Run The Numbers – A proven ‘colonial’ formula

Whenever the phrase “Australian colonial speed” is mentioned, there are a handful of sires that immediately spring to mind. A term used to describe the fast, tough Australian breed, proven through our best sprint races, it has become a marketing catchcry for studs looking to parlay racetrack success into commercial traction.

General Nediym and Snitzel were foaled eight years apart but had plenty in common. Star two-year-olds, who were beaten as favourites in their respective Golden Slippers, both returned to dominate against the older sprinters at three, claiming Group 1 successes.

While both had international sirelines back to Northern Dancer – General Nediym through his imported sire Nediym and Snitzel back via his grandsire Danehill – they were both seen as having the best virtues of Australian speed, being out of Australian-bred mares.

From the stallion barn, General Nediym was champion first-season sire in 2002/03, while Snitzel would become one of the greats of the stallion ranks.

At 1000 days into their respective breeding careers, General Nediym had eight stakes winners and one Group 1 winner, while Snitzel had seven, and none. We know Snitzel took off from that point, and he is now a five-time Australian champion.

General Nediym’s highest finish on the General Sires table was 13th in 2009/10, the first season after his premature death at age 14 from colic in January 2009.

From there his influence as a sire waned at a time when it should have been building. It is interesting to note in comparison that all of Snitzel’s five titles came after he turned 14.

But the influence of “The General” didn’t end there. He has proven a goldmine as a broodmare sire. Chilly Girl, who won the Rosebud on Saturday, is one of 53 stakes winners from his daughters, a list that includes Group 1 winners Hey Doc, Jameka, Mr Quickie, Sizzling, I Am Excited, Run Fox Run, Ellsberg and Lasqueti Spirit.

Looking through that list, you may notice something. Two of those Group 1 winners (Sizzling and I Am Excited) are by Snitzel, and two (Mr Quickie and Ellsberg) are by sons of Snitzel. Furthermore, if you look at those 53 stakes winners for General Nediym as a broodmare sire, 10 of them were either by Snitzel or one of his sons.

As well as Sizzling and I Am Excited, Menari and Empire Of Japan were both by Snitzel out of General Nediym mares, a combination that featured a further seven stakes placegetters and 26 winners in total from just 32 runners.

But it extends even further again. Two more Australian Group 1 winners in the past six months have featured both star sires in their pedigrees.

Snitzel’s Group 1 ATC Sires’ Produce winner Campione D’Italia is a grandson of General Nediym’s multiple Group-winning daughter Military Rose.

Stablemate Panova, victrix of the Australasian Oaks, is by Snitzel’s emerging son Trapeze Artist, and is a granddaughter of General Nediym’s daughter Queen of the Falls.

Overall, 16 individual stakes winners have Snitzel and General Nediym in their pedigrees, a remarkably strong record given there have been only 144 runners.

Others on that list not already mentioned include Rosemont stallion Doull, Villiers Stakes winner Brutality, recent Winter Stakes winner General Salute, Mamaragan, Facile, Quickster and The Black Cloud.

Chilly Girl, so impressive in the Rosebud, is part of that contingent, being by Trapeze Artist out of General Nediym’s brilliant but injury-prone daughter I Got Chills.

She won both of her two-year-old spring starts in 2025 by a combined 11.5 lengths, reviving memories of the way her own sire had begun his career. But she was sidelined by injury and would only have two more starts as a three-year-old before her retirement.

Chilly Girl has now done the same thing as her dam and her damsire, winning her first two starts, both at stakes level, impressively, for the man who trained both Trapeze Artist and Snitzel, Gerald Ryan, and his training partner Sterling Alexiou.

The number of runners out of General Nediym’s daughters is on the decline, but Chilly Girl, bred and raced by the Vieira family, has a throwback pedigree. Her dam was 20 when she was foaled, the last of her 13 foals and the only stakes winner.

I Got Chills herself was out of a 16-year-old mare named Tidfish. It is a pedigree truly worthy of a “colonial” label, going back to a mare named Rosedale, imported into Australia from England in 1873.