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Hong Kong heroes become Welfare Ambassadors

Dual Hong Kong Horse of the Year Werther and Hong Kong Derby (2000m) winner Ping Hai Star will add another feather to their cap this season. The pair, who are living out their retirement at Highden Park near Palmerston North, have become New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Welfare Ambassadors and will start to visit New Zealand race tracks from next Sunday to promote horse welfare post-racing. “It is a new concept through NZTR,” said Libby Bleakley, who owns Highden Park with husband Sam. “Wel...

VIDEO: Weigh In

Emily Bosson and Michael Guerin review last weekend’s racing....

2020 National Breeding Awards

Click the link to below to find a written summary of the 2020 Ebbett VW National Breeding Awards....

2020 Te Aroha Stallion Service Scheme

View the Te Aroha Jockey Club's 2020 Stallion Service Scheme by clicking on the link below....

Zed’s Verry Elleegant a testament to breeder’s faith

The performance of dainty New Zealand-bred mare Verry Elleegant (NZ) (Zed) fending off Epsom Derby-winning blueblood Anthony Van Dyck (Galileo) in Saturday’s Gr.1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) is a triumph for all who dare to dream in the sport of thoroughbred racing and breeding. From humble beginnings, the daughter of unheralded Grangewilliam Stud sire Zed has amassed the best part of A$7 million in prizemoney and will provide her owners with the thrill of a lifetime when she competes in t...

NZB Ready To Run breeze-ups online

More than 250 two-year-olds galloped down the home straight at Te Rapa Racecourse earlier this week for New Zealand Bloodstock’s annual Ready to Run Sale Breeze-ups. With significant importance placed on Breeze Up footage for buyers this year due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, NZB made the decision to lengthen their traditional Breeze Up clip format and offer vision of the mounting yard prior to horses breezing. The 2020 Breeze Up clips were extended to include additional footage near the 60...

VIDEO: Cambridge Stud

Bred to Win's Caroline Searcy catches up with the team at Cambridge Stud to discuss the recent success on the racetrack as well as profiling the current foal crop including the first of Embellish's progeny....

Weigh In returns

New Zealand’s only television show dedicated to news and reviews of the thoroughbred industry returns on Monday.  Weigh In will screen live at 8pm on Monday nights after a new 30-programme series was commissioned by some of the biggest names in New Zealand racing. TAB NZ no longer makes racing magazine shows as their mandate has changed to primarily driving turnover to maximise profits to return to the industry.  But the thoroughbred racing industry will now have weekly review shows ...

Spanish Whisper sets online record

A delighted Daniel Nakhle and Darren Brady are reaching for the stallion register tonight before popping corks, having managed to ward off strong international competition to buy out shareholders in Spanish Whisper (Lope De Vega) for an online record-setting AU$1,202,500.“We’ve bred and raced her, fallen in love with her and I have a big grin on my face from having been able to secure her tonight,” Nakhle said.“We looked around the international market for mares with similar cr...

Breeding Industry recognises Williams and Corban

The last of the Ebbett VW New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association National Breeding Awards have been announced. Rick Williams has been named as the Personality of the Year and Julian Corban the Mary Lynne Ryan Young Achiever. Williams was recognised as an industry personality who has made a significant contribution to the New Zealand thoroughbred industry. A passion for pedigrees has resulted in Williams’ involvement in the thoroughbred industry for well over 35 years, as a consultant...

2019/2020 Seton Otway NZ Horse of the Year Announced

The NZTBA has great pleasure in announcing the winner of the Seton Otway New Zealand Horse of the Year for the 2019-20 season, with Melody Belle a worthy winner of this coveted breeding award Melody Belle’s achievements on the racetrack last season included three Group One victories in the history making Hawkes Bay Triple Crown, before a win in the Gr.1 VRC Empire Rose Stakes (1600m) and a second to Magic Wand in the Gr.1 McKinnon Stakes (2000m). In the Autumn she was third in t...

Melody Belle retains NZ Horse of the Year title

There was a tangerine glow to the 2020 New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Awards, with the tangerine colours of Te Akau Racing the dominant element at the virtual event on Sunday night. Te Akau stable star Melody Belle retained her Horse of the Year title and also headed the voting in the sprinter-miler and middle-distance categories. Her stablemate Cool Aza Beel was a unanimous choice as Two-Year-Old of the Year, Te Akau trainer Jamie Richards was the sole contender for Trainer of the Year and sta...

Hello Youmzain Retired

Leading European sprinter Hello Youmzain has been retired and will begin his stallion career in France at Haras d’Etreham before shuttling to Cambridge Stud in New Zealand next year. Purchased by Haras d’Etreham and Cambridge Stud during the autumn of his three-year-old season, the talented son of Kodiac went on to win the Gr.1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes (1200m) at Royal Ascot in the colours of Cambridge Stud earlier this year. A winner on debut over 1200m, Hello Youmzain concluded his juvenile...

