22 Sep 2013
The Australasian racing and breeding community has become very accustomed to Zabeel achieving all sorts of remarkable results at the Melbourne Spring Carnival, including siring three Melbourne Cup winners and a record four W S Cox Plate winners.
However something very special occurred for Zabeel’s record as a Broodmare Sire last Saturday when he was responsible for the dams of the first three home in the Group One Underwood Stakes; namely It’s a Dundeel (ex Stareel), Atlantic Jewel (ex Regard) and Dear Demi (ex Shirley).
Being the damsire of a Group One winner is nothing new for Zabeel, he’s got 22 of them, but being the sire-of-the-dams of the first three home in a Group One race is something new, even for the greatest sire standing in Australasia.
Zabeel has been the Champion Broodmare Sire in both Australia and New Zealand for the past two seasons straight. Right now he’s a clear leader again on the Australian Broodmare Sire Premiership and sits in third position on the NZ Broodmare Sire Premiership.