Royal Ascot hero and sire Choisir dies at 22
Coolmore and trainer Paul Perry pay tribute to grand sprinter who has 100 stakes winners to his name
Trailblazing Australian sprinter and high-class stallion Choisir (Danehill Dancer), the first southern hemisphere horse to complete the prestigious King’s Stand Stakes (Gr 2, 5f) – Golden Jubilee Stakes (Gr 1, 6f) double at Royal Ascot, has died at his home of the past 18 years, Coolmore Stud in the Hunter Valley.
The striking chestnut stallion, the sire of 100 stakes winners and 11 Group 1 winners in 12 countries who was declared a “national hero” for his European racecourse feats when trained by Paul Perry, had been pensioned prior to the 2020 breeding season and had for the past two years spent his time in retirement.
He died peacefully at Coolmore yesterday, aged 22.
Newcastle trainer Perry yesterday reflected on Choisir, a horse who would not have travelled to the UK and become part of Australian racing folklore had it not been for the forced shutdown of racing in Singapore in 2003.
As fate would have it – and it is a rather poignant fact given what the world is currently enduring with Covid-19 – the SARS disease put an end to a planned Singapore trip and a tilt at the country’s feature sprint race, leaving Perry to change tact and point Choisir towards Royal Ascot.
“He was going to Singapore for the sprint race over there. They had a virus go through the country and racing stopped. He was ready to go somewhere, so we decided to go there at the suggestion of (one-time jockey-turned-media personality) Jack Petley. He suggested it and we went along with it,” Perry recalled to ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“He was trained up to go to Singapore and all of a sudden that was off, there was nothing else on offer and knowing that Royal Ascot was a straight course and that he loved the Flemington straight we decided to go.”
His deeds at the famous Royal Meeting, in which he broke the course record in the Golden Jubilee at his second start for the week, laid a path for Australian sprinters to follow, most notably taken up by the connections of Takeover Target (Celtic Swing), Miss Andretti (Ihtiram) and Black Caviar (Bel Esprit).
His own sire-son Starspangledbanner, a Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) winner, also won the 2010 Golden Jubilee and that year’s July Cup (Gr 1, 6f).
Jim McGrath, who played the role of race caller for the famous Royal Ascot double, in speaking to ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday remembered fondly the scale of Choisir’s international achievement at the time.
“It was a fantastic experience and something I’ll always look back on,” he said. “I will be honest with you – I was taken by surprise, certainly by the first win but even more by the second.
“He backed up only four days later to win the Golden Jubilee. He was an exceptional horse, he was so tough.
“I’ve spoken to Johnny (Murtagh) a lot subsequently and I know he had terrific confidence in the horse. He was a wonderful horse – a good all-rounder, a top sprinter – people forget that he was placed in a Guineas in Melbourne before he actually went over there.”
Coolmore, who two years later bought the Perry-trained Fastnet Rock (Danehill) as a stallion prospect, swooped on Choisir soon after he had completed the remarkable Royal Ascot feat in which the Perrys and long-time clients Terry Wallace and his wife Diane are said to have caught unsuspecting UK High Street bookies off guard to land a long-priced betting coup on the colt in the Kings Stand as well as the, at the time, unfathomable double.
Perry, now 72, was typically understated yesterday. “Look, I think there was quite a bit of money won on him,” he said.
Choisir would have one more start, finishing runner-up to Oasis Dream (Green Desert) in the 2003 July Cup at Newmarket, prior to his retirement as stud duties were calling at Coolmore Australia that September.
Coolmore Australia principal Tom Magnier paid tribute to Choisir yesterday, just hours after the sprinter’s death.
“I was lucky enough to be at Ascot in 2003 to witness his incredible triumphs on the Tuesday and then the Saturday where he was ridden by Johnny Murtagh,” Magnier said.
“It was a great achievement for his trainer Paul Perry and paved the way for future Australian sprinters to compete with distinction on the world stage.
