Waikato Stud fees: Savabeel remains at NZ$100,000, fee rises for Super Seth and Ardrossan

Cover image courtesy of Waikato Stud

With 145 stakes winners to his mantle, Savabeel is rapidly closing in on his own father, Zabeel’s (NZ) 166 which stands as the record for most stakes winners recorded by any New Zealand based stallion.

With a further three Group 1 winners this season alone including the dominant G1 Vinery Stud S. winner Orchestral (NZ), Savabeel remains at an unchanged fee of NZ$100,000 (plus GST) marking himself as one of the best value sires of the leading Australasian stallions.

At 22 years old and in the twilight of his career, he still consistently attracts well over 100 mares each breeding season. Waikato Stud's Mark Chittick is in awe of the eight-time New Zealand Champion sire's enduring health and vitality.

“The horse is incredibly healthy and well. Last year he served over 100 mares and he got over 80 per cent of those in foal. We’ve got no reason to suggest anything will be different this year.

"He's a year older, but he just keeps producing horses in that top echelon year-after-year and we’re approaching the upcoming season with Savabeel as we approached it ten years ago”.

Super starts for exciting duo

Super Seth has had a remarkable season with his first crop of runners, earning a slight fee increase to NZ$45,000 (plus GST) for the 2024 season. The G1 Caulfield Guineas winner’s debut runners have made a significant mark on the Australian and New Zealand racing scenes with three individual stakes performers to his name from just 16 runners. This includes the Group 3 winner and G1 Champagne Stakes runner-up, Linebacker (NZ), stakes winning colt Super Photon (NZ) and Poetic Champion (NZ), who placed in Group 2 competition.

“He was a very high profile racehorse and a high-profile colt to retire to stud in New Zealand. He was a huge investment for us but he's the sort of horse that just works in this part of the world and he’s kicked off enormously well.

“To have the stakes horses that he’s got in New Zealand and Australia and the way they’re winning has gained him an incredible reputation amongst trainers in Australia. He’s an unbelievably exciting horse and I think it's really just the start of a massive stud career for him”.

Super Seth demonstrated his prowess early on, winning his initial two juvenile starts and capturing Group 1 status as a three-year-old. Chittick always believed in the horse’s potential and expected a strong beginning in his stud career, but admits that Super Seth’s performance as a sire has been exceptionally impressive.

“He produced great types from the onset, we always knew they would be good but we didn’t expect to see them get up and going this early. So I think we are in for something very special come next season".

Waikato were given more reasons to celebrate this season after their second-season sire Ardrossan continues to make his mark at stud. He will stand for an increased fee of NZ$20,0000 (plus GST) in 2024.

With a precocious pedigree and untapped potential on the racetrack, from just 36 starters in his first two crops, Ardrossan is represented by four stakes winners including the exciting Saltcoats (NZ), Codigo (NZ), Loch Katherine (NZ) and Beau Dazzler (NZ).

Praising the son of breed-shaping sire Redoute’s Choice, Chittick is particularly pleased with Ardrossan's start to stud despite doing it the hard way.

“He started from very humble beginnings and he's earned this the hard way. He’s traveling at over 10 per cent stake winners to runners which is quite incredible.

“We served anything we could with him, which wasn't a lot. He had big ones, he had small ones, he had whatever he could serve. But he's just left really good types which have been well recognised in the sales ring and people are really chasing the Ardrossans now with the success that he's left on the racetrack already at this early stage.”

Proven sires represent value

Multiple Group 1-producing sire Ocean Park (NZ) represents value to breeders as he enters his 12th season at Waikato Stud at a decreased fee of NZ$20,000 (plus GST) in 2024.

Striking at almost five per cent stakes winners to runners, the former Champion New Zealand Sire has enjoyed another solid season having sired stakes winners Dionysus (NZ) and Kai (NZ) to take his stakes winning tally to 21.

With prizemoney that amounts to over NZ$51 million, his progeny also continue to be popular at the sales with a full-sister to his four-time Group 1 winning Tofane (NZ) achieving him a lifetime best of $700,000 at this year’s Inglis Easter Sale.

“He’s getting into the later stage of his career, but he can serve a big book. You’ve got to send the right type of mare to him, but if you send the right type, you get a good type and you can sell them very well as yearlings”.

“He's always got a high profile racehorse, he’s just a very good sire that represents great value to the marketplace”.

Entering his eighth season at Waikato Stud, Tivaci will stand for a slightly reduced fee of NZ$8,000 (plus GST) this season. From his first crop, Tivaci sired Never Been Kissed (NZ), who triumphed in the G1 Flight Stakes in 2021. His second crop produced Wolverine (NZ), who secured consecutive Group 2 wins in the Wakefield Challenge S. and Eclipse S., and later achieved a placing at the Group 1 level.

Now might be the ideal time to invest in Tivaci, as Chittick suggests the best is still ahead for the son of High Chaparral (Ire). Tivaci has attracted some of his largest books to date, with 124 mares in 2021 and 100 in 2022,

“He's left a Group 1 winner, a Group 2 winner, and obviously numerous other stakes horses. I know you hear it from Stud Masters all the time, but numbers wise his best books are in the next couple of years.

“Never Been Kissed is out of a Savabeel mare, so obviously he got a lot of our Savabeel mares off the back of that so there’s a lot of that cross coming through and there’s some really nice types to come”.

Exciting times ahead

Chittick is particularly excited about the future of Savabeel’s Group 1 winning son Noverre who will stand the 2024 season at an unchanged fee of NZ$10,000 (plus GST). Bred by Waikato Stud and sold to Te Akau Racing’s David Ellis for NZ$800,000 at the 2020 New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale, Noverre is described by Chittick as “a beautiful type himself” and he is particularly excited about the types he is throwing.

“He is an absolutely sensational type himself and is leaving foals just like that. We've put the odd mare to him that probably hasn't had a lot of strength in the past and he's corrected that and produced incredibly attractive types".

Wednesday was a significant day for Noverre as his 2-year-old full brother, Magice (NZ), made an impressive winning debut at Matamata, proudly donning the Waikato Stud silks.

“His full-brother Magice won very, very impressively today. The mare’s just doing a wonderful job. All her yearlings that have been to the sales including Noverre himself have made big money, so she leaves a great type and he’s doing the same”.

As Banquo enters his fourth season at Waikato Stud, his stud fee remains set at NZ$3,000 (plus GST). Being the first son of the former Australian Champion Sire Written Tycoon to stand in New Zealand, Banquo is generating considerable excitement with Chittick looking forward to displaying his progeny on the racetracks in the upcoming season.

“We’ve retained quite a few yearlings of his that are already broken and been through our system, two or three times and we've got a couple of really, really nice types by him.

“We didn't expect him to be coming to a stud when he did, and it was late in the piece so that didn’t help with his numbers earlier on but he’s a great type, he was an expensive yearling being a full-brother to Booker and is throwing great types himself".

Table: Waikato Stud's stallion fee's 2024