Arrowfield look to Everest slot holders for Concorde winner Remarque
Leading Hunter stud to seek alternative parties having already snapped up Mazu for $20 million race at Randwick
Arrowfield Stud appears likely to strike a deal with a rival slot holder to ensure their sprinter Remarque (Snitzel) takes his place in the $20 million The Everest (1200m), a race looking firmly on his horizon after a breakthrough victory in the Concorde Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m).
Remarque, bred and raced by Arrowfield and Japanese breeding and racing giant Katsumi Yoshida, put a long string of setbacks behind him, with a powerful first stakes win on Saturday.
Racing three and four wide on the pace, the lightly raced five-year-old beat Godolphin’s likely Everest runner, four-year-old mare In Secret (I Am Invincible), in a race confirming a changing of the guard on the Australian sprinting scene.
After the post-race retirement of the sixth-placed nine-year-old Nature Strip (Nicconi), Eduardo’s (Host) trainer Joe Pride confirmed to ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday that the ten-year-old had also run his last race – a dogged fourth in the Concorde.
Remarque set a slick time for a Randwick Soft 5 of 56.57 seconds. It was comfortably outside Eduardo’s track record of 55.20 seconds, set on a Good 4 in the 2021 Challenge Stakes (Gr 2, 1000m), though Remarque’s last 600 metres of 32.80 seconds bettered Eduardo’s 32.86 seconds that day.
The tough, long-neck victory – bringing Snitzel’s 136th stakes winner – was wildly celebrated by connections from Arrowfield and co-trainer Michael Hawkes. It followed a history of adversity for the full brother to Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Estijaab; including an aborted bid to put him through a yearling sale, a wind operation, and the somewhat agonising decision to finally geld him as a four-year-old.
His connections hope Saturday’s win at his eighth attempt in stakes grade signals the start of a more fulfilled racing career for Remarque. It also throws up a welcome conundrum for Arrowfield.
John Messara’s stud is already an Everest slot holder, in conjunction with The Star Entertainment group, and in May last year locked in Triple Crown Syndications’ sprinter Mazu – by the stud’s Japanese shuttler Maurice – as their runner in the lucrative sprint for 2022 and 2023.
This would leave Arrowfield and their partner Yoshida needing to strike a deal with another slot holder for Remarque in order to gain a berth in the 12-horse field. It’s a scenario which, while unusual at face value, would present no obstacle, according to Arrowfield’s bloodstock manager Jon Freyer.
“Absolutely we would do that,” Freyer said. “We haven’t done it before, but it’s a nice problem to have.”
Mazu – who returned to action with a fourth to Nature Strip in a Rosehill barrier trial on August 22 – and Remarque are both currently $15 chances in the Everest market, headed by last year’s winner Giga Kick (Scissor Kick) at $3.50 and I wish I Win (Savabeel) at $5.
Freyer said current planning was for Remarque to have his next start in The Shorts (Gr 2, 1100m) on Saturday week, before possibly the Premiere Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) on September 30, with the campaign leading towards a 1200-metre even on Everest day.
Whether that is the Everest itself or “not a bad consolation prize” in the $2m Sydney Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) would be decided in time, but hopes are high Remarque can progress to the world’s richest race on turf.
The magnificently built sprinter already has a strong recommendation for running in the Everest. Redzel (Snitzel) won the Concorde first-up before both of his Everest wins, while Nature Strip also resumed with a win in the 1000-metre dash before taking his Everest two years ago.
“The Everest and the Sydney Stakes are on the same day at Randwick. So, he’ll be trained in that direction,” Freyer said.
“If it eventuates there’s a deal to be done with a slot holder, and we all feel that’s the right option for him, and that he’s going to measure up and be competitive, that’s the way we’ll go. If not, he can go to the other race on the same day.
“But he ran such blistering time in the Concorde on a rain-affected track, and ran home so well, and beat a strong field, so he’s rated very highly. When he sets that sort of time for the last 600, you’ve got to finish well to beat him.”
Freyer conceded Remarque was aided by carrying just 56 kilograms – to In Secret’s 58.5 and the 58 of third-placed Bella Nipotina (Pride Of Dubai) – under the Concorde’s set weights conditions. He would carry 58.5 kilograms under weight-for-age in The Everest, taking on confirmed 1200-metre stars such as Giga Kick, Think About It (So You Think), Godolphin’s likely runner In Secret, and probably Golden Slipper winner Shinzo (Snitzel).
