‘He has a lot of good prospects on the horizon’- Future’s bright for Newhaven’s Cool Aza Beel
Newhaven Park is expecting a surge in interest in their young sire Cool Aza Beel (Savabeel) on the back of the deeds of his son Cool Archie, who claimed his second stakes win in Saturday’s Spirit Of Boom Classic (Gr 2, 1200m) at Doomben.
But Newhaven will resist the temptation to increase Cool Aza Beel’s service fee this year, as it prepares for a significant increase in the number of mares booked to him.
Seven-year-old Cool Aza Beel – New Zealand’s Champion 2YO of 2020 – has stood for $16,500 (all fees inc GST) in his four seasons since retiring to Newhaven. He covered books of 114 and 121 in his first two springs, before standard decreases – to 99 and 76 – while breeders waited for his first crop to hit the tracks.
That has now occurred this season in eye-catching style, which also augurs well for his 16 yearlings to be offered at the Magic Millions Gold Coast National Yearling Sale early next month.
The Chris and Corey Munce-trained Cool Archie has won three from seven – with a hat-trick this campaign following a second in December’s BJ McLachlan Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) and an eighth from gate 15 in the Gold Coast Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m).
Another Cool Aza Beel colt, Waterhouse-Bott’s Cobra Club, ran a 0.34 length second to Within The Law (Lucky Vega) on debut in Randwick’s Inglis Nursery (RL, 1000m), while gelding Gable is a winner in Victoria and filly Cool Aza Rene has won twice in New Zealand.
Cool Aza Beel sits sixth on the Australian first season sires’ charts, with three winners from 15 runners. The table is headed by Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon), who’ll stand for $99,000 this year, ahead of Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), who’ll stand for an Australian record of $375,000.
Next comes Farnan (Not A Single Doubt), at $77,000, Lucky Vega (Lope De Vega) at $38,500, and Graff (Star Witness), whose 2025 fee is yet to be announced, but who stood for $9,900 last year.
Newhaven boss John Kelly said he was delighted with Cool Aza Beel’s early strides, but said the stud would not be seeking a higher fee this spring.
“We’ve been very pleased with the way Cool Aza Beel has been going,” Kelly told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Cool Archie’s been the flagbearer, but Cobra Club looks very smart, and Cool Aza Rene won her first two starts in the spring but then had a mishap on the track and wasn’t able to come back for the autumn.
“So we’ve been very encouraged with Cool Aza Beel’s results. And if you look at the first season sires’ table, all of those above him except Graff have substantially bigger service fees, and a couple below him do as well.
“But, that said, we’re going to be conservative with his fee this year. There won’t be a bump. We want the breeders to have an opportunity to do well with us, so he’ll be staying at the same fee.”
In a career restricted to just six starts for four wins, Cool Aza Beel became the first Group 1 winning two-year-old son of the mighty Savabeel (Zabeel), when he took out Ellerslie’s Sistema Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) in 2020.
While that speaks of his own precocity, it also hints at the track record of Savabeel’s stock for growing better as they mature – something Kelly expects from Cool Aza Beel’s own offspring.
“We love that he’s getting these two-year-old runners and winners – that’s just very encouraging for him,” Kelly said.
“But you’d be disappointed if the best that a son of Savabeel had to offer in his progeny was in the autumn of his first two-year-old season. As they turn three, they’ll keep improving.”
Cool Aza Beel, who also landed the rich Karaka Million 2YO (RL, 1200m), could be expected to cover a vastly increased book this year now that his first crop had hit the track, Kelly said.
“He can’t cover any more than 120, that’s the limit, but I’d say it’ll be a much bigger book than the 76 he had last year,” Kelly said.
“He’s continued to cover good quality books of mares. We’ve continued to support him heavily, and he’s got a good syndicate behind him who have supported him well.
“There’s been a fair bit of interest in him so far for this year, so it’s looking good. He’ll be very competitive price-wise [fee] with all the horses that he’s on the first season sires table with, so that’ll help him a lot.”
Only two sons of nine-time champion New Zealand sire Savabeel stand at stud in Australia – and Newhaven has them both.
Alongside Cool Aza Beel is Mo’unga (Savabeel), who covered 88 mares at $27,500 in his debut season last year.
And while that makes two of Newhaven’s three stallions – beside a third New Zealand-bred in Xtravagant (Pentire) – Kelly is bullish about the mix.
“We consider it an advantage to have two sons of Savabeel, not a disadvantage,” he said. “If you had two sons of Redoute’s Choice or Danehill at your farm, you wouldn’t think it was a problem.
“So we think having the two of them, they’re great options to breed our mares to and for Australian breeders to breed to. Savabeel’s such a terrific sire, and he’s Danehill free, so it’s great outcross potential.
“We just think it’s wonderful blood to be able to bring to Australia. Redoute’s Choice mares and Danehill-line mares – all that blood goes so well with Savabeel.”
Newhaven will offer nine of the Cool Aza Beels at the Gold Coast in the first week of June.
Kelly said the young sire also had a series of exciting other prospects coming up.
A yearling sister to Cool Archie, Sentient, is in the Sunshine Coast stable of Jack Bruce, while their dam Aware (Tale Of The Cat) now has a weanling brother to the pair and is back in foal to Cool Aza Beel.
And Cool Archie’s half-sister Mietta (I Am Invincible) – who was forced to retire after winning two from three – has a weanling colt by Cool Aza Beel and is back in foal to him.
Newhaven also has what Kelly calls “a really nice” filly first foal weanling by the stallion out of Miss Hipstar (Star Turn) – who won five races including the Dalrello Stakes (Listed, 1000m), the same event Cool Archie won two starts ago.
Croughavouke (Dandy Man) – an Irish-bred mare who was stakes placed four times in the US – also has a weanling filly by Cool Aza Beel.
And My Choisir (Choisir) has yearling and weanling fillies by the stallion and is back in-foal to him.
“So I think Cool Aza Beel has a lot of good prospects on the horizon,” Kelly said. “He’s continued to cover good quality books of mares all the way through.”
The fees for Newhaven’s three-strong roster will be announced later this week.