In another bold move they have purchased a racing share in the four-year-old Rios.
The Chitticks have more form than Graham Burton when it comes to securing bloodstock on the rise and one imagine's they will have negotiated a buyer friendly provision to convert their shareholding into stallion shares and standing rights if the son of Hussonet fires in Melbourne this spring.
It's still an interesting move when you sit down and analyse it and given their track record you'd be a brave person to question it.
As far as genes go it's a no brainer. He offers wonderful outcross blood being totally free of Northern Dancer on his top line and through the hugely successful Last Tycoon as his dam sire he offers breeders access to the prized Mill Reef blood.
And as a son of Gussy Godiva - currently the hottest of favourites for the NZ Broodmare of the Year title - he's part of the pre eminent Sneetch/Sellou family that's been throwing up any amount of high class runners throughout Australasia and North America (Black Mamba) of late
In my opinion he's a hand short of been the ideal height for a sire but Hyperion and Northern Dancer were smaller and they weren't bad.
Interestingly in recent times Waikato have shown a trend for standing sires not considered big by modern standards. I'm thinking Savabeel, Fast N Famous and Scardee Cat.
Waikato have any amount of well bred mares by a cross section of stallions so finding compatability in terms of blood and physical makeup won't be difficult although it will be interesting to see if the double up of Last Tycoon through O'Reilly mares is pursued.
As a specimen he has the looks of an equine Hugh Jackman and I'm told by those close to the stable, the manners of Phillip Sherry. Blessed with a gorgeous head - a trait of the Sellou/Sneetch clan according to Sam Williams - if the expression black cats leave black kittens stands true he should sire some outstanding types.
Finally I come to his race record. Is it good enough ? It probably isn't as far as warranting an immediate spot in the Waikato line-up is concerned but it's better than it looks on paper.
Excuse the pun but last season he was a classic case of a horse getting extended in distance to chase the Classics and this season he didn't have much of a break from his Sydney autumn campaign before racing through the tough Hawkes Bay series culminating in the 2000m of the Kelt.His best form has clearly been at 1400m to a mile and within that range he was able to beat the high class Alamosa in the Wellington Guineas and then run a close third with him second in the NZ 2000 Guineas.
A calculated gamble by the Chitticks or a bold move? Defintely the later with very little downside I'm guessing and a huge amount of upside.
Something tells me those Chitticks would play a pretty good hand of poker.
Rios is not good enough to stand at Waikato.
ReplyDeleteScardee Cat at least won a competitive Grp 2.
Maybe based on his record to date. As they've said they've bought into him believing he can enhance his resume.
ReplyDeleteI don't judge a potential stallion on one run. There are a number of stakes races where for one reason or another the race does not stack up as a guide to class. If we had bothered to study the record of a number of imported stallions into this country in the 80's we would have saved ourselves a lot of heartache.