The thoroughbred industry is mourning the loss of a giant, with Arrowfield confirming the death of champion sire Redoute's Choice at age 22 on Tuesday.
A four-time Group 1 winner on the track, Redoute's Choice became the most influential Australian stallion of the 21st century and to date has sired 34 Group 1 winners and 163 stakes winners.
He was crowned Australia's champion sire on three occasions, in 2006, 2010 and 2014, was champion first-season sire in 2004, and champion 2-year-old sire in 2005 and 2006.
His progeny have won over $157 million in prizemoney, including 329 stakes races across 11 countries, featuring 54 Group 1s.
Arrowfield chairman John Messara described the son of Danehill (USA) and Shantha's Choice (Canny Lad) as a blessing for the famous stud, which has been built on his extraordinary success over the past two decades.
"Redoute’s Choice is such a big part of all our lives, and right now it’s hard to imagine Arrowfield without him," Messara said.
“He has given us so much, Arrowfield has been built on his back and he’s allowed all of us and many, many other people to fulfil our dreams and ambitions."
"Redoute’s Choice is such a big part of all our lives, and right now it’s hard to imagine Arrowfield without him." - Arrowfield chairman John Messara
“I’m grateful to all my team, past and present, who are part of his story, especially those who have cared for and worked with Redoute’s Choice every day and have ensured that he’s had the long and wonderful life he deserved. There are many tears being shed at Arrowfield today."
“I also thank everyone who helped us launch his stud career, his shareholders, and those who bred to him, and bought, raced, trained and rode his progeny. He has blessed us all.”
Arrowfield confirmed the stallion was humanely euthanised after suffering a traumatic loss of mobility which could not be restored, despite the best efforts by Arrowfield’s veterinary and stallion teams.
Watch: A look back at Redoute's Choice and his racing life
From superstar racehorse to champion sire
Bred and raced by Muzaffar Yaseen and trained by Rick Hore-Lacy, Redoute's Choice won five of his ten starts and over $1.5m in prizemoney, including Group 1 victories in the Blue Diamond S, the Manikato S., the G1 Caulfield Guineas and the CF Orr S.
Retired at the end of his 3-year-old year, he stood at Arrowfield in 2000, serving 134 mares at a fee of $30,000 and beginning a career that has changed the Australian breeding landscape.
At his peak in 2006, the season after he ended his own sire Danehill's six-year run as Champion Sire thanks to six Group 1 winners, he served 224 mares, while his service fee hit its high of $330,000 the following year.
In an era famous for the depth of stallion ranks, he claimed the Champion Sire title again in 2009-10 and in 2013-14, he defeated his own son Snitzel in a unique father-son quinella.
Redoute's Choice stood at the Aga Khan Studs' Haras de Bonneval in 2013 and 2014, producing five Northern Hemisphere-bred stakes-winners from those two crops.
Despite smaller crop numbers in recent years, he currently occupies fourth place on the Australian General Sires table, which is headed by Snitzel who is aiming for his third straight Champion Sire success to match his sire.
A sales phenomenon
In the sales ring, Redoute's Choice was a phenomenon, leading averages and aggregates at major sales for nearly a decade, highlighted by the $5m paid for his son out of Helsinge (Desert Sun {GB}) at the 2013 Australian Easter Sale, an Australian record.
His popularity in the market has continued and at January's Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale he had three $1 million-plus lots and was second overall on averages. There are 22 of what will be his third last crop catalogued at the upcoming Inglis Australian Easter Sale.
The Redoute's Choice x Purely Spectacular colt sold for $1.6 million at this year's Gold Coast Magic Millions Yearling Sale
“It is a great consolation to me that Redoute’s Choice leaves us at the top of his game, having sustained his greatness as a sire from start to finish, across the full span of his career," Messara said.
"It is a great consolation to me that Redoute’s Choice leaves us at the top of his game." - John Messara
“His legacy to Australian breeding and racing is immense, through his sire sons, his broodmare daughters, his final crops still to come and all the people he touched over the past two decades."
“Thank you Redoute’s, for everything.”
The legacy continues
The most recent Group 1 win by his progeny came on Saturday, when the colt Messara has called his heir apparent on the Arrowfield roster, The Autumn Sun, surpassed his sire's Group 1 tally with his fifth win at the elite level in the Rosehill Guineas.
Should The Autumn Sun retire to Arrowfield this spring as expected, he will look to continue an extraordinary legacy which has already been built by his other sire sons, 10 of which are already Group 1 winning sires in their own right.
The heir apparent - The Autumn Sun
Led by Snitzel and fellow Arrowfield stallion Not a Single Doubt, his sire sons have a combined 284 stakes winners and 38 Group 1 winners, while there are 63 active stallions in Australia who are descended from him.
Redoute's Choice is also poised to win his first Australian Broodmare Sires title this season, with 15 stakeswinners from Redoute's Choice mares, including Group 1 winners Extra Brut, Amphitrite and Arcadia Queen.
