Day to remember for the team at The Oaks Stud

12th Dec 2011

Popular Australian Dick Karreman has enjoyed considerable success as an owner on this side of the Tasman since he bought The Oaks Stud at Cambridge with experienced Kiwi stud man Rick Williams as his stud manager.

The Oaks colours, white jacket with blue band and blue cap, have been made familiar by a succession of good winners in New Zealand headed by the splendid mare Seachange (NZ) (Cape Cross), and they were to the fore again on Saturday.

Rick Williams and Dick Karreman

At Awapuni the three-year-old filly Zurella (NZ) (Zabeel), trained at Cambridge by Shaune Ritchie, put her name on the long and honourable list of fillies to have won the Group Three Eulogy Stakes, 1600m, sponsored this year by Ezibuy.

And at Te Rapa, Single Minded (NZ) (Bachelor Duke) looked a big Cups winner in the making as he outslugged the promising mare Suaza (Thorn Park) in the 2400m Dunstan Feeds Championship. He is trained at Matamata for The Oaks Stud by Graeme Richardson.

Single Minded (NZ) is an Oaks Stud product, being by resident sire Bachelor Duke (Miswaki) from Capacity (NZ) (Zabeel). So is Zurella (NZ), the impressive Eulogy Stakes winner, but she is by the multiple Champion sire from neighbouring Cambridge Stud, Zabeel (the damsire of Single Minded).  A full-brother to Single Minded (NZ) will be offered at the NZB Select Yearling Sale beginning February 1 to view please click here.

Dick Karreman inherited Zurella's dam, Doneze Girl (NZ) (Volksraad), when he bought the stud, Doneze Girl (NZ) having been bred by The Oaks' former owner Terry Jarvis by Volksraad (Green Desert) out of the Australian-bred mare Miss Trump, by Last Tycoon (Try My Best) from Shadea (NZ) (Straight Strike), dam of the splendid Australian racehorse and sire Lonhro (Octagonal).  A half-sister to Zurella (NZ) by Sakhee’s Secret will be offered at the NZB Premier yearling sale beginning January 30 to view please click here.

The first foal Karreman Bloodstock bred from Doneze Girl (NZ) was a colt by Bachelor Duke. The next was a filly by Zabeel, Zurella (NZ). With the venerable Zabeel (NZ) (Sir Tristram) in the twilight of his years, The Oaks team must have been delighted to get a filly foal as a breeding prospect; they will be even more delighted now that the filly foal has put Group-level black-type on her CV as she takes her record to a second and three successive wins from four starts.

This year's field for the Eulogy had considerable depth of strength, including the Australian-proven Dowager Queen (NZ) (Savabeel). And, if Dowager Queen (NZ) proved this time to be a gallop short as she challenged then wilted a shade on her run to finish fifth, there was genuine talent among the fillies closer behind Zurella (NZ): Testa Secret (Testa Rossa), Capital Diamond (NZ) (Lucky Unicorn) and Abeautifulred (NZ) (Handsome Ransom).

First run in 1953, the Eulogy Stakes has seldom if ever been won by a less than good filly; often it has been won by a high-class young female. It will be a surprise, after the grand start she has made and with her quality in looks and pedigree, if Zurella (NZ) does not fall into the latter category. Everything about her suggests she can only get better over the next 12 months.

Bachelor Duke will be represented by Lot 190 in the Premier Sale, 14 Select and 11 Festival lots at NZB’s upcoming National Yearling Sales Series.

Zabeel will be represented by 33 Premier lots at the NZB National Yearling Sales Series beginning January 30.