A couple of weeks ago Zabeel looked to be in for an ordinary season by his lofty standards.
The Cambridge Stud stallion was in seventh place in the Australian sires' premiership, not first or second as he has been in recent seasons. And on the New Zealand table, he languished in 24th place.
But by the end of the Auckland Cup carnival he was top sire in New Zealand after his progeny took out the Auckland Cup, The Oaks Stud Classic and the King's Plate, among others.
Zabeel's progeny have now earned $506,322 for the season in New Zealand, more than $116,000 clear of his nearest opponent Kreisler.
It's been a couple of six-year-olds that have done the job for Zabeel.
Both Our Unicorn and Zonda are comeback horses of sorts, Zonda from injuries and Our Unicorn from a combination of injury and poor form.
The Auckland carnival results will once again help Zabeel's profile at the upcoming National Yearling Sales at Karaka, south of Auckland, though his yearlings would have been big sellers anyway.
There are 73 Zabeel yearlings catalogued for sale at Karaka, 67 in the premier session and six in the new section for yearlings bred to Northern Hemisphere time.
Sir Patrick Hogan of Cambridge Stud could have a couple of million dollar earners among the Zabeels, though it might be expecting too much for any of them to match the $3.6 million received for the Zabeel-Diamond Lover colt last year.
Hogan said the best of them were perhaps the colt out of L'Quiz, making him a brother to Champagne, and the filly out of Marquise, the group one winning daughter of Eight Carat.
"The brother to Champagne is a good colt, while the Marquise filly is outstanding," he said.
Another from his draft that should be in demand is the colt out of Miss Pleasanton, the only yearling among the 73 at Karaka who is out of a Vice Regal mare.
This cross has produced four out of Zabeel's 17 group one winners - Our Unicorn, Jezabeel, Hades and Grand Echezeaux.
Miss Pleasanton herself is very closely related to the dam of Grand Echezeaux, so if the colt meets the physical requirements of buyers he should fetch a good price.
- NZPA
Racing: Carnival set Zabeel back at top
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