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Lambourn Stud's New Zealand Oaks triumph

The New Zealand Oaks 2400m G1, run at Trentham today, is a particularly important race for breeders, not that television viewers would know it from Trackside's jockey-and-trainer-oriented coverage. This year's winner Wharite Princess (His Royal Highness-Regal Visit by Vice Regal) certainly gave a well-deserved victory to jockey Bruce Herd and trainer Lisa Latta, who are personal as well as professional partners. The filly also represents a significant achievement for the Lambert family's Lambo...

Lashed makes Group One cut in Zabeel Classic

Australian-bred Lashed (Encosta de Lago-Traffic Watch by Salieri) under-lined last season's Australian three-year-old form with a stylish victory in the ARC Zabeel Classic 2000m G1 on the final day of a most enjoyable Ellerslie Summer Carnival. She defeated New Zealand Group One winner Penny Gem (by Pentire) and the ultra-consistent eight-year-old Group Two winner El Duce (by Lord Ballina) in a time of 2:02.62. Lashed, who returned the race sponsorship and then some to her owner Lady Hogan of...

Group One results at Ellerslie confound commercial reality

Race results have a way of confounding the so-called "commercial realities" of thoroughbred breeding. The outcomes of the first three Group One races at this year's Summer Carnival at Ellerslie certainly support the view that selling yearlings and breeding racehorses are quite often divergent activities. Buyers will look in vain for 2004 New Zealand Premier Sale yearlings by Yamanin Vital, sire of New Zealand Derby 2400m G1 winner Cut The Cake. Actually, he's never had a Premier Sale yearling....

NZTBA Life Member Kel Cameron dies

Mr Kel Cameron, one of the NZTBA's most respected figures, died recently in Tauranga. Mr Cameron became a Councillor of the Association in 1969 and a year later was appointed Treasurer. He held that position for 15 years, retiring from Council in 1985 when he was made a Life Member of the NZTBA. Mr Cameron had a successful accounting practise in Tokoroa during the boom forestry years, and retired to Tauranga in the 80's. He was an outstanding administrator, whose quiet, reasoned but firm ...

Bonus Scheme offers better rewards for owners, breeders, trainers

Thoroughbred owners, breeders and trainers will be the beneficiaries of a nationwide bonus programme that comes into existence next year, the New Zealand Thoroughbred Bonus Scheme (NZTBS). The New Zealand Thoroughbred Bonus Scheme effectively combines two of the major bonus programmes operating across the industry, the NZTBA-managed FAMIS scheme and the NZB-managed Mercedes Super Bonus Series, plus the new concept will be boosted by a significant contribution from the New Zealand Racing Board. ...

Racing Board aims for high-level industry perfomance

Racing Board member Dr Alan Jackson was a low-key participant in yesterday's launch of the Thoroughbred Bonus Scheme, but there is nothing low-key about his description of how the Board sees the industry's future. "We've inherited a new Act and organisation and we have to honour previous commitments. We're then looking to step forward with the rest of the industry and lead it to a higher level." The new Board is drawing inspiration from a wide range of sources. "We're looking at international ...

North vs South results at New Zealand Cup Carnival

No New Zealand race-meeting stirs up such fierce inter-island rivalry as the New Zealand Cup Carnival. This year the South Island-trained team capitalised on the absence of many northern runners and claimed a comprehensive victory with 24 winners from the 31 races held over the three Carnival days last week. However, North Island stallions dominated the winners' pedigrees. North Island-based sires were responsible for nineteen winners; South Island sires claimed eight winners (by The Jogger, T...

A Tribute to Shogun Lodge

SHOGUN LODGE (AUS) Grand Lodge-Pride Of Tahnee (Best Western) b. 25 September 1996 - d. 8 November 2003 Over the years I've gathered, as many racing people do, a large number of the ubiquitous caps favoured by studs, stables, race clubs and sales companies as promotional giveaways. Occasionally I attempt to rationalise my collection, but I always find it hard to throw any caps away, despite having more than I'll ever wear. A few have special value for me: the pale blue, red and yellow Sunline...

Best of the Weekend

Taatletail (Faltaat-Defensive Lady by Defensive Play; bred by Deborah Ho, Macau) gave her sire his third Group One winner when she fought tenaciously down the straight at Riccarton to win the CJC New Zealand One Thousand Guineas G1 on Saturday. Kainui Belle tried hard to give Kashani his first Group One winner, and went down by only half a neck, with Unearthed (Felix The Cat) three lengths away in third place. An excellent Listed Stakes win by Gwen's Rules over 1200 metres at Te Rapa completed...

