When
this three year-old half-sister to two stakes-winners broke her maiden at Port
Macquarie on Thursday it made my ears prick up but not for the reasons you
think.
Trained by Tracey Bartley, Magic Albert filly Arrossire cast off maiden status at her third start
scoring by a short head over 1000 metres.
A sister to stakes-winner Marchinksi and half-sister to stakes-winner Shepishir, Arrossire is the
sixth winner from terrific producer Elishir, who was retired from stud duties
last year.
Interviewed after the race, Tracey Bartley was quick to tell how satisfying it
was to have bred the horse, had it as a foal and now to see it come out and
win.
And that was when it dawned on me that I have the half-brother to Arrossire
sitting in my paddock at Daybreak Farm.
Elishir has been to a lot of different stallions in her 17 years at stud, but
none better than Snitzel, who is the sire of El Shazzar.
While Tracey Bartley and his partners have had a lot of success in retaining
the progeny of Elishir to race, they elected to sell the colt by Snitzel and he
went to the Magic Millions in the Yarraman Park draft fetching $130,000 to the
bid of Paul Perry.
A big, gangly baby, El Shazzar kept growing and growing and found the
competitive world of racing not to his liking.
After six unplaced starts, he was looking for a new career and Charlotte Manuel
of Bella Lodge, who had spelled and pre-trained him throughout his time as a
racehorse decided to throw him a lifeline.
She offered him a home and sent him to respected eventing rider John Cooper to
be trained as a showjumper and to cut a long story short he is now with us at
Daybreak Farm.
Fully grown at a towering 17.3 hands, El Shazzar is a formidable horse that has
big shoes to fill as my son Jack is riding him to replace his former star pony
Daybreak Prince (14.1 hands) that was sold a few months back.
A kind and gentle horse with a good attitude, El Shazzar might not be the
thoroughbred everyone hopes to breed, but to us he is gold!
Watch his first round in competition for Jack last weekend, just goes to show
there is nothing a Snitzel can't do!