INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
FEBRUARY 1, 2014
Hogan dynasty still burns bright
by Kelsey Riley
Developing a stallion prospect into a world-class sire is without doubt one of the most difficult tasks in the Thoroughbred industry. To turn out two is nothing short of
remarkable. As such, what Sir Patrick Hogan accomplished with the father-son pair of Sir
Tristram and Zabeel is simply extraordinary.
Hogan, of Cambridge Stud in New Zealand, in December
announced the retirement of the farm’s flagship stallion, Zabeel, from stud duty. The
27-year-old had met with declining fertility, siring just five foals
last year, and none of the mares he covered in 2013 got in foal.
Hogan’s
announcement marked not only the end of a long and successful stud
career, but the end of an era, because before Zabeel — four times champion sire
in New Zealand, two times champion sire in Australia, twice
champion broodmare sire in both New Zealand and Australia, and a
record 15-time recipient of the Dewer Stallion Award for progeny
earnings in New Zealand and Australia combined — Hogan discovered and
developed his sire, Sir Tristram.
Hogan and his wife, Lady Justine Hogan, established
Cambridge Stud in 1975, and that year began the search for their
foundation stallion. Hogan traveled to Europe to inspect prospects in England,
Ireland and France, but left empty handed, failing to find anything to
fit his budget of around NZ$200,000. After returning home Hogan received a pedigree in the mail, and knew he was looking at his
stallion.
The horse in question, Sir Tristram (Sir Ivor) was an unheralded racehorse, having won just two of 19 starts for trainer Clive Brittain
and owner Raymond Guest, but his pedigree spoke to Hogan. In addition to carrying the blood
of such influential sires as *Princequillo and Round Table, Sir Tristram’s dam’s
fourth
dam was Selene, who produced breeding-shaping sire Hyperion.
“I picked him out on his pedigree alone more so than his
race performance,” Hogan explained. “He wasn’t the greatest racehorse, but his
pedigree was as good as you could get. In the eight generations of his pedigree he was full of
very well-bred horses, so that appealed to me, and I could see within his pedigree a link that
would suit a lot of the mares that were going to be available to him in New Zealand.”
Actually purchasing Sir Tristram, as it turned out, was
the easy part. Hogan was faced with a slew of challenges thereafter, the first coming when his
new stallion was caught in a barn fire at a quarantine station in England.
“After I purchased him he ended up in quarantine in
England, and he got caught up in a fire in a stable one morning at about 2
a.m.,” Hogan said. “A number of the horses perished in the fire. He
was fortunate enough to be saved. He sustained some serious
burns, and from the experience of being in a fire, he arrived in New
Zealand in very poor condition.”
When Hogan’s partners who had invested in Sir Tristram
with him saw the condition of the horse, a number of them backed out
of the deal.
“Some of them pulled out and said that I’d made a huge
mistake and bought the wrong kind of horse,” Hogan noted. “They pulled
out of the arrangement, so I had to get over that hurdle.”
Despite the unease of his partners, Hogan remained
unwavering in his support of Sir Tristram, supplying him with some of his best mares in his
first season at stud. The stallion’s first crop in 1977 numbered 37 foals, and resulted in 11
winners from 16 runners, including five stakes winners of 13 stakes races, headed by the
Hogan-bred Sovereign Red, a six-time Group 1 winner who took Australia’s Victoria Derby
(Aus-G1).
That first crop also included Tasman, winner of the South Australian Derby
(Aus-G1). In
another words, Sir Tristram was off to a flying start.
“I gave him what I considered to be my very best mares
to give him an opportunity,” Hogan stated. “That paid dividends, and he was on the way to
success. There were a few setbacks, but we overcome them.”
In a career that spanned 21 crops, Sir Tristram sired
440 winners of 1,232 races, including 82 graded stakes winners that accounted for 195 graded wins
from much smaller books than are the norm today. His average book size was 60
mares.
Adding to the tally of 45 Group 1 winners were the likes of fellow Hogan-breds
Tristarc, a five-time Group 1 winner, and dual Group 1 winner Dalmacia, as well as
Dr Grace, Riverina Charm, Trissaro, Grosvenor and Zabeel himself. He
was responsible for three Melbourne Cup (Aus-G1) winners — Gurner’s Lane, Empire Rose
and Brew. Sir Tristram was Australia’s champion sire on five occasions, and he
earned that title once in New Zealand.
As prolific as he was as a sire of racehorses, Sir
Tristram’s mark as a broodmare sire runs deeper still. He was five-times champion
broodmare sire in
Australia and three times in New Zealand. His influence through his daughters was immediate,
as his first Group 1 winner as a broodmare sire was 1987 Blue Diamond S.
(Aus-G1) winner Midnight
Fever, out of one of his first daughters to go to stud.
Sir Tristram twice set
records for broodmare sire earnings in Australia, and his mark of A$9.4 million in 1996/97
still stands
today. In total, progeny of his daughters have won more than 200 stakes races and earned
more than NZ$50 million. Sir Tristram’s starting fee back in 1976 was just NZ$1,200, and
by the end of his career he commanded NZ$200,000.
