Four times crowned Australian Champion Sire, Arrowfield Stud stalwart Snitzel had been making steady progress as a broodmare sire, but what a year 2022 has been for his daughters.
His career in this department reflects his career as a stallion, Snitzel a horse who took a while to warm up to the task - his debut crop yielding three stakes winners, while he amazingly drew a blank in his second crop.
For each of the next four seasons Snitzel had less than 10 stakes winners per crop, a tidy effort but nothing compared to his subsequent achievements; such as the 21 stakes winners foaled in 2014; his eighth year at stud.
Starting off with a bang
Snitzel's first broodmare sire success came quickly and quite spectacularly when his unraced daughter Eye For Fun retired to stud at three and her first foal was the subsequent 2014 G1 Golden Slipper S. winner Mossfun (Mossman). The following season she produced Singapore stakes winner Mawahibb (Magic Albert).
Mossfun | Image courtesy of Sportpix
She is still at stud and in early September she foaled a colt by Vinery Stud newbie Ole Kirk, having produced a filly by Snitzel’s barnmate Dundeel (NZ) last year.
It was four years until Snitzel's name again appeared as damsire of a stakes winner - in 2018 the aforementioned Mawahibb recorded the first of his three Singapore stakes successes, while locally-bred The Odyssey (Better Than Ready) won the Listed Phelan Ready S. later on that same year.
Snitzel's first born female Group 1 winner Snitzerland - winner of the 2014 edition of the G1 Lightning S. - provided the next stakes winner, when her second foal Hard Landing (All Too Hard) won the G3 Maribyrnong Plate in 2019.
Again just one stakes winner in 2020 in Supreme Idea (I Am Invincible), who is out of Snitzel's unraced daughter, Sweet Sister and she prevailed in the Listed Lonhro Plate.
Last year saw his daughters produce two stakes winners, in the shape of the R. Listed Inglis Millennium winner Profiteer, who is out of the Group 3-placed Moonee Valley winner Athena Lass. Meanwhile, Daisies (Sebring), out of the dual city winner Tigress Lily, recorded the first of her three Group victories in the G3 Ethereal S.
And then in 2022 Snitzel's daughters really started to fire.
| North Star Lass | Zoustar | G2 Furious S. | Listed placed, 3 city wins |
| Lavish Girl | Xtravagant | G2 Angus Armanasco S. | Wyong winner |
| Marine One | Capitalist | G2 Rubiton S. | Listed winner, G1 placed |
| Cannonball | Capitalist | LR Redoute's Choice S. | Listed winner, G1 placed |
| Faithful Feat | Per Incanto | G3 Waikato Sprint | NZ metropolitan winner |
| Pinstriped | Street Boss | G3 C.S Hayes S. | City placed winner |
| Snowdome | Rommel | G3 WA Sires' Produce S. | Unraced |
| The Amazonian | Akeed Mofeed | G3 SA Fillies Classic | Stakes placed city winner |
| Millane | Zoustar | LR Foundation Plate | Group 3 winner |
| Verdad Imeru | Orfevre | LR Minyu Cup | Group 3 placed |
| In The Boat | Nostradamus | LR Abell S. | City placed maiden |
Table: Snitzel's stakes winners as a broodmare sire in 2022
It is noticeable that of these 11 stakes winners, six are out of his stakes-performed mares; it is worth taking a look at his overall record in regards to what type of mares are doing the job for him.
| Stakes winners | 4 |
| Stakes placegetters | 4 |
| City winners | 2 |
| City placed winners | 1 |
| Winners | 1 |
| City placed maidens | 2 |
| Unraced | 4 |
Table: Snitzel's winning-producing daughters race records
In summary, 22.2 per cent of Snitzel's stakes winners as a broodmare sire are out of stakes-winning mares; 44.4 per cent out of stakes-performed mares. And while four are out of unraced mares, none are out of unplaced mares.
Who are the best runners by?
