SNITZEL currently lies in fifth place on the sires’ table in Australia, and has a bit of a task ahead if he is to extend his run of four consecutive titles.

The Arrowfield Stud resident is particularly well-known for his two-year-olds, and he has been the leading sire of juveniles on three occasions. Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) is certainly in the race again for that accolade in the 2020/21 season and he had a great weekend with his current crop of juveniles.

With the latest additions Snitzel can now boast of siring 42 juvenile stakes winners among his lifetime tally of 107 stakes winners, and he had what is called down under as a trans-Tasman double with his New Zealand Group 3 winning son Sword Of State, followed, and bettered, by his Group 2 Australian winning daughter Four Moves Ahead.

Te Akau Racing’s colt Sword Of State had the Karaka Million winner On The Bubbles among those in his wake when he won the $100,000 Matamata Slipper over six furlongs, winning by six and a half lengths in a sizzling time.

Sadly, the prize money levels in New Zealand don’t match those of Australia, and though he would appear to be a leading fancy for the Golden Slipper, his prize money from three wins is not yet enough to secure him a berth, so he will now head to the $200,000 Group 1 Ellerslie Sires’ Produce Stakes on March 13th in the hope of securing a place.

First foal

Bred by Sir Owen Glenn’s Go Bloodstock, Sword Of State is the first foal of juvenile winner In The Vanguard (Encosta De Lago) and she was runner-up in the Group 2 Sweet Embrace Stakes at Randwick. Sword Of State was sold to Te Akau’s David Ellis at last year’s Magic Millions Sale from the draft of Newgate Farm , and cost connections $600,000, a figure that placed him among the dozen Snitzel yearlings of 2020.

What a difference a few weeks make. In mid-January Sword Of State’s yearling half-sister, from the first crop of Snitzel’s dual Group 1 winning son Russian Revolution, sold for only $100,000 at the Gold Coast Sale. Just standing in her stable has seen her value grow appreciably. At the time of her sale her half-brother had won once and been Group 2 placed.

In The Vanguard is the best of four winners from the five-time winner Sharp (Danzero), and the best of her victories came in the Group 2 Light Fingers Stakes. That mare’s unraced dam Snarl (Don’t Say Halo) was a half-sister to Angst (Kala Dancer), and she was a leading filly and sprinter of her generation, the Group 1 Flight Stakes at Randwick being the most important of her seven career successes.

Took charge

Less than three hours after the New Zealand race, Snitzel’s daughter Four Moves Ahead took charge of the $200,000 Group 2 ATC Sweet Embrace Stakes (a race in which the aforementioned In The Vanguard was second) a furlong and a half from home, and held on to win the six-furlong event.

Her trainer John Sargent was relieved to see Four Moves Ahead take a firm step towards the Golden Slipper after a minor injury caused her to miss last weekend’s Silver Slipper. He said: “What she did today was very impressive and I know there’s improvement.”

Bred and raced by Jonathan Munz, Four Moves Ahead and her Group 3-winning sister Emeralds (Sebring) are the first foals of the unraced Aga Khan mare Doulmera (Mr Greeley), and come from the family of European champions Daylami (Doyoun) and Dalakhani (Darshaan).

Doulmera was bought by Dean Hawthorne, through Badgers Bloodstock, for €180,000 at the 2014 Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale. A half-sister to Group 1 Prix de l’Opera winner Dalkala (Giant’s Causeway), Doulmera is a daughter of Group 3 winner Daltaya (Anabaa) who was sent to Japan where she has, despite being covered by some of their best stallions, only produced a single winner, the foal she was carrying at the time of her export.

Daltaya was the best of eight winners from Daltaiyma (Doyoun), an own-sister to Daylami whose 11 wins included seven at the highest level in Ireland (Champion Stakes), England (King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Eclipse Stakes and Coronation Cup), France (Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas) and the USA (Breeders’ Cup Turf and Man O’War Stakes).

Dalakhani

Doyoun’s younger half-brother, by six years, was the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Dalakhani, and his eight wins included ‘just’ four Group 1s, including the Criterium International at two, the following year’s Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby, and the Prix Lupin. The pair’s placed half-sister Daltama (Indian Ridge) bred the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic heroine Dolniya (Azamour).

When Snitzel won his first general sires’ premiership in 2016/17 with record Australian earnings of $16.2 million, he joined Danehill and Redoute’s Choice to complete Australia’s only three-generation sequence of champion sires. The following season he smashed his own earnings record to claim his second title with the staggering total of $29.2 million.

Last year Snitzel’s sire championship was won thanks to 18 stakes winners, headed by Group 1 winner I Am Excited, and he also achieved a milestone with his 100th stakes winner. His tally of Group 1 winners, all in the southern hemisphere, now stands at 14, and his most prolific winner at that level is Trapeze Artist who won four Group 1 races.

That champion son of Snitzel is at Widden Stud and his fee last season, his second at stud, dropped from an initial $88,000 to $77,000.

Leader

As a racehorse, Snitzel won four of his six starts at two, including the Listed AJC Breeders’ Plate and a victory over the subsequent Golden Slipper winner Stratum in the Group 3 STC Skyline Stakes. While he was a leader of his generation as a juvenile, he improved at three and gained three sprint victories, all of them at group level.

His most significant victory came when he beat Virage De Fortune and Takeover Target in the Group 1 VRC Oakleigh Plate, while he was also placed at the highest level in the VRC Newmarket Handicap and the AJC T.J. Smith Stakes.

Snitzel retired to stud at Arrowfield in 2006 at a fee of $33,000, having had seven wins, four placings and earned just over $1 million in prize money from 15 starts. His most recent fee was $165,000.

Snitzel is one of 39 Group 1 winners sired by the champion Redoute’s Choice (Danehill), a three-time champion sire himself. Snitzel is out of the dual listed winner Snippets’ Lass, a daughter of champion sprinter and leading sire Snippets (Lunchtime), and she is also dam of the Group 3 winners Viennese (Redoute’s Choice), and Hinchinbrook (Fastnet Rock), the latter going on to become a Group 1 sire.

Jim Bolger

Snitzel’s grandam is the Irish-bred Snow Finch (Storm Bird) who was trained by Jim Bolger to win the Listed Orby Stakes at Leopardstown as a two-year-old, while his third dam, A Realgirl (In Reality) was a stakes-winning three-parts sister to the American filly Desert Vixen (In Reality).

That outstanding filly of her generation won six Grade 1 races at three and four, was twice the recipient of an Eclipse Award, and was inducted in the US Racing Hall of Fame.

Sold at the 2004 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale, Snitzel was purchased for $260,000 by Sydney trainer Gerald Ryan for owner Damion Flower, and what a bargain he was. His place in Australian breeding history is assured.