Skyhook: the numbers behind a stallion prospect
Skyhook won Saturday's G2 Theo Marks Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill, leading throughout from barrier 13 under 56kg and holding off Magnatear by 1.15 lengths. He ran 1:15.52 on a Good 4 with a last 600m of 33.67, started the $2 favourite, and his rating moves to 108.
The win itself was expected. What it did to his profile is the part worth looking at.
Group winner at 2, 3 and 4
Skyhook has now won Group races in each of his three seasons: the G3 Pago Pago at two, the G3 Hawkesbury Guineas and G3 Gunsynd Classic at three, and the G2 Theo Marks at four.
We checked that against every Australian-bred stallion currently standing in Australia. Six of them did it before retiring. The rest either did not race on, did not win at Group level early, or did not hold their form across three preparations.
Every win a stakes win
Career record: 14 starts, 5 wins, 2 seconds, 2 thirds, $1,003,960 in prizemoney. All five wins came in stakes company, across 1100m to 1600m, and he has been placed in the G2 Skyline, G2 Run to the Rose and G3 Fred Best Classic. He ran seventh in the Golden Slipper and fourth in the Golden Rose.
The sire line
Skyhook is by Written Tycoon, now 24, whose sons are established as a sire line in their own right. Eleven of them are active at stud in Australia and New Zealand, at fees up to $110,000, and between them they have sired more than 60 stakes winners.
Written Tycoon over Redoute's Choice mares has produced 4 stakes winners from 76 runners, a 5.3% strike rate. Skyhook is the most recent.
The family
His dam Madame Pauline (Redoute's Choice) is a half-sister to three stakes winners out of Madame Andree (War Emblem): Anders (Listed Rosebud, G3 San Domenico), Ostraka (G3 Silver Eagle, Listed Queensland Day Stakes) and Caffe Florian (Listed Gosford Guineas). Skyhook is her first foal to race. She has a 2yo by Shalaa and a yearling by Dundeel.
What comes next
Skyhook is in work with Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou and heads towards the $10 million Golden Eagle (1500m) at Rosehill, a race restricted to four-year-olds.
The stallion case
The numbers make the argument: precocious enough to win at Group level as a two-year-old, good enough to keep doing it at three and four, and bred on a cross and from a family that are both producing stakes winners right now. What the numbers do not show is the horse himself. Skyhook has a temperament his trainers rate as faultless and an appetite for racing that has not dimmed across three preparations. For an elite farm looking for a son of Written Tycoon with speed, soundness and a current pedigree, he ticks every box, and he is still adding to the record.