28 Sep 2022Overseas interest was intense when Amarelinha was offered on Gavelhouse Plus, but we were delighted to secure another Group 1-winning Savabeel for our broodmare band.
We managed to stave off international buyers to purchase the well-bred five-year-old and these top-end breeding propositions come at a premium with the final blow landed at $1.1 million.
A number of high-class New Zealand mares have been snapped up by the red-hot Australian breeding industry over the last 18 months, including elite broodmare Baggy Green and Group 1 stars Melody Belle, Avantage and Entriviere.
“It’s great to be able to reverse the tide a little bit and keep this mare in New Zealand,” Cambridge Stud’s Cameron Ring said.
“She will visit Cambridge Stud stallion Almanzor, along with our recently retired champion mare Probabeel so he’s shaping up to have an exceptional book of mares this spring.”
By eight-time champion New Zealand sire Savabeel, Amarelinha boasts an exceptional pedigree and comes from the immediate family of Group 1 winner Metal Bender, G1 Golden Rose placegetter North Pacific.
She is also closely related to the Group 1 winner and former successful Cambridge Stud-based stallion Keeper.
Amarelinha was successful on five occasions with her career highlight a victory in the G1 New Zealand Oaks as well as wins in the G2 David & Karyn Ellis Fillies’ Classic, the G2 Eight Carat Classic and the G3 Sunline Vase.
She was also runner-up in the G1 WFA Classic (1600m) and the Karaka Million 3YO Classic.
“She certainly has a lot going for her as a broodmare prospect,” Ring said.
“She hails from an outstanding family that we didn’t previously have represented in our Cambridge Stud broodmare band. We’re delighted to have been able to secure an Oaks winner with that pedigree page.
“A special thank you to her owners and the team at Te Akau Racing for giving us such a wonderful opportunity to purchase a mare of this quality.
“She was perfectly trained by Jamie Richards and Mark Walker and her racing career was a real credit to the Te Akau operation.”
Amarelinha was originally purchased for $300,000 purchase from Waikato Stud’s Book 1 draft at Karaka in 2019 by Te Akau’s David Ellis and she banked more than $627,000 during her racing career.
“I think the most exciting part of it for me is that Cambridge Stud bought her, she’s staying in New Zealand, and she’ll go to Almanzor,” Ellis said.
“He is a stallion we rate very highly and know a bit about, thanks to his Karaka Million-winning son Dynastic.”