The 2013 New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale will start next Monday, January 28.
The king of the Karaka sales ring for the past decade is without doubt the great Zabeel.
The son of Sir Tristram has been one of the leading sires in Australasian history and has set many records in the sales ring. While he is now 26 he is still producing 44 yearlings and a further 79 from his mares for the 2013 Karaka catalogue.
Octagonal was from the first crop by Zabeel, who won a Cox Plate in 1995 and an AJC Derby the following year.
In 1997, Zabeel’s then four-year-old son Might And Power scored scintillating Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup victory to become the highest rated stayer in the world at that time. He also won the Cox Plate a year later.
However increasingly his legacy is being carried through his daughters who are proving potent producers of G1 performers. Now it seems that a huge percentage of top class gallopers in this part of the world are out of a Zabeel mare.
Zabeel’s damsire record makes for impressive reading as his mares have produced 104 stakes winners including 22 at G1 level. And his daughter’s progeny earned $12,587,164 in stakes in Australia last season, just $100,000 short of the amount earned by the progeny of champion sire Fastnet Rock for the season.
Recent Group 1 winners Ocean Park, Atlantic Jewel, Dear Demi, It’s A Dundeel, Commanding Jewel, Silent Achiever and Southern Speed are all out of mares by Zabeel.
Yearlings that buyers would take particular interest are a colt from the family of Might and Power (Lot 97), a half brother to Group 1 winner Planet Rock (Lot 4) and a half brother to Cox Plate winner Ocean Park (Lot 330).
New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sales Series at Karaka will be held from Monday 28 January to Monday 4 February.
By Owens Wong