Virtual Stallion Parade - Wyndspelle

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Strong start for Almanzor

Cambridge Stud stallion Almanzor has made a promising start at the Tatersalls October Yearling Sale. Six of his yearlings sold for an aggregate of 750,000 Guineas in the first two days of the sale, at an average of 125,000 Guineas, and median of 125,000 Guineas. SackvilleDonald Bloodstock Agency went to 210,000 Guineas to secure Almanzor’s highest priced yearling of the sale so far, lot 336, the colt out of Nehalennia, a daughter of former Champion Two-Year-Old in England, Airwave. Cambridge S...

Scholarship applications open

Applications are now open for the 2021 Keith and Faith Taylor Equine Scholarship to the Irish National Stud....

Winners flowing for Mongolian Khan

Wagga trainer Tim Donnelly cleaned up at his local meeting on Saturday, claiming three of the six winners on the card, including the heavily backed Mongolian Brave, which was supported from $5 into $1.90 favourite on debut. Under a positive ride, the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale graduate led throughout and ran out a comfortable winner over 1000m, a distance bound to be well short of his best. Mongolian Brave is the second winner for triple Group One winner Mongolian Khan, a dual Der...

Canterbury Belle Stakes a special win for the Wigley's

It was a momentous occasion for the Wigley family of Inglewood Stud when Matchmaker (Makfi[GB]- Love Somebody[AUS]) won the Listed Canterbury Belle Stakes at Riccarton recently. Ever since the race was named after their champion mare, they have aspired to win the race, so for Matchmaker to do so in Canterbury Belle’s very same colours was a huge thrill. “We have had a couple of goes at winning this race,” enthused Gus Wigley a part-owner in the filly, “so we are very pleased especially ...

National’s promises for $1.6b racing industry include tax review

The National Party is promising a raft of proposals to support the racing industry if elected, including a review of how parts of the industry are taxed. Leader Judith Collins made the announcement, while visiting the Hawke’s Bay Racing Centre in Hastings. Collins said the racing industry employs more than 15,000 people directly and supports close to 60,000 indirect jobs. “Racing contributes in excess of $1.6 billion a year to our economy and will be an important part of rebuilding our econo...

'Heights' family strikes again

Breeding two winners on a Saturday race card, one a Group Three winner, is a great weekend by anyone’s standards. Matamata veterinarian Bill Ewen achieved that last weekend when Supreme Heights (Jimmy Choux-Summer Heights) won the Taranaki RI Gr.3 NZB Ready To Run Trainers Series (1400m), while earlier in the day Ace of Spades (Redwood[GB]- Champagne Heights) won a maiden 1800. But for Ewen and his wife Jane members of the Waikato branch of the NZTBA the weekend more thrills than just those de...

NZB Filly of the Year Title Awarded

The undisrupted portion of New Zealand’s 2019-20 racing season marked the 48th year of New Zealand Bloodstock’s highly prestigious Filly of the Year Series. The coveted honour endowing thoroughbred excellence was presented by NZB’s Kane Jones to 2019-20 Series winner Jennifer Eccles’ (NZ) (Rip Van Winkle) winning connections at Shanue Ritchie’s racing stable in Cambridge last Friday. Once described as New Zealand’s best maiden, the Shaune Ritchie-trained Jennifer Eccles made her fir...

Belardo’s hot run continues

Haunui Farm shuttle stallion Belardo has a new Group winner to his credit with Elysium winning the Gr.3 Weld Park Stakes (1400m) at the Curragh on Sunday. A maiden winner in June, Elysium showed a good turn of foot to beat Aunty Bridy by a length and a half. The win continues a strong run of results from Belardo’s first northern hemisphere crop, with smart filly Isabella Giles leading the charge with her Group Two victory at Newmarket last week. Based at Kildangan Stud in the Northern Hemisphe...

Group Two win for Belardo filly

Haunui Farm shuttle stallion Belardo was in the headlines in the northern hemisphere once again through his progressive daughter Isabella Giles, who took out the Gr.2 Rockfel Stakes (1400m) at Newmarket on Friday. The Clive Cox-trained filly provided Belardo, a Group One winning son of Lope De Vega, with his first Group success at Goodwood in August and showed plenty of courage to deny Nazuna by two lengths on the Rowley Mile. Isabella Giles was winning for the fourth time in five starts and was...

Rider a happy man after dual stakes success at Hastings

If smiling were an Olympic sport, then Milan Park principal Tony Rider would most likely have had a gold medal hanging around his neck on Saturday evening. Rider was on hand at Hastings to watch two three-year-old fillies he bred and owns assure their future at his Cambridge-based breeding operation once their racing days are over with comprehensive victories in their respective black-type events on the day. First up was Savabeel filly Shezzacatch, who was making her raceday debut for trainers G...

NZERF Spring Bulletin 2020

View the NZ Equine Research Foundations Spring 2020 Bulletin here....