Limited-edition yearlings hit Karaka for last-crop sires

The New Zealand Bloodstock (NZB) National Yearling Sale will roll around next week as a farewell of sorts for some very important stallions. The final crops of Cambridge sires Tavistock (NZ) and Burgundy (NZ) will be on offer, along with those of Haunui Farm stalwart Iffraaj (GB) and Waikato Stud’s Sacred Falls (NZ).

Only one of these names is still with us.

Iffraaj is 21 years old at Darley’s Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket. He covered his last book in New Zealand in the spring of 2019, wrapping up a decade at Haunui that produced the likes of Gingernuts (NZ), Turn Me Loose (NZ) and Wyndspelle (NZ).

Of the others, each was lost in 2019.

Tavistock died at Cambridge Stud from the complications of a paddock accident, while Burgundy was put down just months before with acute laminitis. Sacred Falls, just four years into his stud career, succumbed to liver disease.

Since then, the stallions have each emerged as significant players in both local and Australian breeding. Tavistock, in particular, was the ‘horse that might have been’ as his latest progeny include the likes of Entriviere (NZ), Tralee Rose (NZ) and Flying Mascot (NZ), and earlier Derby winners Tarzino (NZ) and Tavago (NZ).

Gallery: Some of Tavistock's (NZ) stakes-winning progeny

As in Australia last year when the final crops of Redoute’s Choice and Sebring made their way into sale rings, and this year with Not A Single Doubt and More Than Ready (USA), Karaka 2022 will be a last hurrah for these four significant stallions.

Between them, they have sired 1600 winners worldwide, 127 at stakes level, and they collectively have 56 yearlings on offer next week across Books 1 and 2.

The case of Tavistock

For Cambridge Stud, next week’s Sale will be bittersweet. The farm has five Tavistock yearlings to sell, all consigned to Book 1.

“There’s that old saying, isn’t there?” said Henry Plumptre, Cambridge Stud CEO. “As soon as a stallion dies, you can bet your life he starts coming up with some good horses. It’s a terrible epitaph but it’s so often true, especially now with this horse.”

Plumptre said that at the time of Tavistock’s passing, the horse had a very good crop on the ground and another in utero.

“Although he was quiet at the time when he died, he’s had a remarkable run since,” Plumptre said. “A lot of people said he wasn’t getting good fillies, that he was only getting good colts, but he’s now getting fillies and colts at Group 1 level.”

Among the yearlings in the Cambridge Stud draft, Tavistock has a colt, Lot 67, from a Zabeel (NZ) half-sister to G2 Silver Slipper S. winner Amelia’s Dream (Redoute’s Choice). There’s also a first-foal colt from Orphea (Fastnet Rock) (Lot 468), who is a full sister to the G1 Australian Guineas winner Rock Classic.

“The foals that we had at foot when Tavistock died, and the ones that were in utero, they were by and large a very high-quality selection of broodmares,” Plumptre said. “It’s fitting that his last crop through the ring this year is full of beautiful pedigrees, and some very nice types.”

Tavistock has 12 yearlings overall in Book 1 next week, and just one in Book 2. They come from eight different farms, from the likes of Curraghmore to Blandford Lodge and Brighthill Farm.

Just last week, Cambridge Stud sold a Tavistock yearling at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale, the colt going to John Foote Bloodstock (FBAA) for $240,000. He was the highest-selling of the Tavistock colts at the Sale, but still cheaper than the $280,000 Tavistock filly sold by Blue Gum Farm to Astute Bloodstock (FBAA).

Gallery: Some of Cambridge Stud's Tavistock (NZ) yearlings being offered at the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale, images courtesy of NZB

“He’s got horses in Melbourne, he’s got horses in Sydney, and there’s that good filly now, Entriviere,” Plumptre said. “Tavistock has really got his numbers across the board.”

Burgundy blues

When it comes to Burgundy, Plumptre said that that horse was more of a surprise package.

“Burgundy was very well-supported in that final year, and he had some good mares,” the CEO said. “Obviously Te Akau supported him very well, and that’s where a couple of his really good runners have come from, but they’re coming from across the board.”

Since retiring to Cambridge Stud in 2013, Burgundy has got 89 winners from 186 runners, eight of which are stakes winners. The son of Redoute’s Choice is the sire of this year’s dual Group winner Maven Belle (NZ), and last year’s Group winners Dijon Bleu (NZ), Bellacontte, (NZ) and Mondorani (NZ).

At Karaka, Burgundy has just two yearlings catalogued across both books, including Lot 400, the half-sister to Entriviere (NZ) (Tavistock {NZ}) offered by Prima Park.

