Ahead of the anniversary of his imperious racetrack finale in the Gr. 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Day 2 of The Championships at Randwick in 2014, it’s fitting to announce Dundeel (NZ) (High Chaparral) as the latest inductee to the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame.
Returning to the scene of his Spring Champion Stakes and Australian Derby victories as a three-year-old, Dundeel took his Group One tally to six with victory in the race that has become synonymous with the Sydney autumn carnival.
The High Chaparral colt’s career had begun in New Zealand with Cambridge trainer Murray Baker, who two decades earlier had prepared Dundeel’s granddam Staring (NZ) to become the champion three-year-old filly of 1991-92 with a record headed by the New Zealand Oaks.
Baker is himself a member of the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame, in recognition of a career that included multiple premierships and the status as the most successful New Zealand-based trainer of Australian Group One winners.
Of all those quality horses to contribute to his tally, Baker places Dundeel at the top of the class.
“He’s the best that I trained, no question,” Baker said when discussing Dundeel’s elevation to the Hall of Fame. “He just had that all-round ability that marks the very best horses – he was gifted and could do anything.
“When he went to Ellerslie for his first start in an autumn two-year-old 1200, I didn’t think he could win. The rail was out, he was drawn wide and talking to James (McDonald) before the race, I said to him ‘He’s got the job ahead of him so just see what he can do’.
“Well he breezed home, which made us realise we had something special on our hands. So after talking it over with his breeder Murray Andersen and the rest of the ownership group, we decided he had so much ability we had to have a crack at Aussie.”
Those aspirations grew with every start, beginning with a win at Wyong in August, another at Canterbury and then his first stakes victory in the Gr. 3 Gloaming Stakes at Randwick. Dundeel’s first Group One win came in the Spring Champion Stakes at Randwick in early October, but he went winless in two starts at the Melbourne carnival.
Back in Sydney his autumn campaign began with a fourth placing in the Gr. 2 Hobartville Stakes, followed by successive wins in the Gr. 1 Randwick Guineas, Rosehill Guineas and Australian Derby.
“No three-year-old had done that before – win those four Sydney Group One races – and we decided to try him at weight-for-age in the Queen Elizabeth,” Baker continued. “He ran very well but was beaten by Reliable Man, who had come down from Europe with very good form, so there was no disgrace in that.”
Returning as a spring four-year-old, by which time negotiations were under way leading to John Messara’s Arrowfield Stud securing an interest in the valuable entire, a Group One win in Melbourne was the focus.
That came to fruition in a star-studded Underwood Stakes at Caulfield, which both Baker and Andersen describe as the most memorable of his 10 wins.
“I think there were something like 13 Group One winners in the field,” Baker recalled. “That included the unbeaten mare Atlantic Jewel, but he put them all away.
“He wasn’t quite right for the Cox Plate, but he made up for that in the autumn with his Queen Elizabeth performance – it was just the perfect way to sign off.”
In the lead-up to his farewell appearance, Dundeel had been placed in all three of his Group One assignments, the Chipping Norton Stakes, Ranvet Stakes and BMW (Tancred) Stakes, and even though having to drop back from 2400 to 2000 metres on a two-week back-up, days out from the Queen Elizabeth Stakes Baker knew he was ready for a peak performance.
“He was a horse that you didn’t need to do a lot with between races, he was naturally fit and very clean-winded. The only fast work he did between the BMW and the Queen Elizabeth was a 600-metre sprint on the Tuesday before.
“Emily Murphy travelled with him throughout his career and knew him inside out, so after she had ridden him in that work and he ran time that was hard to believe, we knew we had him spot-on, and so it proved.”
Baker can perhaps be excused wondering whether Dundeel would have successfully raced on beyond his four-year-old season, but inevitably arrives at the same conclusion in accepting the decision to retire him to stud.
“Even though he was a colt, he was always a lovely horse to work with. Maybe his best years were still ahead of him, but he had done more than enough and the results since have proven it was the right thing to do.”
