Not only can Blue Gum Farm's Flying Artie get a winner - but he can get an extra smart one, as highlighted by the recent Royal Ascot excess enjoyed by his fast and talented daughter Asfoora.
Being prepared for his eighth season at stud and his second at Blue Gum Farm, the G1 Coolmore Stud S. winner Flying Artie has been in the headlines with Asfoora outclassing her rivals in the G1 King Charles III S. at Royal Ascot.
She is one of the six stakes winners Flying Artie sired from his debut crop, one which also produced the G1 Blue Diamond S. and G1 Canterbury S. winner Artorius who also performed with distinction at the Royal Ascot meeting.
Also from that first Flying Artie crop is the talented Chris Waller trained Democracy Manifest who in mid-March won the G2 Ajax S. prior to a luckless run in the G1 Doncaster H. Doing a great job winning nine of his 26 starts and over $950,000 in stakes, he also won last year's G3 Cameron H.
Debut crop in form
Another horse who knows how to find the line is the Hawkes trained Flying Crazy - the well travelled triple Listed (in Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane) winner who had no luck in yesterday's Listed Civic S. at Warwick Farm.
The New Zealand based Fierce Flight is another good advertisement for the Flying Artie breed, in the Te Akau colours winning six races including the Listed Hawke's Bay Cup.
“The New Zealand based Fierce Flight is another good advertisement for the Flying Artie breed, in the Te Akau colours winning six races including the Listed Hawke's Bay Cup.”
Listed Dulcify S. winner Giannis - who was game in defeat when second to Converge (Frankel {GB}) in the G1 J.J Atkins S. - is also a member of Flying Artie's debut crop who are now five.
72 of his 109 runners from his first year are winners, six in stakes company with another three being stakes placed.
His second crop - now four - has yielded 49 winners from 72 runners including this year's all the way Listed Canberra National Sprint winner Coin Toss who also enjoyed good success in Singapore where, with two Listed victories, he was one of that jurisdiction's best three-year-olds.
Talented Perth sprinter Vast Art, meanwhile, has won five races including the Listed Raconteur S.
Whilst Flying Artie was a high class two-year-old, he is a member of the Sadler's Wells (USA) sire line, one whose members traditionally improve with time and maturing and Flying Artie's progeny are proving versatile in that he has early comers and horses who get better with age.
Naturally gifted
“Flying Artie was a naturally gifted horse,” Blue Gum's Sean Dingwall said, “and whilst he ran so well at two he was undoubtedly a better horse at three.
“He earned the title of World Champion 3YO Sprinter which was indicative of his ability,” he added, pleased with the start the 'still young' (he is ten) horse has made at stud.
“From a results perspective he is doing extremely well and is not far behind Dundeel (NZ) in regards to prizemoney per runner.
Flying Artie | Image courtesy of Sportpix
“He can get you a Group 1 winning two-year-old or a horse who races on over more ground.”
Artorius won the G1 Blue Diamond S. at his third start and was still racing well - overseas - at four. Asfoora on the other hand did not race till three and has struck career peak form at five.
Flying Artie's stakes winners have been successful over a variety of distances between 1000m and 2200m with winners up to 2450m and Dingwall is confident that he will continue to prove a versatile stallion.
“From a results perspective he is doing extremely well and is not far behind Dundeel (NZ) in regards to prizemoney per runner.” - Sean Dingwall
“As is the norm with his sireline he is going to get horses who can get over a bit of ground as as his next crops come through and get older we are going to see more and more of that sort of success.
“If you are buying racehorses, he is a great option as he can get you a very, very good horse and I don't think that there are any boundaries to the sort of horse he can sire.”
Underrated Artie Schiller
One of the 58 stakes winners and five Group 1 winners sired by another underrated stallion in Artie Schiller (USA), the G1 Breeders' Cup Mile winner who struck a couple of costly snags during his stud career, Flying Artie was bred by John Shannon.
Now retired, Artie Schiller sired Flying Artie in his sixth and biggest Australian season. He did a good job overall with an excellent 71.1 per cent winners-to-runners strike rate - and 5.2 per cent stakes winners.