| Akeed Mofeed | 4/4 | 1 winner, 1-placed |
| All Too Hard | 8/9 | 1 winner, 2-placed |
| Better Than Ready | 1/3 | 1 winner |
| Capitalist | 8/14 | 3 winners |
| Deep Field | 9/11 | 1-placed |
| Delago Deluxe | 7/8 | 1-placed |
| Gold Ship | 1/1 | 1-placed |
| Headwater | 2/6 | 1-placed |
| I Am Invincible | 12/18 | 1 winner |
| Ilovethiscity | 1/1 | 1-placed |
| Magic Albert | 1/2 | 1 winner |
| Mossman | 5/7 | 1 winner |
| Nostradamus | 1/2 | 1 winner |
| Orfevre | 1/1 | 1 winner |
| Per Incanto | 2/2 | 1 winner |
| Pierro | 7/9 | 1-placed |
| Real Impact | 4/9 | 1-placed |
| Rommel | 5/5 | 2 winners |
| Sebring | 14/17 | 1 winner, 1-placed |
| Sir Prancealot | 1/1 | 1-placed |
| Smart Missile | 3/4 | 1-placed |
| Star Witness | 6/6 | 1-placed |
| Street Boss | 5/5 | 1-winner |
| Xtravagant | 5/6 | 1-winner |
| Zoustar | 7/7 | 2 winners, 2-placed |
Table: The stallions daughters of Snitzel work best with
A closer look at the pedigree
While Danehill (USA) overall has proven somewhat of a disappointing line-breeding subject, though his statistics improve and will continue to do so as he gets a bit further back in pedigrees, Snitzel mares are doing a good job with the Danehill cross.
The overall Danehill line-breeding strike rate is 53.9 per cent and 2.8 per cent stakes winners whilst eight (44.4 per cent) of Snitzel's 18 stakes winners as a broodmare sire carry a Danehill duplication.
| Daisies | Sebring | Out of a mare by Flying Spur |
| Hard Landing | All Too Hard | Grandson of Flying Spur |
| Profiteer | Capitalist | His second damsire |
| Marine One | Capitalist | - |
| Cannonball | Capitalist | - |
| The Amazonian | Akeed Mofeed | Out of a mare by Tiger Hill (Ire) |
| Snowdome | Rommel | Son of Commands |
| In The Boat | Nostradamus | Out of a mare by Lion Hunter |
Table: Snitzel's record as a broodmare sire and the appearance of Danehill
Two of these horses are by Danehill male-line descendants; he appears elsewhere in the pedigrees of the other six.
And of these horses, Profiteer carries further Danzig (USA) as do another two of the 18 stakes winners, while North Star Lass and Millane are line-bred to Snitzel's sire Redoute's Choice, who is the damsire of their sire Zoustar.
Vain, Wilkes (Fr), Lunchtime (GB), Canny Lad, Snippets and Kaoru Star all stood locally and are all duplicated within the 18 and there is also female influence of note with two mares in particular worth a look - Best In Show (USA) (Traffic Judge {USA}) and Almahmoud (USA) (Mahmoud {Fr}).
A total of six (33.3 per cent) of 18 stakes winners out of Snitzel mares are line-bred to Best In Show and all the same way, each of them carrying a strain of her grandson Try My Best (USA) and all but one of those via his son Last Tycoon (Ire).
Last Tycoon (Ire)
Almahmoud - grandam of Northern Dancer (Can) and fourth dam of Danehill - is also duplicated in six of the 18, five of those via her grandson Halo (USA) with two of those carrying a strain of Machiavellian (USA) whose damsire is Halo and whose third dam is Northern Dancer's dam Natalma (USA) (Native Dancer {USA}).
Early days
It is still very early days for this aspect of Snitzel's career with Arrowfield Stud's resident pedigree expert Peter Jenkins noting that it is difficult to make conclusions at this stage.
“I do a lot of statistical research and one thing that holds true for nearly all stallions is that their careers can run hot and cold,” said Jenkins.
“I do a lot of statistical research and one thing that holds true for nearly all stallions is that their careers can run hot and cold.” - Peter Jenkins
He believes it is more pertinent to judge a stallion's contribution at the end of their career.
“Over time things tend to even out and much of it comes down to opportunity both in relation to quality and numbers,” he concludes.
Which is highly relevant in regards to Snitzel's broodmare sire career. For his first seven seasons at stud he stood at a fee of $33,000 (inc GST) or less and it is only logical that the quality of the mares he served increased as his fee did.
Quality can be felt over the generations; as Snitzel's daughters became better bred and better performed, they also became better broodmares. Seven of the eleven 2022 stakes winners are out of mares foaled in 2011 or 2012 - just when the size of Snitzel's books were increasing.
Snitzel | Standing at Arrowfield
It is also worth looking at the sorts of stallions Snitzel mares have been visiting. It is of course hard to judge any stallion on set criteria but if we look at Group 1 form, the big-race winners visited by Snitzel mares increased quite drastically from 2016 onwards - linking up with the time that his record as a broodmare sire improved.
This suggests that the best is still to come for Snitzel mares who in Australia alone last year visited, going by live foals already returned and mares not yet returned to the Stud Book, 113 different stallions, 28 of whom are Group 1-winning sires of Group 1 winners, another five being the sires of Group 1 winners and another 35 being Group 1 winners.
