Ambitious Champion: Stakeswinning Potential

On a red letter day for his sire courtesy of Usainity's (Zed - Day Tripper by Bin Ajwaad) courgaeous win in the Group 3 Frank Packer Plate at Randwick in Sydney, Ambitious Champion (Zed - Simply Sally by Sackford) clearly flagged himself as Zed's next stakeswinner with an astonishing performance to land the NZ Bloodstock Insurance Premier 3 Year Old over 2000m at Te Rapa.

Ridden with typical patience by Oppie Bosson, the gelding moved sweetly into the race with cover from the 600m, and as they approached the turn it only looked a matter of how far given the way he was travelling compared to his counterparts. In his brief career though Ambitious Champion has a history of doing things the hard way and as the field swung wide on the point of the turn the long striding gelding cannoned into the runner inside him, losing conservatively three to four lengths, not to mention considerable momentum.

Despite his task looking forlorn he gathered himself and although running in on a couple of occassions, the gelding drove relentlessly down the outside, getting up right on the line. In many respects this was a similar tale to his effort at Te Rapa on 16 March when he lost around eight lengths at the start and rattled home, but on that occasion though just failing to pick-up pick up the winner.

Ambitious Champion has been responsible for two of the most impressive performances on a northern racecourse this season, one in narrow defeat and one in victory, and although the calibre of horses he has met are not great and there is an inclination to get caught in the current hype surrounding his sire, he does look a most exciting type for next season and better than a real chance to become Zed's third individual stakeswinner.

Zed: Two Swallows Make a Summer

Rumours are rife in breeding circles that the stallion Zed (Zabeel - Emerald Dream by Danehill) is on the move from his exiled home for the last year, Erewhorn Station in South Canterbury. A return to a mainstream farm for the ten-year-old would be a rare u turn in an industry where the slope to oblivion is an extremely slippery surface.

Zed's renewed popularity has been built on a steady stream of winners since just before Xmas with the icing on the cake coming at Awapuni last Saturday when his three-year-old sons Survived ( Zed - Liberal by Generous) and Usainity (Zed - Day Tripper by Bin Ajwaad) quinelled the Group 3 Manawatu Challenge Stakes over 2000m.

Interestingly most of his better winners have come from his second oldest crop which are three-year-olds this season - he had 49 live foals in his second crop compared to 90 in his first. As well as the afore mentioned stakes performers, the Baker/Forsman stable's Ambitious Champion (Zed - Simply Sally by Sackford), whilst still a maiden after four seconds from four starts, is another promising type in the same age group.

While Zed is from racings aristocracy, his sole win, a maiden 1600m at Hastings on a wet surface was not going to inspire breeders when he retired to Little Avondale Stud in Masterton in 2007. An inventive piece of marketing by studmaster Sam Williams saw the stallion serve 199 mares in his first two seasons courtesy of a non refundable $500 service the first year followed by tweak to $1,000 for the second. While most of his harem had little in the way of credentials with many coming out of retirement and from farmers back paddocks, numbers on the ground at least gave the lithe son of Zabeel an outside fighting chance.

One imagines it would not have been a difficult decision for LA last May to relocate Zed. With less than a single handful of individual winners from his oldest crop who were three rising four at that stage, Zed's stallion box must have looked the perfect fit for their new stallion Nadeem.

If the rumours are true and Zed returns from the wilderness, his fee and patronage will be fascinating. This year's Karaka results highlighted the lack of genuine staying options within our stallion ranks so the timing could not have been more apt for Zed to show breeders he can leave horses with genuine staying talent. He will undoubtedly stand for a significantly increased fee which will move him into a different market. It remains to be seen whether those breeders will support him or will they look at the more fashionable yet unproven imported options.