Hitotsu returns to his birthplace after Arrowfield strike deal
History-making three-time Group 1 winner becomes the first son of Maurice to stand at stud in Australia, commanding a fee of $22,000
Brilliant three-year-old Hitotsu, a son of Japanese super sire Maurice (Screen Hero), will stand at Arrowfield Stud in the Hunter Valley after the stallion prospect fought back from life-threatening injury and illness.
The stud future of 2021 Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) and 2022 Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) winner had been up in the air for months as he recovered from a suspensory injury which was discovered in May last year in the aftermath of his successful two-start autumn campaign.
After interest is believed to have come from studs in Victoria and New Zealand to stand Hitotsu, the rising five-year-old’s owners recently reached a deal for him to stand at Arrowfield, his place of birth.
The first son of champion miler Maurice to retire to stud in Australia, Hitotsu will stand for a fee of $22,000 (inc GST) in his maiden season at stud where he joins his own sire on the Arrowfield roster.
Arrowfield principal John Messara was delighted to have the horse, who he believes possesses a rather unique race record, on Arrowfield’s 2023 stallion roster.
“I love a horse who can sprint and stay and he could do both and there were glimpses of the speed he had in his two-year-old year, actually,” Messara said of Hitotsu’s racecourse feats.
“He was trained ultimately to win the Derbies, and he did so, but there’s speed in his female family. I think he’ll be pretty versatile in what he throws.”
The stud’s stallion Dundeel (High Chaparral), who won the 2013 Australian Derby, was the last three-year-old to win three consecutive Group 1 races, while history is also on Arrowfield’s side when it comes to the Australian Guineas with its honour roll featuring multiple champion sire Zabeel (Sir Tristram), its own late champion sire Flying Spur (Danehill) and active Group 1-producing stallion Shamus Award (Snitzel).
Hitotsu is also the first horse since one of the all-time greats in Mahogany (Last Tycoon) in 1994 to complete the Victoria Derby, Australian Guineas and Australian Derby treble.
Arrowfield also stood 2004 Australian Derby winner Starcraft (Soviet Star).
Co-trainer Ciaron Maher yesterday described Hitotsu as a horse with an elite lung capacity which allowed him and David Eustace to be able to campaign him differently to most horses.
“He is an unbelievable horse, really, he was very versatile, very genuine and he had a lot of ability. You don’t see that very often and it is probably a testament to that, his aerobic capacity, and he’s a real athlete,” Maher told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“I think the ‘engine’ is probably the biggest part of it and if he can pass that on, well, we’ll be in business. He is by Maurice who is going from strength to strength and I should expect that he will put that into his stock.”
Messara also pointed to Hitotsu’s elite aerobic capacity, something his Japanese shuttling sire Maurice (Screen Hero) also possesses.
“They’re very strong on sports science in Japan as well,” Messara said.
“They put the E-Trakkas on them and they follow very closely horses’ recovery rates, speed and all sorts of things and Maurice was in the very top percentile of the thousands of horses they test over there.
“This guy has obviously inherited that and hopefully he’ll pass it on.”
Maurice will return for his sixth season at Arrowfield Stud in 2023 (he missed 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic) at a fee of $82,500 (inc GST) and Messara revealed the “book full” sign was already up on the stallion who has also sired Group 1-winning sprinter Mazu, Group 2 winner Bank Maur, Kibou, BRC Phoenix Stakes (Listed, 1500m) winner Azula and last Saturday’s Maher-Eustace-trained BRC Oxlade Stakes (Listed, 1300m) winner Namesake.
Such is Maher’s belief in Maurice, a six-time Group 1 winner at 1600 and 2000 metres, he bought three of the four foals by the stallion which sold at last month’s Magic Millions National Weanling Sale, for a combined $410,000.
“On Saturday, when [Maher] won the first race in Brisbane with a Maurice that we bred [Namesake], Ciaron turned around and looked at me and said, ‘Maurice’. I said, ‘I know’,” Messara revealed.
“He has had some luck with them and he’s a believer in the horse, who is chock-a-block full, so it shows the level of interest in him and this guy will be a very economic entry into that bloodline, for a multiple Group 1 winner.
“I think the strategy is good.”
Hitotsu, who is from the first southern hemisphere-bred crop of Shadai Stallion Station’s Maurice, was purchased by Kevin and Vikki Payne for $100,000 from the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale on the advice of Kevin Kelly, husband of the stallion’s original trainer Wendy Kelly.
He is out of the unraced Love Is Fickle (Redoute’s Choice), herself a half-sister to Love Conquers All (Mossman) and fellow stakes winner She’s Meaner (Falvelon), who is the dam of Aquis Farm’s dual Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed Lean Mean Machine (Zoustar).
Hitotsu showed talent in his three juvenile starts – encompassing the Blue Diamond Prelude (Gr 3, 1100m), the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and the VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) – which prompted Ciaron Maher Racing’s bloodstock manager Will Bourne to make an offer to buy the lightly raced colt.
It was eventually accepted, with the Paynes retaining a significant shareholding in the colt who subsequently raced in the colours of prominent owner Ozzie Kheir and a syndicate which included John O’Neill and Lindsay Caminiti.
He was transferred to Maher and Eustace, who prepared him to win four of his five starts for the stable, starting with a Donald maiden and a fifth-placed finish in the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) before Hitotsu embarked on his Group 1-winning run across two preparations.
“He took the owners on a great ride; they’re great fans and a lot of them are racing people, so they’re going to support him with mares and it’ll ensure he’s off to a good start,” Messara said.
“We’re also going to send him a minimum of 25 mares, and more like 30 mares, so he’s going to get his usual start that Arrowfield stallions get. He’ll get good support, not just for the first year, but ongoing, and away we go.”