Studs get chance to put hand up for Savabeel’s dual Group 1-winning son Mo’unga
Magic Millions to handle negotiations for Fung’s George Ryder-bound four-year-old
Dual Group 1 winner Mo’unga (Savabeel) is expected to command interest from stallion investors from all the major breeding regions in Australasia and possibly even further afield as the owners of the highly–talented entire look to find him a home at stud for next season.
Expressions of interest are being called for to stand the rising five-year-old, a top-class track performer and outcross who is arguably the best stallion prospect produced by New Zealand’s long-time premier sire Savabeel (Zabeel) during his illustrious career at stud.
The horse’s principal owner, Tony Fung Investments, has enlisted the services of Magic Millions to manage offers and handle negotiations for Mo’unga, a juvenile winner who claimed the Rosehill Guineas (Gr 1, 2000m) at three and the Winx Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at four, in which he defeated a field containing seven other individual Group 1 winners.
A last-start Futurity Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) runner-up, the Annabel Neasham-trained Mo’unga also offers investors the chance to enjoy the potential spoils of racing him on at the elite level for the remainder of the autumn carnival before he is retired to stud as a genuine commercial stallion prospect.
Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch believes Mo’unga represents an exciting opportunity for stud farms.
“Arguably, Mo’unga would be the best-credentialed son of Savabeel to go to stud as he is a complete outcross, being free of Danehill blood, and he’s obviously a two-time Group 1 winner and he’s outstanding looking,” Bowditch told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“He continues to race at the highest level and for anyone interested in this horse, there’s still a lot of fruit to bear on the racetrack.
“Magic Millions will be in a place where we can put any type of offer to Tony Fung Investments, including whether it be buying part-there-of of the horse or the whole horse, and I think he’s a horse who would suit many a farm within Australasia, whether it be the Hunter Valley, Victoria, New Zealand or maybe even further afield.”
Mo’unga, a $325,000 purchase by Shane McGrath for Aquis Farm at the 2019 New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale, is the second highest-rated colt by Timeform from his crop with a peak figure of 121, just one pound behind the now retired Fung-raced 2020 Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Farnan (Not A Single Doubt).
TFI’s racing and breeding manager Sally Williams said they “like to think outside the square and we think taking Mo’unga to market in this fashion is the way of the future”.
“By champion stallion Savabeel out of an O’Reilly mare and completely free of Danehill, Mo’unga is a breath of fresh air for stallion rosters heavily influenced by Danehill bloodlines and will provide the outcross option that mare owners are desperate for,” Williams said.
“TFI’s business model is to identify colts with pedigrees and develop them into lucrative stallion prospects. Our track record is solid with Farnan, Prague and Anders amongst the most popular first–season sires to launch last year.”
The George Ryder Stakes (Gr 1, 1500m) on March 19 at Rosehill, a track at which he is unbeaten in two starts, is slated to be Mo’unga’s next run, his 11th consecutive Group 1 race.
“Where this opportunity gets really exciting for potential buyers is they can have some fun straight away in racing Mo’unga on,” Williams said.
“He is racing in career-best form. He was second in the Futurity Stakes at Caulfield last weekend and, taking nothing away from the winner (Sierra Sue), the sectional times tell the story and Mo’unga was very unlucky not to add another Group 1 to his CV.
“His best performances have come second–up and everything points to him being very hard to beat in the George Ryder.”
While Mo’unga is a two-time winner at the highest level, he was also Group 1-placed in the Randwick Guineas (1600m), Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) and the Mackinnon Stakes (2000m), having run fourth in the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) last spring prior to his first-up second in the Futurity.
From 15 starts Mo’unga has won five races, his first three for trainer Chris Waller including the Dulcify Stakes (Listed, 1500m) at Rosehill, and more than $1.8 million in prize-money. He is out of the Group 3-placed, winning mare Chandelier (O’Reilly), herself a sister to Group 2 winner Irlanda, and he is also from the family of Group 1 winner Chenille (Pentire) and the Group 1-placed, Group-race winners Seraphic (Imposing) and Chintz (Savabeel).
Mo’unga’s sire Savabeel is on course for his eighth straight New Zealand champion stallion title this season, and later this year the rising 21-year-old is poised to have four sire–sons standing at stud in Australasia.
Of his other three, first-crop yearlings by Cambridge Stud’s 2017 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Embellish are being offered at the yearling sales this year; Sistema Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and Karaka Million (RL, 1200m) winner Cool Aza Beel stood his first season at Newhaven Park Stud in NSW last year; and this season’s 2000 Guineas winner Noverre will stand alongside his sire at Waikato Stud in 2022.
Bowditch and Magic Millions bloodstock manager Dane Robinson are handling the sale of Mo’unga for TFI.