Rowe On Monday – Yarraman Park hits the right note with Lloyd Webber, NZ Hall of Fame recognition for Savabeel

In today’s Rowe On Monday, Tim Rowe reports on Yarraman Park’s partnership with Andrew Lloyd Webber that is celebrating a Group 3 win in France and he speaks to Max Whitby, one of champion New Zealand sire Savabeel’s biggest fans.

Yarraman broodmare plans coming together with dual stakes wins

Just as the 2024 breeding season was winding down and the focus was squarely on preparing yearlings for January’s Magic Millions sale on the Gold Coast, the Mitchells of Yarraman Park were planning ahead.

In early December, on either side of the equator, Yarraman’s Arthur and Harry Mitchell invested in two daughters of Australian sire Zoustar: the southern hemisphere-bred Floozie and Europe’s dual Listed winner Mgheera.

At the weekend, Floozie won her first stakes race in Queensland and at Longchamp in France, Mgheera won first-up for new connections in the Group 3 Prix de Saint-Georges over 1000m.

Yarraman Park races Mgheera in partnership with Watership Down’s Andrew Lloyd Webber, with the pair paying €250,000 (A$437,858) for the now five-year-old at the Arqana December sale last year.

She was subsequently transferred to Newmarket trainer Ed Walker who successfully prepared her to win fresh-up under jockey Oisin Murphy.

She could target Royal Ascot’s King Charles III Stakes, won last year by Australian sprinter Asfoora, before being imported to Australia to be served by Too Darn Hot.

“We bought her to be a broodmare in Australia at Deauville at the Arqana sale in December,” Lord Lloyd Webber’s bloodstock agent Johnny McKeever told French journalist Adrien Cugnasse after Mgheera’s win.

“I do a lot of work for Lord Lloyd Webber in Australia and we partnered with Yarraman Park Stud’s Arthur Mitchell. We own her in a partnership and she will visit Too Darn Hot and maybe I Am Invincible one year also.”

McKeever and Australian agent Will Johnson teamed up at the Deauville sale to buy Mgheera who appears to have turned out to be a value proposition.

“It’s not easy to buy a Zoustar stakes winner in training in Australia,” McKeever said.

Closer to home at the weekend, James Mitchell and Yarraman Park enjoyed stakes success with Zoustar mare Floozie who made it three wins in succession with her victory in the Listed Silk Stocking on the Gold Coast.

The four-year-old, a daughter of Blue Diamond winner Catchy who was sold in foal to Capitalist for $800,000 at last Thursday’s Chairman’s Sale, was purchased privately by Mitchell and Yarraman Park from breeder Robert Crabtree at the end of her spring campaign.

James, who runs Mitchell Bloodstock with his father Bill, reached out to Crabtree via fellow agent Damon Gabbedy expressing an interest in Floozie who had won on Bendigo Cup day and ran fifth at the Cranbourne Cup meeting in the spring to round out her campaign.

“I just chanced my arm and got in touch through another agent that works closely with Robert and said, ‘look, basically, what do you want for her to an extent? What do you think she’s worth?’ 

“And we agreed on a number, which we’re all comfortable with. I went down for a day trip to see her at Robert’s farm (in Victoria) and I loved her physically and we went ahead with it and the rest is a bit of a fairytale really.”

When Floozie first joined Tony Gollan’s Brisbane stable, the intention was to race her on until the end of the season before retiring her to stud to be covered by Yarraman’s champion sire I Am Invincible.

But her rich vein of form for her new trainer, which could see her run in the Group 2 Dane Ripper for fillies and mares at Eagle Farm in June before contesting the Group 1 Tatts Tiara two weeks later, may force connections to consider racing her on for another year.

“In fairness to (Floozie’s former) Mick Price, she was in magnificent condition. They had a plan to try and target some stakes racing in South Australia I believe with her if she’d stayed in Victoria, but we just wanted to get her home to Yarraman first and have a good look over her,” Mitchell said. 

“We just shot a few X-rays through her knees and joints and these just to be doubly sure and got the physio, the chiro-physio type bloke to run his hands over her as well and when she got the clean bill of health there, as we expected she would. 

