At stud, Golden Eagle, now rising 18, has produced seven winners from eight runners, with the 2011 Caulfield Cup winner Southern Speed her most notable offspring.
Speaking to Crosby last week, we asked him what the main factors in his
decision were to send Golden Eagle to Aquis' first season sire Invader;"Most of her matings to-date have been to middle-distance and staying type horses and with Zabeel mares reacting well to sprint bred stallions the Snitzel line is attractive to us, not to mention the fact that we really liked Invader when he was racing," Crosby revealed.
An outstanding winner of the Group I ATC Sires' Produce Stakes when beating Summer Passage and Trapeze Artist, Invader is the Champion 2YO Colt of his generation and the highest-ever rated 2YO by Champion Sire Snitzel.
Invader's form has been franked by the fact that Trapeze Artist, whom he beat twice at two at Randwick over 1200 and 1400m, has notched up three Group I victories this season in the ATC Golden Rose, the ATC T J Smith Stakes and the ATC All Aged Stakes.
It is Aquis policy not to cover more than 175 mares with any one stallion on their roster and it will come as no surprise to breeders to learn that Invader's book for 2018 is all but full as he has proved extremely popular with commercial breeders in the Hunter Valley with his introductory fee set at $27,500 (incl GST) with payment on live foal terms.
Another factor in Crosby's decision to send the dam of Southern Speed to
Invader is the fact that Group I ATC Champagne Stakes winner Go Indy Go, who is
out of a full-sister to Golden Eagle, had a yearling colt by Snitzel sell for
$1.5million at this year's Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.The colt, purchased by Steve Morley Bloodstock was sold by Kitchwin Hills – a stud all too familiar with the success of the Snitzel/Zabeel cross having stood the ill-fated Time For War.
The Group II ATC Pago Pago Stakes and BRC Sires' Produce Stakes winner Time For War, the Group III MVRC Tesio Stakes winner Lubiton and the Group III MRC Caulfield Guineas Prelude winner Perast, are all bred on the same cross.
From just 30 runners to-date the Snitzel/Zabeel cross has yielded 10% Stakes winners to runners and looks to be one of the most exciting nicks to emerge in recent years from the Australian breeding ranks.
This season's Stakes-placed 2YO Sizzleme is by Snitzel's son Sizzling and out of the Zabeel mare Parnissius, and no doubt as we see more runners by sons of Snitzel hit the tracks, we will see many more stakes horses bred on this emerging cross.
"We really like Invader, he will add speed and precocity to Golden Eagle, we
are very excited about this mating," Rob Crosby concluded. The dam of Golden Eagle is a full-sister to the Champion 2YO and Champion 3YO Filly in Australia in 2000-01 in Ha Ha (Danehill). Ha Ha was a winner of the Group One Golden Slipper and AJC Flight Stakes and no doubt Crosby is hoping that Golden Eagle's mating to Invader will produce another Champion 2YO Filly to continue the line that he has nurtured so well.
