Who are we highlighting this week? - Analysis of the G1 winning 3YO’s for this season has made us realise how many horses on this list took giant strides from two to three, so we are looking into the crystal ball to find some juveniles we believe could end next season as G1 performers if not G1 winners.
Click here for the story on 3YO G1 winners this season.
Among the colts looking to enhance credentials for a future stud career this spring will be the G3 Pago Pago winner Warwoven and he had his first trial back at Randwick on Friday morning and was a stylish third in a hot heat won by Ninja.
Warwoven stormed to Magic Millions Classic and early 2026 Golden Slipper favouritism when he bolted in his first two starts for champion trainer Bjorn Baker.
Warwoven was controversially withdrawn from the Gold Coast's rich juvenile feature on race morning, leaving punters fuming, though his trainer remained philosophical.
Despite the hiccup, Sword Of State's first crop son stepped out without a trial in the G2 Skyline Stakes as favourite, and ran a close fourth to the future G1 Sires Produce hero / G1 Champagne runner up Campione D'Italia ( Snitzel) who started at 40-1 in that race. No more of those odds about him!
Warwoven was back on top of his game next start in the Pago Pago, when comfortably accounting for Outspan and the exciting Frankel colt Central Europe, the latter having been just ahead of him when runner up in the Skyline.
Central Europe sat out the Golden Slipper, but Warwoven and his stablemate the G2 Todman winner Paradoxium ( Extreme Choice) were there to take their chances on the big day. Like Warwoven, Paradoxium had missed the Magic Millions, in his case due to illness.
The stable were due a change of luck!
But the barrier gods were unsmiling, and the pair drew 14 (Warwoven) and 18 ( Paradoxium).
Warwoven was away smartly in the Golden Slipper with Rachel King in the saddle and raced well under the sustained pressure of the great race, but was three wide for the duration.
The colt stuck to his guns bravely in the straight to finish sixth, three lengths from the winner.
Warwoven went for a well earned break after the Slipper, having won three of his five starts for $372,750 in prize money.
The powerful colt had earmarked himself as a likely star 3YO in the making, and - along with Lindsay Park's Listed Magic Millions Debutante winning filly Torture and Cambridge Stud's homebred State Of Valour who placed in the G1 Sistema Stakes - he had given notice of very good things to come for his first season sire Sword Of State!
Warwoven was bred by Kia Ora Stud and was offered by them at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, where the stunning colt took the eye of Bjorn Baker Racing / Ridgmont / S & J Gosling and Clarke Bloodstock, who teamed up to secure him for $380,000. Kia Ora retain a share in his ownership.
Warwoven races in the distinctive navy and gold silks of Queenslander and Ridgmont owner/director Mitch Cunningham.
The handsome bay is an imposing horse graced with a lot of presence, and is clearly a superior athlete.
Warwoven - it's a memorable name and a clever one, by Cambridge Stud's NZ Champion 2YO son Sword Of State (Snitzel) out of the superbly bred G2 Royal Stakes winner and multiple Group placed Makfi daughter Needle And Thread. He is her first foal.
Warwoven’s breeding will delight pedigree nerds! It is indeed woven from the many strands of a legendary studbook family.
Bred and owned by the late Kevin Hickman, Needle And Thread was born in Australia but raced in NZ, and commenced her breeding career at his Valachi Downs Stud at Matamata.
After her breeder's sad passing, Kia Ora paid $410,000 to secure Needle And Thread through the Valachi Downs Dispersal sale.
The daughter of Makfi was one of ten foals ( five winners) from the winning Daylami mare Fleece (GB), who was bred by the Duchess Of Bedford's Bloomsbury Stud. The Duchess sold this beautifully bred mare to her good friend Kevin Hickman.
Dubawi's champion miler Makfi proved the standout among her suitors and G2 winner Needle And Thread's full brother Savile Row was thrice a G1 runner up - in the NZ 2,000 Guineas and Levin Classic at a mile, and the 2000m Herbie Dyke Stakes.
A daughter of the 7 x G1 winner and fine broodmare sire Daylami, Fleece was a half sister to Chintz (Danehill Dancer) a G3 winner at the Curragh and producer of dual G1 winner The Ghurka (Galileo) who won the French 2000 Guineas by five and a half lengths.
Warwoven's third dam Gold Dodger was bred in Kentucky but raced in Europe and was a Listed winner in France.
The daughter of Seattle Slew's champion son and Hall Of Famer Slew O'Gold was a half sister to the G1 Prix de l'Arc heroine Solemia (by Sadlers Wells son Poliglote) and to the G1 placed colts Prospect Wells and Prospect Park by Sadlers Wells himself.
Now we get into the real supernova Classic genetics of this family, which is that of the Blue Hen Green Valley (Val De Loir) and her daughters.
Warwoven's dam Needle And Thread is bred on a cross of the half sisters Irish Valley ( by Riverman's Champion 2YO / Champion Miler Irish River), dam of undefeated English Champion 2YO and Ireland Champion Older Male Alhaarth, grand dam of Makfi, and;
Warwoven's fifth dam Vallee Dansante ( Lyphard)
Northern Dancer’s breedshaping son Lyphard has often proved the key to unlocking another level of potential when duplicating the great progenitor.
Vallee Dansante was the only filly sired by Lyphard from Green Valley, and unsurprisingly her line has been fruitful!
Warwoven descends from her G3 winning daughter Brooklyn's Dance (by Mill Reef's Shirley Heights,so bred on the same Never Bend / Green Valley cross as Irish Valley), dam of the abovementioned G1 Arc heroine and black type producer Solemia among her six stakes winners.
