Final chapter in the O'Reilly story

The final chapter in an amazing story will commence when lot 1097 passes through the sale ring at Karaka on Friday.

The colt out the Zabeel mare Toss Up will be the last yearling by champion sire O'Reilly to be offered at the New Zealand National Sale and he is the last lot at the sale to be offered by Waikato Stud, home to the stallion throughout his life.

O'Reilly dropped dead on New Year's Eve in 2014 while still working through his 18th book of mares. Waikato Stud owner Mark Chittick said the sale of the Toss Up colt will be a bittersweet moment.

"What can I say other than he's quite an appropriate horse to be going through, he's probably a horse that could have been in the main sale but we opted to put him in the Select Sale as he's a standout for the draft," Chittick said.

"It's been a fantastic cross with the likes of Silent Achiever so he's quite a cool colt to be going through last.

"O'Reilly has had a remarkable sale so far - there were times yesterday when I thought I wished he'd have kept going for another couple of years but that's how things happen.

"It was a great result for the horse and just great to see Richard Rutherford get the rewards with the $825,000 colt - he's been a long time supporter of the stud and the horse."

Originally meant to enter training with Gerald Ryan in Sydney, O'Reilly suffered an injury that saw him sent to local trainer Paul O'Sullivan.

O'Reilly won his first four starts in New Zealand culminating in the Group I Telegraph Handicap over 1200m defeating older horses in 1:07.36.

A ruptured a suspensory ligament in the Group I Newmarket Handicap at Flemington brought a premature end to a six-race career.

The son of Last Tycoon covered 107 mares in his first season in 1997 and in 2007/08 won his first New Zealand stallion premiership, winning a further three titles from 2011 to 2014.

O'Reilly became the first stallion to win each of New Zealand's three major sire awards in 2012/13 - the Generals Sires' premiership, as well as the Centaine Award (leading New Zealand-based earner worldwide), and the Dewar Award for most money-earning progeny of any stallion in Australia and New Zealand combined.

Chittick said the current status of Waikato Stud owes much to O'Reilly, named after the 1950s Lions Rugby winger Tony O'Reilly.

"There's no doubt we owe so much to the horse. He was a foal when we took over the farm and we owned him outright during his stud career which is unique in this day and age," Chittick said.

"From an expansion point of view he took us from 430 acres and now we operate on 1700 acres - a lot of that can be put down to him. His lowest book was 85 and one year he served 230 mares.

"Things continue on as he's an excellent broodmare sire and we've got a lot of them and next year we'll be extremely proud to be bringing horses here by his best son in Sacred Falls.

"We always wanted to stand a son of O'Reilly and it was eerie how it happened - O'Reilly passed away and a few months later Sacred Falls arrived.

"That's the way it is in this business."