Pedigree does matter if you want to be winning races longer than 1200m, although in an interesting twist a colt bred on face value for speed is in fact from the family of Zabeel.
Fabulous Flemington is done and dusted for another year with eight G1 races decided in the space of a week and four of those winners were newly minted G1 stars so we’re taking a look at those pedigrees and the stallion that won the $10mG1 ATC Golden Eagle.
Thee $2millionG1 VRC Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) is always a hot race for the wannabe stallions of the future and two colts by Snitzel fought out the finish with $2.8million The Next Episode prevailing over $2.7m St Gotthard, read about them here.
The Next Episode is the 29th G1 winner for Snitzel and is the first G1 winner among seven SW’s for Golden Rose winner Denman as a broodmare sire.
He’s a fascinating horse for pedigree enthusiasts as he is the classic example of how you can take a Euro classic pedigree and then breed all the stamina out of it by repeatedly going to Australian speed sires.
His dam Humma Humma, was a G3 winner than never won beyond 1200m and her dam Humma Mumma was strictly a 1000m horse, but if you start going back you find an ocean of elite Euro bloodlines.
His fourth dam Durtal won the G1 Cheveley Park Stakes at two before making her mark at stud as the dam of two time G1 Royal Ascot Gold Cup winner Gildoran.
Durtal is a half-sister to Arc winner Detroit, who is well known here as the dam of highly successful shuttle sire Carnegie (IRE), another Arc winner that left Aussie G1 winners such as Tuesday Joy, Vision and Power, Amalfi, Perlin and Carnegie Express.
And now the really interesting part, Durtal is from Derna and that influential matriarch is the third dam of legendary sire Zabeel…. so The Next Episode, a horse that appears to be all about pure speed, is in actual fact from the same female family as the best classic sire we have seen in Australasia in modern times.
The $3million G1 Victoria Derby (2500m) was at the other end of the distance spectrum for 3YOs and produced a winner Stormy Marco, whose pedigree would not have been out of place on any of the best racetracks of Europe, read about him here.
Stormy Marco is the 25th G1 winner among 100 SW’s for Wootton Bassett (GB), who came here with the reputation of being the next Danehill and while he’s not quite that, he does have an impressive body of SWs worldwide and now he has two Aussie bred G1 winners and both are Derby winners with the other being Providence.
While his dam sire Elusive City was a sprinter, grand-dam Rose Melody won at 2000m and is a sibling to three staying SWs one of which won up to 3200m.
Both Stormy Marco and Providence have female pedigrees that indicate classic stamina and Wootton Bassett was able to capitalize on that.
Wootton Bassett is one of those genuinely versatile sires that has the sort of genetics that can adapt to the mares he covers to produce stayers, sprinters and everything in between and if you are wondering where he sits in the third season sires division against his peers it looks like this.
Third Season Sires by Earnings 2026/2027
The $10m Melbourne Cup (3200m) was won by blueblood young gun stayer Point of Law (GB), whose story as a homebred for the late Queen Elizabeth II has been well told, read about him here.
He is the 45th G1 winner among 200 SW’s by Frankel and is the eighth G1 winner for Japanese legend Deep impact as a broodmare sire. The late Queen Elizabeth was not working to a budget and obviously took the view that this female family deserved only the very best stallions and Point of Law has shown her view to be vindicated.
There have only been six runners bred on the exact cross between these two very different stallions and four have won with Point of Law the first SW.
The concept of bringing together the best European sires with the best in Japan is one that has been well mined by Coolmore who bred three G1 winners Auguste Rodin, Snowfall and Sheza Alibi’s sire Saxon Warrior by sending elite Galileo (sire of Frankel) mares to visit Deep Impact in Japan.
The $3m G1 Champions Sprint (1200m) produced a blowout when talented mare Point Barrow pounced late to snatch an unexpected win, read about her here.
She is the first Australian G1 winner for Darley shuttler Blue Point (IRE), who has seven in total worldwide and has done a pretty good job, not that you would know it in Australia where he suffered in comparison to his barn mate Too Darn Hot (GB).
They both arrived in Australia in 2020 with Too Darn Hot heading to NSW and Blue Point to Victoria and both spent their first four seasons at a fee of $44,000.
Blue Point has not been back since 2024 and Too Darn Hot has covered his last two seasons here at a fee of $275,000 which tells you all you need to know about what the market has made of them.
For the record on lifetime global stats, Too Darn Hot runs at 62.4% winner to runner with 40 SW’s at 7.2% SW to runner and Blue Point has 63.6% winner to runner with 37 SW’s at 5.7% SW to runner.
Point Barrow is from G3 winning sprinter Take Pride, a daughter of G1 Blue Diamond winning sire Reward for Effort and she is the first G1 winner and only SW for him as a broodmare sire.
Her family beyond that brings plenty of diversity to the mix with her second dam Shabtis by another Darley shuttler Elusive Quality, who also appears in the Stormy Marco pedigree.
Shabtis only won over 1000m, but as a half-sister to Caulfield Cup winner Mummify from a daughter of Melbourne Cup winner At Talaq (USA) it’s hardly a surprise Point Barrow hits the line hard.
The $10m Golden Eagle (1500m) was won in a thriller by the very deserving stallion Skyhook, read about him here.
The 19th G1 winner for Yulong based Written Tycoon, Skyhook is also the 34th G1 winner for Redoute’s Choice as a broodmare sire and he had a G1 double at Flemington as he is also sire of the dam of VRC Oaks winner Proxima Dea.
While the top three quarters of his pedigree are Aussie speed, the bottom quarter is off on a tangent with his second and third dams being unraced and unplaced daughters of Kentucky Derby winners War Emblem and Sunday Silence who both retired to stud in Japan.
Sunday Silence became a household name as a stallion, but War Emblem was a problematic breeder that ultimately was repatriated back to Kentucky where he was gelded and sent to the Old Friends Retirement Farm, so he is not a name you see in many pedigrees anywhere.
The family has already got one stallion at stud here in Australia in Widden Stud based Anders and Skyhook will undoubtedly get a slot at stud when his racing days are done.
