Six of the best – Karaka 2026
Here, in lot order, is a look at six likely head-turners at Karaka’s 100th National Yearling Sale, starting Sunday.
Lot 94
br c Proisir – Ruqqaya (Van Nistelrooy)
Trelawney Stud
DOB: 18-09-24
From one of Trelawney’s finest families comes this imposing looking colt who’s a half-brother to two of the farm’s star exports – Grunt (O’Reilly) and Zayydani (Savabeel).
Grunt scored two top tier victories over the Flemington 1600 metres in the Australian Guineas and Makybe Diva Stakes en route to his current Group 1-producing stud career at Yulong, while Zayydani took the VRC’s Matriarch Stakes (Gr 2, 2000m) along with two Listed events.
While dam Ruqqaya won twice up to 2100 metres, the line revolves around second dam Sayyida (Zabeel). She was set to be euthanised after a race accident, but Trelawney’s Cherry Taylor – “heavily pregnant and near hysterical” – begged for her to be saved.
That wasn’t easy, but Sayyida has rewarded Trelawney in spades, becoming New Zealand’s Broodmare of the Year in 2013, thanks mostly to bearing Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) hero and stallion Ocean Park (Thorn Park), plus the dam of two other Group winners.
Her family has been extremely successful, and Taylor has high hopes this colt – part of Trelawney’s “really even” 22-horse draft – can live up to that rich history.
“He’s the colt that is most like Grunt at the same age that we’ve sold out of that mare,” Taylor says. “And that is the one comment people make when he comes out.
“He’s just an athlete. He’s got a great head on him – like the whole Sayyida family – and a good, relaxed walk, with a good overstep.
“He’s just a really balanced horse – not overly big, not small, just a really good even type that walks well and looks like an athlete.”
Lot 138
b c Super Seth – Sombreuil (Flying Spur)
Milan Park
DOB: 14-11-24
Sombreuil may have managed only one country win but so far she’s making an extremely good fist of broodmare life.
Her three runners have all won, and they include the outstanding Savabeel (Zabeel) pair Provence and Damask Rose.
Provence has won three Group 1s – with a timely page update coming through her Captain Cook Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) victory last month – while Damask Rose has reaped NZ$2.2 million in prize-money earnings after taking the Karaka Millions 3YO Classic (RL, 1600m) and the inaugural NZB Kiwi (RL, 1500m) back-to-back early last year.
Yet this colt’s family doesn’t stop there. Second dam Te Akau Rose (Thorn Park) won four stakes races up to Group 2 and threw two stakes performers. Third dam Straussbridge (Straussbrook) won in Listed class and also threw the Group-placed dam of Brutal (O’Reilly), the Doncaster Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) hero who’s now standing at Newgate Farm, as well as the dam of Group 3 winner Cavalry Rose (Charge Forward).
While Provence and Damask Rose have excelled over the mile, Milan Park owner Tony Rider feels Super Seth – who’s off to a flyer for Waikato Stud with four elite-level winners in just his third season of runners – has brought that hot commodity of some extra speed to Sombreuil.
“I think this colt will be more of a 1200 to 1400 metre horse,” says Rider, who’ll present a 17-strong draft at Karaka.
“He’s a very good type. We certainly won’t have a problem selling him. He’s been pretty busy during inspections.
“He’s a late foal being November-born, but he’s a very good type, very athletic, and is really growing into himself.
“He’s probably not as big as others, which I quite prefer. Super Seth can leave some big giants, but this bloke’s not overly big, but he is very well put together.”
Lot 267
br c Super Seth – American Actress (Savabeel)
Waikato Stud
DOB: 17-09-24
From the famed Waikato Stud, and from a family featuring star performers and sires Octagonal (Zabeel) and Kaapstad (Sir Tristram), comes this powerful looking colt.
Super Seth was New Zealand’s champion first and second season sire, taking two-year-old honours in that sophomore season as well, and in only his third season of runners looks bound for a glittering stud career.
And while dam American Actress won one race at Kilmore over 1462 metres, she’s a sister to The Real Beel, who won at Group 2 level and ran second in the Karaka Million 3YO Classic.
Waikato’s Mark Chittick says the well-bred mare is showing a propensity for leaving good types, judging by this colt and his one older sibling.
“He’s a great type from a good young mare, and he’s just come together so nicely,” Chittick says.
“When you look at him, he’s very hard to fault. He looks like a good, top quality horse, and he looks like a nice tidy sort of racehorse that will give you lots of thrills from 1200 to 2000 metres. I think he looks pretty versatile.
“The sire is hot, he’s left four Group 1 winners in the past 12 months. And this colt is a very, very good example of the best Super Seths on the ground.
“The mare is from a nice family that keeps producing. Certainly if she continues to leave them like this one, she’ll be one of our topline mares in the future I’m sure.”
The colt’s fourth dam is the elite-winning Marquise (Gold And Ivory), a half-sister not only to Octagonal and Kaapstad but their fellow Group 1 winners Mouawad (Zabeel) and Diamond Lover (Sticks And Stones).
Marquise also bore elite-level victor Shower Of Roses (Zabeel) and the dam of another one in Hiyaam (High Chaparral).
