Seize The Day's Group 1 triumph turns heads to Segenhoe's special Siyouni colt at Inglis Easter

Cover image courtesy of Magic Millions

In the run-up to any sale, recency of the pedigree is the greatest currency. Saturday’s racing at Manawatu delivered just that in fantastic style, where Te Akau Racing and Kia Ora Stud-owned colt Seize The Day (I Am Invincible) struck in the G1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes - just in time for Lot 243, a Siyouni (Fr) colt out of his full sister California Zimbol, to go under the hammer.

The Inglis Easter Yearling Sale kicks off on Sunday morning, with the colt will be offered by Segenhoe Stud on Monday morning, and the stud’s General Manager Peter O’Brien couldn’t have been more pleased with the result. It was not just any kind of win either, with the colt dominating his competition in a four and a half-length win.

“All week we knew the horse was running in the Group 1,” he said. “We were a little worried about the soft tracks in New Zealand because he’s a Vinnie, but he is obviously a very, very, good horse. I have spent all afternoon updating everybody who liked the yearling to let them know.

“I'm just delighted for (breeder) John (Camilleri), like he's put all his faith in this mare by sending her overseas, and it's great to have it justified. Hopefully it will reflect in the yearling sale price when he goes through the ring.”

A very fast mare

Even before Saturday, the page of Lot 243 was an envious one amongst the 2026 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale catalogue. California Zimbol was a $450,000 Inglis Easter graduate from Yarraman Park Stud in 2018, when she was purchased by Asian Bloodstock Services. Sent to trainer Peter Snowden, she would flourish into a six-time winner for connections, with four of those wins at stakes level.

A debut juvenile winner by a length and a half at Canterbury, California Zimbol struck black-type at start number three, running second in the Listed Oxlade Stakes at Doomben.

Back in the thick of it come September, she beat Loving Gaby (I Am Invincible) to win the G3 Thoroughbred Club Stakes at Caulfield and run third in the G3 Red Roses Stakes at her next start. In the autumn, she resumed with a third in the Listed Fireball Stakes before claiming the Listed Darby Munro Stakes.

Training on at four, she added the Listed Alinghi Stakes - a race also won by her half-sister From Within (Not A Single Doubt) - and the G3 Maurice McCarten Stakes, as well as a slashing third to Signore Fox in the G3 Star Kingdom Stakes.

It was that electric speed more than anything that led to California Zimbol being a private purchase from the stable for John Camilleri’s Fairway Thoroughbreds.

“On Segenhoe, she is literally the best looking mare on the farm,” said O’Brien. “Peter Snowden actually had a look at the yearling yesterday and he was saying the same thing. In his whole training career, he thinks she's probably the best-looking filly he's ever trained.”

Setting her up for success

California Zimbol’s dam Zimaretto (Anabaa {USA}), who hails from the family of European champion Champers Elysees (Ire) (Elzaam), is turning into a real blue hen. She added a fourth stakes winner to her tally with Seize The Day’s win, having also produced Listed St Albans Stakes winner Cruden’s Bay (Not A Single Doubt).

There is a clear nick with her pedigree and Canny Lad, who appears above I Am Invincible as his damsire and again as the damsire of Not A Single Doubt’s own sire Redoute’s Choice.

Lot 243 is California Zimbol’s second foal, her first being a colt by Frankel (GB) who was born in France on Southern Hemisphere time. Offered at last year’s Inglis Easter sale, he was purchased by Go Bloodstock for $450,000 and has been named Pacific Titan, with Fairway Thoroughbreds remaining in the ownership.

“He’s showing a lot of ability,” O’Brien said of the colt, who is in the stable of Chris Waller. “Like a hell of a lot, but he is probably more of a 3-year-old type so he is spelling right now.”

Her Siyouni colt was born in New Zealand, where she visited Proisir, before returning to Australia ahead of the 2025 season. She foaled a filly in October and subsequently secured a spot in Too Darn Hot’s (GB) highly exclusive book.

“John Camilleri has really backed this mare, sending her to Frankel and then Siyouni,” said O’Brien. “And he’s a beautiful colt in his own right, so to come to the sale with a proper animal and then to get a Group 1 winner who's a full brother to the mother, you couldn't get any better than that. It is the perfect update for a horse you are about to sell.

“He’s by Siyouni, who is a champion sire in Europe, but more importantly, he's got his looks from his mother and is a beautiful mover. He’s all quality.”

Of the choice to go to Proisir, O’Brien shared that Camilleri is a big supporter of the stallion.

“There is a dearth of proven stallions currently in Australasia, and Proisir is one that John believes a lot in,” he said. The cross also plays on a double-up of influential broodmare sire Lunchtime (GB), who is the damsire of Canny Lad and also appears in Proisir’s pedigree as the damsire of his sire Choisir. “So that’s why we sent her over there. Then she went to Too Darn Hot, which doesn’t need much explanation.”

Respecting a champion

The latest update to the page gives Lot 243, to O’Brien, the ‘perfect alignment’ of looks, pedigree, and sire - and it is the latter that is a real point of difference for the lot. There are only six lots in the sale by the Aga Khan Studs’ Siyouni, most well known to the general racing public in Australia thanks to his Group 1-winning daughter Amelia’s Jewel.

He is also the sire of five-time Group 1-winning sire St Mark’s Basilica (Fr) and four-time Group 1-winning stallion Paddington (GB), both of whom shuttle south from Coolmore’s Irish base for the Southern Hemisphere season, as well as G2 Todman Stakes winner Aylmerton.

O’Brien firmly believes that the right people respect the stallion’s record, even if his momentum has ebbed and flowed over the years.

“He (Siyouni) has had so few runners out here so far, but Jean Dubois did have that very good 2-year-old, Aylmerton, out here early on,” he said. “He was a proper 2-year-old. Then there was a bit of a lag, and it’s only now that the next waves of runners are coming through for him out here.”

Siyouni's sons have been making their own waves at stud. With his first crop of foals hitting the track last year, St Mark’s Basilica has already produced his first Group 1 winner in the Northern Hemisphere with G1 Prix Marcel Boussac victress Diamond Necklace (Ire). His first stakes winner in Australia, dual Listed winner Aristopolos, has yet to be beaten.

Siyouni himself has had 91 stakes winners to date, 11 at Group 1 level, and was Champion Sire in France two years running in 2020 and 2021. He was the leading French sire of 2-year-olds in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Of his 49 offspring to make it to the track on Australia and New Zealand, he bats at a 69.4% strike rate of winners to runners, with his four stakes winners to date also including Listed Lord Stakes winner and multiple Group 1 performer Nugget (GB) and Listed Without Fear Stakes victress See You In Spring. From his 10 foals to start as 2-year-olds in Australia, five are winners and five are stakes performers, including three won stakes races that season.

From three Australian stakes performers, the two born on Australian soil are both Group-performed as juveniles; See You Soon was placed in both the G2 Reisling Stakes and the G2 Percy Sykes Stakes as well as winning the $125,000 Kirkham Plate and running second in the $1 million Golden Gift, while Direct debuted second in a pre-Christmas Moonee Valley Saturday race behind Paulele and then was third in the G2 Silver Slipper Stakes to Home Affairs.

From limited numbers, it is promising results, and well worth sending a fast, precocious mare across the globe for.

“I think champion sires are effective worldwide,” O’Brien said. “We hope that fact is recognised in the ring on Monday.”

And with a pedigree update like that, there will be few who will be able to look away.