It now seems inevitable that Arrowfield’s Redoute’s Choice will take the 2009-10 Australian General Sires Title from the incumbent, Coolmore’s Encosta de Lago. The Brisbane winter carnival heroics of Melito and Dariana have turned a seemingly insurmountable deficit into a winning advantage for Danehill’s son.
Dariana (pic Sportpix)
Melito has always promised great things, delivering big time with her consistency and durability late in the season, her seven starts this preparation never failing to secure a substantial cheque, including a pair of Group Ones and over a million dollars in prizemoney.
Dariana was unraced at the start of 2010 but in the best traditions of her trainer Bart Cummings, rose from maiden status to Group One winner in very short order. Without Dariana’s Queensland Derby victory, Melito may still have done enough to secure the title for her sire, but in the final analysis Dariana’s career total is what will make the difference.
Interestingly, the pair are bred on two of the best crosses with RC, the Redoute’s Choice/Sir Tristram cross that resulted in Melito has 15 SWs from 69 runners, while the Redoute’s Choice/Last Tycoon cross that resulted in Dariana has 6 SWs from 21 runners, two powerful nicks by any standard.
At season’s end Australia’s two pre-eminent stallions will have each have two Champion Sire titles to boast of, with many runners out of some the best mares they each served still to hit the racetrack in the next few seasons. It will be interesting to see which of the champs can get his hat trick first. They will face serious competition in the coming years from the chasing pack which includes some very talented young stallions, but considering that when service fees peaked in 2007 and 2008, many commercial breeders sent their best mares to either one or the other, a third title is well on the cards for either, or possibly both these outstanding sires.
We will keep CHAMPION SIRE WATCH on the home page so that you can follow the contest to its conclusion, but it seems that EDL has run out of races, run out of racedays, or in the words of Edgar Allan Poe, “Out of SPACE- out of TIME”.
FOOTNOTE: A comprehensive comparison of the relative performance of Encosta de Lago and Redoute’s Choice, prepared by our analyst John Hutchinson, will be published in the August issue of BLUEBLOODS. The analysis will be posted on this website later in August. To ensure you do not miss this in depth analysis you can subscribe to BLUEBLOODS magazine by CLICKING HERE.
