Year in, year out, Arrowfield Stud presents one of the biggest and best drafts at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. In 2022, as it farewells Not A Single Doubt, it welcomes in the first progeny by Redoute’s Choice exceptional sire son, The Autumn Sun.

In with the new for Arrowfield Stud at Magic Millions

7th January 2022

For a major player like Arrowfield, this handsome number is about average. The farm’s 53 Book 1 yearlings shipped to the complex this week, while the 16 for Book 2 will follow suit next week.

“The draft is only slightly bigger than usual,” said Jon Freyer, Arrowfield’s bloodstock manager.

For months, Freyer and his team have overseen the preparation of the draft from the grounds of the Hunter Valley farm. Exclusively, it represents Arrowfield stallions from top to tail.

For the first time since 2003, there are no yearlings by Redoute’s Choice, while the very last yearlings by Not A Single Doubt are among them. There’s a sole representative for Mikki Isle (Jpn), and four yearlings from the only book that Real Steel (Jpn) covered on his shuttle visit in 2019.

Most important, there are the first yearlings by the highly anticipated first-season sires The Autumn Sun and Showtime. With The Autumn Sun following the path of Redoute’s Choice elite sire sons Snitzel and Not A Single Doubt, the horse’s 29 overall progeny in the catalogue are drawing plenty of buzz.

A bit of perspective

Arrowfield has 11 of its own yearlings by The Autumn Sun on the Gold Coast. All are in Book 1 and the majority are colts (eight), with three fillies among them.

“We’re very positive about the group of yearlings we’ve brought to the Sale,” Freyer said. “It’s very early in the inspection process because we’ve only been going for a day, but so far so good. I think they’re going to be well-received, and there’s a few outstanding examples where I’d be amazed if they weren’t black-type horses.”

Freyer has been a long time in the breeding game. He remembers when the first yearlings by Redoute’s Choice were sold, and even the first yearlings by Danehill (USA). That was in 1993.

“The Autumn Sun yearlings are probably more like the Redoute’s yearlings, in terms of their make-up,” Freyer said. “They’ve got a little bit more scope and size to them than the first yearlings by Snitzel and Not A Single Doubt. So I do see a lot of Redoute’s Choice in a number of them.”

As far as the boom on the new yearlings goes historically, Freyer casts his mind back a bit.

“There wasn’t a great boom on the first Danehills, funnily enough,” he said. “There was a number of them that sold for a lot of money, but there were others like Danewin who made $12,000 or $13,000, and then Danzero, the Slipper winner from that crop, made $55,000. So they didn’t make a fortune.”

Freyer said times were a little different in the 1993 yearling market. Sales were switched about and other things were going on, but sire expectations were still there.

“There was expectation but there wasn’t a lot of money around for horses,” he said. “It was a bit different when the Redoute’s horses arrived, and expectations of those were probably a bit similar to what we’re experiencing with The Autumn Sun. I can certainly see that this year.”

Here comes the Sun

Among the 11 Arrowfield yearlings by The Autumn Sun, Freyer cherry-picked Lot 842 as particularly strong. This colt is the third foal from the Testa Rossa mare Cavaloce.

“This is a very good colt,” Freyer said. “The mare was a stakes winner and quite a quick, hard-knocking mare too. I think this is a particularly good horse in the draft.”

Arrowfield bought Cavaloce for $180,000 at the 2017 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. Her first two foals, both by Dundeel, fetched $340,000 in 2020 and $420,000 last year. Cavaloce was a dual Listed-winner during her racing career, but her page boasts the G1 Oakleigh Plate winner Reactive (Geiger Counter {USA}).

Freyer said that, equally, Lot 849 by The Autumn Sun was worth a look.

She is an attractive chestnut filly from the well-related mare Champagne Run (USA) (More Than Ready {USA}). Lot 849 is a three-quarter sister to the Group 3 winner Flying Evelyn (Not A Single Doubt), while the second dam on this page is Bollinger (Dehere {USA}), who got the stakes winners Friesian Fire (USA) (A.P. Indy {USA}) and Villermont (All Too Hard), plus grandson Aim (Star Witness).

Champagne Run has had good sales success in her past. Her 2019 Redoute’s Choice yearling made $800,000, while Flying Evelyn made $500,000 in 2020, selling to John Sadler at this Sale.

“Flying Evelyn won the Red Roses during the Melbourne Cup carnival, and she’s on-target for a good race during the autumn,” Freyer said. “We think a lot of Flying Evelyn, so this filly has a lot going for her.”

Freyer is fond of both Lot 842 and Lot 849, but there are others by The Autumn Sun in his favour.

He mentioned Lot 126, a colt from the Animal Kingdom (USA) mare I Am Queen.

“This one looks an early type of horse,” Freyer said. “I Am Queen was a quick mare, and it’s a family that throws a lot of winners. It’s very consistent.”

I Am Queen is a daughter of the American mare Cat By The Tale (USA) (Tale Of The Cat {USA}), who was brought to Australia in 2010. Her Redoute’s Choice progeny Raphael’s Cat and Tale Of Choice were both 2-year-old Sydney winners.

 

Jessica Owers tdnausnz.com.au