Of Remarque’s five wins, from just 14 starts, two have been over 1000 metres, two over 1100 metres. His four tries over the Everest distance have yielded one win – when he carried 59 kilograms to a Randwick Benchmark 94 success on a Heavy 8 last October. He also flew home for third in Rosehill’s The Run To The Rose (Gr 2, 1200m) in September, 2021, behind Anamoe (Street Boss) and In The Congo (Snitzel).
“He was advantaged at the weights on Saturday, and needs to take another half step up to make the Everest grade,” Freyer said. “But, with lightly raced horses like him, and with the big race six weeks away, there’s the potential for that.
“We haven’t received any phone calls about him from slot holders yet, but it’s interesting that a couple of Everest winners have been the last horse taken up, including Giga Kick last year.
“Remarque has had a penchant for the 1000 metres, but his mum won a Group 1 at 1400 metres, and he flew home over 1100 metres in The Galaxy last prep after blowing the start, so I don’t think 1200 is a problem.”
Remarque is the sixth foal of dual Group 1 winner Response (Charge Forward), the mare bought by Arrowfield for Yoshida for $1.5 million in 2015, and whose two top-tier wins included the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Caulfield in 2010. Her third foal was Estijaab, the fourth-top lot and second-top filly when selling for $1.7 million at Inglis Easter Sale in 2017.
The yearling Remarque was intended for the Easter Sale of 2020. Those plans were reviewed when Covid enforced an online sale, but the young colt was injured during his preparation in any case, and was retained.
“Then he didn’t get broken in until about October of his two-year-old season, and by January he was Golden Slipper favourite,” Freyer said. “But he got a virus and couldn’t run in the Slipper.
“The poor bugger has had a lot of things go wrong. He needed a wind operation before his last prep, and we decided to geld him around then too.
“That was a bit of an agonising decision. He was so well–bred and had such talent, and he was a genuine racehorse. Some horses who have issues can still make sires, like Not A Single Doubt, but ultimately, [co-trainer] John Hawkes thought gelding him was the best thing and we just took his advice.”
Though Remarque no longer had breeding potential, the decision sat well enough with Yoshida, Freyer said.
“He’s a great racing man. He watched the Concorde live from Japan,” Freyer said.
“It was such a long time coming for the horse to get a big race win on the board. Everybody loves him, and the stable’s worked so hard to get him to achieve what we’ve always known he’s capable of. John Hawkes has always thought he was amongst the best horses he’s had. Hopefully this can be the start of a run of success for the horse.”
Although three-year-old Cylinder (Exceed And Excel) is currently a $15 Everest chance – following the recent Everest wins from the same age group of Giga Kick and Yes Yes Yes (Rubick), stablemate In Secret remains the main chance of filling Godolphin’s slot.
“We haven’t committed In Secret to the Everest at this stage, but she’s our top-rated sprinter, so she’s our obvious choice at the moment,” said Godolphin’s managing director Vin Cox said of In Secret, the operation’s brightest Everest chance since second-placed Bivouac (Exceed And Excel) in 2020.
“We were delighted with her run over the 1000 metres, which is a bit unsuitably short for her, and we’re very happy with how she’d trending at the moment.”
Meanwhile, Pride yesterday confirmed to ANZ that Eduardo had been retired, a decision he’d reached after “a restless night with not much sleep”.
“He’s fine, he’s pulled up sound, but we’re going to retire him now,” Pride said.
“We could go to lesser races with him, but we figure a horse like him belongs on the big stage, so that’s where he’s finished.
“The Concorde was the ideal race for him. He was always brought back for a crack at that 1000 metres to give him his best opportunity.
“There was naturally a bit of doubt coming back this prep because of his age. He hasn’t really been at his absolute best for about 12 months. We thought we might want to pick off one or two more races with him, but he’s also become harder to place as the younger generation of sprinters comes up.
“He’s more than capable of poking around in lower grade races, but there’s something a bit sad about that, so I’m happy to retire him sound as a ten-year-old. He owes us nothing. He’s been an amazing horse.”
Owing to some tight budgets for his original owners Nick Cresci and Jane Kaufmann, Eduardo wasn’t broken in until he was four, and debuted under novice Cranbourne trainer Sarah Zschoke with a six-length Moe maiden (1100m) win six weeks short of turning five.
He was second in Flemington’s Gilgai Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at only his fourth start, and third in the Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) at his sixth.
He was transferred to Pride a week before turning seven in 2020, and despite his age had 23 more starts for nine wins with the Warwick Farm trainer.
Eduardo retires with 12 wins from 35 starts and $7.9 million in prize-money. He won Group 1s in The Galaxy (Gr 1, 1100m) and Doomben 10,000 (Gr 1, 1200m) of 2021, was placed in four more, and ran third in the 2021 Everest won by his great rival Nature Strip.