This active champion sire is making increasing waves as a broodmare sire and his daughters produced two of the most interesting stakes-winners on Saturday in a new Group I winner and a colt chasing G1 success this spring with both highlighting a couple of nicks that click.
At age 22, Snitzel is moving into the twilight years of what has been a remarkable stud career for Arrowfield and the power of his daughters was demonstrated on Saturday.
Causing an upset in the $750,000 Group I MRC Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield was six year-old journeyman Pinstriped, who has long promised to win a G1 and got the job done when outpointing Mr Brightside to claim victory, read about him here.
Pinstriped is the ninth Group I winner for his sire Street Boss (USA) and is the fourth for Snitzel as a broodmare sire. The two sires share a perfect strike rate with their nick producing seven winners from seven runners including two stakes-winners, so 100% winner to runner and 28% SW to runner.
Pinstriped was bred by Noorilim Park Thoroughbreds, but there is a distinctly Arrowfield flavour to his female family as his dam Snitzel Blitz was bred and sold by them making just $24,000 as a weanling at Magic Millions back in 2012.
She has an interesting back story as she is from unraced Francophile, who was co-bred by Arrowfield and Sheikh Mohammed’s Gainsborough Stud, which eventually became part of the Darley Godolphin conglomerate. Francophile was from blue-blooded import Phantom Creek (GB), a half-sister by Mr Prospector to World Champion 2YO Arazi and Champion Miler Noverre that arrived in Australia in foal to Sunday Silence.
This was back in a time when Arrowfield were doing quite a bit of breeding with Sunday Silence in sending mares to Japan, but Phantom Creek was the jewel in the crown in terms of pedigree back then and when her colt arrived at Inglis Easter in 2003 he was the star of the show.
He made $1.7million to top the sale and was exported to Japan where he raced as Vril, winning eight races and being stakes-placed.
In the 20 years since that sale, this family has largely been in the doldrums apart from a successful offshoot in India with the 2022 Indian Horse of the Year Zuccarelli claiming Phantom Creek as his third dam as does Pinstriped!
The Group III MRC McNeil Stakes (1200m) was won in eye-catching style by exciting Zoustar colt Growing Empire, read about him here.
Like Pinstriped, Growing Empire is from a daughter of Snitzel, whose daughters are doing some good things with Zoustar. The nick has produced 11 winners from 13 runners and four are stakes-winners – Growing Empire, North Star Lass, Millane, Zou Tiger – so 30% SW to runner.
The nick between these two sires gives a close double cross of champion sire Redoute’s Choice and of the 13 stakes-winners in total that have this double cross, eight of them are by Zoustar. There is yet to be a Group I winner bred this way, but Growing Empire will be looking to change that.
