A combination of one of New Zealand’s greatest sirelines and Australia’s foremost damlines produced the Champagne Stakes winner, Nepotism. But as this week’s Run The Numbers explores, neither pedigree is renowned for the precocity to produce a two-year-old Group 1 winner.
As the son of Courtza, one of just two fillies to win both the Blue Diamond and the Golden Slipper, O’Reilly had precocity at the heart of his pedigree, but an early setback prevented the Chittick-family owned colt getting to the track until early in his three-year-old season.
History tells us he quickly made up for lost time, winning two Group 1s in a spectacular six-start career before retiring to become one of the most important stallions in the history of Waikato Stud.
However, while he had a formidable record at stud, precocity was never to the fore with his progeny. Of his 15 Group 1 winners, just two, Alamosa and O’Marilyn would win elite two-year-old races, both of them in New Zealand. Of his 96 stakes winners just 15 of them won black-type races as two-year-olds.
In fact, none of his progeny ever contested the two races his dam famously won in 1989, the Golden Slipper and Blue Diamond. Neither did they feature in the ATC Sires’ Produce, while just one of O’Reilly progeny, Never Look Back (seventh in 2006), took on the Champagne Stakes.
This post is for our free members
Thanks for your interest in The Straight. It looks like you are trying to access a free members article via an in-app browser on X, Facebook or LinkedIn. For the best experience, and instant access, sign on via the Social Sign In links below. You should only need to do this once.
If you wish to access or create an email-based account, please provide your email below. You will receive a link to click by email which will then open in your device’s native browser.
