Embellish Lives Up to his Name

The Informant reports on the David Ellis purchased, Te Akau trained Embellish ...

What's in a name one, might ask, but in the outstanding three-year-old colt EMBELLISH we have one that is truly living up to his label.

After already shining brightly twice in his career, first in the Karaka sale-ring and then at Riccarton, the son of champion sire Savabeel and the O'Reilly mare Bling can now only embellish his stellar career - both on the racetrack and later, hopefully, here in New Zealand to add further longevity at stud to the Sir Tristram sire line.

I drew attention in my New Zealand 2000 Guineas preview to what I considered to be an outstandingly superior pedigree chart matched by an excellent individual so typical of his sire's best get, and it was very satisfying when, in spite of being very inexperienced, when the colt duly scored as favourite in the Riccarton classic. It is not always thus!

So let us explore his pedigree in a bit more depth than was possible in the preview. Of course, the first thing we see, just as we have several  times in the Northern Hemisphere this year most notably with their champion filly Enable, close inbreeding in sexual balance to a very superior sire, in this case Sir Tristram 3 x 4, and this undoubtedly is a major factor, but not by any means the whole story.

Zabeel, one of the greatest home-grown proven sires, is bred on the successful nick between Sir Ivor (with Round Table - My Babu) and Northern Dancer, and his closer balanced cross is to Mahmoud and the great mare Selene.  He was mated with the Gr. 1 New Zealand Oaks and Ansett Australia Stakes victress Savannah Success to produce Savabeel, winner of the Cox Plate and Spring Champion Stakes. She was a fairly remote cross between Northern Dancer and two lines each of Princequillo and Star Kingdom, and her immediate balance is just to Hyperion.

Savabeel brings together his two superior parents and is balanced to Round Table and his sire Princequillo, plus the latter's nickmate Nasrullah, which we will see to be of some significance. He is also balanced to Hyperion and his dam Selene.

The damsire is another of Waikato Stud's band of great champion sires, O'Reilly, a son of Last Tycoon and the Golden Slipper winner Courtza (Pompeii Court). His sire is a Northern Dancer / Mill Reef cross, the latter of whom being bred on the Nasrullah / Princequillo nick. In O'Reilly this is enforced by a male line of Princequillo through Round Table, and two female lines of Nasrullah.

It is not hard to understand why the Savabeel/O'Reilly cross works so well. O'Reilly is balanced to Hyperion and to both legs of the iconic nick, which has proved so successful with the likes of Secretariat, Mill Reef and Riverman.

The bottom quarter of Embellish's chart features another Waikato Stud champion sire, Centaine, a grandson of Better Boy (My Babu) as sire of the granddam, whilst Sir Tristram is sire of the third dam.

Then comes the old maestro Bing Crosby's Irish Derby winner Meadow Court, like Princequillo a male-line descendant of Prince Rose, followed by Gold Bridge's fast son Golden Cloud and Umidwar. Embellish's granddam Night Star is balanced to the 2000 Guineas winner My Babu and to Nearco.

Bling, the Guineas winner's dam, is balanced extensively to Round Table, Princequillo, Nasrullah, Nearco, My Babu and Royal Charger. The meshing of the two sides of the chart is easily seen, but what comes next thoroughly underlines its quality.

Embellish, in addition to his close 3 x 4 inbreeding in balance to Sir Tristram, has as wide a collection of sexually balanced crosses as I have seen. These are to Round Table (5/7 x 6/6 balanced on both sides), Better Boy (7 x 5), Princequillo (8), My Babu (4 lines), Todman (6 x 6 to two females, plus a male 6 of his brother Noholme), Nearco (17), Tom Fool (3 lines and remember his affinity with Sir Ivor), Nasrullah (9), Hyperion (14), Selene (22), Mahmoud (5), Royal Charger (4), Norseman (2), Teddy (12), Umidwar (3), Tara (3) and Gold Bridge (3).

Future plans (he is still in the Levin Classic) take in the $1 million three-year-old race at Ellerslie at sales time, followed by the Australian Guineas and then, if all goes to plan, a tilt at Australia's staying classics.

