‘Strongest ever’ Kiwi contingent bidding to make their mark at Magics
Cambridge and Waikato lead the way for New Zealand representation on the Gold Coast
The subtly changing face of the New Zealand thoroughbred has been reflected in the largest and strongest representation of horses from across the Tasman yet entered for a Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, which begins on Tuesday.
Six Kiwi farms will sell under their own banner, with several more represented in Australian studs’ drafts, as they move to strike while the iron is hot. New Zealand-breds have won 21.2 per cent of Australian Group 1 races over the past three seasons from just 7.9 per cent of runners, according to figures from NZ Thoroughbred Marketing.
While there will still be the odd archetypal New Zealand Classics type on offer, the selection will more largely reflect the Gold Coast sale’s need for speed, with a good dash of two-year-old precocity thrown in.
Waikato Stud offers ten lots – including three by their farm’s second-generational first-season sire Noverre (Savabeel). Cambridge and Kaha Nui Farm have nine each, the trans-Tasman Westbury Stud has brought across four New Zealand-breds in their 21-horse draft, while Wentwood Grange and Little Avondale have three apiece.
And of all the New Zealand-based sires represented, it’s likely none will be more keenly followed than Cambridge’s second season stallion Hello Youmzain (Kodiac), who has two lots in his own stud’s draft and one in Little Avondale’s.
The eight-year-old, who shuttles from his French owners Haras D’Etreham, has just come off a booming debut season with his runners in Europe. He was France’s leading first-season sire by all three major measures: earnings, winners (13 from 33 runners), and stakes winners (two), and by wins (16) for good measure.
He finished fifth on France’s two-year-old sires’ table, which was topped by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) and Siyouni (Pivotal), but beat those heavyweights by winners – sharing top spot with Goken (Kendargent) – and was equal-second for stakes winners.
Cambridge’s $30,000 (plus GST) sire also ranked a highly creditable seventh among Britain’s first season stallions. With France not known for an emphasis on two-year-olds, it’s little wonder Haras D’Etreham has bumped the stallion’s service fee to €40,000 in 2025, up from the €22,500 he stood for in 2024.
Hello Youmzain had three yearlings average $195,000 at the Gold Coast last year, while his one Inglis Easter lot fetched $400,000.
And that first southern crop is off to a promising start.
In New Zealand, he has one, highly notable, winner from four runners, with Remala scoring at Ellerslie on Boxing Day to earn equal-favouritism for this month’s $1 million Karaka Million (RL, 1200m).
This side of the Tasman, the stallion’s only runner has been a winner, with Hello Romeo – a $150,000 Karaka Book 1 buy for Lindsay Park – scoring at Bendigo in mid-November.
“We were delighted with the season Hello Youmzain had in Europe,” Cambridge’s bloodstock manager Cameron Ring told ANZ Bloodstock News.
To be champion first-season sire in France by earnings, stakes-winners and individual winners, he was a very dominant first-season sire there
“To be champion first-season sire in France by earnings, stakes-winners and individual winners, he was a very dominant first-season sire there. He got fairly close to being champion first season sire in England too, and that hasn’t been done by a French-based stallion in many years.
“France is not at all known for its two-year-old racing. Their broodmare band is more staying types of horses, but he’s really sped up some of those families.”
Cambridge’s two Hello Youmzain colts at the Gold Coast start with Lot 154, who’s out of the well-bred Anchovy (Galileo) – a three-quarter sister to Europe’s Champion Three-Year-Old of 2013 Ruler Of The World (Galileo), and to dual stakes-winner Norway (Galileo).
Anchovy has two winners from her first two runners including Te Akau Fortuna’s West Indies (Fastnet Rock), a $525,000 Gold Coast yearling who took a Kembla Grange Super Maiden (1300m) before a fourth in Caulfield’s Norman Robinson Stakes (Gr 3, 2000m).
“This colt is an exceptional type who’s from a very strong European family,” Ring said. “It was a simple mating, since Hello Youmzain’s sire Kodiac is by Danehill, and Danehill over Galileo is one of the best crosses in the world.”
Lot 887 is the first foal of dual winner Savasilk (Savabeel) and is from the same family as recent Flemington Listed winner Miraval Rose (Grunt).
“He’s a really nice first foal with plenty of size and scope, and we thought he fits the right profile type-wise for the Gold Coast sale,” Ring said.
Cambridge is selling under its own name at the Gold Coast for the third straight year, after trading through Bhima Thoroughbreds’ drafts previously. With a recent feather in its cap thanks to 2023 Gold Coast graduate El Castello (Castelvecchio) winning the ATC Spring Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m), Ring said the stud was confident with its selection of yearlings.
“This is our biggest Gold Coast draft and I strongly believe it’s the best one we’ve brought over,” he said.
“We do our selections thoroughly throughout the year and quite a few of them just pick themselves. For here, they have to be August or September born, plus we’ve got two QTIS colts – (Lot 819 by Spirit Of Boom and Lot 769 by Sword Of State) – who’ll suit the Queensland market well.
“You have to bring the right types over here or you’ll get found out. They’re forward physical types, clean on x-ray and scope, obviously, but we specifically target the Magic Millions for the earlier get-up-and-go sort of horses, and we feel we’ve got our nine right this year.”