Lot 336
ch f In The Congo – Caserta (Hussonet)
Ardsley Stud
DOB: 10-10-24
This filly’s page started to glow even before she was born – thanks to her star half-brother War Machine (Harry Angel).
Soon after the filly’s conception, War Machine rattled off an ultra-impressive winning hat-trick culminating in the Bendigo Guineas (Listed, 1400m).
And in the months following her birth, the Hayes Brothers’ gelding unfurled another winning streak – four in a row this time including Eagle Farm’s Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1, 1400m).
War Machine could give this filly’s page another boost ahead of Karaka this Friday night, as he chases a fifth stakes win at start 17 as a raging odds-on favourite in the Australia Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at Pakenham.
There’s the promise of speed aplenty in this filly as well, given she’s by Newgate Farm’s first season sprinting sire In The Congo (Snitzel), not only an elite-level winner of the Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m), but a three-quarter brother to unbeaten sensation Autumn Glow (The Autumn Sun).
The filly’s dam Caserta has had five winners – three at city level – from five runners, and Ardsley Stud’s Jim Wallace says she’s hatched another stunner this time around.
“She’s an absolutely outstanding filly – a studmaster’s dream,” Wallace says. “She’s got everything in the right places.
“She’s strong and powerfully built, a real Australian-style, sprinting type filly. She certainly more than justifies the added expense of sending Caserta to Australia to In The Congo. We’re absolutely delighted with the result we’ve got.
“Physically she just looks like a rocket ship. She’s got great strength behind, where you want it, she’s correct in front, nice and tidy – just a really good specimen.
“She’s got a lovely temperament, her mother’s doing a great job, and she should go early.”
Lot 513
b c Sword Of State – Las Brisas (Shamardal)
Cambridge Stud
DOB: 08-09-24
One of Cambridge Stud’s most glorious success stories of recent years has been the Joe Pride-trained Ceolwulf (Tavistock), the four-time Group 1 winner of almost $11 million.
Here’s someone’s chance to go home with his half-brother, an impressive looking colt by Sword Of State (Snitzel), Cambridge’s exciting young sire who’s off to a hot start with three winners from his first eight runners. They include Australian black-type victor Torture, and the two-from-two colt Warwoven, who was favourite for last Saturday’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) before being scratched.
This colt is the fourth living foal of unraced British mare Las Brisas, whose page is littered with black type including Irish and English Oaks (Gr 1, 1m 4f) winner Moonstone (Dalakhani) and fellow elite-level victors Full Count Felicia (War Front) and Wellington (All Too Hard).
While there could be fewer finer advertisements than Ceolwulf, the fact this colt is by sprinter Sword Of State promises a touch more dash than is found in that son of Tavistock (Montjeu), with Ceolwulf excelling in the 1600 metre to 2000 metre range.
“It’s all very well to have a Group 1 producing mare and the right stallion, but you’ve got to get the right type of horse – and this bloke is,” says Cambridge’s sales and nominations manager Scott Calder. “He’s a horse people are going to be drawn to physically.
“He’s a good medium-sized type, a masculine horse with a good bit of muscle. Sword Of State has probably made him look a bit more forward and precocious than Ceolwulf at the same age. And of course he does have that real strength of pedigree behind him as well.
“Physically, it looks like he’d have more zip than Ceolwulf, but one of the big attractions with him is his temperament.
“Warwoven seems to be a horse who’s inherited that temperament, and that’s something we’ve seen with this colt. For people looking to buy a horse at that level, he seems to have the mindset to stay a colt.”
Lot 521
b c Satono Aladdin – Lilahjay (Tavistock)
Wentwood Grange
DOB: 04-10-24
Dam Lilahjay’s six runners have all been winners, which is great in itself, but takes on extra proportions when it’s realised one of them is called Mr Brightside (Bullbars).
That winner of ten Group 1s needs no introduction, but the glaring oddity about him is that he’s the outlier for a stallion no one would otherwise have heard of, with Bullbars siring three stakes winners from 110 runners.
This time, Lilahjay has gone to a sire whose quality looks assured – Satono Aladdin (Deep Impact).
Rich Hill’s Japanese shuttler was New Zealand’s champion 2YO and second season sire in 2023, and now has ten individual stakes winners in the country from just 78 runners, at 12.8 per cent. He has this season blasted into the top ten on the general sires’ table.
This colt has already had to conquer adversity. With Lilahjay dying soon after his birth, breeder Ed Sheather sent him to Wentwood Grange to be raised by a mare who’d lost a foal on the same day.
The product is a sizeable colt who, Wentwood Grange’s co-owner Sean Hawkins says, would have attracted plenty of interest at Karaka regardless of who his half-brother was.
“He’s a big boy, and he’s going to furnish into a lovely big strong horse, and perhaps more of a three-year-old type,” says Hawkins, whose farm has a 42-strong draft.
“There’s plenty of scope to him, he’s leggy, and he’s a nice, free-moving horse; pretty classy.
“He’s a striking colt, he’s got presence, and he’s prepped up really well. He’s already been getting a lot of attention at the complex, plus Satona Aladdin is doing a great job.”