Savabeel: 2001—2026

It is with a heavy heart that Waikato Stud announces the passing of Savabeel, one of the greatest contributors to the Australasian racing and breeding industries.

They say the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man, and from the moment Savabeel entered our gates on Tuesday, 26 April 2005, those words took on a new meaning.

For the Chittick family, who guided his stud career across 21 remarkable years, those words rang truer with every passing season.

“What more can you say about a stallion who has achieved so much?” said Waikato Stud principal Mark Chittick following Savabeel’s induction into the NZ Racing Hall of Fame. “What he’s done as a racehorse, as a sire, is incredible and now what he’s doing as a broodmare sire, that legacy will continue on for a long, long time and we are incredibly proud of Sav.”

“If it wasn’t for him, life would have been a whole lot different,” said Chittick to loveracing.nz last year. “We’ve been here at Waikato Stud more or less 30 years now and he’s been 20 of it, and Waikato Stud itself has gone from 430 acres to 2000 acres. You can’t do that without sires like Savabeel.”

A son of Zabeel, Savabeel was bred by Graeme Rogerson in partnership with Glenlogan Park and offered by Baramul Stud at the 2003 Magic Millions sale.

Out of Savannah Success, a mare Rogerson also trained, and who became a Group 1 winner of the New Zealand Oaks and Australia Stakes, Rogerson sold the mare with Savabeel as a foal at foot, only to spot something he couldn’t walk away from and buy him back as a yearling at the 2003 Magic Millions Sale for A$400,000.

On the track, that instinct was rewarded handsomely. A 4.5-length winner on debut at Randwick’s Kensington track in February of 2004, Savabeel went on to place in the Gr.1 Champagne Stakes at two.

But it was his three-year-old year where Savabeel would really shine. In October, he would win the Gr.1 Spring Champion Stakes and three weeks later take the Gr.1 WS Cox Plate. But his spring assault wasn’t finished, and he would step out on a seven-day backup to place third in the Gr.1 VRC Derby. He returned in the autumn, where he came a half-head shy of adding the weight-for-age Gr.1 CF Orr Stakes to his record.

Savabeel retired in April 2005 with earnings of A$2.7 million and a race record which read 14-3:3:1.

His path to Waikato Stud had its own element of fortune. A late-afternoon phone call, dinner while at another stud, some quick arithmetic on share prices – and within 48 hours, Mark Chittick had syndicated a $10 million stallion, a record for New Zealand at the time. The terms were equally groundbreaking: shareholders received a lifetime right to two services per year, a first for the industry.

“You can’t make a stallion by yourself, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank Sav’s shareholders for two decades of support along with our fellow breeders,” expressed Chittick. “The Waikato Stud team, both past and present, are incredible horse people who did an incredible job throughout the years. A special mention to Davo, who was with Sav in the earlier years, and to Ryan Figgins, who worked closely with Sav in his twilight years.”

“There are so many people to thank for helping Savabeel reach these breed-shaping heights: trainers, agents, owners and everyone in between – he was a very special horse who will be missed.”

It was Queen Sabeel who delivered his first stakes winner and Scarlett Lady gave him his first Group 1 winner. What followed was a dynasty.

Crowned New Zealand’s Champion Sire on ten occasions, Savabeel sired 159 stakes winners, just seven short of equaling his sire Zabeel’s record. At the elite level, Savabeel has sired 36 individual Group 1 winners, those being: Kawi, Probabeel, Atishu, Lucia Valentina, Sangster, Provence, Soriano, Scarlett Lady, Orchestral, Savvy Coup, Shillelagh, I Wish I Win, Mo’unga, Costume, Savaglee, Concert Hall, Amarelinha, Prise de Fer, The Chosen One, Diademe, Sword of Osman, Savy Yong Blonk, Nicoletta, Brambles, Belle Cheval, Savaria, Pasadena Girl, Hall of Fame – Dances with Dragon, Skew Wiff, Hasahalo, Noverre, Major Beel, Cool Aza Beel, Sound Proposition, Embellish and The Perfect Pink.

At 23 years of age, Savabeel was still setting records. In January 2025, Orchestral’s (Savabeel) sister became the most expensive filly ever to be sold at New Zealand Bloodstock’s Karaka Yearling Sale when offered by Haunui Farm and selling for $2.4 million.

In May 2025, eleven years after his sire Zabeel and 17 years after his grandsire Sir Tristram, Savabeel was inducted into the NZ Racing Hall of Fame.

That same month, his daughter, the Waikato Stud-bred Atishu (ex Posy) secured A$2.7 million at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.

As a broodmare sire, he has produced nine individual Group 1 winners and leaves behind six sire sons at stud with runners, all of whom have sired winners including Waikato Stud’s Noverre who was purchased by Sir David Ellis for $800,000 and trained by Te Akau.

The tangerine team has been one of the biggest supporters and major beneficiaries of Savabeel’s success as a stallion, with Mark Walker training the sire’s three-year-old daughter Belle Cheval to win the Gr.1 Vinery Stud Stakes at Rosehill in March.

“He’s a horse that has been beautifully managed by Garry and Mark Chittick, and our thoughts are certainly with the entire Chittick family and all the staff at Waikato Stud,” Te Akau’s Sir David Ellis said to The Straight.

“It’s come as quite a shock, because he’s always been such a well stallion and they’ve kept him fit.” 

“He’s been a freakishly good sire. Few would have thought you could have got another such good stallion as his father Zabeel and grandfather Sir Tristram, but he’s done them very proud and he’s really been the cornerstone of the New Zealand breeding industry for quite a while now.”

Savabeel’s influence is already woven into the next generation, and the one after that. Some legacies end, this one simply continues. Rest easy, old friend.