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Scholarship Blog: Ryan Stacey

It’s hard to believe that I only have 5 weeks left at the Irish National Stud. The past 20 weeks really have flown by, almost at the click of a finger. The stud has really slowed down now as we get near to the end of the breeding season. Foaling season has officially been completed with a total of 218 foals born this year on the farm. With Donnacha having the honours of delivering the last baby. A big thanks to our foaling managers Lauren Eisemann and Nicola Joyce for their knowledge, support ...

Kiwi-bred Kolding shines in Queensland Guineas

Ocean Park gelding Kolding has emerged as the latest New Zealand-bred star for Queensland owner Neville Morgan, extending his winning sequence to four with a brilliant win in Saturday’s Gr.2 Queensland Guineas (1600m) at Eagle Farm. Carrying the same colours as multiple Group One-winning New Zealand-breds Kermadec and Rangirangdoo, Kolding produced an irresistible surge from fourth-last to beat Baccarat Baby by half a length. Adding to the New Zealand flavour of the result, he was trained and ...

U.S. Navy Flag to Valachi Downs

Matamata Stud Farm Valachi Downs will welcome three-time Group One-winning sprinter U.S. Navy Flag to their stallion roster for the forthcoming breeding season. “There has never been a sprinter of this elite-level stand at stud in New Zealand, let alone with the incredible pedigree U.S. Navy Flag possesses,” Valachi Downs General Manager Jonathan Scully said. “We are beyond delighted to offer this precocious speed sire to breeders.” A son of top international sire War Front, U.S. Navy F...

Scholarship Blog: Sam Bergerson

Sunline Trust Scholarship winner Sam Bergerson provides an update on his time overseasFrom Goffs UK I was on the plane to Ireland, bound for Coolmore Stud. Coolmore Stud, based in Fethard, County Tipperary, is generally known to be the world’s biggest, and best, thoroughbred racehorse breeding operation. They have a long list of champions in its past and present rosters which are trained nearby in Ballydoyle stables by Aidan O’Brien. I was fortunate enough to work at Ballydoyle back in 2017 ...

First winner on the board for Sacred Falls

Exciting prospect Shoshone delivered the first win for her sire, the Waikato Stud-based Sacred Falls, in fine fashion when she led all the way over 1200m at Ellerslie on Monday. The Ken and Bev Kelso-trained two-year-old had been earmarked as one to watch after several impressive trial efforts including a runner-up finish to subsequent Listed Auckland Futurity Stakes (1400m) winner Rhaegar. Sent out a warm favourite in the NZB Insurance Pearl Series sponsored contest, Shoshone jumped smartly to ...

Time called on Ocean Emperor’s career

Three-time Group Two winner Ocean Emperor has been retired from racing and is about to embark on a stud career. “He’s not going to race again, and now I’m looking for a home for him to stand at stud,” trainer and part-owner Gary Hennessy said. By Zabeel out of the Group One-placed Pins mare Tootsie, Ocean Emperor was a $450,000 yearling purchase at Karaka. He was raced by Hennessy in partnership with Andrew Wong and Stephen Yan – the same team that owned the Gr.1 Cox Plate (2040m) win...

Wentwood Grange on a winning roll

Wentwood Grange are on a winning roll and are hoping that momentum continues this weekend in Queensland. Last Saturday the Cambridge farm enjoyed a winning double at Randwick courtesy of Lifesaver (Helmet – Storm Fronts) and Kolding (Ocean Park – Magic Star). “We weren’t expecting that result,” Wentwood Grange’s Sean Hawkins said. “Lifesaver goes alright fresh and he has been thereabouts but it was a massive surprise. Then Kolding really showed a good turn of foot at the end. It w...

Book Closed for Roaring Lion

Cambridge Stud has closed the 2019 book for their freshman sire Roaring Lion. “From the moment the horse was released to the market, the response from breeders in both New Zealand and Australia was immediate and we are now closing his book,” Cambridge Stud chief executive Henry Plumptre said. “Bringing champion racehorses of the calibre of Roaring Lion and Almanzor into New Zealand, to stand alongside our champion international sire Tavistock, at very competitive service fees is a key comp...

