By Trevor Marshallsea

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Correct weight hasn’t been declared just yet, but as the season draws to a close the picture in New Zealand is shaping as an emphatic validation for Cambridge Stud’s bold play to secure Hello Youmzain (Kodiac).

With three Saturdays left in 2024-25, the nine-year-old is long odds-on to win the country’s first season sires’ title, and to secure a top three finish on the two-year-old chart.

Hello Youmzain heads the debutants list by all markers, with five winners from 18 runners, two stakes victors, and progeny earnings of $295,685 – a full $60,000 clear of Yulong Stud’s second-placed Lucky Vega (Lope De Vega).

Among two-year-old sires, Cambridge’s $30,000 (plus GST) shuttler sits third on earnings behind the leading young boom stallion Super Seth (Dundeel) and time-honoured great Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice). But he shares top billing for stakes winners with Snitzel, and ranks equal second for winners, just one behind Arrowfield’s late champion.

To Cambridge’s great satisfaction, it’s a southern hemisphere story that mirrors the success Hello Youmzain is enjoying in France, where he stands for co-owners Haras d’Etreham at a fee raised this year from €22,500 to €40,000 (approx. AU$72,220).

While it’s still relatively early days in the northern season, Hello Youmzain is on track to match last year’s French first season sires’ title on the country’s sophomore chart.

He heads that table by winners with 20 – three more than second-best – and by earnings, his €642,942 bettering the €551,634 of second-ranked Persian King (Kingman).

Better still, Hello Youmzain is the leading second season sire across Europe, by worldwide earnings of progeny and by his 42 winners.

With the stallion enjoying strong attention in New Zealand – where he’s served 100-plus mares in all four standing seasons and has a second straight full book of around 130 looming this spring – the early signs are this could transpire as one of the most successful European shuttle plays of recent times.

“We’re certainly very happy with how he’s started out down here,” Cambridge’s sales and nominations manager Scott Calder told ANZ News.

“It’s fair to say he was very well supported from the get-go by breeders, so there was probably an expectation he’d come out with his first crop here and do well.

“Certainly, he put the writing on the wall with his European results, but in saying that, he still had to come out and do it here. 

“It’s always a good indication when they make a good fist of it up in the northern hemisphere but it’s not exactly the same. So while we were confident, we still wanted to see it happen.

“But he’s just built momentum right through the season, which makes us even more optimistic coming into the spring as his progeny turn three.

“Without going the early crow, he looks like he’s got the first season title here in New Zealand wrapped up. That complements being top first season sire in France, and now the leading second season sire in Europe.”

Granted, Hello Youmzain has had significantly more starters than his closest rivals on the New Zealand first season table, but still, his early progress comes with only 18 runners so far from a first crop of 93 foals.

His two stakes winners have come in the past couple of months, with Cambridge homebred Lucy In The Sky taking Riccarton’s Champagne Stakes (Listed, 1200m) on May 3, and $90,000 Karaka yearling buy Platinum Diamond lifting Otaki’s Castletown Stakes (Listed, 1200m).

That’s in keeping with Hello Youmzain’s results in Europe, and his own racetrack performances, and it’s all heartening validation for Cambridge’s move to buy into him near the end of his three-year-old season.

Already with a French Group 2 to his name at two, and winner of the Haydock Sprint Cup (Gr 1, 6f) at three, the entire rewarded that move almost instantly, taking Royal Ascot’s Diamond Jubilee Stakes (Gr 1, 6f) in 2020 in his first start at four.

“It was quite a big call to leave a horse like that in training,” said Calder, crediting Haras d’Etreham’s Nicolas De Chambure for the decision.

“To have him come out in his first start at four and win the Diamond Jubilee – we couldn’t have scripted that any better. It’s obviously got huge significance in Australia, given some of the Australian horses who’ve competed in it. It was great for our French partners too, but also for us here in New Zealand.

