With graduates including G1 Golden Slipper winner and G1 Vinery Stakes 3rd Fireburn, Silverdale Farm has quickly established a strong reputation as a leading boutique breeding operation. This is set to be underscored again by an exciting draft of eight quality youngsters at the 2023 Easter Yearling Sale.
The highlights of the Silverdale Farm draft are a pair of superbly bred fillies with the physiques to match their glittering pedigree pages.
The first is a daughter of Via Africa, a mare who was a star on the racetrack and from just three foals of racing age has already produced a Group 1 winner.
Her latest offering, a filly by emerging young stallion The Autumn Sun, could be her next.
Crowned South Africa’s champion sprinter in the 2013-14 season, Via Africa was a three-time Group 1 winner in her homeland and missed a place just once in six top-flight starts.
The yearling filly is a three-quarter sister to the 2021 Group 1 Golden Rose victor In The Congo, a winner at two who placed against the older sprinters in The Galaxy as an autumn three-year-old and has amassed prizemoney earnings of more than $1.75 million. Via Africa has left four-time Hong Kong winner Pleasant Endeavour.
The Autumn Sun stands at renowned thoroughbred nursery Arrowfield Stud and while his oldest progeny are only two, the multiple Group 1 winner has already produced his first stakes winner in Autumn Ballet. She created history by becoming the first horse to win the Group 3 Black Opal Stakes at Canberra on debut. Another of his progeny, Tulsi Group, is Group 1 placed.
Silverdale Farm Stud Manager, Rob Petith, could not be more chuffed with the daughter of Via Africa. “She is a gorgeous, strong filly, with a massive action. She is just quality all over,” Petith said.
The other standout filly is an I Am Invincible out of Sense Of Hite.
With two winners, including a Group 1 placegetter, from just two foals to race, the Street Sense mare has made a remarkable start as a broodmare, providing a sense of timing for the burgeoning family.
Herself a two-time stakes placegetter, Sense Of Hite’s first foal Acrophobic (by Dissident) is a dual winner who finished a close fourth to Peltzer in the 2020 Group 2 Stan Fox Stakes.
Her second foal Quintessa (by Pierro) was placed behind Godolphin’s Colette in the 2020 Group 1 ATC Australian Oaks and Group 3 Adrian Knox Stakes.
Unsurprisingly, Sense Of Hite’s next offering, a filly by Snitzel, garnered plenty of attention at the 2022 Magic Millions Yearling Sale, snapped up by Cunningham Thoroughbreds for $850,000.
Silverdale proprietor Steve Grant is excited about Sense Of Hite’s latest progeny, and the depth of the blossoming family coming through.
“Sense Of Hite had a Snitzel filly sold in 2022 to Cunningham Thoroughbreds which also purchased her first foal, Quintessa, who has foaled a colt by Capitalist and was covered last spring by Snitzel.”
“Buyers can be assured that this is a family on the move, with a Snitzel weanling and the mare in foal to red-hot sire Zoustar,” Grant said.
Not only is Sense Of Hite producing high-class offspring, she boasts a pedigree littered with black-type performers. She is out of Group 2-placed Fuji Kiseki mare Authoress, a half-sister to Listed winners Etymology, Whitlam and Dirty (dam of stakes winner Happy Go Plucky and stakes placegetter Cabeza De Vaca).
Sense Of Hite’s half-sister Storytime (by Savabeel) was a multiple stakes placegetter who was bought for $575,000 by Yulong Investments at the 2020 National Broodmare Sale.
Silverdale is thrilled to be offering both a colt and filly by Extreme Choice, two of just six catalogued lots by the in-demand stallion.
Extreme Choice is producing stakes horses at a strike rate of 21.5% including 2021 Golden Slipper winner Stay Inside and two-time Group 1 winner She’s Extreme, so it’s no surprise that demand for his progeny outstrips supply.
The Extreme Choice colt is out of Zizou mare Brave Soldier and bred on the same Extreme Choice/Mr Prospector nick as Group 2 winner Tiger Of Malay. Equally impressive is his daughter out of Shaft mare Russian Ruby, who has thrown to her sire with a great action typical of the breed.
She is among five fillies being offered by Silverdale Farm along with a pair of Deep Field youngsters, one out of Savabeel mare and Group 1 placegetter Endean Rose, and another out of Tatcee, a three-time metropolitan winner by noted broodmare sire Foxwedge.
Colts include a yearling by Written Tycoon out of Snitzel mare, Snitzel’s Goddess, and a handsome son of Snitzel from Group 2 placed Snogging, a daughter of I Am Invincible. Petith spoke positively about the Snitzel colt:
“The Snitzel x Snogging colt is a fantastic first foal, it really gives us confidence when a mare produces such a quality first foal that she will go on to great things. Loads of Snitzel about this colt, with a masculine strong head and big action.”
Silverdale Farm prides itself on setting its yearlings up for life, providing them with quality education, feeding regimes and individualised care, so buyers can be assured every lot offered has been given the foundation for success.