"We'll aim her at all the big five-furlong sprints now"@edwalkerracing reacts to new recruit Mgheera's impressive performance in the Prix de Saint-Georges! pic.twitter.com/k7QEvCdmS9

— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) May 11, 2025

“She went up and yeah, we just put her in with Tony at Embrook Farm to start with (for pre-training) and she just went through her paces there until he wanted her in and, as I say, she’s been pretty straightforward. 

“Obviously the first two wins were pretty soft and then we drew a bad gate and a heavy track at the Gold Coast (on Saturday) but I did think she was probably the class horse in the field and thankfully it turned out to be that she was.”

With Floozie and Mgheera to join the Yarraman Park broodmare band, James Mitchell is optimistic they will prove to be quality producers in the future.

“We’re pretty confident that Zoustar mares will become just fantastic broodmares and as a stakes winner now Floozie has become a pretty valuable broodmare herself,” he said.

Meanwhile, Widden Stud-based Zoustar has hit the lead in the Australian general sires’ premiership, overtaking Pride Of Dubai.

Whitby returns to Waikato to honour Savabeel

In the spring of 2004, trainer Graeme Rogerson and owner Max Whitby won three Group 1s in the space of four weeks with valuable colts Econsul and Savabeel.

Econsul won the Caulfield Guineas, a race where subsequent champion sire Fastnet Rock ran eighth, while fellow three-year-old Savabeel won the Spring Champion in Sydney before the son of Zabeel won Australasia’s weight-for-age championship, the Cox Plate, at Moonee Valley later in the month.

Savabeel defeated a stellar field that included second, third and fourth, being Fields Of Omagh, Starcraft and Grand Armee. Elvstroem ran eighth in the ‘04 Cox Plate.

Whitby, a slotholder in The Everest, has enjoyed many great days on the racetrack in the two decades since the spring of 2004, with the sport and thoroughbred industry remaining an enduring passion for the larrikin owner.

And during those 20 years, one horse has been a constant for Whitby, Waikato Stud champion Savabeel.

Soon-to-be crowned New Zealand’s champion sire for a 10th time, Savabeel was officially included into the Hall Of Fame at a function on Sunday night. 

Whitby and Chris Munce, who rode Savabeel to win the Spring Champion and Cox Plate as well as Econsul in the Guineas, were in New Zealand at the weekend to attend the induction ceremony honouring Savabeel, the sire of 151 stakes winners, 35 of them successful at Group 1 level.

On the eve of his induction into the NZ Hall of Fame, Savabeel welcomed a special visitor – Max Whitby, a loyal supporter and part of the ownership group that raced him A very special weekend celebrating this history-making sire! pic.twitter.com/UY4HIa51AP

— Waikato Stud (@WaikatoStud) May 10, 2025

“I’ve stuck with him, but I never knew he’d go to the levels he has (as a stallion),” Whitby said. “And I love the Kiwis (and) Rogie. I’ve always been welcomed over here over the years to Waikato Stud.

“I looked at him (Savabeel on Saturday) and, fair dinkum, he could go around tomorrow.”

Whitby bought equity in Savabeel when he was sold to Waikato’s Chittick family for about NZ$10 million after his three-year-old season in 2005.

“I reckon I’ve taken (shares) in 25 Savabeels, but nothing’s ever come out of the box,” he said.

“Every colt I took a share in had to be gelded, et cetera, et cetera. But from buying shares back into him, it’s probably the smartest thing I did.

“I’ve been getting four free services for 100 years and that’s kept me rocking and rolling and I’ve sold some of his progeny very well.

“In saying that, I’ve been to Karaka sales where you don’t get a bid and then you get the sales and (the yearling) sells for $1.5 million. That’s what happens.”

Munce is a long-retired jockey and has since turned to training since hanging up the saddle and he and Whitby continue to make a great partnership.

They have two-year-old Cool Archie, the last-start Listed Dalrello Stakes-winning colt by Savabeel’s son Cool Aza Beel.

Savabeel, meanwhile, is being readied for his 20th season at Waikato Stud. As for Econsul, a son of another top Waikato Stud sire in Pins, sired three stakes winners from eight crops standing at Woodside Park Stud in Victoria.

Econsul’s best offspring was Group 1 Robert Sangster Stakes winner Precious Gem.