Super Seth steps into New Zealand’s elite stallion ranks

Super Seth's daughter La Dorada winning the Karaka Millions at Ellerslie for Craig Williams. Photo / Kenton Wright

The boy is ready to become the man at Waikato Stud but Super Seth might have to wait just a little bit longer.

That was the story behind the numbers when one of the big two of the New Zealand breeding industry, alongside Cambridge Stud, released its stallion fees for next season yesterday, with a significant jump to $75,000 plus GST in the service fee for Super Seth.

Breeders knew a price increase was coming after a breakout season for the former Caulfield Guineas winner in which he sired two Group 1 winners in Australia in Feroce and Linebacker and Karaka Millions winner La Dorada.

La Dorada soon after added the Group 1 Sires’ Produce at Trentham in a dream result for the stud and means Super Seth will be the second-most-expensive standing in New Zealand next season.

“An unbelievable stallion. I don’t feel as though we have had a stallion start like this in New Zealand for a long time,” says Waikato Stud boss Mark Chittick.

“Three Group 1 winners across two countries in a month is freakish, and he keeps backing up with transtasman winners every single week.”

Super Seth’s season could not have come at a better time as the stud’s phenomenal Savabeel nears the end of his breeding career but the legend showed he isn’t willling to give up the top dog title just yet.

Savabeel will remain New Zealand’s only six-figure stallion, standing at an unchanged $100,000, plus GST.

Sitting $2.7 million clear of his nearest contender on the New Zealand sires’ premiership, Savabeel will secure his 10th New Zealand champion sires’ title and will be inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame in May.

This season alone he has sired three Group 1 winners: Atishu, who claimed her third elite-level victory in the Group 1 Empire Rose Stakes, along with two new Group 1 winners in Savaglee and Provence, bringing his Group 1 tally to 35.

This year, Savabeel produced his highest-priced yearling yet and set a new record for the highest-priced filly ever sold at Karaka – $2.4 million for the full sister to Orchestral.

“He deserves every accolade and we are very proud of everything he’s done and is doing for the New Zealand industry,” said Chittick.

“He has great vitality and we’re heading into the season with a bright, happy and healthy horse – the only thing we will avoid breeding this year at his age is maidens. He’s had another incredible season on the track and in the sales ring, and he just keeps reminding us why he’s so special.”

Waikato Stud will also stand Ardrossan ($20,000), Noverre ($10,000) and Banquo ($3000) at unchanged fees next season while the ever-consistent Ocean Park will stand at a slightly reduced of $15,000, all fees being plus GST.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.