Cambridge Stud racetrack success rolls into sales season
Dennis Ryan - Raceform • January 9th, 2025 3:02 PM
A winning start to the festive racing season was the perfect entrée for Cambridge Stud in the most important period on the racing and breeding calendar.
Boxing Day at Ellerslie could hardly have been better for Brendan and Jo Lindsay as their racing colours and other elements connected to their famous nursery were in full force.
The opening salvo came from first starter Remala, a member of Cambridge Stud shuttle Hello Youmzain’s first southern hemisphere crop prepared by Lindsay Racing’s private trainer Lance Noble, exceeded the most optimistic expectations when she staged a last-to-first win.
Then it was the turn of Remala’s stablemate About Time – already the winner of the Gr. 2 Sir Patrick Hogan Stakes at three – to add the prestigious Dunstan Horsefeeds Stayers Championship Final.
Two races later the Stephen Marsh-trained Hitabell, a daughter of Cambridge Stud stallion Embellish, added the Gr. 2 Eight Carat Classic to her previous start win in the Listed O’Leary’s Fillies Stakes, and then the coup de grace as Snazzytavi took her big race-winning streak to four in the Gr. 1 Zabeel Classic.
In a perfect segue, the weight-for-age feature is sponsored by Cambridge Stud and the winner carrying the gold and black checks is by former resident stallion Tavistock.
Snazzytavi, trained by Graham Richardson and Rogan Norvall, had signed off last season by winning the Gr. 3 Manco Easter Handicap and her latest win completed a feature hat-trick preceded by the Gr. 1 Livamol Classic and Gr. 2 Cal Isuzu Stakes.
Cambridge Stud’s racetrack success continued at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day when the Noble-trained Written Tycoon mare Frostfair took her record to four wins from eight starts, while stablemate Jaarfi finished second in the Gr. 2 Rich Hill Mile.
On top of that Tavistock was again to the fore when Son of Sun added to his growing reputation as a stayer with victory in the Gr. 3 Queen Elizabeth ll Cup.
Success connected to Cambridge Stud hasn’t been confined to New Zealand. Across the Tasman on New Year’s Eve the Jo Lindsay-owned filly Dance To The Boom, completed an unbeaten hat-trick in the Listed Gosford Guineas, while last weekend Almanzor gelding Holymanz carried the stud colours to a second consecutive win in the Coastal Classic at Geelong.
Sydney trainer Bjorn Baker is now set to saddle up Dance To The Boom in Saturday’s A$3 million Magic Millions 3YO Classic, while at Ellerslie on Sunday, Almanzor filly Thooza will be chasing an unbeaten hat-trick in the three-year-old sprint.
“Boxing Day at Ellerslie was one of those days you dream of,” Brendan Lindsay told RaceForm earlier this week. “Seeing our Hello Youmzain filly win so well on debut was magic, we really couldn’t have wished for a better result.
“About Time was another feather in the cap for Lance, and Snazzytavi is just so classy and really benefiting from the patient approach that everyone involved has taken with her.
“Looking beyond their racing careers, the exciting thing about these mares and fillies is that they’re going to end up in our broodmare band. That’s a reward for our investment and means so much in securing Cambridge Stud’s future.”
While the Lindsays and stud CEO Henry Plumptre are on the Gold Coast with Cambridge’s nine-strong Magic Millions Sale draft and keenly anticipating Dance To The Boom’s big-race bid on Saturday, the action is mounting back at home base as the finishing touches are applied to the stud’s major yearling draft destined for Karaka at the end of the month.
“The inspections have started with early visits by Australian trainers and their clients as well as the first local groups, and all the inspections have been very complimentary,” Cambridge Stud’s head of sales and nominations Scott Calder commented.
“Our draft is dominated by Almanzor, Hello Youmzain and the first crop of Sword Of State. The success that Hello Youmzain has had in a short time is exciting, he was the leading first season sire in France by earnings, individual winners with a total of 20 and stakes winners.
“He’s already had two winners from his first crop sired here and that win by Remala was just the evidence you need to put in front of people. She’s not a natural two-year-old but has obvious raw ability, which is pretty much in the mould of Hello Youmzain.
“He was a good winner at two but got better with maturity to win Group One sprints at three and four. The stud has invested heavily in him and we have some lovely two-year-olds waiting in the wings.
“The reception Hello Youmzain got from buyers with his first crop means there are a lot of them out there and we’re confident that the yearlings he has going to the sales will also meeting with approval.
“Almanzor has established himself as a very god stallion whose progeny get better with time. His colts and fillies perform and the way those classic types develop makes him an important stallion for the future.”
Calder doesn’t hide his keen anticipation around the prospect of first crop yearlings by Sword of State going begore the buying bench.
“He’s everything you would expect of a Group One-winning son of Snitzel; he’s left a lovely line of yearlings that we expect buyers to really want. The weanlings that went to market last year were very well received and on the first day of the Magic Millions Sales this week we were thrilled to see his two yearlings sell for $340,000 and $140,000.
“In the short time that Brendan and Jo have owned Cambridge Stud and presented their annual drafts, it would be fair to say that buyers have recognised their preparedness to meet the market.
“We want our yearlings go to a wide range of homes and then perform, so to see horses like Ceolwulf and El Castello do what they’ve done in Australia proves what sort of horse we produce.
“I know it’s become a bit of cliché that buyers can find great value at New Zealand sales, but it’s true and I’d like to think that the draft Cambridge Stud is presenting at Karaka will live up to that.”
*Cambridge Stud’s Karaka yearling draft will be paraded on the afternoon of Friday January 17 at the Discombe Road property. All welcome.
Picture at the Top of the Page: Remala made a statement for her sire Hello Youmzain with a win on debut at Ellerslie on Boxing Day. Photo: Supplied
