$625,000 Savabeel 'ripper' lights up opening day of NZB Karaka Yearling Sale

A colt by Savabeel stood tall on day one of the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale, while the champion stallion’s Waikato Stud roster mate Super Seth was anointed as a possible future sire of racetrack stars, given his appeal during what was widely deemed to be a successful first session of the country’s premier offering for 2023.

While things have changed, and for the better, with the reopening of the border and international buyers back in force for the first time since 2020, other aspects of Karaka stay the same and so it was the case with Te Akau’s David Ellis once again leading the way on the buying front.

The biggest buyer for the past 17 years, Ellis - as expected - made his mark by going to a session-topping NZ $625,000 (£328,000/€373,000) for a son of Savabeel, the most expensive of ten lots to sell for more than NZ$300,000 on Sunday. Three of the top five sellers were by Waikato Stud’s Savabeel.

As the rain pelted down outside the newly named Sir Patrick Hogan auditorium at Karaka, Ellis maintained his traditional position seated to the right of the rostrum and he was able to win the bidding duel against Lindsay Park’s Ben Hayes, stable bloodstock manager Josh Rix and agent Dean Hawthorne for the impressive Windsor Park Stud-consigned colt.

The lot 59-catalogued colt, who will be trained at Te Akau’s Matamata stable by Mark Walker, is a brother to the Melbourne Listed-winning filly Hindaam, who was trained firstly by Lindsay Park’s David and Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig, prior to her retirement in 2021.

Hindaam was purchased through the Shadwell dispersal at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in 2021 for A$1 million by Melbourne-based agent Suman Hedge.

The latest sales ring star is the fifth foal out of Bayrock, a sister to Group 1 winners Merchant Navy and Jolie Bay and Listed winner Setanta.

Te Akau has enjoyed enormous success with New Zealand’s champion sire, with Ellis purchasing nine individual Group 1 winners by Savabeel: Embellish, Noverre, Probabeel, Sword Of Osman, Amarelinha, Prise De Fer, Hall Of Fame, Cool Aza Beel and The Perfect Pink.

“He’s a ripper of a colt, by our champion sire Savabeel, out of a Fastnet Rock mare, and reared on one of the best farms in the world at Windsor Park,” Ellis reasoned.

“I think this is the best colt that the filly has left and one of my picks of the sale, definitely one of the top two or three colts in the sale.

“He’ll head home to Te Akau stud, have a good spell, be broken in, and we’ll get him going at the stables in Matamata.”

Windsor Park’s Rodney Schick declared the colt’s price as a fantastic result.

He said: “He is a beautiful animal and DC [Ellis] is a fantastic judge. I am really excited about his racing future.

“It is a beautiful page and Savabeel does such a great job, I am sure he is going to be well-represented on the racetrack with this colt.”

Ellis also weighed in on the most talked about subject, the weather.

“We have never seen rain like this before at the sale,” he said. 

“It is just getting heavier and heavier. I am a farmer, so I like the rain in January, you just can’t beat it. New Zealand is one big farm and we do it well.

“It probably keeps everyone in the auditorium where it’s nice and warm and dry. It looks like it’s a pretty strong sale at this stage and let’s hope it continues.”

The average closed at NZ$160,143, the median was at NZ$147,500, while the aggregate was NZ$22.42m after 140 yearlings were sold on day one at a clearance rate of 73 per cent, markers which were understandably all up on 2022’s sale, which was conducted in March and with only a few expatriate New Zealanders able to return for the Karaka sale.

Day two on Monday will start at 11am local time.