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New Zealand-Bred Group One Winners in Australia, 2001-02

Thirteen Kiwi-bred horses won eighteen (27% of the total) Group One races in Australia this season. Go here for the complete list of horses, wins and breeders. Interesting aspects of our best performers and performances across the Tasman this year are: *Two winners each for Carnegie (Amalfi & Carnegie Express), Desert Sun (La Bella Dama & Sunline) and Zabeel (Don Eduardo & Dress Circle). *Nine winners by seven stallions that have shuttled to New Zealand: Amalfi & Carnegie Expr...

Morton family triumphs in Brisbane Cup with Prized Gem

The last day of the Ellerslie Summer Carnival is often the best, at least in my humble opinion. After the Derby and Cup Days the crowd is smaller and friendlier, and the focus shifts from fashion and frills back to horses and racing people. People like Glenn and Lisa Morton. I met them in the Polo Bar at Ellerslie, one of my favourite places on any racecourse, perhaps tied with the committee room at Winton, where they serve a very mean gin in the middle of the day. Their trainer Murray Baker ...

Sunline celebrated at NZTBA Tribute Dinner

"Why don't we do this more often?" was the general verdict at the end of the Sunline Tribute Dinner at Sky City, Auckland on Saturday evening. Traditional Kiwi reticence about celebration was firmly set aside for a night as three hundred people gathered to toast New Zealand's queen of the turf. The evening was presented by the innovative and hard-working Auckland branch of the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders' Association. Branch president Michelle Saba, says "It was an absolutely fantastic n...

A Middle-Aged Mare's View of the Ellerslie Hill

I usually start my run at the top of the straight, with a deep breath and a fervent hope that no-one is watching. Once, a gang of builders working on the public stand startled me by cheering when I got to the winning post. I had to apologise for not being Sunline. Or even a maiden winner at Dargaville. I've watched the track staff rolling, mowing, spraying and fertilising the track over the past seven or eight months and it now has a good, thick sole of grass that makes even the flat sections...

Mercedes Great Northern Carnival launched

Our crew of racing media, sponsor representatives and Auckland Racing Club staff and committee members set off from Ellerslie Racecourse yesterday morning on the serious task of launching the 2002 Mercedes Great Northern Carnival. It's difficult work, requiring the inducements of a handsome vest and bag courtesy of Mercedes and TV Guide, a free bus trip to a mystery destination, with complimentary Mercedes television ads in several languages, and immediate infusions of Montana wine upon arriva...

New Zealand-bred The A Train wins Adelaide Cup

The New Zealand breeding industry had more to celebrate today at Morphettville when five-year-old gelding The A Train (Blues Traveller-Lady Acumen by Sound Reason) prevailed in the $A400,000 SAJC Adelaide Cup 3200m G1. It was the 17th Group One victory by Kiwi-breds in Australia this season. He was bred by a high-profile quartet: New Zealand's Chief Justice Sian Elias, her husband, former Fletcher Challenge chief executive Hugh Fletcher, Alan Galbraith Q.C., a director of Rich Hill Stud, Matama...

Victory Dance's triumph of performance over fashion

Victory Dance's four winners at Te Rapa on Saturday have reminded us yet again what a valuable and versatile sire he is. Victor Argosy and Real Tonic took out the Listed Waikato Hurdles/Steeplechase double, while Kensington Flyer and Mohini Surprise won over 1200m and 1600m respectively. Their efforts have pushed their sire into second place behind Volksraad on the 2001-02 New Zealand Sires list with 22 winners of 33 races from 49 runners and $676,045 in progeny earnings. Victory Dance (Sadl...

New Zealand breeders don't apologise for winning!

With sixteen Group One wins in Australia this season New Zealand breeders have every right to be unapologetic about breeding classic stayers. Twelve of those 16 wins, including Pantani's South Australian Derby last Saturday, have been at 2000 metres or beyond. And they've been worth a cool $A8.7 million to the winning owners, trainers and jockeys. Horses that take time to mature and distance to show their best are a challenge for breeders and for owners. Breeders must face the reality of a ma...

