Savabeel (23 September 2001 – 19 June 2026) was an Australian Thoroughbred race horse and active sire. He is best known for his win in the 2004 Cox Plate. He was trained by Graeme Rogerson, and ridden by Chris Munce in his most important wins.
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Breeding
Savabeel, foaled on 23 September 2001, was a brown horse sired by champion New Zealand sire Zabeel out of the multiple Group winner Savannah Success.
Savannah Success had won the 1999 New Zealand Oaks and Ansett Australia Stakes at Group 1 level and the Surround Stakes (Group 2) as well as a number of other Group and listed New Zealand races.
Racing career
In Spring 2004 he won the race considered the Weight for Age Championship of Australasia, the Cox Plate, beating the previous year's winner Fields of Omagh. He was the first three-year-old to win the race since another son of Zabeel, Octagonal won the race nine years earlier in 1995. At the time of Savabeel's Cox Plate win, Rogerson described him as the best horse he had ever trained.
Savabeel also won the Group One 2004 Spring Champion Stakes over 2000m at Randwick.
After an excellent run for second behind Elvstroem in the C F Orr Stakes in February 2005, Savabeel had an unsuccessful autumn campaign which saw him only place once before he was retired to stud in 2005.
All in all, he retired the winner of $2,760,460 in stakes. Savabeel started on 14 occasions, winning 3 and placing on 4 occasions.
Death
Announced on 19 June 2026, Savabeel died at the age of 24 as a result of a freak paddock incident in which he broke his shoulder.
Stud career
Savabeel stood at Waikato Stud in the North Island of New Zealand, as one of the primary stallions.
He made a clean sweep of New Zealand's three stallion categories for the 2016–17 season. For the second straight year the stallion won the Grosvenor Award for New Zealand stakes earnings, the Dewar Stallion Trophy for Australasian earnings and the Centaine Award for global earnings.
At the 2025 Karaka sales a filly by Savabeel out of the O'Reilly mare Symphonic, full-sister to Orchestral, fetched a price of $2.4 million.
Notable stock
Savabeel sired 33
individual Group One winners:
'c = colt, f = filly, g = gelding
Honors and recognition
Savabeel was inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame at the 11 May 2025 Hamilton dinner.