Artie Schiller (USA) | Image courtesy of Stockwell Thoroughbreds
Flying Artie's dam is the Listed Bow Mistress S. winning John Moloney trained Flying Ruby (Rubiton) who showed a good turn of foot with her barnstorming finishes seeing her win five races from 1200m to 1600m.
Group 3 placed on three occasions, she may not have had the class of her dam's superstar half-brother Better Loosen Up (Loosen Up {USA}) but she had his get back and charge home racing style.
All seven of Flying Ruby's foals have made it to the track and all have been winners including the very tough Belflyer (Bel Esprit) - a stakes placed winner of 14 races including the rich Kosciuszko.
Flying Ruby | Image courtesy of Sportpix
Sadly Flying Ruby died last year with her final foal (her first in five years) being a The Autumn Sun yearling colt.
Flying Ruby is one of the eight winners produced by Parkhill's Flyer (Brigand {USA}) whose dam Better Fantasy (Better Boy {Ire}) who was the last filly sired by her four times Australian Champion Sire.
Breeding history
A nice bit of breeding history there, especially as she went on to produce Better Loosen Up - the 1990/91 Australian Horse Of The Year and Australian Racing Hall of Fame member who was so brilliant winning 17 of his 45 starts; eight of those at Group 1 level including the WS Cox Plate and the Japan Cup.
“My best and favourite horse, a true champion,” David Hayes said after that great galloper passed away at the grand old age of 30 at Living Legends in 2016.
Better Loosen Up | Image courtesy of Sportpix
Flying Ruby's third foal, the Mick Price trained Flying Artie was one of the best two-year-olds of his year, at his debut in the G3 Maribyrnong Plate at Flemington on Derby Day finishing a game second off a slow start.
Given a bit of time, he reappeared in a G3 Blue Diamond Prelude at Caulfield the following February - racing greenly out wide but still proving too good for the talented Star Turn.
“It was a very good win because he was caught a little bit wide,” his jockey Damien Oliver reported.
Damien Oliver | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
“I had to peel off and go a little bit early but I like the way that he really knuckled down in the straight and chased down the second horse.”
On the strength of that performance Flying Artie was amongst the favoured runners in the G1 Blue Diamond S., a race in which he ran into his talented stablemate Extreme Choice - after swinging widest into the straight charging home for an eye-catching second.
From there it was on to the G1 Golden Slipper S. where he was once again competitive finishing third behind Capitalist.
All the stronger as a spring three-year-old, Flying Artie did a bit wrong when resuming in the G3 Blue Sapphire S. but was able to easily put his rivals away - a good hit-out in preparation for his crack at the G1 Coolmore Stud S.
A dynamic win
Despite his excellent form Flying Artie was not amongst the favourites, the Flemington sprint as always attracting a stellar field with Astern, Extreme Choice and Star Turn the most fancied runners.
But again Flying Artie was too good, jockey Hugh Bowman describing the horse's turn of foot as “dynamic.”
Flying Artie | Standing at Blue Gum Farm
Retired after just more run as a beaten but hardly disgraced favourite taking on the older horses in the G1 Lightning S. won by Terravista (Captain Rio {GB}) - Flying Artie headed, along with his stablemate Extreme Choice, to Newgate Farm.
With a Group 1 winning two-year-old in his first crop, Flying Artie was quickly off and running but with that horse - Artorius - retiring to Newgate it was decided it would be better to not have father and son at the same stud.
And so Flying Artie made his way to Blue Gum Farm where Sean and Cathy Dingwall and Jason and Melissa Stenning were setting about continuing that Euroa stud's fine tradition of standing quality stallions.
“Flying Artie made his way to Blue Gum Farm where Sean and Cathy Dingwall and Jason and Melissa Stenning were setting about continuing that Euroa stud's fine tradition of standing quality stallions.”
Happy to see the Flying Artie yearlings get into (and sell well at) the better sales, Sean Dingwall said that “mated right he can get you a very nice, commercial type.
“At 16.2hh he is a big horse with plenty of reign and I think that he is really suited by the neater, smaller, pretty types of mares - he puts size and strength into the foals and those sorts of mares tidy them up.”
