Stallion who'll return from the wop wops

IT'S THE sort of story that will have grinning horse owners, trainers, jockeys, groomers and strappers recounting it to generations as a lesson to never look a gift horse in the mouth.

The yarn is primarily centred around a horse called Zed who used to live at Little Avondale Stud in Masterton but nowadays hangs out in the middle of nowhere in what some would call the extreme of South Island.

The 10-year-old roams in the Canterbury Plains where the toasted tussock greets the blue, snow-capped Southern Alps.

Hey, the majestic backdrop even cast a spell on New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson who gave it a thumbs up for his second segment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Two Towers.

It's almost the sort of mystical outback where one would expect to see a horse whose name is spelt phonetically to the sound of the last letter of the alphabet.

But, you see, that's where the story from Erewhon Station starts losing the plot a little.

It's a high-country station that prides itself in breeding Clydesdales, hardy equine beasts with hairy legs and packing a grunt that would put many hybrid four-wheel-drive metallic beasts to shame.

So what on earth is a thoroughbred stallion, with high-twitch fibres, doing smack bang in the middle of work horses more adept at pulling wagons during A&P; shows?

To put it in rugby speak, it's like turning up at a park in Gore one Saturday morning to find All Black Dan Carter lacing up his boots for 80 minutes of footy.

In horseracing parlance, it seems Zed should never have left the bright lights of Sam Williams' Little Avondale Stud for the wop-wops.

If late last month's Manawatu Classic is anything to go by then the success of Survived in the group three race is a credit to the unheralded stallion's bloodline.

But, no, the son of champion sire Zabeel and group one winner Emerald Dream started his stud career at a service fee of a paltry $500.

Having sired Survived and runner-up Usainity in the Manawatu Classic, Zed should be the man and, no doubt, his service fee should rocket next season.

"His fee will change. I cannot tell you what it'll be right now but you can add another zero to his $500 fee," Williams said on Wednesday night from Sydney.

Furthermore, he expects to disclose more details on where Zed will be and what he stands for in his equation tomorrow.

In defence of his decision to banish the pedigree beast to Erewhon Station, Williams said putting a $2000 to $3000 service fee on Zed would have been counterproductive.

By lowering the fees they were able to entice more takers.

"If we would have gone with the higher fees we would have probably got only 20 mares but by making it only $500 we have made his bloodlines available to more than 130 mares in just the first crop."

By no means, he argued, was the exercise a financial gain.

"It was more like we made a loss on the deal."

The objective, says Williams, was for the stallion to yield more winners for the track.

Zed has produced three individual winners - the Williams' bred Kina Win, which has been sold to someone in the South Island; Ambitious Run, who Guy Lowry, of Hastings, trains, and Choir Girl who Australian rocker Jimmy Barnes owns.

"They were 3-year-olds and Zed wasn't a stallion for commerical gains from sale yearlings."

Williams explained when his Little Avondale Stud acquired another stallion, Nadeem, there was simply not enough room for the both of them.

"We had to relocate him [Zed] because no thoroughbred stud was prepared to take him," he said, adding his brother, George Williams, also of Masterton, was able to negotiate sending him to Erewhon Station because he knew the owners, Erin Cassie and Colin Drummond.

"It hasn't surprised us that Survived is so good."

Zed's father, Zabeel, is 26 years old and is still serving mares at $100,000 a pop.

"Zed should be able to service mares for another 10 to 15 years," Williams said.

In many ways, Zed's yarn is very much like that of his grandfather, Sir Tristram, who Sir Patrick Hogan owns.

"Sir Tristram was the greatest sire in the southern hemisphere. He won only two races but he was a champion sire."

Zed's story is "fantastic", considering he got injured in a floating accident in Cambridge when he was only 2 years old.

Survived will be racing in the Hawke's Bay Gold Cup meeting on Saturday next week.

Should Survived win and go on to win the Melbourne Cup, as past Gold Cup winner Hi-Jinx did, the chances are Williams will be slipping on his skis to head to South Island to haul Zed back in person.