Challenge of the suffixes
Wet weather again impacted New Zealand racing this past weekend. Yet more spring rain caused the northern meeting, at Otaki, to be postponed until later in the week. However, down south, in mid-Canterbury, Ashburton presented a great surface (rated a Good 4) and for once clods of earth were not being showered into the air during the running of races.
Evidence of the welcome conditions was found in the winning time of 1.22.71 for the feature, the Barneswood Farms Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m).
A traditional lead up for the next month’s Group 3YO Classics, the New Zealand Two Thousand (Gr 1, 3200m) and One Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m), the 2025 Barneswood went to Te Akau Racing’s Cool Aza Rene (Cool Aza Beel), one of three runners for the stable. Pre-race, pundits were skeptical that Cool Aza Rene would see out the 1400 metres as all four of her previous wins were at 1000 metres or less. Consequently, she started as fifth favourite with her stablemates rated as better chances.
Third approaching the home straight, Cool Aza Rene was beautifully poised to challenge but upon straightening her rider, Bruno Queiroz, elected to dive through along the inner. There was a gap but it soon closed forcing the rider to tug on the right rein. They emerged from the pocket, found a lane three off the fence and levelled up to the leaders. Nothing was going better at the 100 metres and she was never going to relinquish the lead despite a late run from Alottago (Tagaloa). There was not much between the next four to the line.
Cool Aza Rene’s eight starts have yielded five wins and the daughter of Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner, Australian-based Cool Aza Beel (Savabeel), has banked $171,100, a more than healthy return on the A$55,000 Te Akau’s David Ellis outlayed for her out of Book 2 at the 2024 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
She is her sire’s second stakes winner and the sole winner from her unraced dam, Irene (Xtravagant), herself a half-sister to Melbourne Group 3-placed Mintha (Redoute’s Choice). Her granddam Hades (Encosta De Lago) won in Sydney while her great granddam Hasna (Snippets) was the top Australian 2YO filly of her year, landing six wins as a juvenile and seven in total. Those victories included the second and third legs of the Triple Crown, namely the AJC Sires’ Produces Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and the Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m). She also ran third in the Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), that year won by Polar Success (Success Express).
An intriguing question is: Which son of Champion Sire Savabeel (Zabeel) will continue the Sir Tristram (Sir Ivor) line? At this point, Embellish (Savabeel) has sired four stakes winners. Embellish’s oldest crop are now five whereas Cool Aza Beel went to stud two years later and is also represented by this past winter’s Brisbane star Cool Archie, a $1.6 million earner who claimed the JJ Atkins Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m), the last of his five successive wins.
Although Cool Aza Rene carries the AUS suffix, her sire and her maternal grandsire, Xtravagant (Pentire), are both New Zealand bred and both are domiciled at Newhaven Park in New South Wales.
A slightly alarming statistic to emerge from the Barneswood Stakes is that the first five home were all sired in Australia. Four of the five were foaled in Australia. Third-placed Miss Ziggy (Brazen Beau) was foaled in New Zealand.
This trend is apparent in the upcoming NZB Ready To Run Sale where 114 sires are represented, 72 of which stand in Australia. Of the 480 lots catalogued, 162 (34 per cent) were foaled in Australia. The shrinking New Zealand foal crop is a reality.
Not new
Years and years of inferior stakes money (compared to the riches on offer in Australia) had to have an effect on the local breeding industry. In a double-edged sword, breeders have relied heavily on Australian buyers for their livelihood. This is nothing new. It began nearly 100 years ago, the Australians plucking the plums of the National Yearling Sale.
It is one thing to snare the good colts but the industry cannot survive without breeding stock. Buying the best bred fillies as yearlings is a given. Added to that, the best performed race fillies and race mares also find their way across the Tasman, further weakening the pool. Local owners, trainers and bloodstock agents need to eat too and the tempting offers cannot be ignored.
It is only a snapshot but this past weekend’s Australian Group 1 results provide further proof of the one-way traffic of New Zealand breeding stock.
Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner, Autumn Boy (The Autumn Sun), is from New Zealand-bred Rosegarden (Savabeel), a passed in lot at the 2018 NZB Karaka Yearling Sales (Book 1). Rosegarden, bred by Beltana Stud’s Richard Rutherford never made it to the races. At stud she produced Merchant Navy foals in 2020 and 2021 prior to Autumn Boy. She has since visited Hellbent (I Am Invincible) twice for a colt in 2023 and a filly this spring.
Rosegarden’s dam is the Group 3 and three-times Listed winner O’Reilly Rose (O’Reilly) who ranks as a three-quarter blood sister to Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) victor Shamexpress (O’Reilly), now standing at Windsor Park Stud and who is currently basking in the limelight as the sire of the world’s top sprinter and favourite for this week’s Everest (Gr 1, 1200m), Ka Ying Rising.
