Cover image courtesy of Cambridge Stud
Hello Youmzain (Fr) has quickly backed up his early promise. After being crowned New Zealand’s Champion First Season Sire in 2024/25, he added Champion Second Season Sire honours in 2025/26.
He also finished 20th on the overall New Zealand sires’ premiership as the youngest stallion in the top 20, while his five individual stakes winners were second only to Savabeel’s nine and equal with Almanzor (Fr).
“One thing about Hello Youmzain is his consistency. Across the board, if you look at his winners to runners ratio, it’s very strong in both hemispheres. Last season (2025/26) in Australia, he's running at about 57% winners to runners, which puts him right up with the best in Australia for the season,” said Cambridge Stud’s Scott Calder.
Back Of The Bus ends season in style
Bought by trainer Tony Pike for NZ$25,000 from the New Zealand Bloodstock Online Yearling Sale, Back Of The Bus (NZ) (Hello Youmzain {Fr}) won the Listed Ryder Stakes at the end of her juvenile season.
“She is a really tough and brave filly,” Pike said. “She has been consistent all season and has done a really good job, winning the series final at Ellerslie, third in the Castletown and now a stakes win in the Ryder. I couldn’t have asked for much more this prep, she has done a good job for a cheap purchase.
“She (Back Of The Bus) has been consistent all season and has done a really good job, winning the series final at Ellerslie.” - Tony Pike
“She was actually passed in, and we had a couple of owners that were looking for some small shares in a cheaper filly and we purchased her a few days after the sale. We went over and had a look at her and she was very well put together, hence the name my wife named her – she had an arse like the back of a bus.”
Back Of The Bus (NZ) | Image courtesy of Peter Rubery (Race Images)
The first foal of Luce Del Sole (Medaglia D’Oro {USA}) who is an unplaced half-sister to Listed winner Witz End (NZ) (Savabeel), Back Of The Bus will be set for the spring 3-year-old races.
Keeping up the momentum
Hello Youmzain’s oldest New Zealand crop have just turned four, and he had 51 runners in New Zealand in 2025/26 for 23 winners (45%). In Australia in 2025/26, he had 37 runners for 21 winners (57%).
“He's always got something happening on the track, but I think he has built some momentum through the second half of the season. Obviously to have Back Of The Bus win right at the end of the season here in New Zealand, that was his fifth stakes winner for the year and from 50 runners in New Zealand,” Calder said.
Hello Youmzain (Fr) | Standing at Cambridge Stud
Hello Youmzain’s stakes winners for the season were G3 Cambridge Breeders’ Stakes winner Drops Of God (NZ), Listed Wanganui Guineas winner Platinum Diamond (NZ), dual Listed winner Hello Hayley (NZ), and the two juvenile winners Back Of The Bus and Listed Welcome Stakes winner Enchantment (NZ).
“Statistically, he's doing very well, and what we've seen is the first crop has probably been flying the flag, but he's got a really promising second crop. There are six stakes performed 2-year-olds from the second crop. I've got a lot of confidence in that second crop coming through. He's got some nice horses in it.”
“Statistically, he's (Hello Youmzain) doing very well, and what we've seen is the first crop has probably been flying the flag... He's got some nice horses in it.” - Scott Calder
Notable performances by his juveniles include Sweetest Thing (NZ) who was second in the G1 Manawatu Sires' Produce Stakes. Silken Salute (NZ) ran second in the G3 Ken Russell Memorial Classic, and Persian Wonder (NZ) was second in the G3 TL Baillieu Handicap.
Scott Calder | Image courtesy of Cambridge Stud
“He got better as he got older. He won the Diamond Jubilee at Royal Ascot as a 4-year-old which was his career best, even though he won good races at two and three. So there's every reason to think they will continue to progress.
“In the last six months, it’s good to see results in Australia. He’s got Silken Salute perform at group level through the Queensland winter carnival, Persian Wonder is a horse that performed at group level in Sydney. Hello Captain, who is a brother to Persian Wonder, has won three of his last four. Cruiserweight won his first three starts.
“It's the emergence of those horses that are progressing through the grades and they haven't quite reached their top yet, but I think they're all horses that hold a lot of potential for the coming season.”
A couple of his group performers in 2025/26 are headed towards Group 1 targets in the first half of 2026/27.
Drops Of God (NZ) | Image courtesy of Race Images
“Drops of God’s last start was in the Cambridge Breeders’ Stakes here at Group 3 and she won that very easily. I think there were temptations to push on with her, but they’ve decided to be patient and they have Group 1 aspirations here in New Zealand with her. If you talk about a potential top liner for him, she’s one that I’d hand my hat on for this season.
