New Combo Thriving With Overseas Invaders
For the last several years in harness racing, we have seen an influx of horses coming in from New Zealand and Australia. You know which horses are from those countries as they have an ‘ N’ or ‘A’ after their name. These horses are usually acquired via private purchase and several trainers seem to have a pipeline with connections from “Down Under.”
It is commonplace at tracks such as Yonkers and the Meadowlands to see several of the winners have the N or A at the end on a given evening. The quality of horse coming from Down Under has been very high and it has become a more and more popular way to acquire new stock for U.S. based owners and trainers.
One Saratoga-based trainer who makes a habit of acquiring horses from Down Under is Paul Zabielski. The veteran conditioner was the track’s leading trainer back in 1997 and has been a steady force among locals for decades. Zabielski trains perennial local star Spreester who has won awards in the past for Two Year Old Pacer, Three Year Old Pacer, Filly and Mare Pacer of the Year and earned a share of Horse of the Year in different occasions. In 2018, Spreester returned to the Zabielski stable after being purchased by owner Kevin Quinn of Saratoga Springs and took home the honors as the track’s top filly and mare pacer and was the coHorse of the Year at the track, splitting honors with Artful Way after the ‘18 campaign.
In 2019, the hard-hitting mare was once again a nominee for Filly and Mare Pacer of the Year. Spreester made her ‘20 seasonal debut following the quarantine shutdown and made her presence felt immediately. On June 25th, Spreester came flying home in the stretch to finish second in her first start back. The following week, the classy nine year old faded on the lead after working extremely hard to get to the front-end. We are sure to see more from Spreester as the season progresses.
While Spreester has been a stable star for Zabielski on and off for several years, she is a rare member of her trainer’s stable these days to not have the ‘ N’ or ‘A’ at the end of her name. Zabielski is one of the conditioners with that pipeline to New Zealand and Australia and his barn features almost solely horses from overseas at this point. In fact, roughly 80% of his starts last year were made by Down Underers.
Many of these horses that he acquires are eligible to some of the younger and lower classifications. Paul does a good job having his horses climb the ranks and sees some of them plateau after they graduate into new company while others become Winners Over and Open caliber pacers. After enjoying success with a group of past New Zealanders such as The Great Buzz N, Vasari N, Kiwi Tintin N, Nerve Of Steel N, and Lifeonthebeach A in 2018 and 2019, Zabielski and Quinn have turned over a majority of those horses and restocked recently with another group.
After selling the aforementioned pacers, Zabielski brought over another cargo load from New Zealand and Australia and has once again started the process of seeing them move up through the ranks. Despite the quarantine shutdown hampering him and all the horsemen and women in the horse racing industry, Zabielski has gotten his overseas invaders back on course in the last couple of weeks. On Thursday afternoon, the veteran trainer and owner Kevin Quinn had a