100 for Choisir

Tara Madgwick - Sunday July 29
As Coolmore prepare to launch the stud career of this year's Royal Ascot hero Merchant Navy it's a good time to reflect on the deeds of the horse who blazed the trail to international sprinting glory for Australia - Choisir.

ChoisirTrained by Paul Perry, Choisir did the impossible back in 2003 winning the Group II King's Stand Stakes and then the Group I Golden Jubilee Stakes to put the Australian thoroughbred on the world stage in a serious way for the first time since Phar Lap won the Agua Caliente Stakes in Mexico in 1932.

There is no underestimating the scale of his achievement and for his many fans, his subsequent retirement to Coolmore Stud and success as a stallion has been the source of much happiness and satisfaction.

The story of a great champion that lives happily ever after is the way it should be…. it doesn't always happen, but Choisir has always been a horse that makes his own luck.

With a quartet of metropolitan winners at Morphettville and Caulfield on Saturday, Choisir hit a century of winners for the seventh consecutive season, a remarkable achievement for a sire that always stands at an affordable fee.

While other stallions come and go, Choisir remains a constant, priced always around the $30,000 mark throughout his career and at $29,700 this spring.

He's the go to, proven sire to give a young maiden a mare a great shot at success at a realistic fee. If she can't make it with Choisir, she might not make it at all!

The sire of 89 stakes-winners, 11 of which are Group I winners, Choisir is also making his mark as a sire of sires with Group I winning sons Starspangledbanner, Olympic Glory (IRE), Divine Prophet and The Mission all standing at stud in Australia this spring.

Turning 19 next week, Choisir is one stallion I look forward to seeing at Coolmore every year. He's the horse that defines the term 'Australian sprinter' and age has done little to lessen his golden charismatic appeal.


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