Trelawney Train
Between last Thursday and Saturday, 22 stakes races were scheduled to be run in Australasia. Weather intervened in Queensland reducing the count to 20 and what a mixed bag they were.
On Saturday, New Zealand was represented by two stakes winners at Caulfield and one at Rosehill. However, of the three stakes run at home, two of the three winners are by Australian-based sires All Too Hard (Casino Prince) and Lonhro (Octagonal).
The latter, Pareanui Bay (Lonhro) was, however, foaled in New Zealand and bred by Trelawney Stud whose train shows no sign of slowing. Their green with red sleeves silks have been front and centre of racing, not only around the North Island of New Zealand but also in Melbourne, courtesy of back-to-back stakes by their top class mare Zayydani (Savabeel).
When Trelawney is not adding to the coffers with stakes winners, they also chime in with a healthy sale. Pareanui Bay’s younger half-brother by Savabeel (Zabeel) fetched a most worthwhile $350,000 when purchased by Waikato Bloodstock’s Bryce Tankard at the recent virtual NZB Ready to Run Sale.
Remaining unbeaten after three starts, Pareanui Bay was a warm favourite for the Listed feature but the two fillies, Flash Mary (El Roca) and La Crique (Vadamos), not only made the finish interesting, but both also displayed genuine fighting qualities.
Third placed La Crique led the field into the long Te Aroha straight and could have been excused for weakening. She never lay down, was still fighting with everything she had at the finish and is reminiscent of Showoroses (Showcasing) and that mare’s never-give-in qualities.
Flash Mary’s challenge seemed to stall half way down the straight and she looked beaten at the 100 metres but at the line was taking ground off the winner in a really tough comeback for second.
The winner did what he had to do but proving that horses are not machines, his performance was nowhere near as easy as his previous start when taking out the James & Annie Sarten Memorial (Gr 2, 1400m) at Te Rapa on Labour weekend.
Winning trainer Tony Pike said: “He is the type of horse that won’t generally win races by big margins but he is also the sort that always seems to have something in reserve when you really need it.
“He did the job we expected today, although each day gets a little bit harder as he is now expected to win. He is still green, with plenty of learning to do.”
Pike is having a rethink regarding the three-year-old’s future, perhaps wondering if the New Zealand Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) is the right target, not sure if he is a true Derby horse.
One unknown was overcome in Saturday’s performance, that being his first run right-handed. “That’s another lesson that will be good for him in the long term,” said the trainer. “There is a lot of water to go under the bridge, but a race like the Rosehill Guineas (Gr 1, 2000m) in Sydney during the autumn is a possibility as is the Doncaster Mile (Gr 1, 1600m).”
For Brent and Cherry Taylor, the win merely enhances the quality of their band of broodmares. They appear to have perfected breeding and racing as a combo. It is one thing to breed and sell, leaving others to add the racing element. In their case, they are succeeding at both to improve the quality of the band.
Recent results are undeniable. Group wins by their mares Two Illicit (Jimmy Choux), Cheaperthandivorce (Savabeel) and Zayydani (Savabeel), all within the last few weeks, provide a wonderful foundation for the stud’s ultimate goal of breeding high-class thoroughbreds.
Maintaining that approach, Pareanui Bay’s dam, Okahu Bay (Flying Spur) is a Group 3 winner while his grandam, Acacia Bay (Rodrigo De Triano) is a Syndney-winning half-sister to four stakes winners, headed by Group 1 winner Calveen (Canny Lad).
His third dam, Calvinia (Varick), is a half-sister to South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) winner English Wonder (Twig Moss), the dam of champion Dr Grace (Sir Tristram). The latter was rumoured to be on the short list to stand at Cambridge Stud, alongside his sire, an honour that would fall to Zabeel. Tragically, Dr Grace suffered a paddock accident at Woodlands Stud in the Hunter Valley and stood for only three seasons.
Closing on Grandad
Racking up stakes winner number 121, Savabeel (Zabeel) is inching ever closer to the totals set by his grandsire Sir Tristram (Sir Ivor).
Always the benchmark, Sir Tristram set targets that, in his time, seemed unreachable yet his son Zabeel, Savabeel’s sire, surpassed all those targets.
