Many of New Zealand's most notable breeders have supported him over the last decade including the famous Dennis Brothers - Tony, Ray, Martin & Joe - who sent their dual Group 1 winner The Jewel (by O'Reilly) to Flying Spur's court in 2006. The result was a filly named The Glitzy One who scored her fourth, and most valuable victory in last Saturday's CJC Great Autumn H. at Riccarton.

Already stakes-placed in the 2011 Otago Breeders' S. LR, The Glitzy One seems capable of achieving black capital status alongside her many illustrious relatives, including The Phantom and The Phantom Chance, who won five Group 1 races between them.

Flying Spur has been represented by 23 winners in New Zealand and five have been stakeswinners, four of them as 2YOs: San Luis (Manawatu Sires' Produce S. G1), Flying Babe & Velasco (both winners of the Matamata Breeders' S. G2), Flying Fulton (ARC Great Northern Foal S. LR, and now a Group winner in Singapore) and Spur Bird (Gore Guineas LR).

In Australia, the 2010/11 season has been excellent for Flying Spur, with five stakeswinners (Vintedge, Satin Shoes, Bliss Street, Gliding and Full of Spirit) and $3.3 million prizemoney taking his lifetime tallies to 85 stakeswinners and earnings of more than $100 million. Of the five active Champion Sires of Australia available to breeders in 2012 he is the least expensive, at a fee $33,000 inc. GST.

Pictured: Florentina as a spring 3YO. (PHOTO: Sportpix)

The David Payne-trained 3YO prevailed by a length to score her second win and become the 89th stakeswinner (17th this season) for her champion sire Redoute's Choice.

Florentina and her half-brother, G1 winner Gathering, are from the Peintre Celebre mare Celebria, who shares her grand-dam Dancing Show with Redoute's Choice. It's also the family of Group 1 winners Umatilla, Hurricane Sky, Platinum Scissors, Al Maher and Manhattan Rain.

Florentina is the third stakes-winner to carry a double cross of Dancing Show, following Shared Reflections and Tranquility. Her full sister made $450,000 at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale when secured by Segenhoe Thoroughbreds.

Redoute's Choice stands the 2012 season at a fee of $137,500 inc. GST.

Racing for the first time since his fourth in January's Magic Millions 2YO Classic, Sizzling (ex Admirelle by General Nediym) was forced wide rounding the turn, but quickly reeled in the leaders and raced clear to win by 4.5 lengths.

"Brilliant," trainer Kelso Wood told AAP from the mounting yard after the race. "That's all I can say. He'll run in the Champagne Classic at Doomben next start then go to the Sires' Produce and the TJ Smith."

Bred by John & Trish Muir's Milburn Creek Thoroughbreds, Sizzling was a $260,000 purchase from Evergreen Stud Farm by bloodstock agent John Foote at last year's Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. The colt's owners include David & Diane Devine who have also enjoyed success with another Wood-trained, Arrowfield-sired stakeswinner, Zero Rock.

Sizzling and G3 winner Dances on Stars are among Snitzel's remarkable tally of 17 Australian stakes performers this season, and Sizzling becomes the 8th stakeswinner for the brilliant son of Redoute's Choice.

Of those 17 current season stakes performers, no fewer than eight are juveniles.

Snitzel stands the 2012 season at a fee of $33,000 inc. GST.

Pictured: Wales & Dominant quinella the race named for their respective sire and grand-sire, Redoute's Choice, at Caulfield today. (PHOTO: courtesy of ANZ Bloodstock News)

The race itself, the $100,000 MRC National Jockeys Trust Redoute's Choice S. 1200m LR, produced the most fitting of quinellas, being won by the champion sire's son Wales from his grandson Dominant (Not A Single Doubt-Melania by Montjeu), both of them first-starters. The Makybe-bred Wales is from Valkyrie Diva, a Jade Robbery half-sister to champion mare Makybe Diva, and was a $310,000 Rogerson Bloodstock purchase from the 2011 Easter Sale for Lloyd Williams and family. He is the 27th 2YO stakeswinner by Redoute's Choice.

Twenty minutes later at Te Rapa in New Zealand 4YO mare Dolmabache (ex Our Echezeaux by Zabeel) steamed home to victory in the Cambridge JC Travis S. 2000m G2. Bred and raced by Peter & Phillip Vela, Dolmabache is a sister-in-blood to 3YO colt Burgundy (ex Grand Echezeaux by Zabeel) who scored his third stakes win in the Cambridge Breeders' S. 1200m G3 earlier on the same card.