While Cambridge’s draft includes a colt (Lot 331) and a filly (Lot 888) by the stud’s surging sire Almanzor (Wootton Bassett) who may be more Classic types, Ring said the farm’s offerings reflected “a bit of a changing landscape” for Kiwi-breds. That included three first-crop lots by the stud’s first-season sire Sword Of State (Snitzel), New Zealand’s Champion Two-Year-Old of 2020-21.
“Sword Of State is by Snitzel, who was an outstanding two-year-old himself, and a Magic Millions yearling,” Ring said.
“And Hello Youmzain was a stakes-winning two-year-old who improved with age. His sire Kodiac has been a leading two-year-old sire in Europe for many years. So Hello Youmzain and Sword Of State in particular suit this sale really well.”
Little Avondale’s Hello Youmzain is Lot 58, a filly third foal of Uncovered Beauty, a winning daughter of the stud’s flagbearing stallion Per Incanto (Street Cry), who’s starting to make waves a broodmare sire.
Waikato Stud is back for a third straight year selling under its own name, having done so on-and-off for several years, and missing the Covid-affected 2020 and 2022.
“We always bring horses here to sell as racehorses, and out of the ten we’ve got here I’d hate to try to pick the best racehorses,” the stud’s Mark Chittick told ANZ. “I’d love to be racing all ten of them.”
Causing Chittick particular excitement are the three lots, all fillies, by the Group 1-winning first season sire Noverre: Lot 932, the seventh foal of Melbourne Group 2 and Group 3 winner Shopaholic (Pins); Lot 988, the third foal of the stakes-winning Starvoia (Starcraft), dam of outstanding New Zealand Group 1 winner Skew Wiff (Savabeel); and Lot 245, the seventh foal of the well-related Candelabra (Pins).
And it was evident from very early on that people are very taken by the first crop of Noverre
“We’re very happy with the horses we’re able to put in front of people here,” Chittick said. “And it was evident from very early on that people are very taken by the first crop of Noverre.
“To be able to come over with Savabeels, Super Seths, an Ardrossan and the Noverres, we’re really really proud of our draft.
“We wanted to bring horses who’d make an impression, and we could’ve picked the whole lot of our Noverres to bring. What we’ve got is a pretty true representation of what he’s leaving – nice, big, strong, scopey, beautiful dark coloured horses.
“He was an $800,000 yearling himself. His full-brother made $950,000, so they were good types. When you’re breeders, you get what you’re given, but when you start with a product like Noverre and he’s leaving horses like himself, it certainly makes the job a lot easier.”
Chittick said Waikato’s Gold Coast draft contained “not really a different type” to what they’d send to Karaka, but said its concerted push under its own name to the first sale of the season was spurred by “getting nice horses to Australia who are going to race in Australia”.
A salient example comes in the pedigree of Lot 452, a brother to Major Beel (Savabeel), the ATC Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) winner sold at the same sale from Waikato’s draft in 2021.
“Major Beel was out of a young O’Reilly mare who didn’t make it to the races for various reasons,” Chittick said. “She had a nice type and we brought him over here, he was acquired by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and wins the ATC Derby. That whole pedigree had a massive lift because of that, and that’s a great example of what we want to achieve.
“Plus, just bringing a nice bunch of horses here to the Gold Coast at this time of year is a helluva positive experience. I love it, and it will be an annual occurrence now.”
Chittick said buyers would have to wait for one of Waikato’s finest yearlings. Lot 1010 is one of its two lots by their titan Savabeel (Zabeel) – among his four at the sale in total – a filly first foal of dual Group 3 winner Supreme Heights (Jimmy Choux).
While Savabeel “goes well with everything” in Chittick’s words, he does boast a strong record on first foals, with ten of his 34 Group winners fitting that description including the aforementioned Skew Wiff, Noverre and Major Beel.
Westbury Stud’s New Zealand contingent also includes a Savabeel in Lot 134, a filly out of Alezan (Duelled). The farm has also brought across two yearlings by their stallion Tarzino (Tavistock) in Lot 210, a filly from the same family as Growing Empire (Zoustar), and Lot 907, a colt second foal of the unraced Sevastapol (I Am Invincible).
Lot 661, a colt by the Australian-based Pierata (Pierro), has also been brought across after foaling at Westbury.
“The four we’ve brought across add New Zealand flavour to our draft, and they’re by stallions who’ve proven they can get Group 1 horses regularly,” said Westbury’s Russell Warwick.
“And the Pierata is a nice Magic Millions style of horse, who’s out of an I Am Invincible mare. I Am Invincible has two recent Group 1 winners now as a broodmare sire in Kimochi and Asfoora, so hopefully the local market will appreciate that.”
Warwick said the entire New Zealand contingent looked “very strong”.
“You’ve still got to bring the right horse to the Magic Millions, or you can risk them getting lost,” he said.
“A nice horse will sell well wherever it goes, but if you want to buy a horse who’s going to win two-year-old races, you’re probably more likely to go to Magic Millions than you are to Karaka.
“And the Australians are very appreciative of the conditions we have to grow these horses in New Zealand. Then the performance that follows always keeps them interested in buying something born and raised in New Zealand.”
Magic Millions’ New Zealand representative Steve Davis said the country’s representation at the sale was its “biggest and best yet”.
“There’s a couple of new sires, like Sword Of State and Noverre,” he said, “and just genuinely with the quality, I’m delighted with what’s been brought over.”