Pedigree Insights: Spotify

[Wandering Eyes]

Trying to write a brief résumé of Redoute’s Choice‘s stellar career isn’t easy, in view of the scale and depth of the impact this son of Danehill has had on the Australian industry.

The Arrowfield Stud patriarch made a spectacular start to his stallion career, with the G1 Golden Slipper S. winners Stratum and Miss Finland emerging from his second and third crops. Consequently, in the space of a few years, his fee soared from A$40,000 in 2004 to a career-high of A$330,000 in 2007 and 2008.

While Redoute’s Choice couldn’t come close to matching Danehill’s nine sires’ championships, he has proved the most successful of Danehill’s sons in this respect. He has taken three championships, as opposed to Fastnet Rock’s double and the single titles taken by Flying Spur and Exceed And Excel, with his titles spread from 2005-06 to 2013-14.

Redoute’s Choice has also taken a head start over other Danehill stallions, as his son Snitzel already has two sires’ championships in the bag, with a third consecutive title likely to be sealed later this year.

Snitzel ranks alongside the likes of Not A Single Doubt and Stratum as one of several sons of Redoute’s Choice with Group 1 winners to their credit. With his eldest sons only 11 years old, it is still comparatively early days for Snitzel’s own stallion sons. However, his grandson Time To Reign ran out a decisive winner of the G2 Silver City S. at Rosehill three days ago. Sadly this colt’s sire, the dual G2 two-year-old winner Time For War, died from a colic attack as a 5-year-old, after only two seasons at stud.

While his grandsons are just beginning to make their mark, Redoute’s Choice is proving to be far from a back number, even though he was born as long ago as August 1996. Last week saw him represented by group-winning sons in the UAE and Australia, with Spotify taking the G3 Dubai Millennium S. at Meydan, while The Autumn Sun landed the G2 Hobartville S. at Rosehill.

There is a tenuous link between these two, as The Autumn Sun’s dam, the Galileo mare Azmiyna, was bred by the Aga Khan, whose association with Arrowfield led to Redoute’s Choice shuttling to the Aga’s Haras de Bonneval for the 2013 and 2014 Northern Hemisphere seasons. The 5-year-old Spotify is a member of the stallion’s first French crop.

Redoute’s Choice commanded a fee of €70,000 in his first Bonneval season and €60,000 in his second, which made him the highest-priced French-based stallion by a considerable margin. The Stallions website credits him with siring 71 foals during his first visit and 69 in his second, for a total of 140 foals.

It is probably fair to say that Redoute’s Choice’s French progeny haven’t matched their Australian counterparts–at least not so far. Whereas he has 34 Group 1 winners from his Australian crops (including several in South Africa), he has yet to hit the Group 1 target with his Northern Hemisphere progeny.

However, he has enjoyed group success with Gold Luck (G3 Prix Vanteaux over nine furlongs and G1SP), Ibiza (G3 Prix Chloe over nine furlongs), Sevenna Star (G3 Classic Trial over 10 furlongs) and now with Spotify. He also has the listed winners Lilac Fairy, Time’s Arrow and Wajnah, with these seven black-type winners representing 5% of his 140 foals. He also sired the black-type earners Astronomy’s Choice (listed-placed), Impertinente (Group 3-placed), Maid To Remember (Group 3-placed) and Roystonia (listed-placed).

Spotify’s group success at Meydan was gained over a mile and a quarter, which means that all four of Redoute’s Choice’s European group winners have scored over nine or 10 furlongs, even though Redoute’s Choice was a Group 1 winner over six furlongs at two and over six, seven and eight furlongs at three. In other words, he has followed in the footsteps of Fastnet Rock, another of Danehill’s speedy Australian champions who has generally proved an influence for middle-distance ability when mated to European mares.

This comes as no great surprise, as Redoute’s Choice’s Southern Hemisphere winners include no fewer than three winners of the Australasian Oaks over a mile and a quarter and two of the AJC Australian Oaks over a mile and a half, plus winners of the UAE Derby, South African Derby, New Zealand Derby and Queensland Derby.

The fact that The Autumn Sun is out of a daughter of Galileo provides another parallel to Fastnet Rock, whose long list of important winners out of Galileo mares include Qualify (Oaks), Zhukova (Man o’War S.) and Unforgotten (AJC Australian Oaks). However, The Autumn Sun–who is being groomed as a potential replacement for Redoute’s Choice at Arrowfield–has been making his name at up to a mile, notably running out a very decisive winner of the G1 Caulfield Guineas over a mile last October.

The fact that Spotify didn’t become a listed winner until he was four and a group winner until he was five may have something to do with his May 23 birthday, but he still managed to win his only start as a 2-year-old.

He is a well-connected individual, as his dam Gwenseb was a Group 3 winner over five furlongs as a juvenile and later enjoyed listed success over a mile. She has proved even more successful as a broodmare, with Spotify being her third group winner and fourth black-type winner. Each of her group winners has a different sire, the others being Impassable, a dual Group 2 winner over a mile by Invincible Spirit, and Attendu, a three-time Group 3 winner over a mile by Acclamation.

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