September 1, 2025Cool Archie the leading colt in Champion 2YO honours
Newhaven Park resident sire Cool Aza Beel (NZ) played a role in Sunday’s Australian Racehorse of the Year awards when his first-crop son Cool Archie proved to be the leading colt in the Champion 2-Year-Old category.
One of the stars of the 2024/25 juvenile racing season, Cool Archie recorded five straight wins between mid-April and mid-June, a sequence of victories which culminated with success in the Group 1 JJ Atkins (1600m) on his home track at Eagle Farm.
Notably, Cool Archie’s unbeaten run also included two Group 2 wins and one Listed Race success, while the Newhaven Park bred, raised and sold 2-year-old colt also finished runner-up at Group 3 level earlier in the season.
Cool Archie’s outstanding sequence of performances saw him score 115 votes in the Champion 2-Year-Old division, a figure only bettered by 2025 Golden Slipper winning filly Marhoona. Cool Archie’s fellow Group 1 winning colt Vinrock came third in the category with 59 votes.
Cool Archie’s 2-year-old season was on a remarkably similar parallel to that of his sire Cool Aza Beel. Both proved to be profile winners, recording five wins and four wins respectively, while both saluted at the highest level — Cool Aza Beel’s Group 1 success coming in the ARC Diamond Stakes (1200m).
In similar fashion to the 115 votes Cool Archie received for his generation’s Champion 2-Year-Old award, Cool Aza Beel proved to be the standout juvenile of the 2019/20 New Zealand racing season and was, as the NZTBA put it, “a unanimous choice as New Zealand 2-Year-Old of the Year”.