If your goal this spring is to choose a stallion that can breed you a nice winner with upside it might not be as expensive as you think.
This time we’re looking towards Victoria and highlighting a fascinating stallion in Flying Artie, who is now at Blue Gum Farm.
Winning the Group I VRC Coolmore Stud Stakes at three made Flying Artie a stallion prospect even though his sire Artie Schiller (USA) was hardly flavour of the month and his female family is left of centre in terms of Hunter Valley commercial appeal.
His stakes-winning dam Flying Ruby is by Cox Plate winner Rubiton and his grand-dam is a half-sister to another Cox Plate winner in Better Loosen Up, who was the best horse of his era and famously won the Group I Japan Cup and is the only Aussie thoroughbred to achieve the feat.
Flying Artie retired to Newgate in the same season as Capitalist (Golden Slipper) and Extreme Choice (Blue Diamond), so was very much third pick in that group with the bar set high for success.
It’s history now that Flying Artie was moved along by Newgate and replaced on their roster by his dual Group I winning son Artorius, but before he left he had a season in 2021 when he was very popular and covered 201 mares at a fee of $33,000.
That crop of foals are his current season 3YO’s and they serve as a powerful reminder that when Flying Artie gets a half decent mare he can give you a very good result.
He has had 71 runners from that crop for 38 winners highlighted by Group II winner Sixties, stakes-winner Skyglider and three more stakes performers, plus promising metro winners like Surf’s Up and Lancelot du Lac.
Overall lifetime stats for Flying Artie are 64% winners to runners and 4% SW to runner and in addition to Artorius, he has also sired multiple G1 winner Asfoora, the Champion European Sprinter of 2025 and this year’s Hong Kong G1 winner My Wish.
Flying Artie is still statistically running third to Extreme Choice and Capitalist, but as we said before, that bar is set high!
They stand at fees of $385,000 and $44,000, with Flying Artie priced at $14,850.
There is no escaping the fact Flying Artie is looking down the barrel of a quiet period to come as his current crops of 2YO’s, yearlings and weanlings are small… here we’re talking about 30 in each year if that.
Of the 2YO’s, six have raced and two have already won including Tengun Tommy, who scored at Doomben on Wednesday.
He’s a tough play this year if you are breeding for commercial success in the sale ring in three years time, but if you are breeding with the goal of producing a good horse and possibly a G1 horse, Flying Artie is undoubtedly value and did cover 97 mares last spring.
Breednet Value Sires – Part 1- Zousain