First New Zealand stakeswinner for Generous

Saturday's Waikato Guineas 1600m G3 win by Philamor (Generous-Plaid by Morcon; bred and raced by the Archer Corporation Ltd) was about much more than the prizemoney. At Glenmorgan Farm Brett Jenkins was "one very happy studmaster" because Philamor is the first New Zealand-bred stakeswinner by champion racehorse Generous, already proven in Europe and North America. Glenmorgan initially shuttled Generous from Japan, then made the decision to purchase him when the JBBA indicated it was willing to...

Pentire & Stravinsky lead Kiwi results at Flemington

New Zealand-breds didn't extend their outstanding record in the Melbourne Cup this year, but there was enough good news to keep Kiwi studs and breeders smiling through the week. Rich Hill's newly risen star sire Pentire and Cambridge Stud's first-crop sire Stravinsky led the way with black type victories on Derby Day and Oaks Day respectively. Zanna (Pentire- Posing by Truly Vain; bred by Peter & Pat Payne) continued her rapid rise through Group company when she scored a convincing victo...

Small Kiwi challenge still capable of taking the Melbourne Cup

The New Zealand-bred runners in this year's Melbourne Cup are: Distinctly Secret (bred by Te Akau Stud, Waikato), Zagalia (Terry Jarvis, Auckland) and Piachay (Don & Rochelle McLaren, Auckland). All are Group One winners with Distinctly Secret carrying the bulk of New Zealand hopes as the only Kiwi-owned and -trained horse in the field. A truly professional competitor, he has a fine chance of improving on his sixth in last year's Cup. The merit of Zagalia's Queensland Oaks G1 win during t...

The Best of the Week

Two splendid front-running performances provided the highlights of the weekend's racing. Mummify and Pay My Bail demonstrated what the Europeans have long known: that out in front is not a bad place to be in a big race. That is, as long as you've got a class jockey and a class horse - or, in Pay My Bail's case, a class three-year-old filly with a generous weight-pull on her older rivals. Pay My Bail (Justice Prevails-Ebony Jane by Three Legs; bred by Graham de Gruchy who also bred and raced Ho...

The Best of the Week - or so

Time to pay tribute to an outstanding Australian racehorse LONRHO, (Octagonal-Shadea by Straight Strike; Woodlands Stud, NSW), stunningly easy winner on Saturday of his second consecutive MRC Yalumba S. 2000m G1 and likely odds-on favourite for the Cox Plate on 25 October. Lonhro has now won 22 of his 29 starts, earned more than $A4 million in prizemoney, has raced almost exclusively in Group 1 and Group 2 company for two years, won eight Group One races, is drop-dead gorgeous and, as a five-y...

The Best of the Week

A new feature on the NZTBA website is a weekend summary of the notable performances by New Zealand sires, studs & breeders from the previous seven days or so. Warmest thanks to the excellent online news and data resources of: Thoroughbred News, Arion Pedigrees, ThoroughbredInternet.com,the New Zealand Stud Book and the Australian Bloodhorse Review We kick off with a week full of good news from both sides of the Tasman: HAAYIL - A trifecta with Jack Duggan, I'm Harry and Cat's Away in a $2...

NZTBA Auckland honours Group-winning breeders

The importance of New Zealand's base of private breeders was very evident at the NZTBA Auckland Awards dinner, sponsored by Bloodstock Underwriters, at Ellerslie on Sunday evening. All but one of the seventeen Group winners honoured on the night were bred by private broodmare owners, although Zagalia's breeder Terry Jarvis was until recently the owner of The Oaks Stud in Cambridge. However, Don McLaren who, with his wife Rochelle, received the branch's inaugural Auckland Breeder of the Year aw...

Scaredee Cat opens (NZ) account for the season

Arrabeea (Zabeel-Trotanoy) won a Listed Race at Randwick on 23 August. Daniel's The Man (Touching Wood-Top Role) has won the Wyong Gold Cup Prelude, and the Wyong Gold Cup, both Listed Races, in the past month. And eight-year-old gelding Space Age (Sky Chase-Regal Jo) took out the Ausdrill-Boulder Cup LR at Kalgoorlie on Saturday. These are all fine efforts, worthy of acknowledgement. But when the tradition of New Zealand-breds racing in Australia includes names like Might And Power, Octago...