“Since he retired to the farm in 2003 he has been a favourite with all those who have worked with him, especially our long-time stallion manager Gerry Ryan who was particularly fond of him.
“Choisir was the ultimate professional in all he did and every stud dreams of having a stallion like him.
“We are so grateful to him and he will be sorely missed by the entire Coolmore team.”
Australian racing administrator Greg Nichols, then the chief executive of the British Horseracing Authority, at the time of Choisir’s Royal Ascot achievements described it as “a fabulous breakthrough for Australian racehorses”.
“Choisir showed it can be done and it also showed just how strong the sprinting ranks are in Australia,” Nichols said in 2003.
“I’m a great believer in international travel and Choisir has shown why it’s got to be a two-way street. Media Puzzle went to Australia and took the Melbourne Cup and this horse has come from Newcastle in Australia and beaten some of our finest sprinters.”
From the second southern hemisphere crop of Coolmore’s shuttle sire Danehill Dancer (Danehill), Perry paid $55,000 for the Ross Daisley-bred Choisir at the 2001 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale and he raced him with the Wallaces.
By then an unproven shuttler, Perry had been on a trip to Ireland in 1995, early in Danehill Dancer’s racing career, and was on course to see one of his victories.
“We went to a meeting over there in Ireland one time and I think Pat Eddery rode him and we watched him win a race, so we had a bit of liking for him from then on,” Perry said.
“(As a yearling) Choisir had a lot of presence about him, he was a burly, big horse. There was always something to like about him.”
As the record shows, Choisir would win the Breeders’ Plate (Listed, 1000m) and a Skyline Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) before running placings in the Pago Pago Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), Calaway Gal’s (Clang) Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and an ATC Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m).
While at three, in a precursor to his European campaign, Choisir would win a VRC Lightning Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) and an Emirates Classic (Gr 2, 1200m) at Flemington and run third in the Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m), he is also remembered for his erratic performance in the L’Oreal Plate (Gr 3, 1200m) on Victoria Derby Day in which Planchet (Canny Lad) and Blur (Flying Spur) were controversially promoted in front of him in an upheld protest by stewards.
Australia’s champion first season stallion in 2006-07, a year after Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) won the freshman title and the season before Exceed And Excel (Danehill) emerged, Choisir has gone on to sire the likes of Starspangledbanner, Japonisme, Divine Prophet and the Perry-trained ATC Champagne Stakes winner The Mission.
A top 20 Australian sire by earnings nine times, Choisir’s most recent stakes scorer is the Spring Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m) winner Festival Dancer who broke through at black-type level in November at Newcastle.
Of his 100 stakes winners, 33 were bred in the northern hemisphere from his 2004 to 2010 and and 2014 and 2015 seasons in Ireland, headed by Group 1 winners Olympic Glory, US Grade 1 winner Obviously and The Last Lion, which compares favourably with other reverse shuttlers in all-time great Exceed And Excel (83 northern hemisphere-bred stakes winners), Fastnet Rock (46), Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) (14) and Lonhro (Octagonal) (11).
As a broodmare sire, Choisir’s progeny continue to be sought after by commercial breeders, with dual Group-winning sprinter Every Rose selling online this year for $1.3 million.
Already, his mares have produced 23 stakes winners including five Group 1 winners in Europe, Coolmore’s Winter (Galileo) among them, while Will Clarken’s Group 2 winner Beau Rossa (Unencumbered), Group 3 winner Eckstein (I Am Invincible) and Tony Gollan’s promising Listed winner Isotope (Deep Field) are out of daughters of Choisir.
Choisir, whose service fee across 17 seasons started at $30,250 (inc GST) and peaked at $35,750 (inc GST), has 13 yearlings in his final crop. Two of them, a filly and a colt, will be offered at next month’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
“We would see him nearly every year at the (Coolmore) stallion parades. We’d go up to the farm and have a look at him,” Perry said.
“He was a lovely, kind, big horse. We have some fond memories.”