‘A dream horse in every respect’ – Arrowfield announces the death of leading sire Snitzel
Snitzel, Australia’s four-time champion stallion, sire of 23 Group 1 winners and 160 stakes winners to date, was euthanised on Wednesday morning aged 22 owing to age-related issues, chiefly a deterioration in the liver.
Arrowfield Stud is now on the lookout for a son of Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) to stand at the farm as it mourns the loss of a stallion John Messara described as “a dream horse in every respect”.
The father of 12 official Champions across various classes, winner of the general sires’ title from 2017-20, and sire of such performers as Trapeze Artist, Lady Shenandoah, Redzel and Shinzo, has been buried at Arrowfield alongside fellow greats in his own father Redoute’s Choice (Danehill), Flying Spur (Danehill) and Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice).
“He’s a very big loss for us, and in fact for the industry as a whole,” Arrowfield owner John Messara told ANZ Bloodstock News. “He’s going to be a difficult horse to replace.
“It’s a very sad day for all of us. He was so healthy and sound for so many years. It was only the last few months when he got this liver complaint, and that got worse and worse over the last few weeks, and in the last few days you could see there was going to be no coming back from it.
“The vets recommended that if we didn’t want to have him suffer, which obviously we didn’t, then euthanasia was the kindest step.”
Snitzel, who’d already been enshrined by a statue at Arrowfield, departs with 146 stakes winners in Australia, at 10.4 per cent of runners. With Mahroona having become his third Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) victor this year, he has a lock on what will become his fifth two-year-old sires’ title, and his second in three years.
Messara, who brought Danehill (Danzig) to Australia and stood Redoute’s Choice throughout his career, said Snitzel had “wonderfully” carried on the best traits of those two immediate ancestors.
“He was such a versatile animal with such a tremendous temperament, which I think he passed on to most of his produce,” he said. “The Redoute’s and Danehill line have tremendous temperaments, and Snitzel was very much an exponent of that. To have stood all three sires, it makes you very proud.
“Snitzel was very fertile, had a great temperament and was a great friend to himself, but I think the biggest thing he’ll be remembered for is his versatility. His produce could sprint, run a mile, some could some stay; they could handle the wet and the dry, they were two-year-olds and they trained on, they were fillies and colts, and he just threw a lot of high class horses, and 12 champions.
“He had over 300 Group and Listed wins – they’re big numbers – and with a 10.4 per cent stakes-winners-to-runner ratio, you’d have to say that’s the top of the tree at the moment.
“He was just a prolific getter of exceptional horses. We worked out he had a stakes win every 19 days of his career. That’s not bad.”
Such has been the ongoing respect for Snitzel, his average yearling price this year hit a career peak of $665,000 – smashing his previous best of $536,000 in 2022.
Aside from his progeny’s appeal and their performance, Snitzel also shone for his demeanour.
“He was very much loved around the farm – the kindest animal you’d have anything to do with,” Messara said.
“He was a complete gentleman in every respect – a nice horse with a great temperament, very easy going, very friendly, and he never gave anyone a moment’s worry about anything. He was a very kind animal.
“In the breeding shed, he was always eager, very fertile, and a total gentleman. He was the total package – just a dream horse in every respect.”
Snitzel bows out with 1281 winners from 1631 runners, at an exceptional rate of 78.54 per cent, and his legacy will be felt for generations to come.
He currently sits at a career-high third on the Australian broodmare sires’ table.
He has a prolific 29 sons standing at stud in Australia, with Russian Revolution, Trapeze Artist, and Shamus Award his most successful. His Slipper winning son Shinzo is about to commence his second season standing at Coolmore, who will also launch another son this spring in the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Switzerland.
Somewhat surprisingly, none of his sons are among Arrowfield’s own stallion band, which now numbers six, but Messara indicated that would likely change.
“His legacy is going to live on. There’s a lot of action to come there,” Messara said.
“There’s Trapeze Artist there who’s doing reasonably well at stud, and we’re waiting for the likes of Shinzo and Switzerland to emerge, and a few elsewhere.
“Regrettably, we haven’t got one here at Arrowfield at the moment. We might procure one in the next couple of years, because he’s still got a couple of crops to come.”
Bred by Francois Naude, Snitzel – the second foal of dual Listed winner Snippets’ Lass (Snippets) – was offered by Yarraman Park at Magic Millions Gold Coast in 2004, and bought by trainer Gerald Ryan for subsequently disgraced owner Damion Flower.
“We bid $250,000, the next bid was $260,000, and Damion said ‘I’m out’,” Ryan told ANZ Bloodstock News. “But then they had a correction and the bid was $255,000, so then we went again and got him for $260,000.
“When I was signing for him, Damion wrote on my catalogue: ‘Snitzel’.”
The colt would become the best of three stakes-winners from just six runners for Snippets’ Lass, also including the Group 1-placed but ill-fated Hinchinbrook (Fastnet Rock), who sired four Group 1 winners from seven crops.
