There were four stallions who secured their first Australian stakes winners last Saturday, taking the total number of stakes-winning sires this season to 193. This week’s Run The Numbers looks at the significance of Peltzer’s breakthrough success.
With 21 stakes races held in July, Australian racing provides its fair share of opportunities for the lesser lights to have their time in the low-angled winter sun.
It often also proves the case for lower-profile or emerging sires, with a quartet of them getting on the black-type scoreboard in the death throes of the 2024/25 season last Saturday.
St Jean, the imported son of Teofilo who stands at Brackley Park in Victoria for $3300, looks to have his best horse to date after the authoritative win of the Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained Half Yours in the Listed Caloundra Cup.
At Rosehill, import Estadia Mestalla has been the only Australian runner for his France-based sire Galileo Gold and got himself and his sire on the stakes list with an upset victory in the Listed Winter Stakes.
Flemington hosted four stakes races on its Finals Day and two of them resulted in breakthrough successes for the sires of their winners.
Jimmy The Bear has long been the banner horse for one-time Spendthrift Australia stallion Jimmy Creed in Australia and he notched his first stakes win at start number 38 in the Winter Championship Final.
But the most significant win arguably came with the comfortable victory of progressive two-year-old Buccleuch in the Taj Rossi Series Final.
The Tait family have won this race before with Cherry Tortoni in 2020, but this homebred success was especially important as it was the first stakes win from the progeny of Peltzer, who stands at Olly and Amber Tait’s Twin Hills Stud.
He became the 10th first-season sire to produce a stakes winner. That is the highest number of stakes-producing first-season sires in any season in Australia since the 2008/09 season. The average number of freshman sires to have a stakes winner over the past decade is 6.6 per season.
Peltzer’s success is also significant as he is the second son of So You Think to become a stakes-winning sire, joining D’Argento, who had his own breakthrough thanks to the Listed win of Statuario a couple of months ago. So You Think is the third youngest sire, behind Zoustar and Dundeel, to have two stakes-winning sons this season.
It is very early in Peltzer’s stud career, but he is tracking on par with his sire when it comes to early success. At this point of his first season with runners, So You Think had four winners and a stakes winner, while Pelzer has three with one stakes winner.
The Buccleuch result also continues a remarkable season for the High Chaparral line of stallions.
There have been 12 individual stakes-producing sires in Australia this season who are either by High Chaparral, or by one of his sons. That makes that line the second most prolific of any sireline behind stakes-winning sire descendants of Danehill, of which there are 26.
Between them, those High Chaparral-descendant sires have produced 41 individual Australian stakes winners in 2024/25, across 47 individual races.
Overall, there are eight High Chaparral sons on the list of 193 stakes winning stallions, behind only Redoute’s Choice on 10, and level with Snitzel,
Three of those sons of High Chaparral inside the top 12 on the sires table, So You Think, Dundeel and Toronado. The only other stallion to have three sons inside the top 20 is Street Cry.
Meanwhile, Castelvecchio, Dundeel’s Arrowfield-based son, is second on the second-season sires list and 36th overall, enjoying a breakout season with six stakes winners from only 64 Australian runners, highlighted by emphatic Australian Derby-winning filly Aeliana.
Also enjoying a bumper second crop has been Super Seth, the Waikato Stud-based son of Dundeel. His three Australian stakes winners all won Group 1 races, Maison Louis, Feroce and Linebacker, while he has also had a Group 1 winner in New Zealand.
Remarkably, Dundeel only has two active sons at stud, both of which have produced Group 1 winners in their first crop. Celestial Legend, who will stand at Woodside Park, joins that duo this season.
Overall, Castelvecchio has had 35 winners from 74 runners, with only three of those winners two years olds. Super Seth has had 43 winners from 89 runners, with seven stakes winners. He has had 11 two-year-old winners.
There are four sons of So You Think active at stud, with Inference being the most exposed with 25 winners from his first four crops. D’Argento has 24 winners from 59 runners, and as well as his long stakes winner, he has also had five stakes placegetters. Peltzer’s three winners have come from just 11 starters.
The fourth So You Think son at stud is Australian Derby winner Quick Thinker, whose oldest crop from his base in Tasmania will turn two on August 1.
The other sons of High Chaparral active at stud in Australia and New Zealand are Ace High, Redwood, Wrote, Alpine Eagle, Wayed Zain, Hi World and Fabulous.
Progeny records of stakes-producing sireline descendants of High Chaparral
