O’Reilly Joins Elite 50 Club
2 October 2011
Outstanding Waikato Stud stallion O’Reilly reached a notable milestone on Sunday when his son Collar claimed the Listed Doncaster Stakes (1400m) at Flemington.
Collar’s win represented O’Reilly’s 50th black-type winner, thereby elevating the sire’s place amongst just 10 other New Zealand-based stallions in history who have joined the elite ‘Half-Century Stakes Winners Club’ (see table below).
“We are extremely proud of what he’s achieved at this early stage,” said Waikato Stud’s General Manager, Mark Chittick.
“The thing about him is he is such an all-round stallion. He gets 2YO’s, 3YO’s, fillies, colts and his daughters are also putting their hands up as broodmares too.”
A consistent producer of topline gallopers, O’Reilly currently counts the 11 Gr.1 stars Shamrocker, Alamosa, The Jewel, Final Destination, Maco’Reilly, Guyno, Swick, Master O’Reilly, Fellowship, Arenti and Lim’s Objective.
The son of Last Tycoon and Courtza has twice been awarded Hong Kong’s Champion sire and in New Zealand, breeding accolades include Champion General Sire, Champion Sire for Global Earnings, and Champion Sire of 3YO’s (twice).
O’Reilly’s most recent stakes graduate Collar has now won two of his three starts for high-profile Melbourne owner Lloyd Williams and could well add to the sire’s record of classic excellence with his intended start in the Gr.1 Victoria Derby.
| RANK | SIRE | STAKES WINNERS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ZABEEL (NZ) 1986 | 137 |
| 2 | SIR TRISTRAM (IRE) 1971 | 130 |
| 3 | NOBLE BIJOU (USA) 1971 | 65 |
| 4 | ZAMAZAAN (FR) 1965 | 64 |
| 5 | CENTAINE (AUS) 1980 | 61 |
| 6 | STAR WAY (GB) 1977 | 60 |
| 7 | SUMMERTIME (GB) 1946 | 59 |
| 8 | VOLKSRAAD (GB) 1988 | 57 |
| 9 | LE FILOU (FR) 1946 | 56 |
| 10 | GROSVENOR (NZ) 1979 | 54 |
| 11 | O’REILLY (NZ) 1993 | 50 |
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