Speedy son of Savabeel looks the real deal
New Zealand’s leading three-year-old Savaglee (Savabeel) is due to touch down in Melbourne on Wednesday afternoon ahead of his bid to become the second Kiwi raider in three years to prize the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) crown from the grasp of the locals.
The bay colt will launch a hit-and-run mission on the $2 million feature, a race won in breathtaking fashion in 2023 by his compatriot Legarto (Proisir), whose jockey Mick Dee is tasked with repeating the dose on Savaglee this Saturday.
Savaglee has cut a swathe through the domestic ranks over the past 12 months, winning the Matamata Slipper (Gr 3, 1200m) as a juvenile before stringing together four straight Group triumphs as a three-year-old, including a 2.8-length stroll in the NZ 2000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) last spring.
That performance at his first start over the mile cemented the colt’s future career as a stallion at The Oaks Stud, whose general manager Rick Williams parted with $400,000 at the 2023 New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale to secure the colt from the draft of his former employers at Waikato Stud.
The Oaks team is content to race him on as a four-year-old before Savaglee joins a roster which includes the likes of Group 1 victors US Navy Flag (War Front), The Chosen One (Savabeel) and Darci Brahma (Danehill) – who finished runner-up behind Apache Cat (Lion Cavern) in the 2006 Australian Guineas – on their Cambridge property.
Williams and co have enjoyed previous success on Australian soil, with Antrim Coast – sired by The Oaks Stud’s stallion Roc De Cambes (Red Ransom) – carrying their royal blue and white silks to victory in the Alister Clark Stakes (Gr 2, 2040m) at The Valley last year, where he was partnered by Dee.
But from both a financial and prestige viewpoint, there is far more riding on Savaglee’s Australian debut at Flemington, where victory would instantly ensure a significant increase on his future service fee.
“It’s difficult to line up the form lines but he would have to be in the top three or four chances,” said Williams, who cited Savaglee’s dynamic gate speed as one of his many strengths.
“His grand final in the spring was the New Zealand 2,000 Guineas, which he won quite easily, so hopefully he can put in another peak performance at his grand final this prep. I think his best distance in the future will be 2000 metres, so I have no concerns about the mile at all. I would prefer a strongly run race because I think that would bring out the best of him, so hopefully there’s some early pressure and he can swoop on them late.
“A win in the Guineas would be a huge addition to his CV, all we’ve done since he started showing promise is to try to build his profile as a stallion. He’s a very sound horse so we’ll race him on next season and I’m sure there will be other opportunities for him further down the line, but clearly if he could knock off the Guineas it would take some of the pressure off.”
Williams was perhaps feeling the pressure when bidding on Lot 210 from the 2023 New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Book 1 reached $400,000, making him the 12th most expensive yearling at that year’s sale.
But having since amassed more than NZ$1 million in racetrack earnings, Savaglee has already more than paid his way and justified the faith placed in him by Williams, who was quick to identify the third foal out of Waikato’s broodmare Glee (O’Reilly) as a clear standout on type.
“If we spend that sort of money it would usually be on a filly, but he was such a lovely colt that we had to dig a little deeper for him,” Williams told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“You could see he still had some maturing to do, but he was just a beautiful horse. He was a very intelligent colt and beautifully balanced. To some judges he was maybe a little bit small, but I never worry too much about that particularly as the Savabeels usually tend to be on the smaller side.
“Waikato is a great farm and Savabeel is one of Australasia’s elite stallions, his statistics are phenomenal so you usually know what you’re buying with him. You still need a bit of luck to go your way and we’ve certainly had it with this colt, because he’s just continued to improve at every step of the way and has a real appetite for racing.”
Savaglee’s trainer Pam Gerard will head across the Tasman Sea from her Matamata base on Thursday to oversee the colt’s final preparations, before dropping in at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale from Sunday.
With a first prize of $600,000 on offer in the Guineas, should Savaglee become the first son of Savabeel (Zabeel) to win Victoria’s premier three-year-old mile contest, Gerard’s ten per cent trainer’s cut could come in very handy at Oaklands Junction, where two colts and a filly by Waikato’s banner stallion are set to go through the ring.
However, the prospect of replenishing her yearling stock is far lower on the priority list than ensuring her stable star is cherry-ripe for the toughest assignment of his 14-start career.
“He’s done a fair bit of travelling around New Zealand during his career, he loves getting on the truck and has flown down to Christchurch so I’m sure the plane journey won’t bother him one bit,” said Gerard who also revealed that Savaglee, despite holding a nomination for the All-Star Mile (Gr 1, 1600m), would almost certainly return home after the Guineas to enjoy a well-earned spell.
“He’s been brilliant against his own age group here in New Zealand, clearly the Australian horses have traditionally been a cut above so he’ll probably have to find a couple of lengths to be competitive with them. But while we respect the opposition, we don’t fear them.
“Running him in the Guineas has been the plan for quite some time now, but when he won the Group 1 it came firmly onto the radar. We sent him for a break after that and he’s really stepped up since he came back, so that has given us the confidence to bring him over and as he’s a colt, we obviously want to give him the best possible chance of making it at stud.
“Because he’s a colt we have to keep his work up, so he had a good solid hit–out on the grass at Matamata on Tuesday morning to get him ready for the Guineas. His work was excellent, so we were able to breathe a sigh of relief afterwards. The horse is as fit and as healthy as he can possibly be, so my work is pretty much done now and hopefully he’s good enough on the day.”
Fresh from partnering Devil Night (Extreme Choice) to glory in last Saturday’s Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), Dee will be chasing a 15th victory at racing’s elite level when he hops aboard Savaglee.
Dee offered his services to ride Savaglee via his close association with Rick Williams’ son Dean, who after a six-month stint working in Ireland for Joseph O’Brien has since found employment as Steve Richards’ stable foreman at Flemington.
“The colt’s form in New Zealand is absolutely exceptional,” said Dee, who is set to return to his native New Zealand on Saturday week to continue his recent association with Lindsay Park’s three-year-old Evaporate (Per Incanto) in the inaugural $3.5 million NZB Kiwi (1500m) at Ellerslie.
“He got beaten by the older horses the other day in the Waikato Sprint, but I thought he still ran a very gallant race that day. It’s probably the same as when Legarto came over, because nobody knew quite how the New Zealand form was going to stack up over here in Australia. But the form that day obviously held up very nicely, so I don’t see any reason why it should be any different this time.
“[Favourite] Angel Capital looks a smart colt, but outside him it looks a fairly even field. After watching his race replays, provided he arrives in good order and settles in well I don’t see any reason why Savaglee couldn’t measure up on Saturday.”