Snitzel unchanged at $247,500 for 2025
Unchanged service fees for champion sire Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) and returning hero The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice) and a $22,000 (all fees inc GST) entry into the local market for northern hemisphere newcomer Vandeek (Havana Grey) headline the 2025 stallion roster announcement made by Arrowfield Stud on Tuesday.
After serving a quality book of mares – including dual Group 1 winner Integral (Dalakhani) – at Cheveley Park Stud in Newmarket, Vandeek will board a flight to Australia in August to bolster the impressive line-up already assembled at one of the Hunter Valley’s most prestigious farms.
Upon arrival, the dual Group 1 juvenile winner will be greeted by some of Australia’s most celebrated sires, headed by Snitzel whose 2025 service fee of $247,500 is testament to his standing in the upper echelons of the nation’s stallion ranks for many years and is reflective of another prodigious year both on the racetrack and in the sales ring, where his yearlings have fetched a combined $45.2 million – with 11 youngsters selling for seven figure sums.
Having now fully recovered from the pelvic injury he suffered in a paddock in March 2024, The Autumn Sun will return to service for a fee of $66,000 later this year off the back of a stellar season for his progeny – most notably his unbeaten filly Autumn Glow, who has carried the Arrowfield colours to four consecutive victories including three at stakes level.
Autumn Glow had been widely expected to secure a fifth straight victory in the Arrowfield Sprint (Gr 2, 1200m) at Randwick last Saturday, only to be scratched on raceday morning with an elevated temperature; but that disappointment was somewhat mitigated for Arrowfield after another of their stallions, Maurice (Screen Hero), provided a timely reminder of his talents courtesy of Matcha Latte’s victory in the $1 million Provincial Midway Championship Final (1400m).
Maurice, who achieved his first seven-figure yearling when his filly out of Shoals (Fastnet Rock) was knocked down for $1.4 million at the Inglis Easter Sale, will return to Arrowfield at an unchanged fee of $55,000 in 2025.
The figure for Dundeel (High Chaparral), who achieved his best ever average of $414,000 at this year’s Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, also remains the same at $88,000 after the recent New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame inductee added a further eight stakes winners to an already glittering CV.
The only stallion on the roster to have his fee increased is Dundeel’s son and fellow resident Castelvecchio, who shot to prominence this season through the heroics of El Castello in the Spring Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) and Aeliana’s five-length ATC Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) demolition.
Buoyed by his five stakes winners so far this campaign, Castelvecchio will command a service fee of $49,500 in the upcoming breeding season – an increase of $27,500 on his fee in 2024.
With Admire Mars (Daiwa Major) not resuming his shuttling duties this year, Arrowfield’s stallion roster for 2025 is completed by another Japanese-bred horse in Hitotsu, the dual Group 1 winner who will stand alongside his sire Maurice for an unchanged service fee of $22,000.
While Hitotsu is only just starting out on his journey, his near neighbour Snitzel remains the benchmark having produced 16 stakes winners this season including four at Group 1 level, with Marhoona bringing up a third Golden Slipper (Gr. 1, 1200m) success for her remarkable sire from the last eight editions of the world’s richest juvenile race.
Arrowfield’s Bloodstock Manager Jon Freyer admits that the team – led by chairman John Messara – were probably within their rights to capitalise on Snitzel’s popularity by increasing his value. However, perhaps mindful of the bottom line for their fellow breeders and particularly in light of an increasingly uncertain economic climate across the globe, the farm instead opted to stick with a fee of $247,500 for their four-time champion sire.
“As always, we’re very conscious of leaving some meat on the bone for the breeders,” said Freyer, who confirmed that Snitzel’s book of mares will be reduced from 110 in 2024 to “around 70 or 80” this year.
“Breeders both big and small are currently facing a lot of challenges, so even though Snitzel probably deserved to be raised comparative to other stallions, he’ll only cover a limited book of mares so we’ll manage him quite carefully. There was never a serious thought of increasing his fee because although there are many people who have done very well by breeding to Snitzel over the years, it’s not the Arrowfield way to squeeze the lemon too hard.
“We priced all our stallions competitively last year, and with the exception of Castelvecchio we haven’t raised any of our prices this year. The costs associated with breeding have risen significantly in recent times, and that applies to our costs too, but we want to keep people in the game rather than deterring them by increasing our prices. So we’ve been as conservative as we possibly can be for this year.”
Freyer recently returned from an expedition to the United Kingdom, where he ran the rule over Vandeek who has made a highly promising start to his stud career after compiling a brilliant racetrack record.
Arrowfield will now be hoping the son of Havana Grey (Havana Gold) can make the same impression in Australia as his fellow northern hemisphere shuttlers Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) and Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj).
“He’s the type of horse we’ve been looking for in that he was such a precociously fast two-year-old,” said Freyer, who revealed that their stakes-winning mares Hope In Your Heart (Dundeel) and Teaspoon (Snitzel) would be part of a significant Arrowfield contingent served by Vandeek later this year.
“In addition to that, he’s from a sire line that we really like. We’ve got the highest regard for Havana Grey, who has done amazing things at stud in a relatively short space of time. Vandeek is clearly his best son so far, he was unbeaten as a two-year-old so he really fitted the bill for us.
“We think he’s competitively priced and we’ve found that since we recently announced he was coming over, he has already proved incredibly popular. So we’ve been delighted with the response so far, and we’ll also be supporting him with some of our own top-class mares who are Easter and Magic Millions quality. So he’ll get every chance, and I’m sure his progeny will appeal to the yearling-buying bench at those sales.
“I was really impressed with him when I flew over to England, he’s beautifully put together and I think he’s going to suit a lot of our Snitzel mares because his physique will be very complimentary to the type of the foals they generally produce. At the Easter Sale, virtually every European bloodstock agent we spoke to was full of praise for him. They really rate him and obviously his sire Havana Grey is held in the highest regard over there, so that was very positive to hear.”
Given that he missed an entire breeding season through injury, The Autumn Sun will almost feel like a new face when the five-time Group 1 winner returns to stud duties in a few short months.
While he has been recuperating, The Autumn Sun’s progeny have gone from strength to strength with his prominent performers including recent stakes winner Snow In May and Know Thyself, who took out the $1 million Country Championship Final (1400m) at Randwick 10 days ago.
“We’re obviously delighted to have The Autumn Sun back in action,” Freyer told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“He was an amazing racehorse and despite missing a season, he’s already well on the way towards proving to be an amazing stallion as well. It was unfortunate we didn’t get to see Autumn Glow in action last weekend, but there’s no doubt she’ll be in for a very big spring and we all expect great things from her. So The Autumn Son has a great flagbearer in her, and he’s done a great job in general.
“He’s now back to full health and fitness, which is great to see. He’s had adequate time to heal completely from his injury, so touch wood he can pick up where he left off. If the season were starting tomorrow, he would be right to go but given he has another three or four months before we kick off the breeding season, he should be in perfect shape by then.”
Arrowfield’s supremo echoed those sentiments, with Messara delighted to welcome The Autumn Sun back into the fold as the famed operation bids to build on some exceptional results which, he says, were forged by the farm’s “unrelenting commitment to quality”.
“These results, from only five stallions, include 38 stakes winners, seven Group 1 winners, more than $50 million in prize-money and an average yearling sale price of $316,000,” he added.
“Our young sires Hitotsu, a history-making three-year-old, and Vandeek, a dual Group 1 winner at two, offer complementary opportunities to breeders and are both sharply priced.”