Snitzel celebrates historic fourth Premiership

Snitzel’s fourth consecutive General Sires’ Premiership, won with $17.8 million prizemoney, more than $2 million clear of I Am Invincible & Pierro,  confirms Arrowfield’s superstar as the dominant Australian sire of his era. 

It is the eighth Premiership won by an Arrowfield stallion in the past 15 years, following Redoute’s Choice (2006, 2010, 2014), Flying Spur (2007) and Snitzel’s titles in 2017, 2018 & 2019.

Snitzel also heads the 2019/20 General Sires’ table by Stakeswinners (18) & Stakes Wins (25), ahead of Exceed and Excel (14 & 20) and I Am Invincible (13 & 17). Most significantly, his lifetime SW/Runners strike rate from his Australian crops remains an imposing 9.8 per cent. 

SNITZEL’S STARS IN 2019/20

I AM EXCITED wins The Galaxy G1 at Rosehill

AWAY GAME, Snitzel's leading earner in 2019/20

AWAY GAME'S owners celebrate Magic Millions success

The $1.8 million Easter sale-topping SNITZEL-FIRST SEAL colt

LETZBEGLAM wins the Blue Diamond Prelude G2 at Caulfield

Snitzel's 100th stakeswinner, exciting 3YO SPLINTEX

GW filly EXHILARATES, also the MM 3YO Guineas runner-up

Dual Group-winning mare SYLVIA'S MOTHER

The mighty REDZEL retired with $16.4 million prizemoney

3YO filly AKARI earned black type in Melbourne & Sydney

WILD RULER, winner of the $500,000 Inglis Nursery RL

Arrowfield’s Chairman John Messara says, “Only the very best stallions can do what Snitzel does, he is absolutely amazing and we are all extremely proud of him. 

“I’m grateful for the support he receives from his shareholders, breeders, buyers, owners and trainers and look forward to seeing them all enjoy more success with Snitzel’s progeny – because there is plenty more to come!”

Four straight titles earn Snitzel a place in the loftiest company. In the 137-year history of the Premiership, only Valais (in the 1920s), his son Heroic (1930s), Delville Wood (1950s), Star Kingdom (1960s) and Snitzel’s grandsire Danehill (2000s) have previously won four or more consecutive premierships. 

It can be argued that Snitzel has had a more difficult task than his illustrious predecessors, as a Danehill grandson meeting a Danehill-saturated broodmare population, in a period of major global investment and competition from a stellar cohort of established & emerging Australasian sires. They include a record number of 11 other stallions that have earned $10 million or more during this season, among them former Champion Sires Fastnet Rock (4th) and Exceed and Excel (8th), and his own barnmates, the recently retired Not A Single Doubt (5th) and Woodside Park Stud’s Written Tycoon (9th). 

Snitzel also becomes the only three-time winner of the Australian 2YO Sires’ Premiership in the past two decades with $4.7 million, 28 winners & 4 stakeswinners. Not A Single Doubt made a race of it with $4.3 million, followed by I Am Invincible ($2.7 million) and Redoute’s Choice ($1.5 million), whose dual Group 1-winning son King’s Legacy led the legendary sire’s best 2YO season since 2011/12. 

Snitzel’s splendid 2YO daughter Away Game was his highest earner this season, contributing $2.7 million from her four Group & Listed wins, notably the Percy Sykes S. G2 & Magic Millions 2YO Classic RL, and her gallant runner-up finish to Not A Single Doubt’s son Farnan in the Golden Slipper G1. 

It has been a year of deep, diverse and consistent achievement for Snitzel, with stakes success distributed across every quarter, by horses from six crops & 14 stables at distances from 1000m to 2400 metres.

Six of his 18 stakeswinners this season are home-breds: his 14th Group 1 winner I Am Excited for Bell River Thoroughbreds, his milestone 100th SW Splintex for Geoff & Mary Grimish, Exhilarates for Godolphin, Macroura for Aquis Farm, Sure Knee for Ingham Racing & Sylvia’s Mother for Rob & Pam Crosby.

Snitzel’s other 12 stakeswinners were sold as yearlings for prices ranging from $1.05 million (for Akari) to $90,000 (for Irithea) – both those sales achieved by Arrowfield. Five were sold at Inglis Easter, and 7 found buyers at the Magic Millions Gold Coast or National Sales.

The most successful trainers of Snitzel’s progeny this season are Ciaron Maher & David Eustace, thanks to five stakes wins by juvenile fillies Away Game & Macroura; and Peter & Paul Snowden who prepared the individual stakeswinners Redzel, Spending to Win, Wayupinthesky & Wild Ruler. 

Here’s the full list of Snitzel’s stakeswinners in his fourth Championship season (in chronological order):