Smart Missile

Arrowfield Stud stallion Smart Missile (Fastnet Rock) has been crowned Australia’s champion first season sire by earnings, narrowly defeating Love Conquers All (Mossman) and Dream Ahead (Diktat).

A Group Two-winning juvenile and Group One-placed three-year-old, Smart Missile sired seven Australian winners from his first crop from 49 runners, earning $454,705, and also produced New Zealand stakes-winning filly Sassy ‘N’ Smart.

Sun Stud stallion Love Conquers All, who sired eight winners from his first crop, finished second with his progeny earning $453,475, while Emirates Park’s shuttle sire Dream Ahead (four winners) finished third with $447,550.

Darley’s Sepoy (Elusive Quality) narrowly took fourth with earnings of $430,335 over New Zealand’s Windsor Park Stud stallion Pour Moi (Montjeu) who finished fifth, largely thanks to the Tony Pike-trained J J Atkins Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Sacred Elixir.

Queensland’s Oaklands Stud stallion Siderius (General Nediym) came sixth after siring eight winners with earnings of $390,620.

Arrowfield Stud’s Andy Williams said Smart Missile had made an impact with his first crop and the prospects for his progeny as three-yearolds bodes well for the son of Fastnet Rock (Danehill). “For Smart Missile to be champion first season sire is very pleasing,” Williams told ANZ Bloodstock News last night.

“The trainers are saying his progeny are showing so much raw ability, so it’s very exciting. “Being a son of Fastnet Rock, we can expect it’s going to be a very exciting spring for him with the horses he has coming through. “He’s got something like 804 of his progeny either on the ground, mares in foal or racing and he’ll cover another big book again this year.” Williams said Smart Missile, whose 2016 fee was set at $22,000 (inc GST), was already fully booked for the coming season.

Overall, former Darley shuttle stallion Street Cry (Machiavellian) exhibited his enduring influence on Australian racing when finishing the season as the country’s leading sire by earnings. The son of Machiavellian (Mr Prospector), who was euthanised in 2014 due to a neurological condition, was largely aided by the success of his daughter Winx.

The Chris Waller-trained mare won each of her seven starts, including five Group Ones, last season, culminating in a dominant victory in the Doncaster Mile (Gr 1, 1600m). Street Cry sired 85 winners in total, with prize money earnings for the season of $12,975,554, ahead of Arrowfield Stud’s stallion Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice) ($12,493,196) and sire revelation Written Tycoon (Iglesia) in third, with earnings of $10,107,231.

“The pleasing thing from our perspective is that Street Cry is the third champion sire that Sheikh Mohammed has owned in the past six years,” Darley Australia’s head of sales Alastair Pulford told ANZ Bloodstock News. “There was Lonhro, then Exceed And Excel and now Street Cry, so that is particularly pleasing and no other stud can boast that, so that is something we are very proud of.

“Street Cry was an amazing horse. He was bred in Ireland by Sheikh Mohammed and he raced in America, he raced in Dubai, went to stud in Australia and America and became a leading sire in both countries.” Pulford revealed the Australian equine influenza outbreak in 2007 meant Street Cry almost never returned after his 2006 season. “Initially, his success in America came a lot quicker than it did in Australia, so he missed the EI (equine influenza) year and he missed the year after that and by that stage Whobegotyou and Shocking were on the radar,” he said. “We put a strong case forward for him to come back and his statistics showed that. Head office in England agreed and he returned. He was here to cover Sheikh Mohammed’s mares more than anything else and certainly that proved a very beneficial move.”

Another Darley stallion Lonhro (Octagonal) finished fifth on the general sires’ table, siring 141 winners with earnings of $9,219,600.

While second on the general sires table, Not A Single Doubt also finished third to Written Tycoon and fellow Arrowfield Stud sire Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) on the leading two-year-old sires table.

Not A Single Doubt’s feats were headlined by Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Extreme Choice, a valuable colt trained by Mick Price. “He’s the leading active stallion and the best thing about Not A Single Doubt is that he gets you a genuine racehorse, he’s got a very high runners to winners ratio. Trainers, syndicators, owners, they all love him because of the fact he is so genuine,” Andy Williams said.

The heir apparent to his sire Redoute’s Choice (Danehill), himself the leading sire of stakes winners last season, Snitzel equalled the record of Without Fear (Baldric) with 30 two-year-old winners, 29 of them in Australia and one in South Africa. “It’s important Snitzel continues to go well, even more so than Not A Single Doubt, because he’s following in the footsteps of his sire Redoute’s Choice and he’s genuine two-year-old stallion, which is what Australian racing is all about,” Williams said. “There’s been a dramatic increase in the quality of mares that they (Snitzel and Not A Single Doubt) have been attracting. It’s been ‘book full’ upon releasing our fees for those stallions.”

On the remarkable longevity of Redoute’s Choice, arguably the breed-shaping stallion of the past two decades, Williams said: “He’s just so dominant whether it be himself, or his sons or broodmares, even a horse like (the now deceased) Beneteau, who has had a big year. “If Beneteau was still alive he’d be standing at $40,000 to $50,000 now. It’s a ruthless market, though, and it’s a credit to the team to have three active stallions in the top ten.”

Another stallion who enjoyed an amazing season was Woodside Park Stud’s Written Tycoon, the sire of this year’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) and Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Capitalist and Doomben 10,000 (Gr 1, 1350m) winner Music Magnate.

The feats of the Peter and Paul Snowden-trained Capitalist and Bjorn Baker’s Music Magnate headlined Written Tycoon’s season, with the Victorian-based stallion producing 130 individual winners and ten juvenile winners in 2015/16.

“Each year we say Written Tycoon has had his breakout year but he keeps on surprising us,” Woodside Park Stud’s bloodstock and sales manager Matt Tillett told ANZ Bloodstock News. “Before this year he wasn’t really known as a sire of two-year-olds even though he was champion first season sire (in 2010/11), but now he’s looking like the best sire of two-year-olds in the country.

“That is probably the main criteria you need to be a highly commercial stallion, and that’s certainly what he is. “His yearlings averaged over $100,000 this year, which is an indication of how good he is, and the mares he is covering are getting progressively better and he’s covered more than 150 mares two years in a row. “He’s been fully booked the past three years, so it indicates he’s very popular and he is getting much nicer mares now than he ever did before.”

Coolmore Stud’s pensioned stallion Encosta De Lago (Fairy King) was the leading broodmare sire in 2015/16 by number of winners and earnings, with mares by the sire producing 248 winners including 15 at stakes level. Zabeel (Sir Tristram) was second, while Danehill (Danzig) was third.

 In New Zealand, Waikato Stud’s Savabeel (Zabeel) was crowned champion sire having sired 51 winners who earned NZ$2,472,800.

He finished narrowly ahead of The Oaks Stud-based Darci Brahma (Danehill) whose progeny earned NZ$2,367,670 this season.

Haunui Farm shuttler Iffraaj (Zafonic) finished third and was crowned champion two-year old sire with prize money earnings of NZ$723,700 ahead of barnmate Showcasing (Oasis Dream) who finished second with earnings of NZ$381,035.