Redoute’s Choice & sons dominate Easter Sale

Champion sire Redoute’s Choice and the two sons that stand alongside him at Arrowfield, Snitzel & Not A Single Doubt, dominated the top end of last week’s Inglis Easter Sale.

They supplied ten of the 20 top-priced yearlings including five of the nine seven-figure lots. Snitzel claimed the sale-topper, the half-brother to Australia’s new champion mare Winx and full brother to recent 2YO Group winner El Divino.

The son of Vegas Showgirl was offered by Segenhoe Stud on behalf of his breeders John & Deborah Camilleri’s Fairway Thoroughbreds and was knocked down to Gai Waterhouse & Julian Blaxland for $2.3 million. This is a new record price for Snitzel, his fifth seven-figure sale in 2016, and the ninth time that $1 million or more has been paid for one of his yearlings.

Gai Waterhouse, who also trains El Divino, described the colt as “an outstanding type, he is by the boom stallion of the year, and he is out of a proven Group 1 producing mare. Now it is my job to get him set for the Golden Slipper.”

This result also completed a notable treble for Snitzel, because he has provided the sale-toppers at all three major Australian yearling sales in 2016: Inglis Easter, Magic Millions Gold Coast (the $1.6 million colt ex Mirror Mirror, bought by Jadeskye Racing & Gerald Ryan from Strawberry Hill Stud) and Inglis Melbourne Premier (the $700,000 colt ex Beauty World, bought by L. Hung & Bahen Bloodstock).

Redoute’s Choice, represented by a superb draft of Easter yearlings, claimed the next two top prices. The Waterhouse & Blaxland team paid $1.8 million for Coolmore’s full brother to Horse of the Year Lankan Rupee and Sheikh Hamdan’s Shadwell Stud secured Arrowfield’s colt out of South African champion National Colour for $1.75 million. The latter colt’s 3YO brother Rafeef, also an Arrowfield Easter graduate, obliged with his second win from three starts for Sheikh Hamdan in South Africa on the same day.

Shadwell’s racing manager Angus Gold, the leading buyer at the Sale, also bought Arrowfield’s Redoute’s Choice-Top Cuban colt for $1.5 million, and Milburn Creek’s Snitzel-Roses ‘n’ Wine colt for $900,000.

The Top Cuban colt, a half-brother to the recent Hong Kong International Sale-topper, will be trained by David Hayes & Tom Dabernig.

Angus Gold said after buying him, “Redoute’s Choice is a global commodity now and we’ve had some good success with his offspring like Nadeem, Reaan, and this season Zamzam. Sheikh Hamdan is a great supporter of Australia and wants the best so that’s what we have tried to do.”

James Bester and Nordic Racing & Breeding were the successful bidders at $1.1 million for the Snitzel-Family Breakup colt, offered by Victorian farm Erinvale Thoroughbreds.

James Harron’s final bid of $850,000 was enough to win a lively battle for Arrowfield’s Not A Single Doubt-Colorado Claire colt, setting a new record price for Not A Single Doubt, who is currently Australia’s leading active sire, and the leading sire of winners. Bred on the same Not A Single Doubt/Hussonet cross as Blue Diamond G1 winner Extreme Choice, the colt is his Group 2-winning dam’s first foal.

The first of Harron’s four Easter buys was the $700,000 Redoute’s Choice-Secluded colt, a three-quarter brother to the top-class dual Group 1-winning sprinter Melito, from another Hussonet mare and consigned by Arrowfield.

$850,000 also secured Arrowfield’s Redoute’s Choice-Love Wings colt for Craig Rounsefell’s Boomer Bloodstock, and just $50,000 less saw Highgrove Stud’s Snitzel-Subsequent colt knocked down to New Zealand trainer Lance O’Sullivan’s Wexford Stables.

A second Snitzel colt offered by Highgrove’s Ron & Deb Gilbert was purchased for $750,000 by Spendthrift Australia. The son of Flamboyance (by Snowland) is a three-quarter brother to recent Group 3-winning 2YO Attention and carries an interesting 3m x 3f duplication of the very good sire Snippets.

The ten top-priced Inglis Easter yearlings by Redoute’s Choice, Snitzel & Not A Single Doubt are: