By Elaine Belval
As mentioned previously, predicting stallion success is one of the hardest things to do in the business of breeding horses. For example, When the Sadler’s Wells sire El Prado retired to stud in the US, only a handful of people could have imagined the heights he’d scale given his low stud fee and turf pedigree. He proved himself the hard way, working from a very cheap fee to $75,000 live foal by the time he was pensioned. One of the difficulties for a stallion like El Prado to continue his male line, even with success, is that sons from early crops tend to be from modest families and don’t have the power to sustain. El Prado, however, hit the mother-lode late in his career with Medaglia d’Oro and Champion Kitten’s Joy, both successful young sires and two of the best in North America. And now, Breeders’ Cup winner Artie Schiller is adding to El Prado’s “sire of sires” mantle.
Artie Schiller won 10 of 22 starts, including the Breeders’ Cup Mile (defeating Champion Leroidesanimaux and leading Europeans Ad Valorem and Valixir). He also won the G2 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland and the G2 Jamaica H., where he set a new course record for nine furlongs. He won his maiden race at six furlongs on the turf at two. Bottom line: Artie Schiller, like Kitten’s Joy, Â showed tremendous ability on the turf, Â and he clearly relished the eight-to-nine furlong distances.
His dam is the G1 Santa Anita Oaks winner Hidden Light. This is the family of the elite mare Vagrancy (his 5th dam). Other members of this outstanding family include G1 winners Ferdinand, Anees, Switch, and Questing, and sires Elusive Quality (who also has Vagrancy as his 5th dam), Rossini, Distant Relative, and Lydgate.
Artie Schiller proved popular at $15,000 his first season at Hurricane Hall Stud and had just under 100 foals in his first crop. So far, he has four SWs from that crop, including GSWs Mr. Commons and Anne’s Beauty. His second crop has only 70 foals, but so far has three SWs. Recently Artie Schiller was represented by two SWs in North America and was the leading second-season sire in Australia, where he shuttled to Independent Stallions his first two seasons.
His recent SWs include Hammers Terror, who won the one mile (turf) Mystic Lake Derby for owner Terry Hamilton, breeder Chad Austin Reed and trainer Michael Stidham; and Senator Beck, winner of the 8.5 furlong (turf) Desert Vixen S. at Monmouth for owner/breeder Tee N Jay Farm and trainer Timothy Hills. All of his SWs have won on turf, with an additional win on the artificial surface. Four of his eight SWs are Graded SWs. The average winning distance of his progeny is eight furlongs. Two of his progeny did win stakes at two, including the Canadian GSW Anne’s Beauty.
Artie Schiller has five SWs so far in 2012 and has almost $1.9 million in progeny earnings. He is currently ranked ninth on the Third Crop Sire List. Only two stallions (Bernardini and War Front) have more SWs in 2012 than Artie Schiller (First Samurai also has five).
A breeder looking for quality turf runners could not do much better than Artie Schiller.
Artie Schiller stood the 2012 season at WinStar Farm for $10,000. He stands in Australia this year at Emirates Park Stud’s Victorian division, where he is booked full for the 2012 SH season.