‘He’s champion sire material’ – Thompson believes his flying Proisir can break Savabeel stranglehold
While Waikato Stud’s Savabeel (Zabeel) continued his iron grip on the New Zealand general sires’ premiership, the depth of progressive, young stallions queuing up behind him to challenge for his mantle has filled the breeding industry with a new-found optimism for the future, and John Thompson’s Rich Hill Stud has a major hand to play in that.
Savabeel secured his eighth Grosvenor Award for leading sire at the culmination of last season, earning over $3 million in prize-money earnings for the fifth time in the last six years. Chasing behind him were two stallions in the ‘what might have been’ category, with the late Cambridge Stud sires Tavistock (Montjeu) and Burgundy (Redoute’s Choice) each earning more than $2 million.
But with their final crops having just turned two, their challenge will begin to dissipate, handing the baton to New Zealand’s young pretenders, the chasing pack led by Little Avondale’s Per Incanto (Street Cry) ahead of Rich Hill duo Proisir (Choisir) and Shocking (Street Cry).
At the conclusion of the 2020-21 season, just a tick over $3,600 separated Rich Hill’s Shocking and Proisir in 11th and 12th on the general sires’ list, yet fast forward 12 months and they lie in fifth and six, albeit with the four-years younger Proisir having leapfrogged his barnmate in the standings, trailing Savabeel by just under $1.6 million.
Furthermore, with 49 winners from 98 runners – a strike-rate of 50 per cent, the joint highest among New Zealand’s top 20 sires – Proisir finished second to Tavistock (61) in the leading sires by winners standings.
It’s a rise which has cause for optimism for Thompson, who sees the sire’s upward trajectory as a possible breaker in the dominance of New Zealand’s perennial champion sire.
“Savabeel is a once-in-a-generation stallion, but I truly believe that as these better numbers and better-bred crops come through, there’s no doubt he’s champion sire material,” Thompson told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“He won’t win eight of them, that’s asking a bit much. Savabeel has been a tremendous flag bearer for New Zealand and Australasia. But, having basically started with $7,000 mares in New Zealand, Proisir has really upgraded those mares.”
Proisir sired three individual stakes winners for six stakes wins in New Zealand last season, his progeny led by dual Group 1 winner Levante – who scored an unofficial world-record time of 1:06.18 for the 1200-metre trip in the Telegraph (Gr 1, 1200m) – and Auckland Guineas (Gr 2, 1600m) winner Dark Destroyer. In Australia, South Australian Group 3 winner Belle Plaisir flew the Kiwi flag.
An Australian Group 3 winner and dual Group 1 runner-up in the Randwick Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and Spring Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m), Proisir retired to stud at a fee of $7,000 (plus GST), covering 145 mares, a number he exceeded in 2020 when earning his first increase to $9,000 (plus GST) and covering 152 mares.
His fee now stands at $17,500 (plus GST), having covered 126 mares last year, while his yearlings soared to a career-high average of $71,820.
However, Proisir is not the only shining light within the Rich Hill roster of five.
The aforementioned Shocking, who has made waves with his Australian-raced progeny this season (where he sired five stakes winners, including Group 1 winner I’m Thunderstruck) has caught the eye, along with New Zealand champion second-season sire Vadamos (Monsun) and Japanese-shuttling first-season sire Satono Aladdin (Deep Impact).
“We’ve invested into stallions with good pedigrees and good race records and although it doesn’t guarantee success, it’s nice to see it come together,” Thompson said, who expressed his slight surprise at the achievements of Vadamos in holding off a trio of well-credentialed second season sires in Belardo (Lope De Vega), Turn Me Loose (Iffraaj) and Tivaci (High Chaparral), to win the title by a little over $100,000.
The Group 1-winning miler’s first-crop three-year-olds have include star filly La Crique, winner of the Avondale Guineas (Gr 2, 2100m) and Desert Gold Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m), before taking on the boys in finishing an unlucky second in the New Zealand Derby (Gr 1, 2400m). He also scored a first two-year-old stakes winner in Welcome Stakes (Listed, 1000m) Grace’s Secret.
“There were a good bunch of Group 1-winning horses that went to stud that year in New Zealand with all sorts of different sire lines. It’s been exciting to see Vadamos perform so well [amongst that group],” Thompson said.
“The real highlight was La Crique. She could be a potential superstar down here, really and to have a horse of that calibre from his first crop was, for us, very exciting.
“It’s probably more a surprise in just how precocious they are and the speed they’ve shown.
“We know the horse had quite a staying pedigree, but if you talk to his original trainer, Andre Fabre, he was bought originally to be a potential stayer, but he said the horse had so much speed he was more of a miler than a stayer, and he was proved right.
“He had a stakes-winning two-year-old and a couple of nice two-year-old winners this season in New Zealand as well, and you wouldn’t have been predicting that.”
Vadamos, too, has numbers on his side. His now three-year-old crop and yearling crop each have 73 foals on the ground, while his start at stud has earned him a fee increase to $15,000 (plus GST) for the 2022 season.
Despite possessing a potential champion sire in waiting and a champion second-season sire, it may be Rich Hill’s flourishing first-season sire from last term that makes the most profound mark in the breeding shed, albeit in the absence of his yearling and weanling crops this season.
Japanese shuttler Satono Aladdin, a son of the imperious Deep Impact (Sunday Silence), ended last season with five individual winners across both Australia and New Zealand and a stakes placegetter in New Zealand.
“There’s been a few Deep Impacts that have gone to stud in Australia, but none have had his pedigree. He’s from a very good American family. His mother was a very top-class racemare by Storm Cat and the second dam is by Fappiano, who is the broodmare sire of Northern Meteor who is very successful in Australia, and the third dam is by Nijinsky. It’s blood I think is really going to click with the New Zealand broodmare population,” Thompson said.
“Some of the other Deep Impacts are real outcross stallions that are a bit hard to get your head around. They tried to turn him into a stayer [in Japan], but he won two Group 2s over 1400 metres and then he won the Yasuda Kinen, Japan’s biggest Group 1 over a mile.
“So he had a real turn of speed that’s suitable for basing him down here. The way he’s started, he could be anything as a stallion. He’s had five two-year-old winners and four of them are unbeaten.”
Rich Hill Stud previously shuttled Pentire (Be My Guest) from Japan’s Shadai Stud, and that relationship saw Satono Aladdin presented to New Zealand breeders in 2018.
“When Pentire died, Shadai asked whether we should do another stallion, and I rather jokingly said it would have to be a Group 1-winning son of Deep Impact,” Thompson recalled.
“And then they came back to me with this horse and when that happened it was all good, both parties had a desire to see it work.
“It’s just unfortunate that when Covid hit we couldn’t get the horse back, so he won’t have any weanlings or yearlings for next year’s sales, which is disappointing for us.”
With four burgeoning stallions, the covering season at Rich Hill is expected to be busy, but Thompson was quick to make mention of their fifth stallion on the roster; a young dual Group 1-winning sire whose progeny have just turned two.
“Don’t underestimate Ace High as well, he’s a son of High Chaparral from a Redoute’s Choice mare and from Danehill and Northern Dancer’s family,” Thompson said.
“I think the way the sons of High Chaparral have progressed I’m not sure we’d be able to get the horse if he was available now.
“The feedback we’ve had, I get the feeling we are going to get a few two-year-olds with him. If you look at his race record, he had his first start as an October two-year-old when he ran second to Champagne Cuddles over 1100 metres at Rosehill. If he was a colt by Snitzel that did that, you’d be getting really excited.”
Ace High stands for a fee of $10,000 (plus GST) this season.