‘They look like fast Savabeels’: Cool Aza Beel looks to build on a strong yearling sale start

Cover image courtesy of Newhaven Park

With a debut at the 2024 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale now notched under his belt, there has been a sound level of interest in Cool Aza Beel (NZ), as buyers saw appeal in the Newhaven Park resident.

Nine of his maiden crop were offered across the sale, with all selling, averaging $147,778 and peaking with a top lot of $280,000. With a successful start for the speedy son of Savabeel, attention now turns to his collection of 15 yearlings being sold at the 2024 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, as Newhaven once again heaps support behind their emerging stallion.

Ahead of the second major yearling sale on the Australian yearling sale circuit, The Thoroughbred Report caught up with John Kelly to learn more about the promising sire, and what Newhaven have to offer this week.

Pleasing uptake at Magic Millions

With Newhaven acquiring the Champion 2-Year-Old from Te Akau Racing at the start of 2021, there has been a smattering of interest across both sides of the Tasman to find out how the G1 Sistema S. winner would fare in the barn.

Now past a major milestone, his first major Australian yearling sale, Kelly has the opportunity to reflect on how he has started, with the fourth generation studmaster pleased at who was signing the cheque to take the first progeny of his farm’s new stallion home.

“We were very pleased,” he told The Thoroughbred Report. “They all sold and they sold into some great stables.

“Peter Moody, Danny O'Brien, Toby Edmonds, they have all gone all over Australia. So we actually couldn't be happier, it's been a great result.”

Outside of the trio mentioned by Kelly, some more revered names appeared in the buyers column at Bundall. Ciaron Maher, who is not only a world-class trainer, but also a fantastic judge, went to $280,000 to secure his filly out of Ends In Tears (Snitzel), while David Ellis CNZM, who raced Cool Aza Beel in his famous Te Akau Racing colours, picked up his filly out of Irene (Xtravagant {NZ}) for $55,000.

With the aforementioned parties happy to take some of the first Cool Aza Beels home, Kelly expanded on the importance of having these respected judges eager to sign for some of his first crop.

“I think it's very important, it will hopefully give other people confidence, as we go to (Inglis) Classic, Melbourne (Premier) and (Magic Millions) Adelaide that they're nice horses.

“(It will give people confidence that) the horses are a very good chance of turning up at the good races.”

What do his first types look like?

One of the most intriguing elements of Cool Aza Beel as a stallion is that he doesn’t follow the traditional mould of what we’ve come to expect from his sire, Savabeel.

Across his illustrious career in the barn, Savabeel has a winners-to-runners percentage of 22.9 per cent, with 16 horses winning in stakes grade from his 2-year-old runners, while his 3-year-old progeny have a winners-to-runners percentage of 51 per cent, with 64 individual stakes winners.

With his scintillating speed and sensational early career form, Cool Aza Beel was always going to have some commercial appeal, and according to Kelly, his progeny are taking after him on type.

“They’re exactly the same (as him). They look like fast Savabeels because he's out of a very fast Australian family. Malaguerra, Seabrook, Libertini, Hawaii Five Oh, all that whole family.

“Then Savabeel, he just gives him great quality, and we mix that with a little bit of Danehill. Danehill's sons, Redoute’s Choice, Snitzel, Not A Single Doubt (in the damline), and we've really got some wonderful progeny that look (like him).

“I think we'd find it hard to split our Magic Millions and Classic horses (in terms of) which are the best types.”

No shortage of quality in Newhaven’s offering

Cool Aza Beel has 15 yearlings entered to sell at Inglis from Sunday, with Newhaven taking 14 of them (for the trivia buffs, the other one is being taken by Mick Malone’s North) to the Riverside complex to be auctioned off.

With a double-digit representation of their new stallion, Kelly is excited about a number of the lots set to strut through the ring in the coming days.

“They're all very much the same, but I suppose like any person, there's one that I particularly like over others,” Kelly said.

“I think we've got a magnificent colt out of a Fastnet Rock mare called Refer (Lot 632). He’s a lovely colt, and we've got a lovely filly out of Legal Girl (Lot 426).

“Then we've got a really lovely filly out of a Pins mare called Cross Stitch, and her full sister (Splitsecond) has thrown two stakes performers by Savabeel (Tabata and Oso Savvy).

“So it's really exciting, and she (Lot 191) is a lovely, lovely filly. So they're they're probably the three that that stand out in my mind in the draft, but plenty of the others (are good quality as well).

Gallery: John Kelly's three standout yearlings by Cool Aza Beel (NZ) within his Newhaven Park draft at the 2024 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, images courtesy of Inglis

“All the others have been good, fast looking, nice horses.”

The level of quality in the damsires goes to show the level of faith Newhaven have in their young stallion, with a number of winning daughters of some of the most well-respected sires in Australasia appearing on the pedigree page of many of the lots offered by the farm at Classic.

Redoute’s Choice, who might just be at the top of the tree in terms of reverence for ability as a damsire, is prevalent throughout, with the aforementioned Lot 632 being out of one of his daughters, as well as Lot 494, who is out of his winning daughter Moonsong.

She’s been a success so far, with her best result being the G3 Western Australian Oaks winner Lunar Impact (Real Impact {Jpn}) on her resume.

Snitzel appears frequently throughout the pages of some of Cool Aza Beel's offerings, with Lot 192 being a colt out of Crusher, who won six times throughout her career, and Lot 186 being out of another of his speedy daughters, Cool Snitzel.

Newhaven ‘very pleased’ with where the market rests

One of the most consistent undercurrents of the global yearling markets over recent months has been the steadying of a COVID-era sugar rush, with metrics across major sales stabilising, or in some cases declining.

With some apprehension heading into 2024 about where the middle and lower thirds of the market would trend, quadrants where a lot of first-season sires can find themselves oscillating through in their early careers, Kelly is buoyant about the early signs from both Magic Millions and New Zealand Bloodstock's Karaka.

“From our perspective, we were very pleased,” he said when asked for a comment on the overall health of the market.

“We had 33 horses in (at Magic Millions), and we sold 33 of them. I think that most vendors were walking away over the moon with the way that the Magic Millions (sale) held up. Just from afar looking at New Zealand (for the New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale), their sale was up. So I think the horse market in Australia at the moment is good, great (even).

“There’s positivity about it. The job that Racing New South Wales is doing in New South Wales with prizemoney, (the) Country Championships, (the) Kosciusko, I think it's a little bit great in the whole industry.”