The day's results take Redoute's Choice's number of stakeswinners to 88 lifetime (more than 11% of his runners), and 16 during a sparkling season that has also produced his 21st Group 1 winner, Master of Design in the ATC T.J. Smith S. G1 two weeks ago. That total of 16 stakeswinners equals Redoute's Choice's worldwide total for the whole of last season.

Burgundy and Dolmabache are the sixth stakeswinners bred on the Redoute's Choice/Zabeel cross, and the third this season following yet another Vela home-bred, Papilio, successful at Listed Stakes level last month in New Zealand.

Redoute's Choice stands the 2012 season at $137,500 inc. GST.

The 83 foals conceived during Starcraft's solitary English season at Cheveley Park Stud are now five-year-olds and include five stakes performers, among them the Cheveley-bred colt Baschar who broke through for his first stakes victory in last Sunday's Preis von Dahlwitz 2000m LR in Germany. It was the entire's third win in a 12-start career that also features Group 2 and Listed placings at three.

Baschar is the fourth stakeswinner from Belle et Deluree (by The Minstrel), also the grand-dam of the 2010 Champion European 2YO Filly, Hooray.

Pictured: Hallowell Belle running a bold race for third to Master of Design & Rain Affair in the T.J. Smith S. G1 on 14 April. (PHOTO: Bronwen Healy)

Starcraft's Australian daughter 3YO Hallowell Belle continued her sterling work today with a third placing in the ATC James H.B. Carr S. LR - her tenth black type performance in 12 starts this season. Second to Sepoy in last year's Blue Diamond S. G1, Hallowell Belle notched up her first stakes victory in the ATC Darby Munro S. LR last month, and has been third in all her three starts since then, including the ATC T.J. Smith S. G1.

Her efforts, and those of stakeswinners Celebrity Girl and Perfect Punch have put Starcraft among the season's top ten Australian 3YO Sires with earnings of almost $1.4 million.

Starcraft's current 2YOs - there are only 23 of them - have been quietly getting on with business, with three winners from four to race, most recently the filly Stella Lante (ex Villa Lante by Filante), successful at Morphettville on 14 April.

Starcraft stands the 2012 season at a fee of $27,500 inc. GST.

Thoroughbred horse breeding's endless quest for quality has something in common with the search for mineral riches, buried deep in the earth's vastness.

Pictured: Redoute's Choice's grand-daughters Streama (blue, red & white colours) and Aliyana Tilde complete a one-two finish in today's Australian Oaks G1. (PHOTO: Sportpix).

Just as there are miners who find those riches more often than others, so there are stallions whose success rate consistently exceeds the average by a significant margin.

In the case of Redoute's Choice, his 11% stakeswinners-to-runners ratio puts him in a class of his own, and today 5YO Metallurgical (ex Lady Capel by Last Tycoon) contributed to that record with a brave win in the $80,000 QTC Hinkler H. 1200m LR. He is Redoute's Choice's 14th stakeswinner worldwide this season, and the eighth bred on the Redoute's Choice/Last Tycoon cross.

Bred by Gerry Harvey and offered under his Baramul Stud banner at the 2008 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale, Metallurgical was purchased by Patinack Farm for $2.2 million, the equal highest price of the sale. He is a three-quarter brother to Group 1 winner Casino Prince (by Flying Spur), currently Australia's leading First Season Sire.

Metallurgical has now won six of his 26 starts, and had previously posted three stakes placings and a fourth in last spring's VRC Salinger S. G2.

Four sire sons of Redoute's Choice made a good day even better with a Group 1 double at Randwick, and three new stakeswinners.

The 2011 running of the Australian Oaks 2400m G1 was won by the Redoute's Choice filly Absolutely. Today the $550,000 Patinack Farm-sponsored renewal was quinella-ed by Redoute's Choice's paternal grand-daughters, Streama (by Stratum) and Aliyana Tilde (by Snitzel). It was Streama's second Group 1 victory, and the second Group 1 placing for Aliyana Tilde, bred and sold by Arrowfield at the 2010 Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale.

Earlier in the day at Randwick, Not A Single Doubt notched up his 9th stakeswinner, 2YO filly Single Style.

And in Adelaide, Snitzel gained his 26th stakes performer when talented 4YO Sheila's Star finished a very close second in the $80,000 SAJC City of Adelaide H. 1400m LR.

The day's final highlight was God's Own becoming the 10th stakes-siring son of Redoute's Choice, with a two-state double by Utah Saints at Caulfield and Balzeus at Morphettville.

Redoute's Choice, the Leading Sire by average since 2005 at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, stands the 2012 season at a fee of $137,500 inc. GST.

