Slipper Bloodlines Live On

This quiet achiever sired the dams of three Group winners – two of them Group I- at Randwick last Saturday adding a further dimension to the overwhelming success enjoyed on the day by Darley based stallions past and present.

A Woodlands Stud homebred, Strategic was a brilliant two year-old and Group I winner at three before embarking on a stud career that continued under Darley ownership until his retirement from active duty last year.

Strategic sired the winners of over $43million in prizemoney headed by 28 stakes-winners led by Group I winners Platelet, Mistegic, Strategic News and ill-fated Meurice.

A neat compact chestnut by Zeditave from a daughter of Golden Slipper winning sire Luskin Star, Strategic is a sire who is all about precocious Australian speed lines, his grand-dam Sweet Embrace, a Golden Slipper winner herself, sired by another Golden Slipper winner in Todman.

At a time of year when the Golden Slipper is uppermost in people's minds, it's lovely to see a horse like Strategic – who was an unlucky fifth when favourite in the 1995 edition won by Flying Spur – still relevant in the pedigrees of current major winners.

He sired the dams of the first two fillies home in the Group II ATC Reisling Stakes in French Fern (Lope de Vega IRE) and Quick Feet (Northern Meteor) and then sired the dams of Holler (Commands) winner of the Group I ATC Canterbury Stakes and Le Romain (Hard Spun (USA) (pictured Steve Hart) , winner of the Group I ATC Randwick Guineas.

His efforts have propelled Strategic into 11^th place in the Australian Broodmare Sires List, his five stakes-winners in total also including stakes-winners Missrock and Hursley.

The only broodmare sires to have produced more Australian stakes-winners this season than Strategic are Zabeel (12), Encosta de Lago (10), Flying Spur (9) and Redoute's Choice (8).