“The other horse which deserves mention is Sweetest Thing. She ran second in the G1 Manawatu Sires. She subsequently been purchased by Glentree Racing and moved to Te Akau. She's one that they're targeting at the New Zealand 1000 Guineas with this spring.
“He’s teetering on the brink of having that real breakout horse.”
Sales in a shifting market
Across the 2026 sales season, Hello Youmzain had 26 yearlings sell at an average of just over NZ$74,000. He stands in 2026 for NZ$20,000 plus GST.
“He was probably underestimated at the yearling sales, but since then, he's just built and built as the season's gone on and certainly the last six months have been his best six months on the track, so we're confident that he can continue that momentum through the start of the season and into next year's yearling sales,” said Calder.
“The ready to run market has been something that he's done very well at. Last year, he had one of the top horses of the sale at $700,000. He’s now called Gleamstone and is in training with Lindsay Park.
“The ready to run market has been something that he's done very well at.” - Scott Calder
“That’s a big part of the market in New Zealand, and I think you’re going to see a lot of his stock excel at the ready to run and trial market. A lot of the big Aussie stables are targeting trial and race winners out of New Zealand.
“He had his first winner in Hong Kong. It's only early days from up there, but again, I think you’ll see more of his stock coming through that ready to run and trial market heading up there.”
Gleamstone (NZ) | Image courtesy of New Zealand Bloodstock
Rapid Phantom (NZ) was sold by Cambridge Stud to Karson KT Choi for NZ$120,000 at the New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale and he’s now a winner from three starts in Hong Kong.
“We can be genuinely excited about the new season. One because of the results that are in front of us but also projecting out because he was a better horse at four so they will keep continuing to improve.
“The other thing to factor into all of this is he's standing for $20,000 this year, so any breeder looking for a horse that’s doing a good job, you can breed to him with confidence that he’s going to do right by your mare, particularly if she’s a young mare. Get her off to a good start with a winner and his black type percentages give you a really good shot at having a black type performer.”
Rapid Phantom (NZ) | Image courtesy of Cambridge Stud
Strong and siring a consistent type
With four crops of foals on the ground in New Zealand, and his fifth due now, breeders have a lot of information at their fingertips about what types of mares are suiting Hello Youmzain. His fourteen stakes winners globally are spread across thirteen different damsires with only Thorn Park (NZ) doubling up. Both Hello Hayley (NZ) and Platinum Diamond (NZ) are out of Thorn Park mares, being Hayley Grace (NZ) and Spritz (NZ) respectively.
“There are a couple of bloodlines that are jumping out so far. One of those is definitely the O’Reilly line. He’s had a stakes winner out of an O’Reilly mare and another stakes performer. He’s also had a stakes winner out of a Per Incanto mare,” Calder said.
“There are a couple of bloodlines that are jumping out so far. One of those is definitely the O’Reilly line. He’s had a stakes winner out of an O’Reilly mare and another stakes performer. He’s also had a stakes winner out of a Per Incanto mare.” - Scott Calder
“That's a really interesting cross because you get the double up of Helen Street through his damsire Shamardal and the Street Cry in Per Incanto.”
Juvenile stakes winner Enchantment is out of Per Incanto (USA) mare Belle Fascino (NZ). The two from O’Reilly mares are Listed winner Lucy In The Sky (NZ) and G3 Almanzor Trophy-placed Bulgari (NZ).
O’Reilly (NZ) | Image courtesy of Waikato Stud
But pedigree is only one part of the equation and with a wide spread of damsires who are working with Hello Youmzain, much of the discussion comes down to physical type.
“He throws a consistent type and puts a lot of strength and substance into his progeny. For a big bulky sprinter, he’s got a great action on him, and his stock are good moving horses,” Calder said.
“He throws a consistent type and puts a lot of strength and substance into his progeny. For a big bulky sprinter, he’s got a great action on him, and his stock are good moving horses.” - Scott Calder
“Mares that need a bit of bone and substance put into them seem to work well for him, but he tends to throw to himself and they are a pretty standard line of horses. You’re going to get his body type, but he’s from that Danehill line and sometimes they can be shorter in the leg and big through the body, so a mare that’s going to put a bit of leg under them is good.
“I think it was either Tony Pike or his wife after the Back Of The Bus won saying she was called that, because her hindquarter looked like the back of the bus. That’s typical of him, he throws horses with big square, strong hindquarters.”
Danehill (USA) | Image courtesy of Sportpix
Hello Youmzain’s stakes winners are currently evenly split by hemisphere with eight in the North and six in the South, and by gender, nine are fillies and five are colts or geldings. As his oldest crop have now reached the age when he himself exceled, there is plenty to look forward to this spring.