Her half sister Brooklyn's Storm (Storm Cat) also founded a prolific family headed by grand daughter and dual G1 winner Silasol ( Monsun) dam of 2025 G1 Canadian International G1 hero Silawi and G3 winner Silius both by Dubawi.
Another half sister was stakes winner Never Green, bred 4m x 3f to Green Valley as her sire Halling was out of a mare by Vallee Dansante's half brother by Nijinsky, the great Green Dancer. She too was a stakes producer.
It didn't end there. Stakes winner Princess Dansante became dam of Skiffle, stakes placed Krissante produced French Champion 2YO Okawango, Quest Of Fire became second dam of dual Italian G1 winner Quijano and Funsie gifted the turf with the European Champion 3YO Colt of 2007 Authorized - all daughters of Vallee Dansante..
Of course, Green Valley's male masterpiece was Green Dancer by Nijinsky, a French Champion Sire and particularly fine broodmare sire.
Green Valley ( registered as Green Valley II) set a French record price for a yearling at Deauville in her day, but she never even made it to the track.
As a broodmare she proved to be a pearl beyond price.
She was sired by Val De Loir from the 1959 Prix d'Abbaye de Longchamp heroine Sly Pola and was a half sister to the exceptionally fast Mahmoud daughter Polamia, dam of French Champion 2YO and influential sire Grey Dawn II (Herbager) and stakes winner Mia Pola who would become ancestress of 1995 European HOTY and successful sire Dream Well.
Sly Pola by Pavot was a half sister to six stakes winners produced from Blue Denim ( Blue Larkspur)
Her colt by Princequillo, Blue Prince, is familiar to us in pedigrees through his son Prince Tenderfoot.
Snitzel loves this cross.
Blue Prince sired Icing, dam of G1 winner Al Hareb and most familiar to us through her daughter Snowtop by Thatching - dam of the excellent sire Myboycharlie, ancestress of Snowland and Snippetson by Snippets, and of Snitzel's unbeaten G1 Sistema Stakes winning colt Return To Conquer who has just retired to stand at Waikato Stud.
Another shining example - the unbeaten G1 2026 Sistema Stakes winning filly Lara Antipova!
She is by Snitzel's Russian Revolution out of a Danetime mare.
This is some dynamite cross.
Another daughter of Blue Denim, Serge De Nimes has a special place in Australian turf history through the deeds of the champion Naturalism who descended from her. The mare True Blonde was the result of Naturalism's mating to the dam of Snippets, Easy Date, and would become the grand dam of Golden Slipper heroine Forensics.
Warwoven is bred
Danehill 4m,5m x
Danzig 5m,6m x 5m
It’s all about Agnes
The famed “ Agnes” family has so many daughters it can get confusing - they are like those Russian babushka dolls which fit perfectly one inside the other, because that's how they all nest together seamlessly in pedigrees.
In fact, Warwoven’s tribe does descend from a mare who bore the name Little Agnes, but there was nothing little about her. She was daughter of Miss Agnes ( 16-a) and granddaughter of the taproot mare Agnes foaled in 1844, by Clarion.
Sword Of State has secret weapons
Cambridge Stud's scintillating speed machine won six of eleven starts to become the NZ Champion 2YO NZ of 2020/21, highlighted by a three and a half length demolition job in the G1 Sistema Stakes.
His dam is Encosta De Lago's G2 Sweet Embrace runner up In The Vanguard, daughter of the very smart Danzero filly Sharp who won the G2 Light Fingers and was herself a daughter of Snarl by Don't Say Halo, half sister to the champion 3YO filly Angst ( G1 Flight Stakes, G2 Silver Shadow, Tea Rose) who died at three.
In the further removes of Sword Of States's damline are the interesting sires Plush, a grand sprinting son of the mighty Sovereign Edition, and Catchpole by King Of The Tudors and bred on a cross of Blue Hen Lady Juror (9-c) and her full brother Samphire - ( this is a great nick for Daylami's sire Doyoun)
Sovereign Edition's sire Sovereign Path and Catchpole both trace to the same mare Millwheel (4-l). This is the family of Ribot - Danehill's broodmare sireline through His Majesty.
Millwheel's ancestress Pucelle forged a dynasty that also includes the matriarch St Marguerite ( taproot of 4-n) - family of Hail To Reason and Rock Sand who got Man O War's dam Mahubah.
This is a less obvious but great match up with Warwoven's ancestress Sly Pola, who was bred x 3 to Man O War daughters including her own ancestress Judy O'Grady. Another descendant of St Marguerite was Gallant Fox - his son Flares is carried on the damline of Encosta De Lago and by Storm Bird while Redoute's Choice contributes his full brother Omaha via Nijinsky.
Flares and Omaha are from the family of Lyphard, to whom Warwoven's dam is sex balanced.
Lastly - Sword Of State traces to a daughter of the French Triple Crown winner Brantome, and his is the tail male line of Green Valley's prepotent Classic sire Val De Loir.
Strains of Sardanapale
The champion sire of Warwoven's ancestress Agnes Sard is a major player in his pedigree and a big factor in Snitzel's affinity for this family which includes Blue Prince, brother to Green Valley's grand dam Ampola.
The great French racer and sire amplifies all her nicks, as he was himself a Little Agnes descendant.
Warwoven is linebred to Blue Hens Almahmoud, Myrtlewood, her grand dam Frizette, Padua ( Blue Larkspur / Relic), Baby League and more.
One thing's for sure, the legacy of Snitzel will forever be associated with superstar two year olds!
While Sword Of State will be no exception, he - and perhaps his exciting son Warwoven - will further consolidate the Classic reaches of the Snitzel empire - which the old man naturally began to chart himself.
Sword Of State stands at Cambridge Stud NZ on a fee of $50,000 in 2026.