Savabeel is within nine stakes winners of Sir Tristram’s 130 after Blue Army caused a minor upset when taking out Saturday’s Sandown Guineas (Gr 2, 1600m).
Breaking down their respective statistics, the elder still has a couple of aces up his sleeve when comparing their respective percentages.
Sir Tristram’s stakes-winners-to-runners ratio is 13 per cent compared to Savabeel’s 11.22 per cent. The former is ahead 18.86 per cent to 15.45 per cent regarding the ratio of stakes-winners-to-winners.
However, Savabeel’s winners-to-runners ratio of 72.63 per cent stacks up very well against Sir Tristram’s 68.9 per cent.
Nevertheless, the number that is easiest to digest is the raw number of stakes winners and Savabeel is gaining fast. When the hard copy of the 2020 NZB Ready to Run sale catalogue was published, Savabeel’s stakes winners stood at 100. A year later it was 115. In the intervening few weeks it has jumped to the new total of 121. It is only a matter of time that he will steam past his grandsire but the next target, Zabeel’s 166, is a long way off.
That 23 of Savabeel’s stakes winners are from mares by O’Reilly (Last Tycoon) merely underlines the potency of the Waikato Stud brand.
Stallion power such as theirs underpins the New Zealand industry and their dominance seems assured for some time yet.
As an aside, the writer was browsing through a marvellous book written by Peter Taylor, called Thoroughbred Studs of Australia and New Zealand, first published in 1986. The book was part of a fabulous library formerly owned by bloodstock agent Michael Otto. Otto was downsizing and was moving his office and thus needed to reduce space. I was the lucky recipient and this book is a treasure.
Taylor’s chapter on Waikato Stud details its early pre-Chittick days when owned by Nelson Bunker Hunt and which later became a public company managed by the late (and brilliant) Steve Brem.
A paragraph on the geography of the original property explains that rainfall averages 48 inches (approximately 1200mm) per annum. As the stud is situated on rich and fertile soil under the Kaimai Range, rain clouds have little option but to drop their load and the stud benefits directly.
The location traps heat too, meaning that grass grows in abundance. To quote the chapter directly: “Cattle helps but when the grass grows too tall, as it often does, it has to be slashed and carted away by the truck load.”
The point being: New Zealand can grow grass, super nutritious grass. Horses eat grass and we have the best grass in the world.
For a change
Although Blue Army is bred on the highly successful Savabeel-O’Reilly cross, he is not from a Waikato Stud family. Instead, he descends from an Australian family.
From the stable of Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr, Blue Army has had three starts and took out the Guineas off a maiden win at Warrnambool on November 5.
His dam, Keyarna Blue (O’Reilly), was a Listed winner in Adelaide and she died after producing just three foals, all of which are winners. His grandam, Oh Blue Angel (Semipalatinsk) was a Listed winner at Flemington and produced six winners from seven foals.
Semipalatinsk (Nodouble), an Italian stakes winner bred in USA, is also the sire of Savabeel’s grandam Alma Mater. He stood in Queensland at Colin McAlpine’s Eureka Stud, a little south of Toowoomba.
The two best performers of the 23 stakes winners descending from the 1938 mare Tena (Manfred) are Gold Trump (Aythorpe), winner of the Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) and Ihtsahymn (Ihtiram), winner of the Group 1 Kingston Town Classic (1800m).
Hidden gem
The link between Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) winner, the all-round champion mare Verry Elleegant (Zed), and sprint star Lost And Running (Per Incanto), is that they share Danroad (Danehill) as their maternal grandsire.
In the northern hemisphere Danroad’s daughter Aris is the dam of French Group 1 winner Aclaim (Acclamation).
Listed winner and second in the New Zealand One Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m), Strada Cavallo (Alamosa) is another from a Danroad mare.
To those four we can add last Thursday’s Levin Stakes (Listed, 1200m) winner Rose ‘N’ Power (Power). There is quite a leap from an Otaki Listed winner to the two Australian stars or a French Group 1 winner but breeders might sit up and take note. Danroad’s broodmare sire stats might make him a hidden gem.
Danroad can claim just eight stakes winners from his time at stud but already his daughters have produced five individual stakes winners, including two at the highest level, from only 46 runners.
