SPRING / SUMMER RACING YEAR IN REVIEW

Article by Trevor Marshallsea | Photos courtesy of Bradley Photos

Whichever way you look it, 2022-23 was another bumper season for New South Wales - in prizemoney, revenue, and most importantly, for the state to show it remains head and shoulders above the rest as the heart of nation’s breeding scene.

Of the 75 Group 1 races conducted in the season, 47 were won by horses bred in Australia. And of those 47, no fewer than 33 came from the country’s oldest state. That was up from 30 in 2021-22, when there was one less G1.

And of those 75 top tier events of last season, no fewer than 40 were won by horses whose sires stood in NSW in the spring of 2022, with New Zealand accounting for 18 and Victoria six. The NSW figure was a stark increase on 30 the previous season.

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 40 G1s for NSW sires were shared by 18 stallions, with Darley’s Street Boss taking the lion’s share of six, thanks to his superstar son Anamoe and his stunning successes in the Winx, George Main, Might And Power, Chipping Norton and Ryder Stakes, and of course his crowning achievement in the Cox Plate.

Next came a very even spread of honours, with five sires dead-heating for second with three G1 wins each. Coolmore boasted two in So You Think and Pride Of Dubai, while there was also Yarraman Park’s secondtime champion sire I Am Invincible, Vinery’s All Too Hard, and Arrowfield’s Dundeel.

All Too Hard’s came through the one imposing vehicle - Alligator Blood - who took the Underwood and Futurity Stakes at Sandown, and the Champions Mile at Flemington, while the other four dead-heaters had a pair of G1 winners each.

I Am Invincible’s flag was flown by In Secret’s wins up the Flemington straight in the Coolmore Stud Stakes and Newmarket Handicap, and by the flying Imperatriz in Moonee Valley’s William Reid.

Dundeel had his two-year-old CV further boosted by Militarize’s victories in the ATC Sires’ Produce and Champagne Stakes, and his staying blood borne out by Dunkel in the South Australian Derby.

So You Think swooped with a late rush. All of his three G1s came at the Brisbane winter carnival as emerging sprint star Think About It took the Kingsford Smith CupStradbroke double, and Palaisipan the Tatts Tiara.

His Coolmore barnmate Pride Of Dubai may qualify on a slight technicality, as two of his top-level successes came via Dubai Honour - the northern raider he sired as a shuttler to Ireland. Dubai Honour took the Ranvet and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, while the home-grown Bella Nipotina claimed the MVRC Manikato.

There were two G1s each to Highclere Stud Australia through Coolangatta, Segenhoe/Saconi with In Secret, and Lightning Thoroughbreds via Think About It.

The nation’s champion sire was again I Am Invincible, who’s now followed three successive second placings on the general sires’ table with back-to-back titles. This time, Yarraman’s 19-year-old titan raised his first “quadrella” of blue ribbons - prize money, stakeswinners, stakes wins, and winners.

After his runners earned $19.87 million in 2021-22, ‘Vinnie’ topped the table with $23.44m. And while his first championship win was close - by only around $550,000 over So You Think - this time he comfortably beat the same stallion, by around $4.5 million. NSW sires filled eight of the top 10 spots by earnings.

In Secret, with $2.72m, was the highest earner of the season for I Am Invincible, who also broke through the 200-winner mark with 202 - up from his chart-topping 185 a year before, and 16 clear of another NSW sire, Widden Stud’s Zoustar, in second.

By stakes winners, I Am Invincible improved on his 2021-22 tally of 17 - which put him one behind Snitzelwith 22 for season 2022-23, reversing the placings over Snitzel’s 15. Stakes wins was a one act affair, with Vinnie recording 28, and Snitzel second on 18.

Thanks mostly to Anamoe, Godolphin took honours as the leading NSW breeder of G1 winners, with eight. Aside from Anamoe’s half dozen, Sheikh Mohammed’s empire celebrated the Caulfield Guineas win of Golden Mile - son of their break-out stallion Astern - and the WATC Winterbottom Stakes triumph of Paulele, by their Irish shuttler Dawn Approach.

Gerry Harvey was on the next line of top tier NSW breeders thanks to Alligator Blood’s hat-trick, level with Coolmore’s Katom with its trio by three different stallions: their own late Choisir, via Snapdancer’s Memsie Stakes; their former shuttler No Nay Never in Madame Pommery’s MRC Thousand Guineas; and through Arrowfield sire Snitzel for Golden Slipper winner Shinzo.

Learning to Fly

So You Think (11) and Newgate Farm’s Deep Field and Darley’s Exceed And Excel, with nine each, gave Hunter stallions the top five ranks for stakes winners. UKbased Frankel was next, also with nine (separated by stakes wins), with two more NSW sires in the top 10 in Zoustar and the late Sebring.

Snitzel flipped the quinella on the two-year-old sires’ table as Shinzo hoisted the 21-year-old to the top of the earnings, comfortably clear of his great rival Vinnie, who’s highest earner was Blanc De Blanc.

I Am Invincible, however, topped the juvenile table on stakes winners, with six to the four of Snitzel, who was joint-second with Newgate’s Russian Revolution. The aforementioned, formerly NSW-based Scissor Kick took the three-year-old sires’ title thanks to Giga Kick’s Everest win, ahead of I Am Invincible, whose best earner was In Secret. It was a NSW top seven, completed in order by Astern, Snitzel, Zoustar, Deep Field and Russian Revolution.

Snitzel, however, had a boom year for three-year-old stakes winners, topping that category with 10 ahead of the six of the second-placed Vinnie. The Yarraman star tied for first on the score of three-year-old winners with Zoustar, though his 74 from 115 runners shaded the Widden stallion’s 74 from 122.

Coolmore claimed the first season sires’ crown through US shuttler Justify, whose star progeny Learning To Fly helped him to a tick under $2m in earnings, almost $800,000 up on second-placed Queenslander Encryption, who was just ahead of Darley’s impressive debutant shuttler Harry Angel.

Russian Revolution followed his first-season title of 2022 with the second season crown, leading Yarraman Park’s Hellbent on prize money ($7.6m to $5.4m), winners (68 to 55), wins (109 to 83) and stakes wins with seven to two, which put Hellbent in a five-way tie for second.

After their continued successes, it was little wonder I Am Invincible and Snitzel’s service fees reached personal highs. Vinnie soared to a nation-topping $302,500 for the 2023 spring, by which time he’d chalked up 98 stakes winners worldwide, with Snitzel commanding $247,500, having reached 136 stakes winners globally.

Extreme Choice, Newgate’s fertility-challenged star, was the second-highest priced stallion in the country at $275,000 per cover in the spring of 2023, by which time he had 10 stakes-winners from just 72 Australian runners. Zoustar, who sired his first three British stakes winners with two crops running as a shuttler, was another to reach a personal high Australian fee, passing the double hundred for the first time at $220,000.

After the slightly crazy 2022, this year was the secondbest on record for bloodstock sales nationwide, and NSW breeders were at the sharp end of that.

The top 13 priced yearlings sold in the country this year - and 19 of the top 20 - came from NSW farms, headed by the $2.7 million I Am Invincible - Anaheed colt sold from Segenhoe’s draft to Coolmore’s Tom Magnier at the Magic Million Gold Coast sale, and Widden’s $2.6m full sister to Sunlight, by Zoustar, bought by Yu Long at the same sale.