The connections of last season’s gun three-year-old Savaglee have some pondering to do over the next few days.
The Group One-winning stallion pleased in his first public hit-out of the season when placing in his 1100m trial at Ellerslie on Sunday, and now trainer Pam Gerard is contemplating where to kick-off The Oaks Stud-raced four-year-old.
“I was really happy with him yesterday,” Gerard said. “He went to the line under a hold, he was never asked for anything, and it was just a nice day out.
“He was a little bit on the fresh side, so he wanted to get along and get going a little bit. The time was good and his action was good.
“He is never 100 percent happy going the Ellerslie way, but that hasn’t changed since he was a two-year-old. He pulled up well and we are happy with where he is at.
“In the next few days we will make a decision where he kicks off.”
Next Saturday’s Gr.1 Sistema Railway (1200m) on Karaka Millions night looms as an obvious target, however, Gerard said they may bypass the feature sprint in favour of heading to Te Rapa a fortnight later.
“There are not a lot of choices, it is either the Railway or we miss the Railway and go straight to the BCD Sprint (Gr.1, 1400m),” Gerard said.
“The trial was only yesterday, we are happy with how he has come through it, we think he has improved quite a bit off it and thought he was right on the mark to have a go at the Railway if we think that is the right place to go.”
The son of Savabeel was runner-up in the Gr.1 Australian Guineas (1600m) at Flemington last year, and Gerard said an elite-level scalp across the Tasman remains their primary objective as they look to Savaglee’s future stud career.
“We could go straight over the Tasman, but realistically we need to be having one run here in New Zealand before we go,” Gerard said.
“What he does here is also very important, but his main aim is something in Australia to make him valuable when he goes to stud.”
Bred by Waikato Stud, Savaglee is out of unraced O’Reilly mare Glee, a full-sister to the dam of Dual Group One winner Orchestral, and a three-quarter sister to the dam of three-time Group One winner Daffodil.
He was purchased by The Oaks Stud out of Waikato Stud’s 2023 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Yearling Sale draft for $400,000 and went on to win two races as a juvenile, including the Gr.3 Matamata Slipper (1200m), before returning as a three-year-old where he won five and placed in three of his eight starts, including victories in the Gr.1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m), Gr.2 Levin Classic (1400m), Gr.2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas (1400m), Gr.2 James and Annie Sarten Memorial (1400m), and was third in his first test at weight-for-age in the Gr.1 BCD Group Sprint (1400m) prior to his Australian Guineas runner-up performance.
To date, Savaglee has won seven and placed in four of his 15 starts, and earned more than $1.2 million in prizemoney, and Gerard is hoping to quickly add to that tally.
“We did the right thing and gave him a nice long break (after the Australian Guineas), brought him up nice and quietly and now he is back into it,” she said.