Dundeel was ridden in every one of his 10 wins by James McDonald, who pays due credit to the horse that played such a role in establishing him in Sydney jockey ranks.
Reflecting on the individual horses that have been key to his emergence as Sydney’s dominant jockey, the Hall of Famer places Dundeel alongside fellow Kiwi-bred Verry Elleegant (NZ) (Zed), champion sprinter Nature Strip and Godolphin star Anamoe as the best Australian-based horses he has been associated with.
During his career, Dundeel earned the New Zealand Champion 3YO title in 2012-13, Champion Middle Distance Male in Australia and New Zealand the following year, and the supreme Horse of the Year title at the New Zealand Thoroughbred awards in 2014. On World Thoroughbred Rankings, he was rated 121 in 2013 and 122 in 2014.
Murray Andersen, who bred Dundeel in partnership with his wife Jo from a line tracing back to some of Hawke’s Bay’s finest bloodlines, continues to enjoy the delights and benefits of his ownership portion in what he understandably describes as the horse of a lifetime.
“He’s given us all so much fun, right from the start and now with what he’s doing at stud through his progeny and the next generation,” Andersen says in reference to Dundeel’s extending influence through sire sons Castelvecchio and Super Seth as well as his emergence as a broodmare sire.
“And now to think he’s going to be inducted to the Hall of Fame – it doesn’t get any better than that!”
The Andersens will be eternally grateful to Cambridge Stud founders Sir Patrick and Justine Lady Hogan for their generosity in gifting their share of the filly they bred in partnership by Zabeel from Staring who, as Stareel (NZ), became the dam of Dundeel.
“We had intended racing her together, but she never got to the races as she suffered a pelvic injury in a paddock accident. Then when Patrick and Justine were cutting back their numbers, they offered us their share in Stareel.
“That’s how we ended up with a Zabeel mare to breed from, but we were really only hobby breeders and it was a big deal for us to spend $17,500 on a service to High Chaparral. After that mating produced Dundeel, you’d have to say it was the best money we ever spent.”
The Andersens were on course at Randwick last Saturday to witness a Dundeel gelding they bred and still part-own, Fukubana (Dundeel), finish third in the A$1 million Country Championship, and the Castelvecchio filly Aeliana (NZ) (Castelvecchio) trounce her male rivals in the Australian Derby.
Also riding the Dundeel wave is Arrowfield Stud principal John Messara, from the time he made the landmark decision to invest in the horse.
“When we announced Arrowfield’s acquisition of a stake in Dundeel in September 2013, I said Dundeel has Guineas pace, Derby stamina and all-round class,” Messara stated. “As a Danehill-free grandson of Sadler’s Wells and Zabeel, he is an outstanding genetic match for much of the Australian broodmare population, including our own mares by Redoute’s Choice, Flying Spur, Snitzel and Not A Single Doubt.
“His 2014 Queen Elizabeth Stakes victory remains one of the most memorable in Arrowfield’s 40-year history – the ultimate display of his electrifying speed, imperious class and unquenchable fighting spirit. It only increased our confidence in him and our determination to give him the best possible opportunity at stud.
“It’s safe to say that Dundeel has fulfilled all of our hopes, as a leading Australian sire of 36 stakes winner including eight at Group One level, Derby and Guineas winners among them, and two of them out of mares by Snitzel and Redoute’s Choice.
“We will always be grateful to Dundeel’s owners, in particular his breeders Murray and Jo Andersen, for allowing us to join them and in doing so, to cement Arrowfield’s long-standing admiration and respect for the New Zealand thoroughbred industry. We are very proud indeed to be part of this new Hall of Famer’s spectacular story.”
The 2025 New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame Inductee Dinner is scheduled for Sunday May 11 in Hamilton. For more information, email contact@racinghalloffame.co.nz.
-Dennis Ryan