So will he stay? I can see absolutely no reason why he should not do so. He appears to settle well and produces his ability to order. There is some speed in the chart through Star Kingdom, Without Fear and Golden Cloud, but generally the emphasis is more towards stamina at least as far as 2000 metres.

Savabeel crossed with O'Reilly and/or Centaine yields few clues, as some have stayed as far as 3200 metres while others are best at a mile. I think, off limited evidence, that 2000 metres will prove little problem, but future racing will reveal if 2400 is going to prove a problem. I doubt if it will.

Let us see if the female family, the 11 family going back to Marmite through the Sansovino mare Sobersides, reveals any clues.

His dam Bling was unraced, but has already excelled herself at stud producing full-siblings to Embellish including stakes-placed Deadly Shadow and the top-class mare Diademe (seven wins to 1600 metres including the Gr. 1 New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders' Stakes, Gr. 2 Cal Isuzu Stakes and two runnings of the Gr. 3 Westbury Classic, which has since been elevated to Group Two).

The granddam Night Star was also unraced, but has left four winners including the Danasinga mare Plaudits who won up to 3000 metres including the Listed Eagle Farm Stakes.

Strangely none of her seven O'Reilly foals won, although Irish Nova was third in the Gr. 2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes and has since left the champion New Zealand sprinter Sacred Star, who won nine races including the Gr. 1 Telegraph and Waikato Sprint.

Sparkling, who is an unraced O'Reilly, has left the unbeaten juvenile Espumoso, of whom much black type is expected.

Star of the Knight, who cost Garry Chittick a small fortune when breeder Jack Higgs dispersed his breeding stock, had won up to 1600 metres including the Gr. 2 Queensland Sires' Produce Stakes and Gr. 3 Queensland Guineas and was second in the Gr. 1 Queen of the Turf Stakes.

At stud she left three winning full-siblings to Night Star including Star Cent (Gr. 3 Gold Trail Stakes, Lowland Stakes; 2nd Gr. 1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas, Bayer Classic; dam of Ambitious, 2nd New Zealand 1000 Guineas and dam of Strike The Stars, won Gr. 3 Gloaming Stakes) and Professionelle (dam of four stakes winners including three-time Group Two winner Sportsman; and granddam of Group One winner Vanbrugh).

Although Star of the Knight was one of only two winners for her dam Celebrity II, that mare was a half-sister to two extremely speedy Irish fillies, Kathy Too and Kathyanga, and the family was generally a successful one including of triple Group One victor Misil.

The sire of Embellish, Savabeel, is set fair to be a multiple champion sire once again this season and his tally of 69 stakes winners (15 Group One) include such as Kawi (six Group Ones), Lucia Valentina and Sangster (three Group Ones each), Soriano, Costume and Scarlett Lady (two Group Ones each).

The damsire, multiple champion O'Reilly, left 92 stakes winners (12 Group Ones) including Silent Achiever, Alamosa, Sacred Falls and Shamrocker. His daughters' 56 stakes winners to date include Jon Snow.

The next sire, Centaine, was champion New Zealand broodmare sire six times and his 25 Group One winners in that sphere include Mongolian Khan and Jimmy Choux.

The very successful Stephen Autridge and Jamie Richards-led team introduced Embellish with a couple of autumn trials before debuting with a second at Ellerslie at the end of April.

After another trial this spring, he came back in early October and copped some strong opposition first-up defeating Ever Loyal over 1200 metres at Ruakaka by a long neck. He then trekked to Trentham for an all-aged 1400 metres, where he was very impressive in beating The Bandito by a length and a quarter, earning somewhat dubious-looking favouritism for the Guineas against much more highly tried opposition.

In the Guineas he seemed not unduly inconvenienced by a reported stumble leaving the gates, nor by a more obvious hampering he suffered after 200 metres. Opie Bosson was able to give him a peach of a ride behind his main rival Ever Loyal, who set a good pace.

It stayed that way until they straightened and Embellish was able to gain the upper hand with 250 metres to run and always held his rival at bay. In fact it was the winner's two stablemates Age of Fire and Te Akau Shark who were the only closers in the straight, the former grabbing second on the line.