Waikato Stud leading vendor Karaka Yearling Sales book 1

Mark Chittick
Mark Chittick
Champion vendor Waikato Stud enjoyed another outstanding week at Karaka and met with a welcome pleasant surprise along the way.

The Matamata farm’s influential stallion Savabeel was a dominant force at New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Sale while his associates Pins, Ocean Park, Rock ‘n’ Pop and freshman stallion Sacred Falls all offered quality back up.

The leading vendor for the fifth consecutive year, Waikato Stud sold 70 lots for $12,845,000 at an average of $183,500.

“We’ve had a great sale and there’s a massive amount of work gone into it, a great team effort from the staff and I knew we had a really nice draft,” stud principal Mark Chittick said.

“Our sires with runners couldn’t have done any better in the lead-up and Sacred Falls is doing a fantastic job.

“The chat before the sale on them was enormous, we didn’t have to do any talking – it was all coming from the buyers.”

It was champion sire Savabeel who provided Waikato Stud with their highest price yearling to ever go through the Karaka ring when his daughter out of Posy was knocked down to Cambridge horseman Dean Hawthorne for $875,000 on Tuesday.

“We were very fortunate as a vendor to have two or three people determined to get her,” Chittick said. “I’ve only ever experienced that twice in my life.

“I thought she would have been a $200,000 or $300,000 filly. Before her, our highest price was $775,000 for Embellish in 2016.”

The Savabeel filly’s mother Posy is a sister to the farm’s former top race mare Daffodil, winner at Group One level of the Australian Oaks, New Zealand 1000 Guineas and the Windsor Park Plate.

The stud’s highlight during the closing session of the Book 1 Sale on Wednesday was the Savabeel filly out of the O’Reilly mare Sitting Pretty that went to Yulong Investments for $625,000.

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