Snitzel was brilliant from day one, winning his first three starts – including by three lengths on debut in the Breeders’ Plate (Listed, 1000m) at Warwick Farm, and by six lengths at start three at Doomben in what became the BJ McLachlan Stakes (Listed, 1200m).
After a third in the Gold Coast’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) he won the Skyline Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at Canterbury, which made him a dominant $3.60 favourite for the Golden Slipper under Glen Boss.
“He reared in the barriers and hit his head on the top bar,” Ryan said. “He didn’t have a mark on his head and was cleared to run, but when he came back in, he had a lump right across the bridge of his nose, and that stayed there for the rest of his life.”
Snitzel laboured into 12th in the Slipper won by Stratum (Redoute’s Choice), another horse Ryan had eyed at the Gold Coast sale, but didn’t buy.
“Bossy said there was no way he should’ve been allowed to run. And if it happened today, there’s no way he’d be allowed to run.”
Messara recalls he first bought into the colt around then. He gradually increased his interest as Flower – ultimately jailed for 28 years for drug smuggling – sold off pieces of his. Snitzel had around a dozen shareholders at the time of his death, including a 25 per cent stake owned by Arrowfield’s partners the Yoshida family in Japan, to where Snitzel would shuttle in 2007 and 2011.
“Gerald was always very hot on the horse,” Messara recalled. “He was obviously very fast, and because he was a son of our sire Redoute’s Choice, we were interested. He’d been very unlucky when beaten a couple of times, so that egged us on to buy him.”
Snitzel’s three-start spring three-year-old campaign was highlighted by victory in Randwick’s Up And Coming Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m). His stud CV was sealed the following autumn when he led throughout for a 1.8-length win in the Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m), which preceded a 0.5-length second to Takeover Target (Celtic Swing) in the VRC Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m).
A 1.3-length win in the Challenge Stakes (Gr 2, 1000m) at Warwick Farm, a 0.9-length third in Randwick’s TJ Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), and a fourth at his only try beyond that distance in the All Aged Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) saw out Snitzel’s racing career.
“That Newmarket was the only time he led and got run down,” Ryan said. “He was right up there with the best I’ve trained – a very fast horse but also very sound, same with his progeny. If you get a two-year-old by Snitzel, it’ll never go shin sore.”
Snitzel made a strong start at stud but could manage only second on the first-season sires’ table of 2009-10, beaten again by Stratum, but he was soon making waves.
He rose to a stunning ninth-placed finish on the general sires’ table with just three crops running, and that became second two years later – in 2014 – when pipped by Redoute’s Choice. Snitzel finished $430,000 behind his sire and barnmate, but was equal top in the country for stakes winners, with 13, and first for stakes wins, with 21, with his flagbearer being that season’s Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) hero Shamus Award.
After two relatively quiet years – finishing eighth both times – Snitzel roared back by becoming champion sire in 2016-17, when Redzel won the inaugural Everest. That gelding’s second Everest helped the stallion to his second champion sire title the following season – though he’d have comfortably won without it.
Arrowfield’s titan swept the board in that 2017-18 season, prevailing on earnings, winners (173), wins (307), stakes winners (26) and stakes wins (43). He had come within just one win of a cleansweep the year before, when he had 273 to the 274 of I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit).
Snitzel remained in the top five over the past four completed seasons, and led the country for stakes winners, with 18, when third in 2021-22. While currently fourth on this term’s standings by earnings, he again leads by stakes winners, with 17 to the 15 of second-best Zoustar (Northern Meteor).
Signing off with black type winner number 160 on Saturday when Transatlantic took Eagle Farm’s Spear Chief Handicap (Listed, 1500m), Snitzel has a chance for more Group 1 glory this weekend, with the same gelding a second emergency in the Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1, 1400m).
SNITZEL FACTFILE
Champion Sire Titles 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020
Champion Sire of 2YOs 2017, 2018, 2020, 2023 and leading in 2025
Champion Sire of 3YOs 2017 and 2018
Starters 1631
Winners 1281
Wins 3791
Group 1 winners 23
Stakes winners 160
Group winners 103
2YO stakes winners 62
Broodmare sire stakes winners 46
Stakes winners / runners 10.40 per cent from 16 southern hemisphere crops
Golden Slipper winners 3 – Estijaab (2018), Shinzo (2023), Marhoona (2025)
Best progeny Trapeze Artist, Lady Shenandoah, Redzel, Russian Revolution, Shamus Award, Switzerland, Away Game, Return To Conquer
$1 million+ yearlings inc. 11 in 2025 71
Highest sale yearling aggregate $45,325,360 (2025)
Highest sale yearling average $656,889 (2025)
Top colt $2.8 million (twice in 2019 and 2025)
Top filly $1.8 million (2018)
Stakes-siring sons 17
Group 1-siring sons 6 – Shamus Award, Russian Revolution, Trapeze Artist, Invader, Spill The Beans, Thronum