James Willoughby explains why one of the world’s great stallions is this week’s Sire of the Week.
TRC SIRE OF THE WEEK
Let’s update the rankings based on 2019 data only to get a sense of the movers and shakers in the Sire category of late. The best 22 performing sires are shown:
Most of the action is centred in Australia, for obvious reasons, though note the first appearance of the great Galileo (no change, stays #2) in this chart of recent form. At #20 here, and moving to #17 from #19 overall after a gain of 2pts, is SNITZEL.
Snitzel is a son of the late Redoute’s Choice standing at John Messara’s Arrowfield Stud. His yearlings remain very popular both in Australia and New Zealand and he is nigh-on certain to remain in the top 30 sires in TRC Global Rankings for some time to come.
This week, he was responsible for G2 Victory Stakes winner I Am Excited (who led home a 1-2 for the sire completed by the top sprinter Redzel) at Eagle Farm and G3 Hawkesbury Crown winner Irithea.
This took the sire to 4-59 (7%) in 2019, which is below the rate we normally expect from him. Our #1 Australian sire remains I Am Invincible (no change, stays #6) though he is also only 6-73 (8%) in a year that has so far seen Group race winners in Australia spread around a diverse group of sires.
Snitzel moved up to world #4 for one week last year, but he has slipped back a good deal since then. Expect him to move back towards a top ten ranking as the year goes on.
Click here for a list of all last week’s biggest TRC Global Rankings points gainers.
Click here for a list of all the week’s Group and Graded winners