“Then at stud, one thing we did see in Europe was he built momentum through his first season of runners. He was a good two-year-old but a late season two-year-old, so when you factor in the New Zealand broodmare population, his two-year-olds were going to be precocious enough, but probably in the second half of the season.

“And that’s the way it’s played out, with Platinum Diamond and Lucy In The Sky. But he’s also got other winners in Stormland, Hello Romeo, Remala, Bulgari, and Cream Tart. They were promising early in the season, but it’ll be great to see what they can do come springtime.”

While Stormland and Remala are city winners, Cream Tart – trained by Tony Pike for heavyweight Australia-based owners Noel Greenhalgh and Peter Tighe – showed her ability by claiming a Te Aroha maiden at start two by 7.8 lengths.

Lucy In The Sky and Bulgari are out of mares by O’Reilly (Last Tycoon), while Stormland’s damsire is More Than Ready (Southern Halo) – somewhat typical of the stock helping Hello Youmzain launch successfully in a region where, Cambridge believes, he was built to succeed.

“He has a profile of more of an Australian style of horse. He’s a very muscular, strong horse, and he’s got plenty of bone,” Calder said.

“Even though his sire Kodiac hasn’t had as much representation in this part of the world, he is one of the better Danehill-line stallions, and he’s known for his precocity, so we really felt Hello Youmzain suited this part of the market.

“And with Shamardal in his female family, we knew that had been successful in this part of the world, so we thought he had an ideal pedigree for Australia and New Zealand.

“In terms of mares, a lot of those traditional lines that have done well with Danehill made sense – More Than Ready, O’Reilly, Zabeel. Some of those trends are starting to come through now. O’Reilly seems to be a cross that’s working.”

Calder said Hello Youmzain had prospered with support from his southern hemisphere syndicate, which owns the stallion in partnership with his northern syndicate. The southern group numbers about 20 people including many of New Zealand’s major breeders.

“The key for him is he has a really strong shareholder base behind him,” Calder said. “He came in with a good profile and we at Cambridge certainly bred a lot of our better mares to him in his first year, but with his shareholder support, and with support from outside breeders, he certainly benefitted from a very high quality of mare.”

Hello Youmzain’s two Australian winners from four runners – Stormland and Hello Romeo – have scored over 1000 metres, in Sydney and Melbourne respectively.

However, Cambridge is expecting the stallion’s stock to achieve over far longer, especially considering New Zealand’s broodmare band, and the fact his two best European performers, Godspeed and Misunderstood, have won a Group 2 and Group 3 respectively over 1600 metres.

“Even though Hello Youmzain was a 1200-metre sprinter himself, his female family is diverse, and his dam produced a range of sprinters and stayers, so I think what we’ll see is they are able to get out over a trip,” said Calder.

“In Europe his two best horses have been milers, so his stock could be better over 1600 to 2000 metres.”

Hello Youmzain’s southern runners so far had also seemed to inherit his fighting qualities, Calder said.

“The results speak for themselves, but what I’ve really liked having watched plenty of them trial and race is that they seem really tough,” Calder said.

“He was a really tough, competitive horse who went forward in his races and was really gritty at the end. If you watch them en masse, it seems to be something his progeny have really inherited.

“And even in trials, if they’re not winning, they’re there or thereabouts; they just seem to have that real competitiveness about them.

“The more we see coming up – and bear in mind it’s a small sample of his overall crop who’ve raced so far – they’re all going to be in that boat.”

As the stud season approaches, Calder reflected that Hello Youmzain had so far made “all the right moves in each part of his career”.

“All studs, you’re eternally optimistic and you’ve always got high hopes for your stallions, but as we all know it doesn’t always go to plan,” he said.

“But in Hello Youmzain’s case, we’ve been so fortunate from the get go. Buying into him, then having him win at Royal Ascot in the Cambridge colours, was a bit of a fairytale really.

“Now he’s moved into his second role at stud, and it’s all very pleasing and exciting for the future.”