Photo: Peter Rubery (Race Images Palmerston North)
Francee’s (Iffraaj) victory in the Listed Rangitikei Gold Cup (1600m) was of special significance for Haunui Farm on a number of fronts.
Not only was it a first stakes victory for the homebred and raced Iffraaj mare, it also brought back memories of a successful association and coincided with stud managing director Mark Chitty’s university reunion.
Trained by Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson, the well-related Francee added black-type performance to her pedigree and ensured she will be a valuable future addition to the Haunui broodmare band.
She is a daughter of the former top performer Calveen, who won 10 races including the Gr.1 Easter Handicap (1600m) and a further four events at Group Two level.
“It was a wonderful result and the long association we had with Don McLaren made it even more special,” Chitty said.
“We had a good working relationship and owned some mares together and on Don’s passing we purchased his mares off the family.
“Calveen was one of them and sent her to Iffraaj and elected to keep the filly that is Francee, so it was very satisfying.
“We had to put Calveen down earlier this year, she had got to a fair age, and this is her first stakes winner, she did have a stakes performed mare (Miss Delveen) previously.”
Haunui is also breeding from Francee’s winning half-sister Hi Gorgeous.
“She’s a Savabeel mare and she’s got a Hello Youmzain filly and is back in foal to him,” Chitty said.
Francee is now a four-time winner and her immediate future has yet to be confirmed.
“She’s been up for a fair while and we’ve found our level, she’s a rising six-year-old so we’ll let the dust settle and then think about it,” Chitty said.
“I’d like to pay special credit to the team at Te Akau and their vet Ronan Costello because in August 2023, I arrived off a plane in Sydney and got a call from Mark Walker to say the mare was a bit off.
“It was getting toward the start of the breeding season and maybe we wanted to think about mating her, but we worked with Ronan and got her back to the track so, thanks to his good work, Saturday was very rewarding.
“She had pulled up sore after working and I’ve got veterinary experience and talked through things with Ronan, who did all the work, and she came right and the rest is history.”
Also a vet, Chitty was on Saturday at a Massey University reunion and proved to be a popular figure after Francee’s victory.
“A few of the boys lined their pockets late in the day, so it was great,” he said.
“There were 25 of us and it was good fun, the stars aligned, and we might have consumed one or two more than we should have.”