NZTBA Scholarship winner reports from Coolmore Ireland

Grant Bennett, 25, of Cambridge is the inaugural winner of the NZTBA Auckland-sponsored International Management Scholarship. He is currently more than half-way through his six-month study tour, which began at Vinery in Kentucky and will conclude at Haras de Mezeray in France in August. Grant has kept us very well-informed about his progress with a series of enthusiastic emails. Here is his latest report, dated 13 May, from Ireland's world-famous Cooolmore Stud: I've all but finished my time...

Pantani's Derby win delights Cambridge breeders

For his proud breeders Saturday's South Australian Derby G1 winner Pantani (Pentire-Dewamar by Marscay) is an affirmation of what New Zealand is best at: producing classic stayers. The grey gelding was bred by Wayne & Vicki Pike of Longlands Stud, Cambridge in partnership with Wayne's brother & sister-in-law Gavin and Sharon Pike. They bought Dewamar in foal to Vettori, for about $70,000 from well-known Australian owner-breeders Geoff & Beryl White. Vicki Pike describes the mare as...

Progeny pay tribute to Honor Grades

It's a truism that when a stallion dies his progeny immediately lift their game and sharpen the loss felt by the stud that stands him. That's certainly true of Honor Grades (Danzig-Weekend Surprise by Secretariat) who died suddenly at Darby Dan Farm, Kentucky on 31 March. His southern hemisphere progeny, led by Group One winners Honor Bound and Honor Lap, improved his record considerably in the weeks following his demise. John Phillips, managing partner of Darby Dan, said "He was a kind horse,...

NZTBA website editor wins international award

Susan Archer, NZTBA website editor, has won the 2002 Most Valuable Online Person Award at the Wilburtins Southern Hemisphere Internet Awards, announced in Sydney last night. The awards, which recognise excellence achieved by thoroughbred industry websites and internet journalists, are organised by the leading US portal website LetItRide.com and its innovative chief executive, David Bernsen. Thoroughbred News, the very popular New Zealand-owned racing news site, won the Best Entrepreneurial S...

Great month for New Zealand-breds in Australia

Thirteen New Zealand-breds won sixteen Group & Listed Races in Australia during March 2002. Remarkably, seven of these have been Group One races, giving a total of 12 Australian Group One victories for the Kiwi team so far this season. Three Group 2 races came the Kiwi way in March, along with two Group 3 victories and four Listed Race wins. These figures are all the more impressive when it is remembered that less that 8% of all Australian starters are bred in New Zealand. The full list ...

Henderson Bay upsets in Chairman's Handicap

With eleven Kiwi-breds in the 19-strong field, the $A500,000 AJC Chairman's Handicap 2400m G2 gave New Zealand its best numerical chance of victory on Australia's richest raceday, at Randwick last Saturday. Hail was the favourite with punters on this side of the Tasman, but it was one of the lesser-fancied, Australian-trained Kiwis that prevailed. Henderson Bay (6g Guns of Navarone-Misty Lore by Rolle), paying almost $60 to win on the New Zealand TAB, defeated fellow Kiwi-bred Homewrecker and ...

Don Eduardo becomes Zabeel's 20th Group One winner

Don Eduardo (Zabeel-Diamond Lover by Sticks & Stones) met the pressure of his $3.6 million price-tag with a last-stride victory in the $A2 million San Miguel AJC Australian Derby 2400m G1 at Randwick yesterday. Fellow Kiwi-bred Carnegie Express (Carnegie) was a courageous second, almost taking the race after jockey Jim Cassidy sent him to the front 900 metres from home. This gave Don Eduardo what he needed - something to chase and a long straight to do it in - but he only made it by a head...

Honor Bound brings Group One glory to the Pascoes

If you want to meet some heartland New Zealand horse breeders, visit Club Med Lodge near Hamilton. That's the agistment property of breeders Terry and Vicki Pascoe, breeders and part-owners with their trainer Terry Wenn, of today's splendid ARC Jaguar Easter Handicap G1 winner Honor Bound (4m Honor Grades-Amrica by Amalgam). It was the mare's sixth win in 19 starts and took her earnings to around $250,000 - an amount still some way short of the money her owners have at various times turned d...

Magnificent Sunline wins her second Doncaster

Class might be defined as "the will to get out there and do it one more time." Sunline has been doing it one more time for so long now. Three Cox Plate starts, for two wins and a second; two Coolmore Classic victories; two starts in Hong Kong for a seventh and a stunning defeat of Fairy King Prawn; a win and a second in the Manikato Stakes; two runaway victories in the Waikato Sprint; two Memsie Stakes wins; two Auckland Thoroughbred Breeders' Stakes trophies and two Apollo Stakes. Not to ment...

