The Legend isn’t finished yet
Celebrity Queen (inside) levels up to Portland Sky in the final, desperate drive for the line in the Oakleigh Plate G1. (PHOTO: Bronwen Healy)
He died almost two years ago, but Redoute’s Choice is still adding chapters to his extraordinary story.
The Champion racehorse and sire added another one on Saturday at Caulfield, the scene of three of his own Group 1 victories.
He figures as the damsire of this year’s Blue Diamond winner Artorius and as the sire of Celebrity Queen who snatched a dead-heat victory with Portland Sky in the $500,000 MRC Oakleigh Plate 1100m G1.
Arrowfield graduate Shojiki (3rd, Angus Armanasco S. G2) and Celebrity Queen’s stablemate Perfect Jewel (2nd, Mannerism S. G3) made it a $258,000 day for Redoute’s Choice at Caulfield.
The first dh in the 138 yrs of the Oakleigh Plate
PORTLAND SKY the first Gr1 winner for Deep Field. @NewgateFarm @mattlaurierace
CELEBRITY QUEEN the 39th Gr1 winner for Redoute’s Choice. @ArrowfieldStudpic.twitter.com/yugLHzW8qr
— Pedigree Update (@pedigreeupdate) February 20, 2021
Celebrity Queen, a 4YO daughter of Listed winner Celebrity Miss (by More Than Ready), is one of 10 Redoute’s Choice stakeswinners sent out since 2009 from the famous Western Australian stable of Bob & Sandra Peters.
Now the winner of seven of her 13 starts, with earnings of more than $800,000, Celebrity Queen is Redoute’s Choice’s third Oakleigh Plate winner, after Snitzel (2006) and Lankan Rupee (2014). She takes the three-time Champion Sire’s season earnings past $4 million, enough to keep him among Australia’s current top 30 sires, while his sons Not A Single Doubt & Snitzel hold the No. 1 and No. 5 spots.
Redoute’s Choice leads the Australian Broodmare Sires’ Premiership by stakeswinners (14) and is second to his great rival Encosta de Lago with $17.7 million prizemoney.
The first ten yearlings from Redoute’s Choice’s final crop sold for an average price of $421,500 at last month’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale and he has seven colts & two fillies catalogued for Inglis Easter. They include four Arrowfield colts, out of Alinghi’s daughter Lahana, Hartnell’s half-sister Phyllis Maud and the Japanese mares La Fouine Tail & Malala.
