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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...

Guy Sargent is new NZTR chairman

Guy Sargent was elected chairman of New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing on Friday, succeeding retiring chairman Murray Acklin. Five of the nine directors voted for him ahead of Southern Region director Brian Kinley. Guy Sargent, 46, comes from a Manawatu farming background, more than fifteen years' experience in various farming businesses and a strong base of participation in New Zealand racing as an owner and administrator. From 1985 until 1995 he worked with Dalstud, the first New Zealand busi...

Election produces a new-look NZTBA council

Elections in all three regions have produced a new-look council for the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders' Association, with strong representation from the under-45 age-group. The results, announced at last night's Annual General Meeting in Auckland, were: Northern Region John Thompson, 379 votes Peter Francis 370 votes Mark Chitty 364 votes Nelson Schick 345 votes John Clydesdale, 294 votes, was not elected. Central Region Michael Ormond, 220 votes Bruce Perry, 197 votes Tom Burn, 153 vote...

Onawe Miller becomes an NZTBA Life Member

Former NZTBA Southland branch president and national councillor Onawe Miller was last night elected a Life Member of the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders' Association. Her nomination was proposed by current South Island councillor Ray Dennis, and seconded by Life Member and former councillor Robin Archer. Onawe is only the second woman in the 55-year history of the NZTBA to be awarded Life Membership, after the late Pat O'Brien. Onawe Miller's work with the Association began almost 30 years...

NZTBA council election voting closes Friday 20 June

Retiring NZTBA councillor & past president John Aubrey If contested elections are a sign of an organisation's vitality, then the NZTBA is in excellent health. Elections are required in all three regions for the 2003-04 NZTBA council. Five candidates are standing for four available council positions in the northern region. The nominations are Mark Chitty, John Clydesdale, Peter Francis, Nelson Schick and John Thompson. The central region sees three nominations for the two positions. T...

Interview with Golden Flare's breeder

Golden Flare as a foal in 1991 The NZTBA interviewed Golden Flare's breeder Tom Harvey last year after the horse had completed the ARC Great Northern-McGregor Grant Steeplechase double for the first time. We're reprinting the interview now after the eleven-year-old son of Touching Wood and Golden Glow has become the first horse ever to win both racs in consecutive years. Tom spoke with us from his ten-acre property near Hamilton where he lives with his wife Moira: How did you acquire Golde...

Babe honours her breeder Sue Harty

Central Hawke's Bay is a long way from the glamour and excitement of Randwick but on Saturday Honor Babe (Honor Grades-Repremand by Kreisler) completed the journey from one place to the other with a decisive victory in the $A800,000 AJC Sydney Cup. Her breeder Sue Harty watched the race on a neighbour's television and returned home to a pile of congratulatory telephone messages. "You don't realise until it happens how important a Group One win is." Sue manages her own 40-acre property at Pou...

Australian Hall of Fame honours Kiwis too

You may think it strange that the NZTBA celebrates the Australian Racing Hall of Fame. But when you consider the strong Kiwi connections many of the past, present and likely future inductees have, it's not strange at all. Six of the first ten equine inductees were bred in New Zealand: Carbine, Phar Lap, Tulloch, Rising Fast, Might And Power and Sunline. And New Zealand-born Maurice McCarten was among the five trainers inducted in 2002. He won the Sydney premiership four times and trained champi...

Star Way gets 59th stakeswinner

Anyone looking at the Arion Pedigrees statistics for Star Way last week could have been forgiven for thinking that perhaps these were close to the final figures for New Zealand's senior statesman sire. Now 26-years-old, Star Way (Star Appeal-New Way) was entitled to rest on the laurels of well over $30 million progeny earnings, two sire premierships and 58 stakeswinners (5.9% of his live foals and 7.8% of his starters). He had produced only one stakeswinner from his latest five crops of racing...

New Zealand Bloodstock wins internet award

New Zealand Bloodstock was named Best Sales-Related Site at the Wilburtins McDonalds Thoroughbred Racing Internet Awards, announced last week in Sydney. The company was one of only three New Zealand-based organisations among the award nominees (three in each category). Paul Moroney Bloodstock: www.moroney.co.nz was a nominee in the Best Sales-Related category and the NZTBA was a nominee in the Best Organisation Site category. The awards were established by internet entrepreneur David Bernsen ...

Pentire repays faith with a stunning week

When Victorian trainer Robbie Laing came to Karaka in 2000 there was one stallion whose first-crop progeny he was especially keen to see: Pentire. The reason? He greatly admired his damsire, champion racehorse and sire Mill Reef, as well as Pentire's own outstanding race record in Europe. Those first yearlings didn't disappoint him and Robbie ended up buying the Pike family's colt out of Dewamar for $52,500 that year, returning in 2001 to purchase Malcolm McHoull's's colt from the Sir Tristram...