Smart Missiles ready to fire up the sale-ring
Few Australian stallions have generated as much excitement in the launch phase of their stud careers as Smart Missile.
The announcement of his retirement at a fee of $20,000 +GST to Arrowfield in 2012 was met with overwhelming demand from breeders who booked him out in a matter of days with almost 200 mares.
The phone continued to ring for Smart Missile and he attracted similar bookings in 2013 and 2014. That level of support, rarely given to young stallions, was rewarded with first crop foals that have attracted positive comment from their arrival through to early yearling sale inspections.
Twenty-eight vendors will present the first 42 Smart Missile yearlings at the 2015 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale beginning on 7 January. (Two catalogued lots have been withdrawn). That’s more than any other Arrowfield stallion except Snitzel.
Smart Missile’s Magic Millions consignment includes relatives or descendants of Group 1 winners Albert the Fat, Apercu, Bold Promise, Charge Forward, Danglissa, Euphoria, Hold That Smile, Isolda, Melito, Miss Finland, Quintessential, Seven Springs (France), She’s A Meanie, Special & Wandesta (United States).
Smart Missile’s profile is tailormade for the Magic Millions Sale. He won the first 2YO stakes race of the Australian season, the ATC Breeders’ Plate LR on 2 October 2010, and returned in the Autumn of 2011 to see off champion 2YO Sepoy and Foxwedge in the ATC Todman S. G2.
First-up at three he beat Foxwedge and Helmet from a near-impossible position in the Run to the Rose H. G3 and was the closest of seconds to Manawanui in the Golden Rose S. G1. Neither that defeat, nor Smart Missile’s late scratching from the Golden Slipper diminished the general admiration of his extraordinary talent, based on sectional times, the quality of his opposition and his supernatural acceleration.
However, his pedigree offers even more. As a son of champion sire Fastnet Rock, out of a half-sister to champion first season sire Northern Meteor, from the family of champion sires Sadler’s Wells, Nureyev & Fairy King, Smart Missile brings plenty of genetic firepower to the sale-ring and, very soon, the racetrack.
