It looks to be a one horse race in the current Broodmare Sires Premiership with Zabeel well out in front of his rivals as we head into the final weeks of the Spring Carnival. This bloke has done it all; he produced the goods on track, he still proves that he is an excellent sire and once again is proving his credentials as a broodmare sire.
Zabeel has his daughters performing as strong as ever producing 64 winners for $5.75m in prizemoney so far this season. Among these are 8 individual stakes winners headlined by Gr1 winners Ocean Park, Commanding Jewel and It’s a Dundeel. His daughters also produced a further three Group One winners last season in Australia headed by the undefeated Atlantic Jewel who was joined by Invest and Southern Speed.
Zabeel continues to lead the way as a broodmare sire
When put in perspective with the rest of the broodmare sires, his feats become even more impressive. Zabeel has opened up a break of more than $2.5 million over his nearest rival Danehill who has had over 80 more runners than Zabeel. If the current trend continues, Zabeel will be in line for his second consecutive Australian Broodmare Sire title.
Zabeel has been both a wonderful sire and broodmare sire over the years for Dynamic with this year set to be no different. Making Fey, the dam of our unnamed Commands filly, was by Zabeel and she has well and truly done the job as a mum to date. After the New Zealand mare was stakes placed herself, Making Fey has gone on to produce a total of five runners to race for five winners. Amongst these was the impressive 2yo filly, Apercu who won the LR Golden Stakes at Doomben and the Gr1 TJ Smith Classic at Eagle Farm in 2007.
As a stallion, Zabeel sired Cox Plate winner Savabeel who was successfully syndicated by the Managing Director of Dynamic Syndications, Dean Watt. Savabeel sits alongside modern day champions So You Think and Octagonal (another of Zabeel’s progeny) to be the only 3yo Cox Plate winners in the last 25 years, a feat which has proved almost impossible to achieve.
Savabeel as a yearling
Adding to his achievements, last season Zabeel was named winner of the Dewar Stallion Trophy for an amazing 15th time. This award recognises the New Zealand stallion whose progeny have won the most prizemoney in Australasia for the season.
His incredible record with stayers both as a sire and a broodmare sire it unmatched throughout Australia and New Zealand. This is highlighted by the current second round nominations for this year Melbourne Cup which is set to be contest next Tuesday. Of the 46 entries still in the running for a 2012 Melbourne Cup berth, 19 have been bred in either Australia or New Zealand. Of these 19, five are sired by Zabeel (Maluckyday, Lights of Heaven, Precedence, Ironstein and Zabeelionaire) with two others out of Zabeel mares (Exceptionally and Southern Speed). This is a remarkable effort for the 26 year old veteran whose impressive achievements seems to be getting better with age.
Dynamic are always sure to look closely at horses out of Zabeel mares and by Zabeel himself as his record at stud is too impressive to go past. We expect more good things to come from our promising Commands – Making Fey filly and we hope to see Zabeel continuing to produce the goods on track both as a sire and as a broodmare sire in the future.
Jay Mathieson