\n\t\t\t\t\tBy Trevor Marshallsea<\/b>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Listen<\/p>\n
Correct weight hasn\u2019t 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\u2019s bold play to secure Hello Youmzain (Kodiac).<\/p>\n
With three Saturdays left in 2024-25, the nine-year-old is long odds-on to win the country\u2019s first season sires\u2019 title, and to secure a top three finish on the two-year-old chart.<\/p>\n
Hello Youmzain heads the debutants list by all markers, with five winners from 18 runners, two stakes victors, and progeny earnings of $295,685 \u2013 a full $60,000 clear of Yulong Stud\u2019s second-placed Lucky Vega (Lope De Vega).<\/p>\n
Among two-year-old sires, Cambridge\u2019s $30,000 (plus GST) shuttler sits third on earnings behind the leading young boom stallion Super Seth (Dundeel) and time-honoured great Snitzel (Redoute\u2019s Choice). But he shares top billing for stakes winners with Snitzel, and ranks equal second for winners, just one behind Arrowfield\u2019s late champion.<\/p>\n
To Cambridge\u2019s great satisfaction, it\u2019s a southern hemisphere story that mirrors the success Hello Youmzain is enjoying in France, where he stands for co-owners Haras d\u2019Etreham at a fee raised this year from \u20ac22,500 to \u20ac40,000 (approx. AU$72,220).<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s still relatively early days in the northern season, Hello Youmzain is on track to match last year\u2019s French first season sires\u2019 title on the country\u2019s sophomore chart.<\/p>\n
He heads that table by winners with 20 \u2013 three more than second-best \u2013 and by earnings, his \u20ac642,942 bettering the \u20ac551,634 of second-ranked Persian King (Kingman).<\/p>\n
Better still, Hello Youmzain is the leading second season sire across Europe, by worldwide earnings of progeny and by his 42 winners.<\/p>\n
With the stallion enjoying strong attention in New Zealand \u2013 where he\u2019s served 100-plus mares in all four standing seasons and has a second straight full book of around 130 looming this spring \u2013 the early signs are this could transpire as one of the most successful European shuttle plays of recent times.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re certainly very happy with how he\u2019s started out down here,\u201d Cambridge\u2019s sales and nominations manager Scott Calder told ANZ News.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fair to say he was very well supported from the get-go by breeders, so there was probably an expectation he\u2019d come out with his first crop here and do well.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly, 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always a good indication when they make a good fist of it up in the northern hemisphere but it\u2019s not exactly the same. So while we were confident, we still wanted to see it happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he\u2019s just built momentum right through the season, which makes us even more optimistic coming into the spring as his progeny turn three.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout going the early crow, he looks like he\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
His two stakes winners have come in the past couple of months, with Cambridge homebred Lucy In The Sky taking Riccarton\u2019s Champagne Stakes (Listed, 1200m) on May 3, and $90,000 Karaka yearling buy Platinum Diamond lifting Otaki\u2019s Castletown Stakes (Listed, 1200m).<\/p>\n
That\u2019s in keeping with Hello Youmzain\u2019s results in Europe, and his own racetrack performances, and it\u2019s all heartening validation for Cambridge\u2019s move to buy into him near the end of his three-year-old season.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Diamond Jubilee Stakes (Gr 1, 6f) in 2020 in his first start at four.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was quite a big call to leave a horse like that in training,\u201d said Calder, crediting Haras d\u2019Etreham\u2019s Nicolas De Chambure for the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have him come out in his first start at four and win the Diamond Jubilee \u2013 we couldn\u2019t have scripted that any better. It\u2019s obviously got huge significance in Australia, given some of the Australian horses who\u2019ve competed in it. It was great for our French partners too, but also for us here in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s the way it\u2019s played out, with Platinum Diamond and Lucy In The Sky. But he\u2019s also got other winners in Stormland, Hello Romeo, Remala, Bulgari, and Cream Tart. They were promising early in the season, but it\u2019ll be great to see what they can do come springtime.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Stormland and Remala are city winners, Cream Tart \u2013 trained by Tony Pike for heavyweight Australia-based owners Noel Greenhalgh and Peter Tighe \u2013 showed her ability by claiming a Te Aroha maiden at start two by 7.8 lengths.<\/p>\n
Lucy In The Sky and Bulgari are out of mares by O\u2019Reilly (Last Tycoon), while Stormland\u2019s damsire is More Than Ready (Southern Halo) \u2013 somewhat typical of the stock helping Hello Youmzain launch successfully in a region where, Cambridge believes, he was built to succeed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has a profile of more of an Australian style of horse. He\u2019s a very muscular, strong horse, and he\u2019s got plenty of bone,\u201d Calder said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though his sire Kodiac hasn\u2019t had as much representation in this part of the world, he is one of the better Danehill-line stallions, and he\u2019s known for his precocity, so we really felt Hello Youmzain suited this part of the market.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of mares, a lot of those traditional lines that have done well with Danehill made sense \u2013 More Than Ready, O\u2019Reilly, Zabeel. Some of those trends are starting to come through now. O\u2019Reilly seems to be a cross that\u2019s working.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s major breeders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key for him is he has a really strong shareholder base behind him,\u201d Calder said. \u201cHe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hello Youmzain\u2019s two Australian winners from four runners \u2013 Stormland and Hello Romeo \u2013 have scored over 1000 metres, in Sydney and Melbourne respectively.<\/p>\n
However, Cambridge is expecting the stallion\u2019s stock to achieve over far longer, especially considering New Zealand\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven 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\u2019ll see is they are able to get out over a trip,\u201d said Calder.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Europe his two best horses have been milers, so his stock could be better over 1600 to 2000 metres.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hello Youmzain\u2019s southern runners so far had also seemed to inherit his fighting qualities, Calder said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe results speak for themselves, but what I\u2019ve really liked having watched plenty of them trial and race is that they seem really tough,\u201d Calder said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd even in trials, if they\u2019re not winning, they\u2019re there or thereabouts; they just seem to have that real competitiveness about them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more we see coming up \u2013 and bear in mind it\u2019s a small sample of his overall crop who\u2019ve raced so far \u2013 they\u2019re all going to be in that boat.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the stud season approaches, Calder reflected that Hello Youmzain had so far made \u201call the right moves in each part of his career\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll studs, you\u2019re eternally optimistic and you\u2019ve always got high hopes for your stallions, but as we all know it doesn\u2019t always go to plan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in Hello Youmzain\u2019s case, we\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow he\u2019s moved into his second role at stud, and it\u2019s all very pleasing and exciting for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Trevor Marshallsea Listen Correct weight hasn\u2019t been declared just yet, but as the season draws to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-247197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114815997402226165","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}