Pictured: Single Style bounds to her first stakes victory at Randwick this afternoon, taking her three-start career prizemoney close to $90,000. (PHOTO: Sportpix)

Jockey James McDonald positioned Single Style just behind the leader Driefontein during the running and launched a challenge just after the turn. Driefontein fought gamely under her topweight of 60.5 kg, but Single Style's persistence paid off with a last-stride victory by a head, with Meidung a half-length back in third place.

Single Style was bred by Queenslander John Lynch from the Spartacus mare Furla, and is a three-quarter sister to Not A Single Doubt's Group 3-winning son Doubtful Jack. It's an admirable family descending from the wonderful racemare Chicquita that has made good use of its recent opportunities: Group 1-placed stakeswinner Curtana is another talented relative.

Furla is also the dam of stakes-placed winner Fab Fevola, and Single Style's brother Pixiu (four wins), and is once again in foal to Not A Single Doubt.

Trainer Gary Portelli, who purchased Single Style for $150,000 from the Esker Lodge draft at the 2011 Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale, was full of enthusiasm for the filly after today's win, her second from three starts.

“I put my reputation on her. I would not like to say that a horse is a black type horse before they go in, but I almost guaranteed this one and I don’t do that too often.

“I thought at the weights we had a show against Driefontein, particularly if it was dry, but when it was wet, I thought, well, I know she goes through it, but she doesn’t really like it. So for her to win under these conditions today, means there is plenty of upside to her.”

Single Style is Not A Single Doubt's sixth stakeswinner worldwide in 2011/12, and his fourth 2YO stakeswinner after Karuta Queen, Single Spice & Cheyenne Warrior. The efforts of his eight juvenile winners this season have put him in 6th position on the Australian 2YO Sires' list, just behind his own champion sire Redoute's Choice and Arrowfield's other brilliant source of early speed, Snitzel.

Not A Single Doubt stands the 2012 season at a fee of $24,750 inc. GST.

Pictured: Shantha's Choice, dam of five stakeswinners, including three Group 1-winning colts. (PHOTO: Katrina Partridge)

However, beyond our gratitude to Shantha's Choice and her owner Mr Muzaffar Yaseen for producing Arrowfield's champion sire Redoute's Choice and young stallion Manhattan Rain, we share the Australian thoroughbred industry's appreciation of the lifetime achievement of a truly extraordinary broodmare.

Bred in 1992 by the Evening Star Breeding Venture, Shantha's Choice was purchased by Mr Yaseen for $220,000 at the 1994 Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale, in the wake of her two Group 1-winning half-brothers Umatilla & Hurricane Sky. It was an investment Shantha's Choice was to repay many times over, although she won only the first of her two raceday starts, and none of her progeny was offered for sale at public auction.

Sent to champion sire Danehill in the spring of 1995, she foaled a strapping bay colt on 15 August 1996. The 102 foals by Danehill born that year also included Group 1 winners Blackfriars, Catbird & Emerald Dream and Group 3 winners Commands & Cullen, but Redoute's Choice was unquestionably the star of the crop, winning the Blue Diamond S. G1 at his second start, an epic Caulfield Guineas G1 and two other Group 1 races in a stellar racing career.

Redoute's Choice has maintained that alpha status at stud, as the exceptional champion sire of 86 stakeswinners (21 Group 1 winners), with an ambitious bunch of sire sons and broodmare daughters rapidly building his own dynasty.

Shantha's Choice went on to deliver another 12 foals in the following 14 years, among them two more Group 1 winners Platinum Scissors (by Danehill) and Manhattan Rain (by Encosta de Lago), Group 3 winner Sliding Cube (by Rock of Gibraltar) and stakeswinner Echoes of Heaven (by Encosta de Lago). Another two foals, Superior Sateen & Monsoon Wedding were stakes performers, while Choice Song was a three-time winner.

In perfect broodmare fashion, Shantha's Choice's first four foals were colts, and her last three are fillies: 3YO Ten Carat Rock (by Rock of Gibraltar), the yearling Taste of Heaven (by Encosta de Lago), and 2YO The Broken Shore (by Hussonet), placed in three of her four starts this season. This trio, as well as Shantha's Choice's earlier daughters Monsoon Wedding, Sliding Cube and Unspoken Choice have all been retained by Mr Yaseen's Teeley Assets Ltd.

The likely sources of Shantha's Choice's prepotency are not hard to find. She was by a wonderful great-grandson of Star Kingdom out of a Nijinsky mare that left two Group 1-winning and -siring sons, Umatilla (33 SW) & Hurricane Sky (19 SW), and several other fine broodmare daughters.

Shantha's Choice was also a tail-female descendant of Best in Show, the 1982 US Broodmare of the Year described as one of the most important thoroughbreds of the past half-century. The role of Shantha's Choice as a key link between her illustrious great-granddam and the family's success in the next half-century is already assured.