Redoute’s Choice keeps building the legend
No-one can accuse Redoute’s Choice of slacking off while his sons Snitzel and Not A Single Doubt went about their spectacular, history-making business in 2016/17.
Redoute’s Choice kept relentlessly busy, compiling stakes wins in every month of the season, from Great Esteem’s Heatherlie S. LR at Caulfield on 28 August, to the Prix Chloe G3 in France on 9 July, won by his 149th lifetime stakeswinner, 3YO filly Ibiza.
His progeny have won at least 20 stakes races in all but two seasons of his career, and in 2016/17 eighteen of them won 22 stakes races worldwide – 13 in Australia, 4 in South Africa, two in France, two in New Zealand and one in Hong Kong. Sixteen of these victories were at Group level.
They included a new piece of history for his own record, a rare Group 1 double on the same 6 May card at Turffontein by Sheikh Hamdan’s full brothers 4YO Rafeef (now retired to stud) and scintillating 2YO Mustaaqeem. This sibling double took their Champion Sire’s tally of Group 1 winners to 32 and his superlative record in South Africa to five Group 1 winners from only 29 runners.
Group 3 successes by Ibiza and Gold Luck opened the stakes account of Redoute’s Choice’s first European-conceived crop. Back home, Pariah (in Australia) & Ardrossan (in New Zealand) joined Mustaaqeem to give him a lifetime total of 36 juvenile stakeswinners. All three colts remain in training this season.
Near the end of the season smart 5YO sprinter Thewizardoz became the second Hong Kong stakeswinner for Redoute’s Choice when he won the Premier Cup G3 over 1400 metres.
And in Western Australia, the sterling 7YO sprinter Rock Magic won many fans with a Listed win, three Group wins and third & fourth placings in Group 1 company. Also in the West, two daughters of Redoute’s Choice, Royal Star and Very Tempting, claimed the Natasha S. LR and WA Oaks G3 for owner-breeders Bob & Sandra Peters.
Racetrack results, his sons’ stud success and a quality offering fuelled a powerful demand for yearlings by Redoute’s Choice. The $1.3 million Ballet Blue colt shared top billing at Magic Millions, and three months later the full brother to Pariah commanded the year’s top price of $2.5 million at Inglis Easter.
Along with the $1.8 million half-sister to English and the $1 million half-brother to Dundeel, they took Redoute’s Choice’s career total of million-dollar yearlings to 74, a group that has already produced three Group 1 winners: Samantha Miss, Master Of Design & Mustaaqeem.
Redoute’s Choice finished in 12th spot on the Australian General Sires’ Premiership, leaving it to Snitzel (1st), Not A Single Doubt (5th) and the deceased Stratum (10th) to give him a dominant presence in the top ten.
Most significantly, Snitzel’s first Premiership, following those of Redoute’s Choice (2006, 2010 & 2014) and Danehill’s nine titles, completed a three-generation sequence of Champion Sires that is without precedent in Australian thoroughbred history.
Daughters of Redoute’s Choice secured his fifth-place finish on the Broodmare Sires’ list with $12.1 million prizemoney and 10 stakeswinners. They included his fifth and sixth Group 1 winners as a damsire, Inference (ATC Randwick Guineas G1) and The Mission (ATC Champagne S. G1).
Snitzel’s first stallion Premiership and his new fee of $176,000 inc. GST mark a generational shift on the Arrowfield roster, initiated more than a decade ago by John Messara’s prescient decision to stand two sons from the first two crops of Redoute’s Choice.
However, as the Millennials are discovering in the human world, generational shifts are gradual rather than abrupt and, like the Baby Boomers, Redoute’s Choice remains a potent force in Australian breeding & racing.
Fully booked at a fee of $110,000 inc. GST and with around 330 Australian 2YOs, yearlings and 2017 foals to come, Danehill’s greatest sire son has many stories yet to add to his remarkable legend.
