Redoute's Choice the surest bet
As 2016 winds down and the world looks back at a turbulent 12 months, a few certainties for 2017 would be welcome, but they seem in short supply and in racing that shortage is more-or-less a permanent condition.
Occasionally, though, something emerges that can be relied upon over several years, perhaps a decade or more if we’re lucky. In Australian racing and breeding one pillar of consistently top-class performance has been, and still is, Redoute’s Choice.
An all-up bet that Redoute’s Choice would leave double-figure stakeswinners, including at least one Group 1 winner, in each of the past dozen years would have made a December 2004 punter rather rich, and his or her bookmaker increasingly unwell. And there’s no sign of the pace slackening either – in fact, over the past two years he’s averaged a stakes win every 17 days.
In 2016 the three-time Champion Sire has put up 15 individual winners of 19 Group and Listed Races, among them Group 1 winners Peeping (ATC Coolmore Classic G1), Howard Be Thy Name (South Australian Derby G1) & Abbey Marie (Australasian Oaks G1). His 30 lifetime Group 1 winners place him firmly among the world’s elite stallions.
2016 Group winners Honesty Prevails & Thyme For Roses and Listed winner Zamzam in Australia, and Table Bay in South Africa boosted Redoute’s Choice’s tally of 2YO stakeswinners to thirty-three. And don’t worry about the durability of his progeny – Rock Magic and Abidewithme from his 2009 crop both won in Group company this year.
Redoute’s Choice is already shaping future generations through 17 stakes-siring sire sons headed by Snitzel (47 SW), Not A Single Doubt (35 SW) & the deceased Stratum (31 SW).
Irish-based Elzaam and New Zealand-based Burgundy seem likely to join that group soon, after making very favourable impressions with their first runners in 2016. Scissor Kick’s arrival at Haras d’Etreham strengthens the dynasty’s foothold in Europe, as Redoute’s Choice’s own second crop of French-conceived 2YOs prepares to race in 2017.
Daughters of Redoute’s Choice are similarly proving their worth as transmitters of his class with 50 stakeswinners (14 of them in 2016 and number 50, Hong Kong Group winner Blizzard, scoring on 1 January), including Group 1 winners Sacred Falls, Zoustar, Pasadena Girl and Stay With Me.
Thirteen Redoute’s Choice yearlings will be offered at the upcoming Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale, among them three colts and two fillies in the Arrowfield consignment.
