Champion Criterion is a close relation to Lot 296 (pic: Mark Gatt)

If carrying the weight of history on its shoulders is an overwhelming impost, you’d never know it about Luskin Park Stud. The breeding ground of champion juvenile Luskin Star – still the benchmark for many – continues to be a producer par excellence under the direction of principal Paul Whelan.

Such is the esteem in which Luskin Park’s yearlings are held, at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale the property achieved Gold Medal status when finishing with the highest vendor average against the creme of Australia's yearling consignors. The farm is not just adept at selling high profile yearlings or Gr1-winning graduates like Foxwedge (now a key stallion) and Classic Rock. Whelan is also a founding owner of Gr1 Coolmore Stakes hero Flying Artie, rated Best 3YO Sprinter in the prestigious Longines world racehorse rankings, and now standing at Newgate Farm.

As is par for the course with Luskin Park,  the drafts are never big, and at Inglis Easter this year a trio of blue-blooded youngsters will fly the flag for the boutique vendor.

Lot 106 is by the all-conquering stallion Snitzel who continues to smash his own prize money record every week en-route to a figure that is mind-boggling. Out of a stakes-winning daughter of leading US 2YO Grand Slam who captured both the Gr1 Futurity Stakes & Gr1 Champagne Stakes, this filly is a full-sister to promising 3YO colt Turnberry, and a half-sibling to multiple Sydney winners Charge Missile & Red Dynamite (17 wins between them) and three-time Hong Kong winner Good Companion. It’s a strong American family whose multitude of black-type performers includes Gr1 Del Mar Oaks heroine Sharla Rae.

Big ticket stallion Redoute’s Choice continues to be one of the most sought-after sires at major sales, and Lot 155 is an appealing son of the multiple Champion stallion. A half-brother to four individual winners, the dark bay’s granddam Gourmet Station is a half-sister to Gr1 WA Derby winner Shirazamatazz. He’s a relatively early foal (September) who should come to hand early if the sprint performances of his siblings are any guide.

Great stallion families invariably continue to produce sires of the future, and the peerless Eight Carat family is doing just that courtesy of full-brothers Shooting To Win and Deep Field, both already massively popular as First Crop Yearling Sires of 2018. Winner of the prized stallion-making Gr1 Caulfield Guineas and also third in the similarly lauded Gr1 Golden Rose, Shooting To Win is sire of Lot 296. The August-foaled yearling’s only sibling is already city-placed as a 2YO this season, and they’re out of a Commands half-sister to multiple Group-performed duo Malice and Sanctioned. Although the page is filled with black-type, what really catches the eye is that Gr3-placed grand dam Money Begets Money is a half-sister to prized broodmare Mica’s Pride, dam of multiple Gr1-winning young stallion Criterion, ranked Equal Leading Older Male in 2015’s World Thoroughbred Rankings.