Jon Snow a southern coup

Clearview Park Stud in Timaru have announced they have secured Group One winner Jon Snow ahead of the forthcoming breeding season where he will stand for a fee of $6,000+GST. Aaron Tapper and his partner Lacy Stewart are delighted to welcome the good-looking son of Iffraaj, named after the lead character in the hit-series Game Of Thrones, to Clearview Park Stud. “We’re just so excited to have the King in the North down here,” Tapper quipped. “It’s a real coup for South Island breeder...

Pear Tree prospers from trip north

Anna Miles and Michael Simpson are not afraid to go against the status quo to get results. The husband and wife team set up Pear Tree Farm in Waimate 14 years ago and made the trip north with a homebred weanling for the New Zealand Bloodstock May Sale held at Karaka last week. “It is the first time we have taken a horse up to that sale,” Miles said. “We were told we were the first South Islanders to take a weanling up there, usually the South Islanders go up to pinhook so we did things a b...

Scholarship Blog: Ryan Stacey

Keith and Faith Equine Scholarship winner Ryan Stacey provides and update on his time at the Irish National Stud. As April passes by, the sun has finally been gracing us with its presence, brightening up not just the sky but everyone's mood.  The trees are blossoming and the tourists have been coming through the stud in big numbers.  With the foaling season slowly winding down, the stud also welcomed its 200th new-born foal of the breeding season. Those in the foaling unit having a cel...

Buyers find quality at Karaka May Sale

The New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka May Sale Weanling session has concluded with a pleasing increase in average and median price from last year’s edition of the Sale. The average weanling price reached $18,121 (up 35%) and the median rose to $10,000 from $8,000 in 2018, with the aggregate closing at $1,649,000 for 91 lots sold (71% clearance). “With the reduced quantity of horses on offer we were confident that the quality was much better than last year and that’s been reflected by the incre...

Divine result for Koru Thoroughbreds at Karaka

Kevin and Julie Taylor of Koru Thoroughbreds sent two mares to Aquis Farm stallion Divine Prophet two years ago, and the results of those matings returned a healthy profit for them at Karaka on Friday. The Taylors offered two weanlings by the son of Choisir at New Zealand Bloodstock’s May Sale, with lot 92, a filly out of Starcraft mare Startina, selling for $60,000 to Hallmark Stud, while $10 million Lotto winner Lout Te Keeti went to $95,000 to secure lot 135, a colt out of Pins mare Caramel...

Preferment's first foals excite

VIDEO: Caroline Searcy talks to Brighthill Farm's Nick King and checks out the first crop of weanlings by four-time Group One winner Preferment....

Group One winning son of Snitzel to Mapperley Stud

Mapperley Stud has added Snitzel’s Group One winning son, Summer Passage, to their five-strong stallion roster ahead of the 2019 breeding season, where he will stand for a fee of $8,000+GST. An A$800,000 yearling, Summer Passage was a high-class juvenile, winning the Listed Reid & Harrison Slipper (1200m) before showing sustained speed when crossing from the outside barrier to win the Gr.1 Sistema Stakes (1200m) in emphatic fashion. The Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott-trained colt then p...

Stallions introduced and farewelled in Karaka May Sale

New Zealand Bloodstock’s 2019 Karaka May Sale is set to showcase stallions at opposite ends of their careers. Condensed into a single day of selling, this year’s mixed bloodstock sale will be held at Karaka on Friday. On one hand, the 240-lot catalogue features first-crop weanlings by 11 new entrants to New Zealand’s stallion ranks. There are eight weanlings by Haunui Farm’s Gr.1 Dewhurst Stakes (1400m) and Lockinge Stakes (1600m) winner Belardo. Four-time Group One winner Preferment, w...

Rich Hill stallions continue to impress

VIDEO: Caroline Searcy and Rich Hill Managing Director John Thompson showcase exciting Deep Impact stallion Satono Aladdin, plus first crop foals sired by Monsun sire-son Vadamos....

