One to Watch - Sandown

Tara Madgwick - Wednesday July 11

Champion New Zealand sire Savabeel gave us the 'One to Watch' on Wednesday with a sensational win for the three-quarter brother in-blood to triple Group I winner Sangster.

SavabeelA phone call from Lindsay Park co-trainer David Hayes has led to exciting times for Kiwi owner breeders Peter Grieve and Barry Thomas.

The pair co-own and bred exciting three-year-old Gold Mag who took his unbeaten tally to two at Sandown on Wednesday.

The Savabeel gelding showed a tremendous turn of foot to sail past his opposition to score by five-lengths under jockey Craig Williams.

"He showed a great turn of foot and changed stride in the straight and was three-wide all the way," Grieve said. "I'm very happy with the win."

Gold Mag only had the one unplaced trial in New Zealand for trainer Finbarr Leahy before Grieve fielded a call from David Hayes.

"His trial in New Zealand was quite a good trial," Grieves said. "David Hayes rang me out of the blue and told me he had heard I had quite a nice horse and that he'd like to train him for me.

"I thought with that sort of initiative I'll give him a go."

It is a decision that Grieve has not regretted, with Gold Mag winning by a similar margin on debut at Bendigo in June, followed by Wednesday's impressive victory.

"They (trainers) are pretty excited. He's still got youth on his side, so we'll take him along slowly," he said.

"We'll just ease up on him now and bring him out in a couple of months time. He'll be a handy horse in 13 to 14 months."

Grieve, a 75-year-old former trainer, is excited to once again have a quality horse on his hands, but Gold Mag still has a way to go to top his list.

Advertisement

"It's good to have a nice horse on my hands again after 50 years in racing," he said.

"I've been keen on racing all my life. I had my first winner in 1969 and had a horse or two before that. I trained my first winner at Wellington in 1970, so I have been playing around with horses for a long time.

"I had a share in Omnicorp when he won the VRC Derby, but breeding, owning and training Braless to win the (New Zealand) One Thousand Guineas has probably been the highlight. Uncle Remus beat us by half a head in the (New Zealand) Two Thousand Guineas."

Meanwhile, Grieve said he is just as rapt for his breeding and owning partner Barry Thomas, who was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to tourism and business in the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours.

"He sponsors the New Zealand Trotting and galloping Cups," Grieve said. "He's put a fair bit into racing.

"I met him through a review committee we were in, it was of New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing as a matter of fact. We got matey and began racing a few together."

That has resulted in the pair breeding Gold Mag and Grieve hopes his future success can pay for his dam Chapinta to return to his sire this season.

"We've got a rising two-year-old by Swiss Ace that is being broken in at the moment," he said.

"We lost a Swiss Ace filly foal this year, but that can't be helped. She is in-foal to Zed, I'm trying to breed a Melbourne Cup horse.

"We'd probably be wise to go back to Savabeel (this coming season), we might be able to afford it by then." – NZ Racing Desk

Advertisment
More Reading...
Wootton Bassett Set to Blast Out of Winter
Many people may have anticipated Wootton Bassett (GB) would have been our Champion Australian First Season Sire last season and while that didn’t quite eventuate, he did finish the season with a wealth of horses holding spring potential and several were in action at the trials this morning.
Snitzel’s Tyreek Too Good On Debut At Canterbury
Off the back of two unbeaten trial performances, it was no surprise to see the John O’Shea and Tom Charlton trained Tyreek (Snitzel) start well in the money on debut before the 3yo gelding was simply too good for his rivals, winning the TAB Handicap (1200m) on Wednesday at Canterbury.
One To Watch – Sandown
Fourth on debut behind the promising San Giovanni, who has since won again, the Annabel and Rob Archibald trained Written Tycoon colt Duke Atreides was sent south to Victoria with instant success.
Probabeel Shows her Class
Superstar three-year-old Probabeel proved a class above her age-group rivals when she made a winning start to her summer campaign over 1400m at Awapuni on Saturday.
Zoustar Entering the Zenith
The dictionary tells us Zenith is an astronomical term —describing the highest point in an arc travelled by a star, planet or another celestial body- and in the case of this story it’s planet Zoustar!
First Foal for Hilal Delights Grangewilliam Stud
The first foal by Grangewilliam Stud’s Group Two winner and multiple Group One performer Hilal arrived on Thursday morning with a filly born out of the well-related No Nay Never mare La Frox.
Sires With Winners - Wednesday August 6
Here is the full list of 49 stallions which had winners throughout Australasia today with winners and result details.
Probabeel Chasing Karaka Million History
High-class filly Probabeel (NZ) (Savabeel) will shoot for a slice of history at the Karaka Million twilight race meeting at Ellerslie on January 25.
First Foal for Golden Mile – Now a Gelding
The Group I MRC Caulfield Guineas has been won in recent years by colts that have gone on to become some of our most exciting young sires - The Autumn Sun, Super Seth and Ole Kirk, but for the 2022 winner Golden Mile that path is not an option.
Savabeel Blueblood Wins G3 Desert Gold
A copybook ride by Opie Bosson paved the way for promising filly Showbeel to add a valuable black type success to her career record when she took out the first feature race at Trentham on Saturday, the Group III New Zealand Bloodstock Desert Gold Stakes (1600m).