Couples Retreat goes back-to-back for Archibalds
Super Seth’s winners keep on coming, and this time it was the Annabel and Rob Archibald Couples Retreat who won by a definitive two lengths at Kembla Grange on Saturday, 25 October.
Allocated 59.5kg for the race and carrying 58kg with Mollie Fitzgerald’s 1.5kg claim, the pair jumped from barrier five in the eight-horse field, sat and strode away 100m from home, saluting comfortably over the 1000m journey.
Bred by Waikato Stud, she was bought for $280,000 by Mitchell Bloodstock (FBAA) and Annabel Neasham Racing at the 2023 NZB Karaka Yearling Sale Book 1 and from just nine starts has knocked together a record of three wins and three placings.
Out of the Savabeel mare Date Night, the four-year-old mare is her third foal – she has an Ardrossan yearling colt and foaled a colt by Super Seth this season.
Super Seth became the only New Zealand-based sire, ever, to record four Group 1 winners in his progeny’s first two racing seasons with four: Feroce, Linebacker, La Dorada and Maison Louis.
Across Australasia, only Danehill bettered this record (four) and he equalled his broodmare sire Redoute’s Choice with four.
Classy Debut Victory For Major Beel’s Brother Savagram
From a pedigree known all too well by the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott stable, 3yo Savabeel colt Savagram (NZ) kicked off his race career in the best possible way, highlighting himself as a potential black-type performer.
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The Corner with Garry Chittick
It would appear I now have to continue my weekly Corner with the amount of rumblings at the start of our new racing season. I have been around long enough to know we can never please all; my tenure as Chairman of the Racing Board was subjected to as much vitriol as subsequent Boards have had to bear, so what’s different this time, or is it different.
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