Trelawney stars on super Saturday of racing

Brent and Cherry Taylor are no strangers to the feeling of success, 40 Group One races have been won by horses bred, raised or sold by Trelawney Stud since the Taylor family purchased the iconic property in 1993. The rush of emotion from a win never dampens, no matter the number of victories on the tally, and last Saturday was no exception. Brent and Cherry made a last-minute decision to travel to Brisbane to attend the Doomben meeting and were on hand to witness a Group winning double by horses...

Status quo for Inglewood Stud

After a pleasing first season at stud, exciting young stallion War Decree will return to Inglewood Stud in 2019 where he will stand at an unchanged fee of $6,500+GST. “We were rapt with the response to War Decree,” Inglewood Stud’s Gus Wigley said. “For a non-syndicated horse to serve just under 100 mares speaks volumes about his appeal as a stallion. “He drew mares from all over the country and the quality was outstanding, on one day alone he covered maiden siblings to Australian Gr...

Cambridge Stud announce 2019 service fees

Cambridge Stud has recognised the wider industry’s move to provide support to breeders, with the announcement of their 2019 stud fees. A number of studs have reduced fees to enable breeders the opportunity to make greater commercial returns. Cambridge Stud have responded in kind by reducing the stud’s flagship stallion Tavistock to a fee of $50,000+GST for the upcoming season, down $15,000 from last year. Tavistock has enjoyed success at Group One level in Australia, Hong Kong...

Archer savours Doomben 10,000 triumph

David Archer had already scaled some of racing’s highest peaks with his 10-time Group One winner Mufhasa, but last weekend he was right back at the summit. The Archer family’s home-bred star Bostonian, who races as The Bostonian in Australia, scored a stunning upset victory in Saturday’s Gr.1 Doomben 10,000 (1200m) in Brisbane – beating a field featuring the elite Australian sprinters Osborne Bulls and Nature Strip. “Days like that are what you live for in racing,” Archer said. “Al...

Grassyards Farm doubles stallion roster

Otago stud farm, Grassyards Farm, is doubling its stallion roster this coming breeding season, and studmaster Jason Coutts has an innovative carrot to dangle in front of prospective breeders. Coutts has secured the services of Howard Be Thy Name, a Group One-winning son of the late champion sire Redoute's Choice and Group Two-winning Faltaat mare Bellini Rose. He is offering $30,000 and a free service to the breeders who produce the first two-year-old winner of Howard Be Thy Name, and that offer...

All About Magic for first time breeders

Twizel based breeders Stephanie Rathgen and Grant Midgley were in love with All About Magic (Showcasing[GB]-Rosecroft) from the day she was born, and her achievements this season have endorsed their faith and strengthened the love affair. All About Magic is the recent winner of the Listed Berkley Stud Champagne Stakes at Riccarton, and within the hour in the North Island Rainbow Dash (Showcasing[GB]-Sarsouti) became Showcasing’s second stakes winner for the season. The son of Oasis Dream has l...

Matamata Thoroughbred Catalogue Wins Major Industry Award

Waikato Stud’s 2018/19 thoroughbred catalogue has won a major award at the prestigious Pride In Print industry awards, taking out Best Sheetfed Process from dozens of competing publications. The Pride In Print awards programme is seen as the annual benchmarking event for the printing, packaging, signage and graphic arts industries and attracts hundreds of entries from all over New Zealand. This year, the black tie event was held at Wellington’s TSB Arena on Friday May 3. The catalogue was en...

Ghibellines heads White Robe Lodge roster

White Robe Lodge have announced a slight fee increase for exciting young sire Ghibellines, who will stand for a fee of $6,000+GST for the forthcoming breeding season. The Group Two-winning son of Shamardal has made a promising start to his stud career, with two winners and a stakes performer from just seven runners to date and has been represented by a host of promising horses at the trials. Ghibellines’ first winner was the John and Karen Parsons-trained gelding El Gladiador, while trainer ...