Waikato Stud's star Zabeel stallion has made a clean sweep of New Zealand's
three stallion categories for the 2016-17 season. For the second straight year the
stallion has won the Grosvenor Award for New Zealand stakes earnings, the Dewar
Stallion Trophy for Australasian earnings and the Centaine Award for global
earnings.Savabeel now emulates former barn mate O'Reilly as a two-time winner of all three titles, after O'Reilly's domination in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons.
Asked to describe Savabeel's season, Waikato Stud's Mark Chittick said: "Sensational, obviously. The two big things for us were the number of stakes winners - 19, which was massive - and across multiple countries, and the other thing with those stakes winners was the range of ages and distances.
"He got stakes winners from two right through to eight, in the case of New Zealand Cup winner Pump Up The Volume.”
Savabeel will be acknowledged for his success at the New Zealand Thoroughbred Horse of the Year Awards at Auckland's Langham Hotel on September 10, continuing a phenomenal Waikato Stud dominance of the stallion awards.
Zabeel's Dewar Trophy win in 2011-12 was the only time a Waikato Stud stallion has failed to secure any one of the stallion titles in the past five seasons, meaning the Matamata farm has collected 14 of the past 15 trophies.
Up to July 30, Savabeel's progeny had earned $11,549,111 globally, nearly $3 million clear of nearest Centaine Award rival Darci Brahma.
In the Dewar Trophy, Savabeel's progeny banked $7,594,461 in Australasia, putting the stallion more than $3.1 million ahead of nearest rival Iffraaj, while the Grosvenor Award standings for New Zealand earnings had Savabeel more than $1 million clear of Iffraaj.
"That's the big thing this year - his dominance in each of those categories," Chittick said.
"To be winning those awards by more than $1 million speaks volumes of the success his stock has had. It shows the quality of races that they are winning and reflects his growing presence in Australia and Hong Kong, which is where the good prizemoney is.
"A couple of years ago, Australian buyers began to recognise the talent of the stallion and he sold accordingly. A lot of those horses are going to be flagbearers over the next couple of years."
Among those is recent impressive two-year-old debut winner Addictive Nature, a $775,000 Karaka yearling-sales graduate out of the draft of Wairarapa's Little Avondale Stud.
Savabeel was also represented by the likes of Kawi, a three-time Group One winner this term, Gr.1 Levin Classic winner Hall Of Fame and Group Two winners Coldplay, Gold Fever and Nurse Kitchen.
"Someone asked me the other day, 'why the increase in stakes winners this season?' It's just a combination of quantity and quality," Chittick said.
"He's got bigger numbers out there on the racetrack but they are still doing the job. We're dealing with a stallion consistently producing 10 per cent stakes winners to runners and with more horses racing, it makes sense that his stakes winners would increase."
Chittick said Savabeel was raring to go for the new season and was in such good health that he'd had to resort to working him on a treadmill to get him fit for the start of the breeding season in September.
"We're restricting his book to 150 mares and we're pretty staunch on that. His book has been full for a couple of months. We've got a great syndicate of breeders right behind him." - NZ Racing Desk
