Hasahalo completes New Zealand Guineas double for Savabeel
Flying home from the rear of the field Hasahalo (Savabeel) drew clear by four lengths to win last Saturday’s New Zealand 1,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) at Riccarton.
A stakes winner at two last season, Hasahalo relished the dry track to dominate her rivals and give three times champion New Zealand sire Savabeel (Zabeel) his 15th Group One winner and second in the space of a week as on the previous Saturday his son Embellish had impressed in taking the New Zealand 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) over the same course and distance.
Both Classic winners come from powerful female lines and have set Savabeel on a path to his fourth consecutive New Zealand sires’ title this season as he further extends the unmatched influence of his great sire Zabeel (Sir Tristram) on Classic events in both New Zealand and Australia in the past decade.
Hasahalo, linebred to influential females Special (Forli) and Natalma (Native Dancer) as well as to the ubiquitous Northern Dancer (Nearctic), is a NZ$110,000 graduate of the 2016 New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale and was bred in partnership by Waikato Stud, home of her sire, and Mrs Isabel O’Shea, wife of leading Sydney trainer John O’Shea.
Halloween (Encosta De Lago), Hasahalo’s dam, placed as a three-year-old in Australia. Hasahalo is her fifth and best foal after the first two failed to place, her third, Best Jade (Showcasing), became a winner in Singapore and her fourth, Dragon Robe (Alamosa), won in New Zealand last season.
The mare produced in 2015 a brother to Hasahalo named Hasabro (Savabeel), a placegetter at two years in New Zealand this season, and to follow has a 2016 filly by Sacred Falls (O’Reilly).
Hasahalo’s second dam La Lagune (Danehill) won Listed races in Melbourne and Adelaide but her most notable performance was in finishing second to True Jewels (Brief Truce) in the 2001 Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
La Lagune’s unraced daughter Generous Nature (Carnegie) has also worked well when mated to Savabeel, producing Group winners Savvy Nature and Addictive Nature.
A half-sister to Listed winner Make Me A Miracle (Flying Spur), La Lagune is out of American import Commercial Choice (Knights Choice), a winner of nine races in the United States, two of them Listed, and closely related to Johnny D (Stage Door Johnny), champion grass horse and a Grade One winner. Also from the family are Australian Group One winners Titanic Jack (Encosta De Lago) and Sober Suit (Noalcoholic).
New Zealand 2,000 Guineas winner Embellish comes from a female family of equal or greater distinction than that of Hasahalo and like her is linebred to Northern Dancer and is a product of Waikato Stud.
Embellish sold at the same auction as Hasahalo, fetching NZ$775,000 to the bid of David Ellis to go into a syndicate as a potential stallion if he performed at a high level on the track.
Linebred 3m x 4f to Sir Tristram (Sir Ivor), Embellish is a brother to Group One-winning filly Diademe (Savabeel) and to stakes placed Deadly Shadow (Savabeel) and a half-brother to Roop All (Pins), another stakes placegetter.
His unraced dam Bling (O’Reilly) is a sister to stakes placed Irish Nova (O’ Reilly), dam of Sacred Star (Flying Spur), a multiple Group One winner who was ranked as New Zealand’s champion sprinter.
Embellish’s second dam Night Star (Centaine) is a sister to multiple stakes winner Starcent (Centaine), runner–up in the New Zealand 1,000 Guineas and herself a good producer.
Star Of The Knight (Sir Tristram), Embellish’s third dam, was hardly typical of the progeny of her celebrated sire in that she was a speedy, early maturing juvenile who late in her first season of competition won the QTC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) then later captured the QTC Queensland Guineas (Gr 3, 1600m).
There is much depth and quality in this family, other members of which include Vanbrugh (Encosta De Lago), winner of the ATC Spring Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) and now at stud in New Zealand, plus stakes winners Sportsman (Supremo), Hoystar (Danzero), Prisoner Of Love (Canny Lad) and King Of Prussia (Anabaa).