SPRING / SUMMER RACING YEAR IN REVIEW

Article by Trevor Marshallsea | Photos courtesy of Bradley Photos

While the all-conquering I Am Invincible was next-best with four Australian G1s, he could claim some bragging rights in the fact they came from as many different horses. Home Affairs took the Lightning Stakes, Marabi the Oakleigh Plate, Lombardo won The Goodwood, and In Secret toyed with her rivals in the Coolmore Stud Stakes.

Godolphin took the honours among NSW G1 breeders with no fewer than eight. Their quintet through Anamoe was supplemented by the Blue Diamond success of Daumier (by the now-exported Epaulette), the Caulfield Guineas victory of Golden Mile - who gave Darley’s potential slow-burner of a sire Astern his first top-tier win - and in the penultimate G1 of the year, Perth’s Winterbottom Stakes, via Paulele, son of their former shuttler Dawn Approach.

The old adage says it’s hard to compare different eras, but there can’t have been many better years to be involved with Australia’s oldest racing jurisdiction - New South Wales - than 2022.

Crowds returned to racetracks and - partly due to the pandemic that had kept them away - not only did surging revenue help NSW prizemoney reach more dizzying heights, yearling prices shot upwards as well, presenting a boon to a national industry led by Australia’s first state.

And what a year of results celebrated by the state’s breeding scene?

Of the 74 Group 1 races across the country, 51 were won by Australian-bred horses. And of those, 36 went to gallopers bred by NSW interests, with 39 won by horses with sires standing in the state.

Aside from that, Australia’s richest race - the $15 million Everest - was claimed by Giga Kick, whose sire Scissor Kick stood in the Hunter Valley, at Arrowfield Stud, before being exported.

Those 39 Group 1s were shared by 19 different sires, with a dead heat for first.

If the year belonged to Godolphin’s Anamoe, then it was also a bonanza for his Darley sire Street Boss, with the pair adding five top-tier wins to their CVs.

The 18-year-old son of Street Cry shared top billing with Vinery’s All Too Hard, who brought up his five via two different vessels: Alligator Blood, who made a stunning return from back surgery to land three G1s, and Forbidden Love with her two in the rain-soaked Sydney autumn. Mind you, All Too Hard could also claim two more top level victories due to star Hong Kong sprinter Wellington.

Gerry Harvey claimed a hat-trick thanks to Alligator Blood’s stirring treble for new trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott - the Stradbroke Handicap, Underwood Stakes and Cantala Mile. Coolmore concern Katom also had three G1 wins thanks to Choisir mare Snapdancer in the Robert Sangster and Memsie Stakes, and Madame Pommery - by Coolmore’s former shuttler No Nay Never - in the Thousand Guineas.

After a series of near things - with three straight seconds to Snitzel on the Australian general sires table followed by another to Written Tycoon - 2022 was the year I Am Invincible finally claimed the title, along with the three-year-old sires’ laurel.

Yarraman Park’s colossus, who’d lost to Written Tycoon on earnings despite beating him comfortably by winners in 2020-21, won on both counts in 2021-22. His 185 winners eclipsed second-placed Written Tycoon’s 178. His progeny’s $19.87 million earnings - more than $2 million higher than his previous best - was some $550,000 clear of So You Think’s.

With Home Affairs his highest earner, at a touch more than $2m, I Am Invincible had 17 stakes winners of 25 stakes races, for the season. While a mighty achievement, it was still one fewer on both counts for the 2021-22 season than Snitzel.

Amid such consistent returns across all ages and both genders for the stallion - who landed with a bang as Australia’s champion first-season sire in 2013-14 and has kept on going - little wonder Yarraman raised his service fee from $220,000 to $247,500 for last spring. It was a remarkable year for So You Think. He was equal-fourth behind I Am Invincible among NSW-based G1-winning sires, with three. And all of them came during a golden 80 minutes at Randwick on April 9: Knights Order, the former shuttle sire’s Irish-bred stayer racing for Waterhouse-Bott, took the Sydney Cup; Kerry Parker’s Think It Over claimed his second top-tier success when Nash Rawiller plotted a daring course along the grandstand fence in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes; and Matthew Smith’s outstanding mare Nimalee completed the astounding treble in the Queen Of The Turf. With the 16-year-old’s stock seemingly growing better with age, Coolmore enacted two straight boosts to So You Think’s Australian fee - from $38,500 in 2020, to $77,000, then to $93,500 in 2022.

One race before that hat-trick, El Patroness won the ATC Oaks to also complete three G1s for the year for Shamus Award, another durable, distance-getting stock have been blossoming in the past 18 months. Though the stallion is now in Victoria, both El Patroness and Duais (Australian Cup and Tancred Stakes) were bred when Shamus Award stood at Widden in the Hunter. The son of Snitzel left NSW in 2019 with his service fee only $11,000. Thanks to offspring headed by these two mares and his other most notable NSW-conceived offspring Incentivise, it’s now $88,000.

While four-time champion sire Snitzel went without a G1 through calendar 2022, his Arrowfield barn mate Maurice flew the flag in Australia for the globally surging Japanese brand. He was another with three top-level successes via Hitotsu (Australian Guineas/ATC Derby) and Mazu (Doomben 10,000), which made him a runaway winner on the second-season sires table for 2021-22.

And there was a changing of the guard in terms of service fees, with Newgate Farm’s son of Not A Single Doubt, Extreme Choice, shooting to the top nationwide after some outstanding percentages from his first three racing crops offset the nine-year-old’s well known fertility problems. Near the end of 2022, the Blue Diamond winner had sired eight stakes winners from just 54 runners - a 14.8 per cent stakes winners to runner ratio. After standing for private fees under arrangement in 2021, he was listed again for his sixth season in 2022, at $275,000.

It coincided with his second and third G1 successes in 2022. Both came via Anthony Cummings’ filly She’s Extreme, whose VRC Oaks victory followed her ATC Champagne Stakes win in the autumn, which denied the two-year-old Triple Crown for Gary Portelli’s Fireburn. The Golden Slipper winner’s two G1s sparked a move from Victoria to Widden NSW for her sire Rebel Dane.

Newgate also celebrated as Russian Revolution was crowned champion first season sire for 2021-22, in what was yet another powerhouse season for NSW thoroughbred breeding.

Fireburn (Rebel Dane x Mull Over)

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Anamoe (Street Boss x Anamato)

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Hitotsu (Maurice x Love Is Fickle)

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Home Affairs (I Am Invincible x Miss Interiors)

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