On May 21, 1997, Sir Tristram, affectionately known as
“Paddy,” died after suffering an irreparable shoulder injury in his paddock at Cambridge
Stud, and was buried on the farm. He was inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame in
2008.
By the time of his sire’s passing, Zabeel had more than
taken up the mantle. Bred by Hogan and raced by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Zabeel
was trained by Colin Hayes his first two seasons, and David Hayes as a four-year-old. He won
seven of 19 starts, including the Australian Guineas (Aus-G1), before retiring to his birthplace at
Cambridge Stud.
As with Sir Tristram, Hogan supported Zabeel with his
best mares from the outset. Hogan noted that Zabeel’s first crop were well received at the
sales, but trainers were less receptive in the beginning.
“Trainers found they were difficult to handle, and they
were a bit light-fleshed and a bit soft in the brain,” Hogan explained. “So the next year when they
came back to the sales at Karaka, a number of trainers said, ‘Look,
we want to see your yearlings, but we don’t want to see any more
Zabeels. We don’t think they’re going to be any good.’
“But the
following year, the third time back at the sales with the third crop, they
changed their tune and said, ‘We want to see all the Zabeels you’ve got
available.’ It took a bit of time for Zabeel to get up and running with
his progeny, but once he did, it’s history now. They’ve never
stopped and they’re still going.”
Like Sir Tristram, Zabeel experienced resounding success
with his first crop, which included Group 1 winners Octagonal, Jezabeel and Cronus. Octagonal, who was bred by Hogan from his outstanding producer Eight Carat,
was perhaps Zabeel’s best son on the racetrack, having won 10 Group 1s including the
Australian Derby, Cox Plate, Australian Cup and Sires’ Produce S. Octagonal is continuing the
sireline in his own right through his son Lonhro, Australia’s champion sire in 2010/11 and the
sire of Denman, a highly promising first season sire Down Under.
Zabeel was also responsible for Might and Power,
who recorded a rare Caulfield Cup (Aus-G1), Melbourne Cup and Cox Plate triple; four-time
Group 1 winner Sky Heights; Hong Kong superstar and Dubai Sheema Classic
(UAE-G1) winner
Vengeance of Rain; and Melbourne Cup winner Efficient. His current Group 1
tally sits at 43 more than any other living stallion in the world. To date, he is responsible
for 148 stakes winners and 100 graded stakes winners that have collected 354 stakes races, and
earnings of more than A$155 million.
Hogan noted there were physical similarities between his
two stallions from the beginning.
“They were very much in the same mold, except Zabeel was
probably, conformation-wise, a much tidier and a much more presentable type of horse,” he
explained. “But they both had a lot of characteristics (similar) to each other. There was a
likeness, and Zabeel threw his progeny very much in the mold of the Sir Tristram progeny.
I often said to myself, you’d think Sir Tristram’s and Zabeel’s progeny were cloned — that Zabeel had been cloned from Sir Tristram.”
Also like his sire, Zabeel has had a profound impact as
a broodmare sire. His daughters have produced 116 black-type winners and 22 Group 1 winners,
headed by the likes of Cox Plate winner Ocean Park (Thorn Park), five-time Group
1 winner It’s a Dundeel (High Chaparral), four-time Group 1 winner Atlantic
Jewel (Fastnet Rock) and Crown Oaks (Aus-G1) winner Samantha Miss (Redoute’s Choice).
His emergence as a true leader as a broodmare sire was
underscored last season when It’s a Dundeel, Atlantic Jewel and Dear Demi (Dehere), all
out of his daughters, swept the top three places in the Underwood S. (Aus-G1).
While there doesn’t appear to be a son of Zabeel ready
to smash the record books the way he and his sire did, the legacy will continue through the
likes of Lonhro, as well as Reset, sire of such Group 1 winners as Rebel Raider,
Pinker Pinker and Fawkner; and Savabeel, who has produced the likes of
Group 1 winners Sangster, Scarlett Lady and Brambles.
As for Zabeel himself, he will now live out his days in
the paddock he has occupied since retiring to Cambridge Stud. Members of his last major crop
were offered at the Karaka Sales over the past week, realizing as much as NZ$320,000. The
eight yearlings by Zabeel cataloged for Inglis Easter could be his last to see a
sales ring; his final crop includes four fillies and a colt, with just one a possibility to see a
sales ring.
For Hogan, the thrills provided by his two prized horses
will burn as bright in the memory as they will in the pedigrees of many of the world’s best
runners for years to come.
“I’m enormously proud,” Hogan declared. “It’s very, very
rare, and may not have happened before, that one champion sire of Australasia has followed
another one on the same stud farm. Not only that, but for a son to follow the father and
end up emulating him with his progeny. That’s a pretty unique performance, and as long as
I’m around I’ll be very proud of the fact that I was the man that was given the opportunity
to have two such great horses.”