Sires by Bloodline – Choisir

With Royal Ascot set to unfold next week it’s worth taking a look at the sire legacy left by Australia’s original trail blazing history making champion sprinter Choisir.

Thanks to the deeds of Paul Perry and Choisir in 2003, Australian owners now have the very real and familiar dream of Royal Ascot as an achievable option to consider each year.

The powerhouse chestnut colt proved it could be done and done in style and in a testament to his constitution and talent, he won not one, but both of the feature sprints – King’s Stand Stakes (5f, it was a G2 back then) and the G1 Golden Jubilee Stakes (6f) – and no Australian sprinter since has been able to win that double.

Retired to Coolmore, Choisir succeeded as a sire in both hemispheres before his passing in 2021, producing 104 stakes-winners headed by 12 Group I winners with his champion son Starspangledbanner arguably the best of them.

Despite well documented fertility issues earlier in his career, Starspangledbanner has emerged as a top class sire and is back in NSW this spring for Coolmore with his finest son State of Rest (IRE) an important addition at Newgate.

A Cox Plate winner and a four time Group I winner in four different countries, State of Rest is unlike any other stallion on the Newgate roster and given the success of Cox Plate winning sires such as Savabeel, Ocean Park, Shamus Award and the mighty So You Think, he’s going to command plenty of interest.

Choisir has also established a significant offshoot of his sireline in New Zealand with Rich Hill Stud’s Proisir taking all before him this season. It can only be onwards and upwards for him and his full brother Divine Prophet also finds himself now in New Zealand after starting his career in Australia at Aquis.