Warrnambool's Margaret Lucas visits Paeroa

Margaret Lucas looks like the warm, down-to-earth, sensible countrywoman that she is. But it would be a serious mistake to assume that her realm of operation is bounded by a farm-gate or a kitchen door. For Margaret chairs one of the most successful country racing clubs in Victoria, the Warrnambool Racing Club. She attended the National Jumps Day at Paeroa on Sunday with the Warrnambool chief executive Chris Nolan to meet New Zealand trainers likely to be interested in taking horses to their c...

Accidental Australian fulfils her potential

With a commanding victory in Saturday's Group One Mudgway Stakes Miss Potential (Dolphin Street-Richfield Rose by Crested Wave) gave her owner-breeder Bill Borrie the matchless thrill of seeing her make the rare journey from near-fatal injury to Group One glory. Unfortunately for New Zealand Thoroughbred Marketing, which has the task of promoting Kiwi-bred bloodstock, Miss Potential was foaled in Australia. Luckily for us, six of her first seven dams were bred on this side of the Tasman, and ...

NZTBA Waikato Stallion Parade this weekend

The annual NZTBA Waikato Branch Stallion Parade is always eagerly awaited by studs, broodmare owners and other horse lovers as a fine opportunity to inspect around 50 stallions in two days and a last chance to socialise before the breeding season begins in earnest on 1 September. Studmasters appreciate being able to promote their horses "in the flesh" to a large number of broodmare owners, many of whom will wait until the parade to confirm their mating plans. This year's Waikato Stallion Parade...

Strong line-up for NZTBA Stallion Expo on Sunday

Three of Australia's better three-year-olds during the 2001-02 season are among the twenty stallions listed for the NZTBA Stallion Expo at Karaka this Sunday 24 August. They are Don Eduardo (AJC Australian Derby G1; Timeform Equivalent Rating: 118), Viking Ruler (AJC Spring Champion S. G1; TFE: 122) and Ustinov (MVRC AAMI Vase G2; TFE: 122). Although only Don Eduardo, sold at Karaka in 2000 for an Australasian record price of $3.6 million, was bred in New Zealand, all three horses have stron...

Zabeel wins Dewar Trophy for the eighth time

Remarkably, Zabeel's eighth Dewar Stallion Trophy is not a record. His sire Sir Tristram won the title nine times between 1980 and 1994 but his tenure was broken by the successes of Noble Bijou (1982), Zamazaan (1988), Star Way (1991), Nassipour (1992) and Centaine (1993). Zabeel's hold on the award has been uninterrupted since 1995, an indicator of both his own dominance and the decade-long decline in the number of New Zealand-based stallions with a strong presence on Australian racetracks. I...

Group One breeders honoured at NZTBA Waikato dinner

MAROOFITY, 2003 NZTBA Waikato Cathay Pacific Horse of the Year No-one seems to remember when the NZTBA Waikato's first Group One dinner was held but former branch committee member David Benjamin thinks it was probably 1979 or 1980. I remember attending my first one in 1983 or 1984 and, like many other people, thinking "One day I want to be up there getting a Group One breeder's award." There's no doubt the event inspires people to breed thoroughbreds, investing millions of dollars in the W...

2003 Mercedes Broodmare of the Year Finalists

An unraced grand-daughter of a US Broodmare of the Year, a two-race winner and a stakes-winning grand-daughter of a New Zealand Broodmare of the Year are this year's Broodmare title finalists. This award is decided by the NZTBA Council after it receives the recommendation of a three-person panel appointed by the Council to compile and consider nominations. This year's panel was: Chas Amon (Arion Pedigrees), Tim Barton (Dominion Post) and Justin Blackburne (Keeper of the New Zealand Stud Book)....

Mercedes Breeder of the Year Finalists announced

New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing has announced the four finalists for this year's Mercedes Breeder of the Year award. They are Garry Chittick, the Dennis Brothers, Fayette Park Stud Ltd, and Don & Rochelle McLaren Ltd. The finalists are chosen from nominations made by the NZTBA Council & Branches. The eleven members of the NZTBA Council vote in a secret ballot to decide the finalists & the winner. The award was first made in 1991 when it was won by Jeanette Broome, breeder that yea...