Chittick foresight rewarded with top mare Probabeel
A combination of one man’s determination and one stallion’s brilliant but all-too-short career, is firmly behind the success of last week’s Epsom Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) victress Probabeel (Savabeel).
The man is Garry Chittick, founder of Thornton Park Stud which later morphed into Waikato Stud when that fabulous facility became available to purchase.
The stallion is Pakistan II (Palestine), whose influence during the sixties and seventies was profound.
It is no secret that buyers who come to New Zealand need patience due to the stout blood that is the foundation of the New Zealand Stud Book. When interviewed by ANZ Bloodstock News at last year’s NZB Ready to Run Sale, top Victorian trainer Mick Price stated: “We know what we are getting when we come here. You have to wait, but even that is changing.”
That change began to take place when Pakistan II found his way to Fairdale Stud in Longburn, just out of Palmerston North in the Manawatu region.
Because it was usually all they could afford, most New Zealand Stud Masters were attracted to siblings to Derby winners or well related yet average performed and stoutly-bred stayers.
Pakistan II was like a bolt out of the blue. He too was well related being by Palestine (Fair Trial) who was bred and raced by The Aga Khan and who made a huge impression at two and three. From 13 starts Palestine won 11 (including six races as a two-year-old), his premier performances being the 2,000 Guineas, (Gr 1, 1m) and the Sussex Stakes, (Gr 1, 1m) at Goodwood as a three-year-old.
Tambara (Nasrullah), his dam, scored the Royal Ascot Coronation Stakes, (Gr 2, 1m) and dead-heated for second in the 1,000 Guineas, (Gr 1, 1m). Her half-brother and leading sire Turkhan (Bahram) took out the Irish Derby (Gr 1, 1m 4f) while her dam, Theresina (Diophon) was an Irish Oaks (Gr 1, 1m 4f) winning half-sister to the leading US sire Alibhai (Hyperion).
However, Pakistan II’s race record could, at best, be described as slightly above average: Stakes-placed at two and three in France before winning handicaps at Aintree and Leicester as a four-year-old.
Consequently, he was purchased for a very modest sum and in 1963 found himself at Arthur Fell’s Fairdale Stud, ready to start a sparkling stud career.
Through his two grandsires (Fair Trial and Nasrullah), Pakistan II’s bloodlines featured a double up to Lady Josephine (Sundridge), dam of the brilliant Mumtaz Mahal (The Tetrarch), which might explain his ability to add the much needed zip to the bloodlines of his mates. It certainly didn’t seem to matter how they were bred. His prepotency became all too evident and rejuvenated many families.
The toughness and soundness for which New Zealand-breds are known was fully maintained however.
Pakistan II’s second crop (1965) included Count Kereru who raced on until he was 13, winning 25 times. Sharda won 21 times, Ayu Khan won 20, Sharif 13 times and Honda, 17 wins – all raced as ten-year-olds.
The standout of that golden class of 1965 was five-time Group 1 winner Rajah Sahib. A Group 1 winner at Ellerslie at two, Rajah Sahib took Melbourne by storm at three with a rare Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) – WS Cox Plate (Gr 1, 10f) double. At five he added another double – the Doncaster Handicap (Gr 1, 1m) and Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1, 7f).
Dual Group 1 winners Triton, Zambari and Purple Patch would follow.
Pakistan II sired 43 stakes winners in nine crops which also included the outstanding fillies Wood Court Inn, Prepak and the brilliant Ajasco. Fewer than 175 fillies were foaled and they would become gems as well as highly desirable.
Garry Chittick realised very early that the strength in any stud was in the quality of its mares and that a stallion’s true worth was his stakes winners to runners ratio.
According to his research, a stallion with a ratio of ten per cent stakes winners to runners is exceptional. Pakistan’s 43 stake winners from 326 runners puts him at an amazing 13.2 per cent, which is why Chittick went to great pains to acquire one of his daughters.
He succeeded in finding one but she was in California. At home in New Zealand, Georgina Belle was one of the better two-year-olds of her crop finishing second and third in two of the early Listed races that season. She was a little unlucky not to be a stakes winner, not due to her ability, but due to the fact that the Hastings Stakes, one her three wins, lost its stakes status that very year, 1971-72.
Exported to the USA she had two foals (both winners) to Gladwin (First Landing), a Hawthorne Gold Cup (Gr 3, 10f) winner and was carrying her third foal to that stallion when Chittick made the purchase. From California she was sent to England, the resulting foal (Raad) would go on to win 13 races in Denmark and Sweden. Covered by Habat (Habitat) she produced Habania then came back home to New Zealand.
Georgina Belle would produce four fillies. Her sole stakes winner, Giorgio (Centaine) took out a Listed race at Mornington but never made it to stud. Celia Leigh (Sound Reason) was successful at Caulfield and became the granddam of AJC Doncaster Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) victor Vision And Power (Carnegie), VRC Salinger Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) winner Glamour Puss (Tale Of The Cat) and great-granddam of Coolmore Classic (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Steps In Time (Danehill Dancer).
Probabeel descends from Georgina Belle’s first filly Habania who was successful seven times including four wins in Melbourne where she also achieved a Group 3 placing at Caulfield. Habania would produce two Listed winners and from the first crop of O’Reilly (Last Tycoon) the unraced Hyades, Probabeel’s third dam.
Hyades would also produce the unraced Eudora (Pins), dam of New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) and Livamol Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) victress Savvy Coup (Savabeel). Eudora and Probabeel’s dam Far Fetched (Pins) are three-quarter sisters. Therefore, Probabeel and Savvy Coup are virtually sisters-in-blood.
The entrance of O’Reilly is significant. When Chittick moved his operation from Manawatu to Matamata, one of the mares he found among his new acquisition was Hunza, the stakes winning daughter of Pakistan II. Hunza would produce Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Courtza (Pompeii Court) and she, in turn, would foal Waikato Stud’s super sire O’Reilly.
The two families were destined to meet and Pakistan II was central to both.