Toorak Handicap (Gr 1, 1600) winner Transatlantic (Snitzel) is a son of New Zealand bred Gust Of Wind (Darci Brahma), a graduate of the 2013 NZB Premier Yearling Sale. Gust Of Wind’s premier performance was her Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) in which she took the lead long before they straightened then had the audacity to run clear of the great Winx (Street Cry). Winx won her next 33 starts.
Gust Of Wind’s produce record started patchily, foaling to Snitzel twice in her first four years at stud, Transatlantic, the second of those in 2020. In 2021 she foaled a winning I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) filly named Sensational Wind, so is three from three on the winners. Her colt by Stay Inside (Extreme Choice) came along in 2023 and a Dundeel (High Chaparral) filly followed in 2024. A more appropriate name for Transatlantic might have been Transtasman.
Bubble burster
The third Group 1 of the weekend fell to New Zealand-bred Globe (Charm Spirit), the big boy who burst the bubble of Treasurethe Moment (Alabama Express) in Saturday’s Might and Power Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m). Considering there were just four runners, there was much anticipation simply due to the size of the field and Blake Shinn used all his cunning to get the win.
Globe was expected to lead but his chasers did not expect the pace to drop past the 1000 metres. That was the genius of Shinn who gave his charge a brief rest until the 600 metres where he pushed the button, catching his opponents flat-footed as they rounded into the straight. For a stride or two Treasurethe Moment appeared ready to challenge but Globe shot clear, was full of running and simply too strong.
The seven-year-old Globe took his record to six wins in only 15 starts. He is a graduate of Book 2 of the 2020 NZB Karaka Yearling Sale. Buyers had two opportunities to buy him as he first appeared as a weanling in Cambria Park’s 2019 NZB May weanling sale draft but was passed in. The following January he fetched $22,000 and as a three-year-old landed a trial by more than six lengths before his sale to Australia.
Unbeaten in his first four starts, Globe then experienced minor cardiac arrhythmia. A couple of good spells saw him return to winning form in the Cranbourne Cup (Listed, 1600m) last November. Two seconds and a fourth in open handicaps were his lead ups into Saturday’s upset in which he doubled his previous earnings to $1.2 million. One placing was at Moonee Valley, good experience for what’s next, a possible tilt at the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) on October 25 should connections decide to front up with the late fee. Hasn’t the Cox Plate picture changed in just a few weeks?
He is from the third crop of Charm Spirit (Invincible Spirit) who shuttled to Windsor Park Stud for six seasons before breeders lost interest. The stallion is now domiciled in France but since his last visit to the southern hemisphere he sired dual Group 1 sprinter Shaquille. However, even that has not made much difference as his stud fee is a modest €4,000.
Apart from Charm Spirit, Globe really is an all-New Zealand product because his first three dams are all by New Zealand-bred sires. First dam Bonnie Doon is a daughter of $3.6 million yearling Don Eduardo (Zabeel). His granddam is by the top class racehorse and sire Grosvenor (Sir Tristram) while his great granddam is by another top class runner and leading sire Vice Regal (Bismark II).
The dam of three winners, Bonnie Doon ranks as a sister to Zabeel Classic (Gr 1, 2000m) and Thorndon Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Booming (Don Eduardo) while his great granddam Syrian Sea (Vice Regal) was a Trentham Group 3 winner.
Bonnie Doon’s sixth foal, a colt by Ace High (High Chaparral) is Lot 248 among the draft of Barry Donoghue’s BMD Bloodstock at next month’s NZB Ready To Run Sale.
Honesty rewarded
Sunday’s Rotorua meeting featured the Sweynesse Stakes (Gr 3, 1215m), from which proved that honesty is often rewarded, fittingly in this case to Twain (Per Incanto) whose record is a model of consistency. In 13 starts Twain has recorded seven wins, two seconds, two thirds and two fourths.
Settling sixth, one out, Twain was right behind the leaders rounding into the home straight but took a while to accelerate. From the 200 metres he launched and although he didn’t level up until the 50m he was doing better than anything in the race and the neck advantage at the line did not indicate the ease of his win.
From day one, when he bolted clear on debut at Tauranga in July 2024, we knew that Twain had a future, and so it has proved. Wins at Te Rapa, again at Tauranga and at Ellerslie followed. A five month spell saw him return for two more wins at Te Aroha and Te Rapa where at start four this campaign he started favourite for the Foxbridge Plate (Gr 2, 1200m) resulting in a game fourth. The $80,500 first prize of the Sweynesse Stakes took his earnings to $247,970 and brought to 35 the number of individual stakes winners by Little Avondale Stud’s Per Incanto (Street Cry).
Twain was offered at the 2022 NZB Ready To Run Sale but failed to reach his $200,000 reserve. His dam, Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Fleur De Lune (Stravinsky), won six times and was five times Group 1 placed so she had plenty of ability, which has been passed on to Twain, one of her two winners.