-10 and 2013-14, Flying Spur (Danehill) in 2006-07, and before them the amazing Danehill who captured nine titles between 1994/95 and 2004-05. While Danehill was discovered by Arrowfield Stud principal John Messara, his later years in Australia were spent at Coolmore.
Danehill-line sires have now won 17 of the last 23 overall Australian stallion championships, other winners not mentioned earlier being Fastnet Rock (Danehill) in 2011-12 and Exceed And Excel (Danehill) in 2012-13.
Street Cry (Machiavellian), leading sire in 2015-16, Lonhro (Octagonal) in 2010-11, Encosta De Lago (Fairy King) in 2007-08 and 2008-09 and Zabeel (Sir Tristram), winner in 1997-98 and 1998/99, have been the only stallions to break the Danehill tribe’s stranglehold on the Australian champion sire’s title over more than two decades.
Bred by Francois Naude, Snitzel began his Australian stud career at an advertised fee of $33,000 (inc GST) which later dropped to $22,000 (inc GST) before his increasing success resulted in it escalating to his 2017 fee of $176,000 (inc GST) which rightly makes him the most expensive sire standing in Australia.
Snitzel also shuttled to Japan for two Northern Hemisphere seasons.To the end of last year he has left more than 1200 living foals in Australia, reflecting his high fertility figures, generally in the mid-80 per cent range, despite serving books of as many as 249 mares in a single season.
As would be expected from his own pedigree and racing performances, Snitzel is predominantly an influence for speed and precocity but a number of his progeny have won feature events over middle distances, the prime example being Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) victor Shamus Award, now standing at Widden Stud in NSW. Snitzel’s females are generally as talented as his males, among them such top class sprinters as Snitzerland and Sweet Idea.
Sold as a yearling for $260,000 at the 2004 Magic Millions Gold Coast January Sale to enter the stable of Gerald Ryan, Snitzel showed his brilliance early, taking the AJC Breeders’ Plate (Listed, 1000m) first time out as an early two-year-old before winning the Strawberry Hill Slipper Stakes (1000m) at Wyong then travelling to Queensland to win the Tommy Smith Slipper Stakes (Listed, 1200m) leading up to the Magic Millions Two-Year-Old Classic (RL, 1200m) in which he finished third behind Bradbury’s Luck (Redoute’s Choice).
Resuming in the autumn of his juvenile season Snitzel won the Skyline Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) but finished well back behind Stratum (Redoute’s Choice) in the 2005 Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m). Coming back as an early three-year-old, Snitzel developed into one of the best sprinters of his era, scoring his most important win in the Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) in which he defeated Virage De Fortune (Anabaa) and Takeover Target (Celtic Swing). Snitzel’s placings at three years were also indicative of his racing class, among them a second to Takeover Target in the Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) and a third in the T J Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
Snippets‘ Lass (Snippets), the dam of Snitzel, was herself a very smart sprinter, a winner of seven races up to 1300 metres including two Listed events and at stud she has blended beautifully with Danehill-line sires, leaving not only Snitzel but also his stakes winning sister Viennese (Redoute’s Choice) and multiple stakes winner Hinchinbrook (Fastnet Rock), now also a prominent sire standing at Yarraman Park Stud at Scone, NSW.
Her imported dam Snow Finch (Storm Bird – A Realgirl by In Reality) was foaled in Ireland but conceived in the United States and is also dam of stakes winning sprinter Captain Bax (Snippets).
Snitzel is linebred 3m x 5f to influential former Widden Stud sire Lunchtime (Silly Season) and also has in his background four crosses of Northern Dancer (Nearctic) in the pattern 4m x 4m x5m x 5m.