Beltana’s Richard Rutherford is a big fan of the Savabeel breed and little wonder with the Waikato Stud stalwart doing the job year in, year out and not only on the race track where he has been well represented by 93 stakes winners, but also in the sales ring.
Take Book 1 Karaka 2019 for example, the progeny of the W.S Cox Plate-Gr.1 2040m winner selling for up to $1.4 million with another 44 (from 48 sold) of his sons and daughters bringing six figures.
And two of those were from the small but always select draft of Beltana; an imposing filly out of the Group Three winning O’Reilly mare O’Reilly Rose sold to astute judge John Foote for $300,000 whilst a half-sister to the Beltana bred Newmarket Handicap-Gr.1, 1200m winner Shamexpress was purchased by the China Horse Club for $185,000.
Fast forward twelve months and Beltana again have two impressive Savabeel fillies on offer, both eye-catching black members of high class families.
“They are stunning fillies,” Rutherford enthused, adding that “they are as nice as any yearlings I have had in a long time, they are both really stylish with lovely pedigrees too.”
“Savabeel is the sire of the moment,” he said.
“He is leaving stakes winners all the time and is getting all types of horses including a few precocious types.”
The fillies are the only two yearlings bred at Beltana for the season and what a great achievement it is to have them both make the prestigious first book of the Karaka sale.
First up is lot 528, a daughter of the High Chaparral mare Crystalthecowgirl whose previous son is the talented Antonio Giuseppe, the Metropolitan Handicap-Gr.1, 2400m runner-up who won six of his 19 starts. Amassing over $540,000 in stakes, the five times city winner was also second in the Sky High Stakes-Gr.3, 2000m won by Tavago and the Kingston Town Stakes-Gr.3 taken out by Libran.
Savabeel has had just four runners out of High Chaparral mares; three winners including the Listed winner Elate and the Group One placed Savvy Oak (splitting Qafila and Mr Quickie in the South Australian Derby, 2500m) who was in winning form at Flemington during Cup week.
Bred on a 5mx5f cross of the acclaimed matriarch Special via Zabeel’s dam sire Nureyev and High Chaparral’s sire Sadler’s Wells (the same cross as Savabeel’s Group One winners Lucia Valentina and Hall Of Fame), this striking filly is a granddaughter of the stakes winning Star Way mare Crystal Brook, dam of the Group Two winner Highflying.
This is another cross that works exceptionally well, Savabeel crossed with a Star Way (member of the famed Selene family that also produced Savabeel’s granddsire
Sir Tristram) strain siring the Group One winners Lucia Valentina, Soriano and Hasahalo.
Other classy campaigners from this family include the Group One winners Le Drakkar and Heroicity, the Group Two galloper Mountain Rule and the Listed winners Mezmerize and Kim Kim II.
Beltana’s second Savabeel filly is lot 572, the first foal for the terrific race mare Emily Monk.
Also a product of Beltana’s lush paddocks, the daughter of O’Reilly (already broodmare sire of 74 stakes winners) won seven of her 14 starts including four in a row and what a great match Savabeel is for her.
This is the highly successful Savabeel/O’Reilly cross, one that has produced 81 winners from 105 runners (a 77.1% strike rate) including twelve stakes winners (11.4%).
A descendant of the influential Chelandry from the same branch of her prolific family as the multiple Group One winning highly successful stallion High Chaparral and the recent Moonee Valley Cup-Gr.2. 2500m winner Hunting Horn, this filly boasts a 6fx7m cross of the great mare Thong via her grandson Nureyev and
son Thatch.
Emily Monk is half-sister to the Group One placed Heidilicious (third to Shootoff in the Queensland Derby, 2400m) and the two times Listed placed Sherpa Tenzing.
Breeding from just a handful of mares on his the 4000 acre sheep and cattle property some 130km north of Christchurch, Rutherford is a breeder who bats well above average, conceding that “it is difficult to compete with the big studs.”
But he does just that, breeding the high class sprinter Shamexpress and the Hong Kong Group Three winner Top Act whilst also achieving great yearling sale results including the 2017 Karaka sale topper, an $825,000 O’Reilly colt. ✦
