Lead Story
High hopes for heightened support as results swing in Trapeze Artist’s favour
By Trevor Marshallsea
ANZ News
A surge of results in his fourth campaign of runners has Widden Stud tipping demand for their stallion Trapeze Artist (Snitzel) will be on the rise as the next breeding season approaches.
How appropriate, given the name, that Trapeze Artist should swing back into prominence this season, with his five stakes winners the equal seventh-highest number among Australian stallions by that metric.
And how fitting that the latest - Chilly Girl - is a homebred for the stallion’s owner Bert Vieira, and that her victory came in the race sponsored by the stud with which he’s so entwined, the Widden Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m), at Rosehill on Saturday.
What's On
“I was excited because it’s the Widden Stakes,” Vieira told ANZ News. “And this horse being a homebred, I actually had butterflies before the race.
“I can use the win to stir them up too, at Widden, because I got their money. But it’s alright, because they get plenty off me.”
Vieira has stuck by Trapeze Artist, the horse he bred and watched win four Group 1s to become the highest-rated son of the many greats sired by the late Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), with a WTR peak of 123.
The millionaire financier knocked back offers from Coolmore Stud in order to stand the sprinter at Widden, where Vieira keeps most of his “80 to 90” mares.
While the jury was out after his first season of runners went stakes winner free, the three in his second term, and the two in his third - among 80 winners from 166 runners - sparked hopes of greater success.
This season is delivering, with Trapeze Artist’s five black-type victors helping him to a career-high current spot of 26th on the general sires’ table.
He sits fourth among two-year-old sires, and Inglis Nursery (RL, 1000m) bolter Where’s The Circus and now Chilly Girl give him the equal highest number of two-year-old stakes winners in the land, alongside no lesser stallions than Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) and Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt).
These results are helped by the fact Trapeze Artist’s current two-year-olds represent his largest crop, of 148 live foals, conceived in 2022 in his fourth year at stud after his service fee dropped to $55,000 (inc GST), from an initial $88,000 (inc GST).
As breeders waited, that fee fell again last season, to $33,000 (inc GST). That didn’t spark the hoped-for increase in bookings, however, with latest studbook figures showing only 52 mares covered, down from 95 at $55,000 (inc GST) in 2024.
Advertisement
However, Widden expects the 11-year-old to gain a boost in popularity next spring.
“He’s running hot, with three really nice, big race winners in recent weeks,” Widden owner Antony Thompson told ANZ, adding four-year-old Spywire to the list for his victory in the $1 million but non-black type The Syndicate (1100m) at the Gold Coast.
“Chilly Girl is now third-favourite for the Golden Slipper, Where’s The Circus is a big chance for the Inglis Millennium, and the stallion has some really good momentum at the moment.
“His earnings are looking great, his stats look great, and his five stakes winners this season is a great effort in itself.
“I guess now he’s got enough runners out there, and with big crops coming through, we’re expecting the momentum to keep going.”
Thompson tipped Trapeze Artist - whose ten overall stakes winners include Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) hero and current sire Griff - would “jump back into vogue pretty quickly”, citing two Widden superstars from his younger days as inspiration.
“People would remember he’s Snitzel’s highest rated son, and he’s now getting to the point of being a good, solid, proven and great value option,” he said.
“Stallions go in and out of favour, they’ll go through their troughs, and it doesn’t matter how good the stallion is. It happened with Marscay and Bletchingly back in the day, and it still happens today. There’s crests and there’s troughs.
“And sometimes it’s the breeders who support them in the quiet years who get the really big rewards.”
Vieira will offer “a handful” of Widden’s ten lots by Trapeze Artist at next week’s Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, which help make up the farm’s auction-high 51-strong draft.
Widden’s Trapeze Artists include one colt in Lot 162 whose second dam was triple stakes winner Madame Pedrille (Secret Savings), and another in Lot 118 who’s from a half-sister to stakes-winning Jennifer Lynn (High Chaparral), with the pair out of Listed winner Espurante (Flying Spur)
Vieira is also gearing up to offer a sibling of Trapeze Artist’s for the first time at Inglis Easter, with a sister to go under the hammer in Widden’s draft as Lot 161.
“Every year I’ve bred from Trapeze Artist’s dam, I’ve kept the progeny,” Vieira said. “But this year, I’m selling his sister. Hopefully, she’ll sell well.”
Advertisement
Vieira is still besotted with his stallion.
“My boy - I think he’s amazing,” he said. “We love him, and what he’s done for us pleasure-wise, is amazing. He gave us four Group 1s, and now seeing what his progeny is doing is making me very happy.
“He’s really starting to get hot now as a stallion. He’s got a lot of two year olds this season, and they look really good. They’re running and winning so it’s a good sign. He’s really getting some nice ones, like Where’s The Circus, and this one.”
“This one” is Chilly Girl, the filly Vieira was instructed forcefully not to sell.
She was sent into the Widden to debut off two smart barrier trials by Gerald Ryan - Trapeze Artist’s trainer - and partner Sterling Alexiou.
Advertisement
And she led throughout to score by 0.32 lengths in a time comfortably faster than Slipper co-favourite Hidrix (Extreme Choice) set in leading home the males in the Canonbury Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) one race earlier.
Chilly Girl is the 13th and final foal, and sole stakes winner, of I Got Chills (General Nediym), the Vieira homebred who won two Melbourne Listed contests from four stars. She was retired from breeding aged 21 in 2024, and later died.
“We always thought she’d throw a good one, and she finally did with her last foal,” said Thompson, whose right hand man at Widden, Matt Comerford, is largely responsible for Chilly Girl staying in Vieira’s ownership.
“Matt rang me one day,” Vieira recalls, “and said, ‘Don’t sell this one. This one is beautiful’.
“Matt knows horses, and he went through the whole lot of mine that year, and said Chilly Girl was really good. So I said, ‘OK’. I had no choice really, because the mother retired and then passed away.
“We sent her to Gerald and Sterling, and we always believed she was a special girl.
“The bookies have made her third favourite for the Slipper. I love her. I think she can do it. Her time was faster than the colts.
“I can’t wait. She’s going to run again in about three weeks. No one knows whats going to happen. I wish I did, because it would save me a lot of stress.
“But I’ve got a couple like her. Trapeze Artist is just giving me amazing boys and girls at present.”
