Maurice reaches new heights as Snitzel spearheads Arrowfield roster
Esteemed Arrowfield figure Jon Freyer believes Maurice (Screen Hero) is a champion stallion in waiting as the leading Hunter Valley farm released their fees for the 2022 season, with roster king Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) remaining at the top of the stud’s unchanged line-up in 2022.
Four-time champion stallion Snitzel has had his fee increased to $220,000 (all fees inc GST) for the upcoming breeding season, a mark he commanded in 2018 and 2019 prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, while rising Japanese shuttler Maurice also earned an increase to $82,500.
The pair leads a nine-stallion roster at Arrowfield which is also home to Dundeel (High Chaparral) and The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice) (both $66,000), Shalaa (Invincible Spirit) ($33,000), Castelvecchio (Dundeel) ($27,500) Admire Mars (Daiwa Major) ($22,000), Pariah (Redoute’s Choice) ($16,500) and Showtime (Snitzel) ($11,000).
Maurice, whose yearlings have sold up to $500,000 this year and averaged $191,529, has been propelled to prominence courtesy of Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2500m), Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Hitotsu and Arrowfield 3YO Sprint (Gr 2, 1200m) winner Mazu, who is being aimed at Group 1s during the Queensland Winter Carnival.
“To get two horses of that calibre in his first crop, a horse that is a dual Group 1 winner at a mile and a half and who also won a Guineas and another horse who is an out-and-out brilliant sprinter, it just highlights how versatile he is,” Arrowfield bloodstock manager Freyer told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“He is a champion sire in waiting, Maurice. It might even be next season with those horses in the big races that are on offer with horses like Mazu and Hitotsu and a few others that he’s got coming through.
“If it’s not next season, it might not be too long afterwards.”
Maurice stood for $44,000 last year, which was up from the $27,500 he stood for in his third season at Arrowfield that was completed in 2019, and Freyer believes the stallion’s 2022 fee “based on all the metrics” is warranted.
“His yearlings sold very well, his progeny have performed brilliantly, he’s the leading second season sire and I think it is entirely justified,” he said.
“At this point the demand for him outweighs the nominations we have available for him, so we are going to have to pick and choose (the mares that go to him).”
One of the many casualties of the pandemic was the inability of the Japanese stallions to shuttle to the southern hemisphere in 2020, Maurice included.
Despite missing that season, which would have been Maurice’s fourth consecutive year shuttling to Arrowfield, Freyer is confident the stallion has enough depth coming through to maintain the momentum he has created so far with his first two Australian-bred crops.
“You have always got to wait and see with these things but he has got some horses who will be racing for a few seasons,” the bloodstock manager said.
“It can happen with stallions over a period of time. Street Cry missed two seasons (in 2007 and 2008) along the way, but if you have got a good enough crop of horses to carry you through, and I am certain Maurice is of that calibre, he’ll be absolutely fine.
“We are really excited about the prospects of him going forward with his pedigree and the outcross opportunities he presents for so many mares, he’s a very important stallion.”
Snitzel, who stood for $165,000 in 2020 and 2021, is currently fourth on this year’s Australian general sires’ table, but he leads the way by stakes winners with 15 (also one in New Zealand) and he also has the most two-year-old stakes winners (three), alongside I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) and Capitalist (Written Tycoon).
Snitzel colts Wild Ruler and In The Congo have both won Group 1s this season, further reminding the buying bench of his value.
“We dropped his fee during Covid in anticipation of difficulties in the market which thankfully didn’t arrive. He’s had another stellar season both on the track and in the sale ring, so we thought (the fee increase) was justified and deserved and he is back to where he’d been for the previous few seasons before Covid,” Freyer said.
“All the good judges were desperate to buy his yearlings and the trainers just love training them. They’re early, they’re tough and they train on. They’re versatile, they’re not strictly early speed horses; he can finish up with a Cox Plate horse, for example, like Shamus Award, and he’s a great influence (on the Stud Book).
“He’s a great sire, he’s been champion two-year-old sire a number of times, he’s going to be a sire of sires and he’s going to be a broodmare sire. He’s a horse that’s got it all.”
Freyer wouldn’t rule out the champion adding a fifth title to his CV this season, or in the future.
“It is a funny thing to win a stallion premiership in more recent seasons because there’s a handful of races who can dictate the premiership and he’s within striking distance, so you never know,” he said.
“For everyone who has visited the farm and seen him, he looks in tremendous condition, he looks like such a young horse, but we will be managing him for his physical wellbeing and also the commercialities of him going forward with regard to people breeding to him and selling his yearlings (by limiting his book of mares).”
Dundeel and The Autumn Sun have had their service fees held from last year but Freyer suggests they, too, could be in line for an increase in the future if their respective yearling sales results are any guide.
“He had obviously a bottler of a sale at Easter with a million-dollar colt and a million-dollar filly and he has had a heap of yearlings sell for $300,000, $400,000, $500,000, $600,000 out of some great mares and there were some cracking sorts,” Freyer said of the Dundeel yearlings.
“He’s had three Group 1 performers this season and he was a little bit unfortunate in that a couple of exciting horses who were sold off to Hong Kong and Castelvecchio and Super Seth were retired to stud (in recent years). He stays at the same fee and I think he’s great value at that.”
Five-time Group 1 winner The Autumn Sun, considered the heir apparent to Snitzel, Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice) and his own late sire Redoute’s Choice (Danehill), has averaged $301,398 at the sales this year with his first crop yearlings.
“They were outstanding foals and again they are out of some terrific mares and they sold well everywhere,” Freyer said.
“Virtually every leading stable has got a The Autumn Sun coming through and I think Chris Waller has got half a dozen, which is exciting.
“The Autumn Sun is the one we are probably pinning our hopes on. He was a brilliant racehorse with an amazing pedigree and he’s a spectacular individual. It’s hard to imagine that he wouldn’t be a success.”