Arrowfield sires fit the Golden Slipper
If Arrowfield wears a heart on its collective sleeve, then it is most definitely shaped like a Golden Slipper.
With six runners by four of the Stud’s stallions in the field for this year’s $3.5 million centerpiece of Australian 2YO racing, John Messara and his team are prepared for a few missed beats and heart-in-mouth moments at Rosehill on Saturday.
Pictured: Golden Slipper runner Hot Snitzel (Snitzel-Flames of Paris by Blushing Groom), purchased for $60,000 from the Bellerive Stud draft at the 2010 Melbourne Premier Sale by Chris & Michael Ward’s Triple Crown Syndications. (PHOTO: Sportpix)
Arrowfield stands two Golden Slipper winners, Danzero (1994) and Flying Spur (1995) and both are Golden Slipper sires, of the record-setting Dance Hero (2004), and Forensics (2007). Flying Spur is represented this year by Dr Edmund & Belinda Bateman’s filly Satin Shoes.
Champion sire Redoute’s Choice missed the 1999 Slipper, but has left two outstanding winners, Stratum (2005), and the mighty Miss Finland (2006), whose trophy resides at Arrowfield.
Three Redoute’s Choice sons have runners in the 2011 Golden Slipper: Arrowfield’s Snitzel (Hot Snitzel, Salade and the filly Saramenha), his barnmate Not A Single Doubt (Karuta Queen) and Widden Stud’s Stratum (Running Tall). Stratum has already emulated his sire, leaving the 2010 Slipper winner Crystal Lily.
Redoute’s Choice also appears as the damsire of another 2011 runner, Masthead, while Starcraft , sire of Blue Diamond G1 winner Star Witness, has provided the emergency, Do You Think, who will run in The Schweppervescence G3 if he does not get a Slipper start.
A slight stretch extends Arrowfield’s influence across almost the entire Golden Slipper field. The great Danehill, brought to Australia by Arrowfield 21 years ago, appears in the immediate pedigrees of all but one runner (Shared Reflections).
