Arrowfield’s Top 10 Highlights of 2021/22
Arrowfield graduate Hitotsu (Maurice x Love Is Fickle by Redoute's Choice) was one of the undoubted stars of the Australian 2021/22 season. (PHOTO: Bronwen Healy)
What a season it’s been, with much to celebrate and many memories to cherish.
From a lengthy list of special moments & achievements in 2021/22 and in no particular order, here are Arrowfield’s top 10 highlights of an unforgettable 12 months:
Hitotsu’s Derby-Guineas-Derby sequence
Maurice’s son Hitotsu, bred and sold by Arrowfield at Magic Millions, lit up the Spring with his brilliant Victoria Derby G1 victory, then turned up the wattage in the Autumn with the Australian Guineas G1 & Australian Derby G1 double. That puts him squarely in the frame for Champion 3YO honours.
Hitotsu and Group 1-winning sprinter Mazu headlined a breakout season for Maurice who ends 2021/22 as Australia’s leading Second Season Sire, a title also won by subsequent Champion Sires Redoute’s Choice, Exceed and Excel and Fastnet Rock.
Profondo makes maximum Impact
Back in 2015, Arrowfield was the first breeder to send mares from Australia to Japan’s supersire Deep Impact. Five years later, the Stud achieved the best yearling sale result by Deep Impact’s SH-bred progeny when his son out of Honesty Prevails sold for $1.9 million at Magic Millions. That colt, named Profondo (Italian for “deep”), sealed a dream story with a dominant win in the 2021 Spring Champion S. G1. Along with Hitotsu, Yearning & Stronger, he took Arrowfield’s tally of elite performers since 1985 to an imposing 80 Group 1 graduates. Across the season, Arrowfield graduates have won more than 350 races and almost $18 million in winners’ prizemoney.
Congratulations Adam & Jess!
Everything becomes possible with a first-class team of people and Arrowfield is immensely proud of all the Arrowfielders, past and present, who have built the business and are shaping its future. This year two of our most respected senior staff members, Jess Hood (Administration) and Adam Shankley (Horsemanship) won Australian Stud & Stable Staff Awards – a valuable recognition, presented by Racing Australia & Thoroughbred Breeders Australia and supported by Godolphin, of the high-level skills and passionate dedication that drives the Australian thoroughbred industry.
Snitzel’s sensational Spring treble
Snitzel’s record shows that his progeny typically build momentum through the season and finish on a high in the Autumn. But the four-time Champion Sire is capable of a sensational Spring too, and that’s what he delivered in 2021/22 when Wild Ruler (A.J. Moir S.), In The Congo (Golden Rose) and Yearning (1000 Guineas) completed a Group 1 treble in 20 days. They were joined by another 16 stakeswinners to notch up 28 Group & Listed victories – Snitzel’s highest tally since 2017/18.
His total yearling sales exceeded $41 million for the fourth time in the past 6 years, he posted career-best Inglis Easter & Magic Millions averages and compiled ten $1 million+ yearlings, split equally between those two sales.
What more can Snitzel achieve? One thing is certain: we won’t have to wait long to find out!
Dundeel’s first two million-dollar yearlings
Only six Australian stallions claimed more than one million-dollar yearling in 2022 and Dundeel was among them, after the Stay With Me filly and Honesty Prevails colt sold at Inglis Easter. They headed Dundeel’s 100 principal sale lots sold for an average price of $230,000 – a clear sign that the marketplace recognises what he’s already achieved and what’s ahead of him. For example, the dams of Dundeel’s current 2YOs & yearlings include more than 3 times the number of stakes-performed mares that produced five Group 1 winners – Castelvecchio & Super Seth among them – from his first two crops.
Arrowfield makes history at Inglis Easter
A multitude of factors helped Arrowfield smash the aggregate record at Inglis Easter 2022, selling 59 yearlings for a total of $30,355,000. Every factor counted: a superb whole-of-team effort sustained over three years from stallion selection & mating plans to sale-ring presentation; excellent work by Inglis to assemble a powerful buying bench; the substantial investment & constant support of our breeding partners & clients; a wonderful draft of horses, with ultra-desirable physiques and pedigrees; the allure of Australia’s racing environment; and unusual global economic conditions driving exceptional demand for quality bloodstock, among other asset classes. At the end of it all, relief, gratitude and excitement as we look forward to following our Class of 2022 in the coming seasons.
The King lives on
Three years after his death, Redoute’s Choice is very much still with us, through his final racing progeny, his 45 stakes-siring sons & grandsons, and as a Champion Sire of Broodmares. He has won his third Australian title in that role with near-record earnings of $29.4 million – almost $3 million ahead of his old rival Encosta de Lago – and 16 winners of 27 stakes races, including Group 1 winners Hitotsu, Anamoe, Profondo, Gypsy Goddess and Regal Power.
Redoute’s Choice’s own sire record isn’t quite finished yet, either: he posted his 179th stakeswinner when Strawberry Hills’ home-bred filly Mokulua won the Moonee Valley Fillies Classic G2.
Shalaa makes himself at home
Shalaa took up permanent residence at Arrowfield last year and promptly enjoyed a season of substantial achievement. In Europe he was represented by Group 1 winner No Speak Alexander and four other stakeswinners. In Australia he reeled out three new 2YO stakeswinners, Seven Veils & Quang Tri and the colt Semillion, and three other juvenile stakes performers to end 2021/22 in 6th place on the 2YO Sires’ table.
Shalaa also held his own on a stellar Second Season Sires’ Premiership, securing 4th spot with $3.6 million prizemoney and 53 individual winners.
His sale results reflected those performances. Shalaa averaged more than $200,000 at Magic Millions and Easter with a top price of $500,000 achieved by Segenhoe Stud’s filly out of Set For Fame.
Pariah’s first stakeswinner
Pariah became one of only four first season sires in 2021/22 to leave an Australian stakeswinner when 2YO colt Swiss Exile won the Champagne Classic G2 at Eagle Farm. Stakes-placed fillies Vagrant and Nalabelle, Melbourne winner Latvian and city-placed pair Astelena & Without Envy rounded out a solid debut year for the brilliant son of Redoute’s Choice. A $136,000 major yearling sale average, a top price of $280,000 and an impressive list of buyers with names like Baker, Benner, Busuttin, Foote, Gollan, Lees, Maher, Neasham, O’Brien & Portelli all point to a bright future for Pariah.
Celebrating the little engine that could
The death of Not A Single Doubt in June was a lowlight of the season, but Arrowfielders and his owners were consoled by the warm appreciation he received from those who cheered his rise to leading sire status, the life-changing impact he had on many owners’ & breeders’ lives, and the wonderful memories he gave all of us. We all miss “Singles” very much, but his story remains as vivid inspiration for all the boundless possibilities of breeding & racing that keep us working, investing and dreaming…
