Savabeel to continue family Hall of Fame trend

By Dennis Ryan

It was perhaps inevitable once he had attained multiple champion status as a stallion, that Savabeel should join his sire Zabeel and grandsire Sir Tristram in the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame.

Completing a sequence that is unique in this country, the Waikato Stud-based 23-year-old will be inducted at the 2025 Hall of Fame function in Hamilton in May, 11 years after his own sire was inducted and 17 years after the breed-shaping stallion who founded the dynasty half a century ago.

With a race record of three wins that also included the Gr.1 Spring Champion Stakes and his dam the Gr.1 New Zealand Oaks winner Savannah Success, Savabeel was always going to have a premium on his head.

When he joined a roster that included the champion home-bred O’Reilly and Australian Guineas winner Pins, he didn’t come cheaply with a syndicated price tag of $10 million and an introductory fee of $35,000.

That investment has been more than repaid as Savabeel has gone on to dominate New Zealand stallion ranks through the opening decades of the 21st Century.

Just last Saturday at Trentham, his three-year-old son Savaglee had his first start since winning the Gr.1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas in November and recorded another easy win in the Gr.2 Levin Classic

In the next race on the Trentham card, Savabeel’s five-year-old daughter Provence became his 35th Group 1 winner with her victory in the Thorndon Mile.

Up until Savabeel’s 2022 crop comprising a total of 1752 foals, 1346 have raced and 988 are the winners to date of 3118 races.

Of those 148 are stakes winners, 99 of them are Group winners and his 35 Group 1 winners have won a total of 58 races at that level.

“He’s ticking over at around a dozen stakes winners per season, so with decent numbers still coming through there’s a good chance he can break Zabeel’s record for individual stakes winners,” Waikato Stud principal Mark Chittick said.

“How ever you measure his achievements, Savabeel has done a phenomenal job for us and everyone who has supported him – for the whole breeding industry in fact, it would be fair to say.”

Stories of chance and good fortune abound in the horse world and Savabeel’s path to Waikato Stud is one of those, dating back to the latter stages of his three-year-old season, as Chittick recalled.

“I had inspected him a couple of times when he was in training with Graeme Rogerson – the first time in Melbourne after he had won the Cox Plate and finished second in the VRC Derby, then again in the autumn at Rogie’s Randwick stable.

“He was a very good-looking horse with obvious performance and pedigree, although we knew he would be on a lot of studs’ watch-list.

“Then late one afternoon back home I got a call from Bruce Perry to tell me that there was a deal taking shape on Savabeel.

“My comment to Bruce was there’d be a fair bit of money involved and he responded, ‘Yeah, they’re talking $10 million’.

“Doing our sums and broken down into 50 shares, that would be $200,000 per share, which translated to a service fee of $35,000. We would take half the horse, Bruce said Lib (Petagna) would be in and he was confident other breeders would be keen as well.

“The first call I made was to Garry with the intention of getting him to ring Rogie for a heads-up on how we might be able to make it happen. It became almost comical when he explained to me he was in a bit of bind, as Nelson and Megan Schick (of Windsor Park) were Garry and Mary’s dinner guests, so I told him he’d better go outside and make the call.

“Rogie’s first comment to Garry was that he thought the money might have been a bit much for us, which is why he hadn’t touched base in the first place, but when he said he could vouch for 25 per cent with the likes of (part-owner) Max Whitby staying in, we realised we could do it.

“It was quite incredible how it all came about – Garry got back to me and said it’s your turn to get off your backside and on the phone, so after calling just about everyone I could think of who might be interested, we had him syndicated within 24 hours.”

Not only was $10 million a clear record for a stallion going to stud in New Zealand, but the syndication conditions were also a first.

Standard syndications allowed shareholders two service nominations per share during each of a stallion’s introductory years, then one per share thereafter.

However, the Savabeel deal was for a lifetime right to two services per year, something that sweetened the deal for prospective investors.

Mark Chittick speaks with awe of the champion stallion, in particular his range of success from Group 1-winning two-year-olds to Classic and Cups winners.

“That’s the amazing thing about him, how he can throw horses that win at all ages and at such a range of distances,” he said.

“With devoted stallion grooms like Dave O’Leary and now Ryan Figgins caring for him over the years, he’s had an ideal existence, which includes keeping in trim on the treadmill we put in specially for him when he was about 17 years old.

“Sons of his like Cool Aza Beel and Embellish have taken no time to prove themselves at stud and our young horse by him, Noverre, has kicked off with some excellent results just last week at the Magic Millions.

“No two ways about it, he’s a legend – that will be his legacy.”