Four-year-old mare Rose ‘N’ Power has a winning strike-rate of 50 per cent, five wins in ten starts, and the tough win at Otaki was her maiden stakes success.
Her dam, Diamond Rose (Danroad) won twice and is not only a half-sister to Listed winner Queens Rose (O’Reilly), she is also a daughter of Rosetti Bay (Pins), the winner of eight races including the Stoney Bridge Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m).
She represents a line established and maintained by the Pollard family, Rosetti Bay being a granddaughter of Crown Queen (Sovereign Edition), herself a half-sister to three stakes winners including the Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) winner Haymaker (Stunning) and Rawson Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) winner Minuetto (Kazakstaan).
Her sire, the Irish 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) winner Power (Oasis Dream), is now in Queensland, about 5 kilometres north-west of Eureka Stud which stood Semipalatinsk. Power has sired three recent Group 1 winners in Ireland and France.
Power also provided the quinella in the Levin feature sprint, Romantic Lady fighting hard to the line to lose narrowly.
The stallion may well fit the category of “the one that got away”.
Westbury wins
Westbury Stud’s El Roca (Fastnet Rock) continued on his winning ways last Thursday when siring the Wellington Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m) winner White Noise.
In the space of a few days El Roca doubled his number of stakes winners, having sired the Hong Kong Group 2 winner Lucky Patch plus White Noise, whose record is now three wins from six starts.
His older sister, El Nymph (El Roca) is very honest and has also won three times. Her value has just increased somewhat markedly as she is a granddaughter of the Italian Group 3 winner Spring (Sadler’s Wells), herself a half-sister to former successful Rich Hill sire and dual Group 1 winner Pentire (Be My Guest).
Saturday at Rosehill saw Westbury to the fore again with Lord Ardmore (Reliable Man) scoring his second win since being transferred from New Zealand to Chris Waller’s Sydney stable.
With an even better strike-rate is Expat, a daughter of Makfi (Dubawi), whose last four starts have brought three Rosehill victories. In ten starts Expat now has six wins and looks to have bigger and better races to look forward to.
Gold Watch, by Westbury’s Swiss Ace (Secret Savings), took his winning sequence to six in Saturday’s Te Aroha open handicap. The five-year-old ran last in his only start at three then had a 12-month break (due to injury), returning to win twice at this time last year.
A much shorter break saw him back to win twice more in January and February of this year. A further eight months after he has now added two more. It will be no surprise to see him capture a stakes race at his next start, wherever that may be.
3200 metres? – no problem
His sire won a Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m). His dam won two Auckland Cups (Gr 1, 3200m). He was already successful at the extreme distance when taking out the New Zealand Cup (Gr 3, 3200m) a little more than a year ago.
The Sandown Cup (Listed, 3200m) No problem, although Dragon Storm (Shocking) did not have a lot to spare having settled at the rear then finished solidly over the last 200 metres to cement his first win since transferring from New Zealand.
His lead up form being less than satisfactory, his trainer Mike Moroney gave the gelding some hurdles work which might have been just the tonic needed to spur his efforts.
Retire? – not yet
At seven, Polly Grey (Azamour) is not yet ready to head to the broodmare paddock and judging from her spirited performance in the ATC Cup (Listed, 2000m) she has put off that decision for at least another year, given that the breeding season is practically at an end.
The mare had five opponents on Saturday, offset by her having to lump top weight but she had them all covered over the final 200 metres to record her tenth win and propel her earnings well beyond $600,000.
Winning trainer Chris Waller revealed that the mare was stabled next to Verry Elleegant (Zed) for one night. We might wonder what they had to say to each other.
Big finish
Zola Express (Shamexpress) threaded between runners, not once but twice, slicing through very late to snare her maiden stakes win in the Listed Wanganui Cup (2040m) on Saturday.
It was the mare’s fourth win at start 13 and surely not her last. Her determination and strong finish are certain to show up again soon.
She is the sole winner from her dam while her grandam, Zolata (Zabeel) is a half-sister to South African Group 3 winner Theatre Of Dreams (Rhythm). Her third dam is a half-sister to three stakes winners including the AJC Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Starzaan (Zamazaan) while her fourth dam is the Avondale Gold Cup (Gr 1, 2220m) winner Bellota (Oakville).