Beneteau & Wandjina win HTBA awards

Beneteau & Wandjina win HTBA awards

Arrowfield Stud was delighted to accept two trophies at the 2015 Hunter Valley Thoroughbred Breeders Association’s Annual Awards Dinner, held at Scone Racecourse on Wednesday evening.

The Stud’s young home-bred sire Beneteau was named Champion First Season Sire, inevitably a bittersweet achievement given that he died in January 2013, after only two seasons at stud. The award was sponsored by Kentucky Equine Research & Barastoc.

Beneteau (Redoute’s Choice-Slice of Paradise by Encosta de Lago), a juvenile Group 3 winner and third in the Blue Diamond S. G1, has produced seven individual winners from his first crop including Prompt Return (VRC Maribyrnong P. G3), Lady Jivago  (ATC Inglis 2YO Classic (R) LR), Voilier (City winner & 2nd, ATC Silver Slipper S. G2), impressive Sydney winner Aegean Sea and the stakes-placed It’s Vegas Baby.

Beneteau took the lead on the 2014/15 Australian First Season Sires’ list last November and remains on top with prizemoney of $666,235. The rise and rise of Arrowfield’s other two sons of Redoute’s Choice, Snitzel and Not A Single Doubt, only enlarges the gap Beneteau’s early death has left in the ranks of Australia’s young stallions.

Another Arrowfield-bred colt, Wandjina (Snitzel-La Bamba by Last Tycoon) was named Champion 3YO Colt on the strength of his VRC Australian Guineas G1 victory and Group 1 placings in the ATC All Aged S. G1 and MRC Caulfield Guineas G1. The award was sponsored by Equilaw.

Purchased by James Harron for $1 million at the 2013 Inglis Easter Sale, and trained by Gai Waterhouse for Edmund & Belinda Bateman, Wandjina now has Royal Ascot in his sights before retiring to stud at Newgate Farm this coming Spring.

Wandjina is one of four Arrowfield-bred Group 1 winners this season, along with Sweet Idea (ATC The Galaxy H. G1), Hot Snitzel (BRC BTC Cup G1), both by Snitzel, and Majmu (Turffontein Empress Club S. G1), by Redoute’s Choice. As Arrowfield celebrates its 30th year of operation, they have taken the total of Group 1 winners bred by the Stud to forty.

An additional 14 Group 1 winners, including Lankan Rupee and Miracles of Life, have been raised and/or sold by Arrowfield during those three decades.