Sixty Seconds gives her new owner a quick return

Sixty Seconds' narrow but impressive victory in last Saturday's $A400,000 STC Arrowfield Stud Stakes 2000m G1 gave her new owner, Englishman Gerald Leigh, a quick return on his investment. Mr Leigh, winner of the 1995 Duke of Devonshire Award and named TBA Flat Breeder of the Year in 2001, purchased the daughter of Centaine and Fifteen Reasons after her Fayette Park Championship S. G2 win at Ellerslie on 2 March. She had earlier run a fine third in the ARC Mercedes Derby G1 to Leica Guv and At...

Carnegie makes it big - and goes to Australia

New York's Carnegie Hall is renowned as one of the world's great performance venues. Strauss, Mahler, Menuhin, Gershwin, Bernstein, Callas, Garland and The Beatles are among the big names that have appeared there since its opening in 1891. Naming a colt after such a place runs the risk of derision if his performance on the track or at stud fails to live up to the aura of the name. The risk is considerably higher if he's a son of champion sire Sadler's Wells and Arc winner Detroit. But Carneg...

Kiwis fly in Japan, Australia & Dubai

As a bunch of gifted New Zealanders lined up in Hollywood to collect a total of five Oscars, Kiwi-bred horses provided the best possible supporting act in major races around the world. Caulfield & Melbourne Cups winner Ethereal (Rhythm), raced by her breeders Peter & Philip Vela, produced a whirlwind finish to take out The BMW 2400m G1 at Rosehill in Sydney. The performance confirmed her ranking as the best stayer in Australasia. Reports from Australia indicate that the Velas are now ke...

More success for Sound Reason as broodmare sire

Last Saturday's Arrowfield Stud Stakes winner Sixty Seconds (Centaine) is the second Group One winner this season from a Sound Reason mare. The other is New Zealand 1000 Guineas & Bayer Classic winner Final Destination and she too is by a Waikato Stud sire, O'Reilly. Another current season performer from a Sound Reason mare, Pledge (by Paramount Lodge's young sire Mellifont), added a third stakes race to her record with victory in the Ashburton RC New Zealand Bloodstock Leasing S. LR on Fr...

Centaine's outstanding record

Anyone putting a case for the tendency of a stallion's success rate to decline as he gets older had better not visit Waikato Stud. Centaine (Century-Rainbeam by Vain), now twenty-one, has been part of the Chittick family since he arrived at their Thornton Park Stud, Palmerston North, 16 years ago. His impact on New Zealand breeding and racing was swift and stunning. He was champion New Zealand sire of two-year-olds with his first crop in 1988-89. Eleven years later, in 1999-2000, he won the t...

Ken Browne looks forward to a new jumping season

The NZTBA has received many inquiries about legendary jumps owner, trainer and rider Ken Browne's progress after his incapacitating fall last May. Ken and his wife Ann have dominated New Zealand jumping for many years, earning widespread respect and admiration. Our membership secretary Sue Pirrit called the Brownes' Cambridge home today and was delighted to speak with Ken who is looking forward to another exciting winter with his team of jumpers. Ken and Ann have been members of the NZTBA for m...

Saint Cecile's classy Scottish connections

Nigel Auret, who owns, trains and bred Saint Cecile, winner of Saturday's New Zealand Bloodstock Breeders' S. G1, explained to the Waikato Times last month that all Saint Cecile's relations have names fit for a castle. "We have family links to Delgatie Castle in northern Scotland and that's how our mare Delgatie Queen got her name," Auret said. "All Delgatie Queen's foals have names linked to the castle. Her first foal, Rohaisha, was named after the castle ghost, and Saint Cecile shares a name ...

Saint Cecile wins her second NZ Bloodstock Breeders Stakes

Saint Cecile led all the way to win the Racing Te Aroha New Zealand Bloodstock Breeders' Stakes G2 last year. Today she won the race again in much the same fashion - with a few differences. Last year Lisa Mumby rode her; this year David Walsh was the pilot. Last year's race was worth $100,000; this year the stake was $120,000. And this year's field was arguably the strongest collection of fillies and mares assembled in New Zealand for some years. The reason for that wasn't hard to find: the r...