Snitzel, Vinny lead Hunter dominance

5 min read
Such is the influence of the Hunter Valley on the Australian breeding scene that any analysis specific to New South Wales-based sires is almost rendered redundant by the fact that it almost replicates the outcome of the Australian Sires Table.

Of the current Top 20 on the Australian Sires Table, 12 will stand in the Hunter Valley this year, one elsewhere in New South Wales (Smart Missile - Twin Hills), five have previously stood in the state and just one, Written Tycoon, will stand in Victoria.

While the loss of Redoute's Choice (8th) and Sebring (6th) as well as Hinchinbrook (currently 22nd) in the past 12 months has been a blow, such is the depth of quality on offer in New South Wales, that its complete dominance is poised to roll on, despite the ramping up investment in Victoria and Queensland.

Arrowfield's Snitzel will win his third NSW (and Australian) Sires Premiership with his progeny winning nearly $24 million in prizemoney. His 178 winners sets a new Australian single season record.

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Also breaking records has been his great rival I Am Invincible, who may trail Snitzel home on the General Sires Table for a second straight year, but has had more Australian stakes winners (28) than any other stallion in a single season. With a couple of weeks' left, he has 174 winners in total, so could conceivably overtake Snitzel in that regard. The Yarraman Park star will also claim the Champion 2-year-old Sire of the season.

The $17.2 million his progeny have earned would have been sufficient to win every Australian Sires Premiership in the pre-Everest era.

The dominance of that pair is destined to continue for some time based on the numbers of mares they have served. Snitzel's 2-year-old crop will be slightly smaller in 2019/20, but he did produce 135 foals in 2017 and 153 last season.

I Am Invincible's upcoming 2-year-old crop was conceived off a $55,000 2016 service fee, which has increased to $247,500 in 2019. He has had books of over 200 mares in each of those past three seasons, so his flood of top-quality runners is destined to continue.

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Coolmore's Fastnet Rock is third on the active NSW sires list (former Darley Kelvinside resident Street Cry (Ire) is third including all sires), having surpassed 100 Australian winners and 10 stakes-winners in a season for the ninth time in succession. His progeny have earned $12.4 million in Australia this season.

Fourth on the active NSW list is Arrowfield's Not A Single Doubt, who looks set for his second-best season in terms of prizemoney with $11.6 million earned. He has achieved this with the least amount of runners in seven seasons, but 13 individual stakes winners.

Coolmore's Pierro rounds out the Top 5 of the active NSW sires, (he is 10th overall behind Sebring, Redoute's Choice and High Chaparral (Ire). He has had a very strong third season which has featured 107 winners to date for prizemoney of $9.2 million, a record for any third-season sire. Vinery's All Too Hard, ranked 18th overall and 12th on the active NSW sires, has also broke through the 100-winner milestone in his third season.

Zoustar tops second-season class

Widden Stud's Zoustar, with 64 winners and $7.3 million in prizemoney, will be Champion Second-Season Sire in both NSW and Australia as well as Champion 3-year-old Sire, which is a rare double.

Arrowfield's Dundeel (NZ) (36 winners and $4.2 million) and Darley's Epaulette (55 winners and $3.7 million) have also had strong second seasons.

Zoustar | Widden Stud

Zoustar is best poised to take it to the likes of Snitzel and Vinny in the coming seasons with consistent foal crops around the 120-130 mark in his four crops to hit the ground and a huge book of 243 mares last year. His service fee has rocketed to $154,000 (inc GST) in 2019.

The only major category where a NSW Sire won’t be crowned Champion is in the first-season sires section.

Sidestep's first crop may have been conceived at Darley Kelvinside but he transferred to Telemon Thoroughbreds last year and as such is classified as a Queensland stallion.

Rubick and Deep Field fight it out

The leading New South Wales-based first season sire is currently Rubick, with 15 winners and $1.4 million in prizemoney, but he could be challenged in the final two weeks by Newgate's Deep Field, who has 18 winners and $1.34 million in prizemoney.

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Deep Field has had more 2-year-old runners than any other first-season sire in Australia this year and while his second-season saw his number of foals drop from 191 to 155, he is well positioned to have a strong second season as well. As too is Rubick, who has had 47 runners this season, while the first crops of Darley's Shooting To Win and Newgate's Dissident and Wandjina are expected to make a stronger impression in their 3-year-old seasons.

In terms of emerging NSW-based sires, 2019-20 sees the first Australian crops of Coolmore trio Vancouver, Pride Of Dubai and No Nay Never (USA) hit the track along with Darley pair Exosphere and Kermadec (NZ), Vinery's Press Statement and Headwater, Newgate's Super One, Arrowfield's Scissor Kick and Widden's Outreach among others.