Twelve months ago, the thought of Savatoxl contesting a group 1 would have seemed unlikely at best, if not outright absurd.
However, despite being sold by Stonehouse Thoroughbreds for just AU$8,000 (US$6,036), farm principal Ryan Arnel always felt he was a high-quality yearling that fell through the net. On May 15, the gelding took the Furphy Goodwood (G1) at Morphettville Racecourse.
"Obviously, we've all seen the sales results," said Arnel to ANZ Bloodstock News. "We took him to the Melbourne Premier Sale and, well, he was friendless there. He simply wasn't a commercial proposition. You look at the mare pedigree, and aside from him there wasn't an awful lot going on and Kuroshio wasn't the most commercial sort of sire at the time. He was a hard sell, that's for sure.
"We actually rated him quite highly. He was very well put together, very neat, had it all there. And then obviously after the Premier sale we took him to the Gold Sale where he was a hard sell and he was bought for the Alice Springs Turf Club, which is how he ended up in the Northern Territory.
"It was only a few months ago that I was trying to keep track of him, because we did really like him, and he was sort of running midfield in these Northern Territory handicaps, and we thought he must've done his time but, without realizing, it was due to the fact he was too good for them and carrying 65 kilos up there, so the only natural progression for him was to come back down south and start running in better races because there just weren't enough races of quality up there for him."
Although Savatoxl had won nine of his first 15 starts, all but one had come on dirt at either his home track of Alice Springs or at the Northern Territory's metropolitan course in Darwin. On top of that, the only run that he had on turf came in Brisbane, finishing last of 17 in the 2019 Nuturf Fred Best Classic (G3) as the rank outsider.
In May last year, at what ended up being his last run for Alice Springs trainer Will Savage, Savatoxl finished fifth in the Peter Kittle Motor Company Pioneer Sprint, the town's biggest sprint. It hardly foreshadowed that a group 1 victory was in his future.
Nor did his four-run campaign for Darwin handler Gary Clarke, winning three straight in easy fashion up to 1,600 meters (about one mile) before finding 2,000 meters (about 1 1/4 miles) a bridge too far when sixth in the Great Northern Darwin Cup.
Joining the Tony and Calvin McEvoy stable after that Darwin Cup run in August, Savatoxl made his South Australian debut with a third in the TQCSI Balaklava Cup. However, it has been at shorter trips that he has made his name, winning the Adelaide Galvanising Christmas Handicap in December and the DC McKay Stakes (G3) earlier this month.
Despite that last win, in which he dominated from the front to score by three lengths, the 5-year-old was sent out as a AU$19 chance in a market dominated by homegrown group 1 winners Gytrash and Behemoth, as well as last-start TAB Classic (G1) winner Instant Celebrity.
"Tony McEvoy and his team have obviously done a brilliant job with him and kicked him on, and now we've got a group 1 winner on our hands," said Arnel.
"I was chatting to someone earlier, and I said it's almost like a reverse shuttle. Usually, most horses that have a few more starts left in them, they head up to Darwin for their race series or something, but he's done the opposite, it's not the normal progression that's for sure."
Ridden expertly by Barend Vorster, Savatoxl deferred to stablemate Dollar For Dollar early in a move that even surprised their trainers. However, he quickly powered clear upon straightening and was strong through the line, recording a two-length victory over Instant Celebrity with a further long neck to Gytrash in third.
"It's a bit surreal," Tony McEvoy said. "The ownership group had enough faith in him to send him down after he'd won a Darwin Guineas and ran (sixth) in the Darwin Cup.
"He just didn't run the mile in the Balaklava Cup so we went back sprinting and here we are.
"He didn't have the pace today. He began beautifully and Barend showed all his experience to let the horse get into his rhythm and not to panic.''
Arnel, who has built up his Stonehouse Thoroughbreds farm in Eddington from scratch over recent years, developing the operation as a mainstay consignor on the Victorian sales calendar, sold group 1 winner Extra Brut as a weanling, as well as bred and raised Coolmore Stud Stakes (G1) runner-up Swats That and Vinery Stud Stakes (G1) second Harmony Rose, who, like Savatoxl, is by a sire not deemed to be commercial in Glass Harmonium.
The track results are just rewards for the small-scale breeder who has relied on research into pedigrees and genotype to produce matings that, although not necessarily commercially attractive, have produced outstanding results.
"I love my pedigrees and I thought it was a very good mating, which is why we sort of took the horse as well. We wanted to try and present those type of horses," said Arnel. "The commercial market obviously doesn't quite read it as we breeders do.
"In our short time we've got a handful of group 1 horses running around," continued Arnel. "We didn't think Savatoxl would be the first (yearling group 1 winner), but he's come through.
"We're in a luxury industry, surrounded by a lot of money. I'm a young person and I've bought the farm myself and everything we've put into it is our own money, and we can't afford to buy these AU$200,000-300,000 mares, so we've got to look at another option, which is looking at value in pedigrees and genetics.
"We're looking on those damsides and for those that aren't necessarily those commercial matings, but those that are going to produce the best racehorses because, at the end of the day, your best marketing is your racetrack success."
The hard-knocking gelding was bred by Carrington Park's Sheryl and Mark Atkinson, a long-time client of Arnel's who recently sold their Thoroughbred assets, including Li'l Miss Hayley, the dam of Savatoxl, who is the fifth foal and the third of four winners from the mare, who has a yearling filly by Needs Further and was put back in foal to the stallion last year.
"I'm having a beer tonight with a mate that has the mare on his farm at Hollylodge, and he's a small breeder just like me," said Arnel.
"During the season we always go to each other's farms and I saw her name on the board there and I said 'mate, you want to be looking after that mare, I know there's something good coming.' And still she's quite an unknown mare but she's delivering the goods."
Eduardo Scores Second Group 1 Win
In Brisbane, the Joe Pride-trained Eduardo justified odds-on favoritism to claim the TAB Doomben 10,000 (G1), his second top-level feature this preparation.
Sent out as the favorite under one of the world's premier front-running riders in Nash Rawiller, Eduardo was cuddled on the speed before demonstrating his trademark tenacity to defy a wall of chasers to score by a long neck.
Wild Planet, who took out the Inglis Guineas on this day two years ago, charged home to finish second with North Queensland star The Harrovian a further long head away in third.
Having won both the Bisley Workwear Galaxy (G1) and the Doomben 10,000 this preparation, Pride said that Eduardo would be spelled and would remain in Queensland during the winter before returning to Sydney.
Offers have already been tabled for the The Everest and it seems only a matter of time before a slot holder snaps up the gelding, who will be an 8-year-old when the race is run in October.
"There was so much pressure this week. All my group 1s have been at double figures. I think Eduardo was the shortest when he won the Galaxy at about AU$7," Pride said.
"He is a great horse. He got the job done. We came here as a bit of an afterthought. It is a testament to the quality he has.
"You don't often see a horse that has so much speed have so much fight. He is a bulldog, he just keeps fighting.
"He will have a little break in Queensland. He seems to like it up here. He will have a break before the spring and look forward to what he can do next time around."
