6 Aug 2009
Tonight's Mercedes Thoroughbred Racing Awards staged in Christchurch will see Sir Patrick Hogan collect The Dewar Award trophy for the efforts of super-sire, Zabeel, during the 2008-2009 racing season.
The Dewar Award is a stallion premiership decided on Australasian progeny stakes earnings for a New Zealand-based stallion, with the currency conversion being dollar-for-dollar.
It will be the 13th time that Zabeel has won this coveted title. He won it 12 times in a row before O'Reilly ended that sequence for the 2007-2008 season. However Zabeel was clearly on top again in the latest season, heading his nearest rival (Montjeu) by more than $3.2m, with O'Reilly in third position some $3.4 million in arrears of Zabeel.
Zabeel's season included three Group One victories with Maldivian winning both the W S Cox Plate and C F Orr Stakes, while former Australian Derby winner, Fiumicino, returned to his fighting best with success in The BMW during the Sydney Autumn Carnival.
A measure of the significance of Zabeel's 13 Dewar Award titles can be gauged through the fact that his own sire, Sir Tristram, won 9 Dewar Awards.