Photo: Kenton Wright (Race Images)
A week after Ellerslie’s Champions Day, the New Zealand stakes races scene was pretty quiet. Tauranga’s Japan Trophy (Gr 2, 1600m), the sole black-type race of the week, went to Omega Boy (Time Test), the spoils headed for the Central Districts as the five-year-old is trained by Peter and Trent Didham at Awapuni.
Connections had little choice but to take on stakes class with a race-fit galloper. It would have been much easier to travel 75 kilometres to Wanganui compared with 400 kilometres to Tauranga but the highest class race at Wanganui was a Benchmark 75 over 1600 metres. Omega Boy’s last start resulted in a Benchmark 75 win at Hawera, lumping 62 kilograms.
The set weights plus penalties conditions of the Japan Trophy saw him carry 55 kilograms. One question was the unseasonable Heavy 8 track as Omega Boy had shown a preference for firmer going although he did record a win on a Soft 6 surface at Trentham last May. The Tauranga track did dry a little throughout the day.
Midfield and in serious traffic rounding the bend, at the top of the straight a huge gap opened on his outer. Sam McNab moved him out and set out after the leaders. At the 200m he was battling but near the 100m grabbed the bit, surged forward and inside the 50m had the race won, his fifth in 22 starts, taking his earnings to $215,640.
His maiden win was on the synthetic at Awapuni while wins two and three took place at Trentham. Earlier this year he was twice in the first six in Group company at Trentham suggesting that the Didhams rate his ability.
Omega Boy was not offered at any sale and his sire Time Test (Dubawi) stood six seasons at Little Avondale Stud before breeders abandoned him. Getting lots of winners, his tally of stakes winners stood at 12 after Omega Boy’s breakthrough then increased to 13 when Saint Martin (Time Test) scored at Listed level at Saint-Cloud on Sunday. The stallion is now in Turkey and therefore effectively unavailable.
Although bred and foaled in New Zealand, Omega Boy’s family is essentially one with strong Queensland roots. He is the only foal from his dam, Bit Of Crumpet (Duke Of Marmalade) to race, the latter a half-sister to Brisbane two-year-old Listed winner Sir Luminar (Choisir). Grandam Illuminar (Last Tycoon) landed three of her six wins in Brisbane while his great grandam Luminia (Semipalatinsk) scored eight Brisbane wins, twice at Listed level.
Semipalatinsk (Nodouble) was a headline sire in Queensland and his daughters produced six Group 1 winners. His most notable includes Alma Mater, dam of Savannah Success (Success Express), in turn the dam of Waikato Stud’s Savabeel (Zabeel).
Excuse the segway….
Waikato Stud also featured in Friday’s Kembla Grange Classic (Gr 3, 1600m) when Feminino (Tivaci) made it two wins in three starts. The filly is by another unavailable stallion, Tivaci (High Chaparral), who was exported to China after seven seasons at Waikato Stud. Four days earlier, Tivaci’s American Wolf took out the Adelaide Cup (Gr 2, 3200m).
Feminino was one of many chances at the 200m. There was a wall of runners across the track but at the 100m Feminino looked as if third would be her lot. Lunging in the last stride she got just home, the next three within a neck of her.
The Rosehill Guineas (Gr 1, 2000m) and the Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) are obvious targets for the filly who was purchased out of the 2024 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling sales for $320,000.
She adds another stakes winner to the Georgina Belle (Pakistan II) story, covered in minor detail recently when Cluedo Lane (Ghibellines) became the family’s 42nd stakes winner, taking out the White Robe Lodge Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m) two weeks ago.
According to Arion Pedigrees, Feminino is family stakes winner number 43 since Georgina Belle went to stud in 1973 (in USA). Feminino is from stakes-placed Magazine (Savabeel) who ranks as a sister-in-blood to dual Group 2 winner Forgot You (Savabeel) as well as a three-quarter blood sister to Group 2 winner Acting (Savabeel).
Magazine’s grandam is Glamour Puss (Tale Of The Cat), winner of the Salinger Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) at Flemington and the Goodwood Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) at Morphettville, two of her nine victories. Glamour Puss’s half-brother, Vision And Power (Carnegie) went one better, landing ten wins including the Doncaster Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) and the George Ryder Stakes (Gr 1, 1500m).
This branch links to Georgina Belle via Celia Leigh (Sound Reason), the grand matron’s sixth foal but first in New Zealand. Georgina Belle had three colts in USA, then a colt and a filly in Great Britain before she arrived back home. In all she produced 13 foals but only four fillies which makes her overall record all the more remarkable.
Georgina Belle foaled a solitary stakes winner herself but 43 stakes winners descend from her which include eight Group 1 winners. Two are already mentioned above while the other six are: Probabeel (Savabeel), Savvy Coup (Savabeel), Steps In Time (Danehill Dancer), Dom To Shoot (Shooting To Win), Espiona (Extreme Choice) and Never Been Kissed (Tivaci). A further 43 stakes performers trace directly to her.
Could it be?
We are mere days away from the 2026 Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and a New Zealand-based sire, Cambridge Stud’s Sword Of State (Snitzel), has a real chance of siring the winner.