“She’s going to sell very well,” Plumptre said of the filly.

“People say now that it’s no great surprise he’s a great stallion because he had a beautiful pedigree,” the CEO added. “But breeders didn’t flock to him when he went to stud. He wasn’t standing at a huge fee, but he could get a type. Burgundy was a very neat, quality stallion, and he gets a beautiful horse.”

Cambridge Stud has the 3-year-old Marchand (NZ), by Burgundy, in this weekend’s G1 New Zealand Derby. The gelding is on the third or fourth line of betting, a last-start third in the G2 Avondale Guineas.

“Marchand is from a very old mare of Sir Patrick’s called Lashed, and he’s run very well into this race,” Plumptre said. “We’d be very hopeful that he’ll get the extra trip of the Derby, and I think he’ll run well.”

Hole in the armoury

The year 2019 was one that Cambridge Stud won’t forget in a hurry. Alongside the exit of Tavistock and Burgundy, the farm also lost the English shuttler Roaring Lion (USA).

“Stallions are hard enough to find, and it’s always heartbreaking when they go before their time,” Plumptre said. “That was a year to forget because we didn’t just lose the two of them. We lost Roaring Lion too.

“But they’ve all left a legacy because they tell me that Roaring Lion has got a beautiful couple of horses in England, and we’ve got a colt and a filly by him that we’re racing with David Redvers and Sheikh Fahad, so there’s something to be said for that.”

Cambridge Stud has retained a number of Tavistock mares and fillies, along with a number of Burgundy offspring, namely Marchand. It’s a logical step in keeping the line alive, but still the nostalgia reigns down on occasions.

“I think it’s in your quieter moments when you reflect on their careers and you know what you’re missing,” Plumptre said. “You realise there’s a massive hole in your armoury that could be filled with a horse like that, and it’s disappointing.

“The funny thing about Tavistock is that he wasn’t an obvious stallion to me. He was a New Zealand racehorse that won a Group 1 here, and he did go to Australia and perform at Group 1 level, but Sir Patrick would be the first to say that he was a hard horse to fill in those early years.”

Tavistock’s first season at Cambridge Stud was in 2010, and he served 127 mares.

In 2011 and 2012, he covered books of 94 and 82 respectively. It was from 2014 that his numbers really pitched, with 211 mares in 2015 and 191 the following spring.

“He didn’t throw an obvious sale type,” Plumptre said. “They were a bit long and a bit tubular, but one of those things about Tavistock’s racing career, if you look through it, is that he was extremely competitive in his races. Very tough and very durable, and a lot of his stock are like that.

“They can be a bit temperamental, but that’s grandpa coming through in Montjeu. That’s something we need to learn to deal with in the Southern Hemisphere, because some of the best stallions in the world have been temperamental and some of Tavistock’s are like that. But they’re an incredible breed, and so versatile.”

Profit and loss

Both Haunui Stud and its more southern cohort, Waikato Stud, have felt similar holes in their armoury with the exits of Iffraaj and Sacred Falls.

The former has 16 yearlings in Book 1 next week, a further three in Book 2, while Sacred Falls has 18 in Book 1 and four in Book 2.

Of the pair, the Darley shuttler Iffraaj was the more established and internationally renowned, and he’s made headlines in the last handful of years with his exceptional sire son Wootton Bassett (GB), plus that horse’s emerging Cambridge Stud shuttler Almanzor (Fr).

For Iffraaj, his final Kiwi crop comprised just 47 live foals in 2019. For Sacred Falls, that number was 41. The younger stallion was only 10 when he died in 2019, getting just five crops on the ground.

However, Sacred Falls has had 92 winners from 166 starters to date.

His stakes winners numbers are five at this point and include G1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas winner Aegon (NZ), plus Zee Falls (NZ), All Saints’ Eve (NZ), All Hallows’ Eve (NZ) and, in Hong Kong, Courier Wonder (NZ).

Gallery: Sacred Falls' (NZ) stakes-winning progeny

At Karaka 2022, Waikato Stud will offer six yearlings by Sacred Falls, and one of them, Lot 279, is a colt from the Group 2-winning, Group 1-placed Gold Fever (NZ) (Savabeel). Another, Lot 122 for Haunui, is a colt from a half-sister to Australian Champion sprinter First Seal (Fastnet Rock).

While Waikato Stud, and equally Cambridge Stud and Haunui Stud, have arsenals of other stallions coming through, next week’s Sale will be a cool reminder of the ebbs and flows of horse breeding.