Waikato Stud staff woke on Wednesday morning to find champion sire O’Reilly dead in his paddock.  The 21 year-old stallion most likely succumbed to a heart attack.

A Waikato Stud homebred, O’Reilly forged a career as a brilliant sprinter-miler, winning the G1 Bayer Classic and the G1 Telegraph before a sustaining a career-ending suspensory injury.

O’Reilly (NZ) was quick to make his mark as a sire, leaving G1 NZ 1000 Guineas winners Final Destination and The Jewel in his first two seasons.

Since then he has gone on to sire 79 stakes winners, placing him third on the all-time New Zealand list, behind Zabeel and Sir Tristram, with a string of top-class performers to his credit, among them Sacred Falls, Silent Achiever and Alamosa.

“He’s been a wonderful story,” Waikato Stud’s Garry Chittick said.  “He’s been a good horse for us but also a very good horse for New Zealand.  He’s been a great mate.”

By Last Tycoon out of Golden Slipper winner Courtza, he was buried alongside former champion sires Centaine and Pompeii Court.

O’Reilly has been a multiple winner of the Grosvenor Award (Domestic stakes earnings), Dewar Stallion Trophy (Australasian earnings) and Centaine Award (Global earnings).

He was a weanling when the Chitticks bought Waikato Stud as a going concern in 1994.  There was plenty of big offers to buy him as a stallion prospect and the family would be forever grateful that he remained under their ownership.

“Colonial-bred stallions weren’t necessarily the flavour of the month back then,” Chittick said.  “I had been looking for stallions in Europe but came home and decided we should be keep him – I’m sure glad we did.”

O’REILLY