In the race’s history, just two New Zealand-breds have succeeded in Australia’s two-year-old Crown Jewel, the most recent in 1989, Courtza (Pompeii Court), who also bagged the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) that year. Prior to her was the 1987 Slipper winner Marauding (Sir Tristram). We are due another.
The vaguery of “country of conception” vs “country of foaling” will apply however, as last Saturday’s Pago Pago Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) victor, Warwoven (Sword Of State) was conceived in New Zealand but foaled in Australia. For some odd reason the industry recognises place of foaling ahead of place of conception.
Requiring a seven-day backup, the Pago Pago isn’t the preferred path to the Slipper but it has provided four winners, the most recent being Shinzo (Snitzel) in 2023. The Todman Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) has the better record and this year’s winner, Paradoxium (Extreme Choice) just happens to be Warwoven’s stablemate.
Paradoxium’s three starts began with his debut (fourth) in the Breeders’ Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) last October. An easy win in a Listed Restricted race at Wyong in December was next before returning on March 7 at Randwick where he led all the way in the Todman. He was being eased near the line and had plenty in reserve which should entitle him to favouritism, especially if he draws a good alley.
The New Zealander, Warwoven, has taken a different route. In December at Randwick he won impressively on debut, making up six lengths on the leader in the straight. At Eagle Farm in Brisbane, as a prelude for the Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m), he strolled clear to again win easily. Denied a start (the stewards believed he was lame) in the rich Millions he was not seen again until February 28, fighting on for a close fourth in the Skyline Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m).
At Rosehill for the Pago Pago he sat off the pace (his preferred pattern) but levelled up at the 300m. Once in the lead he never looked like being caught and ensured as much with a decisive kick at the 100m, his winning time a shade faster than the fillies’ equivalent, a race earlier although the last 600m of the boys event was a shade slower.
Warwoven is the first foal of Needle And Thread (Makfi), an Ellerslie Group 2 winner of the Royal Stakes (2000m) as well as twice Group-placed. Needle And Thread was sold as a maiden mare via Gavelhouse Plus (on-line) at the Valachi Downs dispersal sale and fetched $410,000 before her export to Australia she visited Sword Of State, Warwoven the result in 2023.
Warwoven was sold at the 2025 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, making $380,000, purchased by the Ridgmont, Baker, Gosling and Clarke partnership who all remain in the ownership.
Needle And Thread’s brother is Savile Row (Makfi), now standing at Mapperley Stud for fee of just $2500 which seems like great value given that he was among the best of his crop at three when he was Group 1-placed three times including second against the older horse in the Herbie Dyke Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m). At four he gained bold black type when landing the Listed Newmarket Handicap (1200m) at Ellerslie.
At stud, Savile Row has not been well patronised. His first four crops number 36 foals in total, 24 have raced and 12 are winners, two of which are Listed placed. Needle And Thread’s and Savile Row’s dam Fleece (Daylami) is a winning half-sister to Irish Group 3 winner Chintz (Danehill Dancer), herself the dam of dual Group 1 miler The Gurkha (Galileo).
Slipper sire lines
Should either Paradoxium or Warwoven prevail in the Slipper it will continue the sire dominance initiated by Danehill (Danzig) in 1994.
The great Star Kingdom (Stardust) held sway early in the Slipper’s life which began in 1957. He sired the first five winners including the 1957 winner Todman who enjoyed his own success as sire of 1964 winner Eskimo Prince and 1967 winner Sweet Embrace. Kaoru Star (Star Kingdom) sired the 1977 winner Luskin Star as well as the 1981 winner Full On Aces while Biscay (Star Kingdom) sired Marscay and Bounding Away, Slipper winners of 1982 and 1986.
The 1988 and 1990 winners Star Watch and Canny Lad were both sons of Bletchingly (Biscay). The Star Kingdom era closed in 1993 with the win by Bint Marscay (Marscay), a run of 14 wins in 37 years for the now defunct Star Kingdom sire line.
As good as Star Kingdom’s record was it has been overhauled by Danehill whose record stands at 18 in 32 years beginning in 1994 with Danzero followed by Flying Spur (1995), Merlene (1995), Catbird (1999) and Ha Ha (2001), matching Star Kingdom, although not consecutively.
The 2004 winner was Dance Hero (Danzero) while Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) sired Stratum in 2005 and Miss Finland in 2006. They were followed by Forensics (Flying Spur) in 2007. Stratum sired the 2010 winner Crystal Lily and in 2013 the winner Overreach was a filly by Danehill’s son Exceed And Excel.
A gap of five years then saw the first of three winners by Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) when Estijaab succeeded in 2018. Sidestep (Exceed And Excel) sired Kiamichi in 2019, Redoute’s Choice’s son Not A Single Doubt got the 2020 winner Farnan and in 2021 Not A Single Doubt’s son Extreme Choice sired Stay Inside. Rebel Dane by Danehill’s son California Dane, sired the 2022 winner Fireburn and Snitzel’s second and third winners, Shinzo and Mahroona, were successful in 2023 and and 2025, a run of seven of the last eight years for the line.
