Looking for a 2YO Group-winning son of Redoute’s Choice?

If there’s one attribute likely to be found on most Australian breeders’ wish-lists, it’s precocious speed.

No prizes for guessing which breed-shaping powerhouse has generated that precious asset most consistently over the past 30 years. 

Or for working out that the strongest branch of the Danehill sire-line is the one established by Redoute’s Choice, himself an unforgettable winner of the Blue Diamond S. G1 a week after his 2YO debut.  

The influence of Redoute’s Choice and his sons on elite Australian juvenile racing is significant. Since 2000 they have sired the winners of 16 Australian Group 1 2YO races: 5 Golden Slippers, 4 Blue Diamonds, 3 Sires’ Produce Stakes, two Champagne Stakes and two J.J. Atkins Stakes.

This year alone King’s Legacy emerged from the 17th crop of Redoute’s Choice to complete the Sires’-Champagne Stakes double, leading home Prague (also by Redoute’s Choice) and Mamaragan (by Snitzel’s son Wandjina) in the Inglis Sires’, while the Golden Slipper was quinella-ed by Not A Single Doubt’s son Farnan & Snitzel’s daughter Away Game.

And Not A Single Doubt’s daughter Gotta Kiss put in a tremendous effort to finish second in the season’s final 2YO Group 1 race, the J.J. Atkins S. G1 at Eagle Farm on Saturday. 

That puts a spotlight on 2YO Group-winning sons of Redoute’s Choice available to Australian breeders right now. 

Believe it or not, there are only three and Arrowfield is home to all of them. (This surprised us too!) Let’s review the brilliant 2YO careers of Snitzel, The Autumn Sun and Pariah: 

Triple Champion Sire & two-time Champion Sire of 2YOs Snitzel, now leading both Premierships again this season, heads the roster. He won the Breeders’ Plate LR in then race record time of 57.43 at his 2YO debut. In the Autumn he added the Skyline S. G3, defeating another Redoute’s Choice son, the Golden Slipper winner & leading sire Stratum, who died in 2016. Snitzel progressed at 3 to win the Oakleigh Plate G1.

Snitzel’s 40 2YO stakeswinners include 22 Group winners, four of them Group 1 winners: Champion 2YO Estijaab, Champion 2YO Colt Invader, Sizzling & Summer Passage. His leading earner this season is the high-class 2YO filly Away Game, winner of $2.7 million and four Group & Listed Races from her 8 starts.  

He showed a lot of race sense. He is a very nice horse who will go a long way. He has a good shoulder, a good girth and he is a lovely balanced horse. He has always been a dream horse to do anything with.
– trainer Gerald Ryan after Snitzel’s 2004 Breeders’ Plate LR win

Snitzel’s 2YO Race Record in 2004/05: 6 starts – 4 wins, one third, $358,650
WON STC Skyline S., 1200m G3
WON AJC Breeders’ P., 1000m LR – on debut in race record time
WON BTC Tommy Smith Slipper S., 1200m LR
WON Wyong RC Strawberry Hill Slipper S. 1000m
3d GCTC Magic Millions 2YO Classic S. 1200m RL. 

The Autumn Sun was the Champion 3YO Colt of 2018/19, but before that he was unbeaten in 3 starts at two, including his 1200-metre April debut in class record time and the J.J. Atkins S. G1. That very nearly emulated Redoute’s Choice himself, who won the Blue Diamond G1 at his second appearance.  Bred in partnership with HH the Aga Khan, and out of a Galileo half-sister to European champion Azamour, The Autumn Sun will welcome his first foals from a superb book of 167 mares this coming Spring.

Third-up into a Group 1 race, most horses can’t do that. Extremely good horses can get to those races, but exceptional horses will win those races which is what he did.
– trainer Chris Waller on The Autumn Sun’s 2018  J.J. Atkins G1 win

The Autumn Sun’s 2YO Race Record in 2017/18: 3 starts – 3 wins, $491,971
WON BRC JJ Atkins S., 1600m G1  
WON ATC Energy Air 2YO P. 1400m
WON ATC Armistice Maiden 2YO P. 1200m on debut in class record time.

Like Snitzel & The Autumn Sun, Pariah won his 2YO debut, but in his case it was at Group 3 level in the 1100-metre Canonbury Stakes where he set a new race record of 1:04.63. Two weeks later he was 2nd in the Blue Diamond Prelude G3 and produced a peak performance to fill the same spot at his third start, as the first colt home in the Blue Diamond G1, less than a half-length from the winner Catchy. His first foals, from a book of 143 mares, are now weanlings.

Pariah has been a really nice horse from day one, he just has good ‘smarts’ about him. He has always been well above his year with everything he has done so far.
– co-trainer Peter Snowden after Pariah’s 2017 Canonbury S. G3 win

Pariah’s 2YO Race Record: 4 starts – one win, two seconds, $391,750
WON ATC (Rosehill) Canonbury S., 1100m G3  – on debut in race record time
2d MRC Blue Diamond S., 1200m G1 
2d Blue Diamond Prelude (c&g), 1100m G3.