Photo: Darryl Sherer
The first half a decade of Bourbon Lane Stable’s expansion into New Zealand has exceeded even the most optimistic predictions of the American investors.
The group has celebrated a long line of successes with the likes of Gr.1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) placegetter Bourbonaire, Gr.2 Rich Hill Mile (1600m) winner Bourbon Empress and fellow stakes winners To Cap It All, Super Photon and Glamour Tycoon. At the same time, the New Zealand thoroughbred landscape that they are becoming a major part of has undergone a revitalisation and significant prize-money boost.
“It’s all gone 100 percent the right way since we decided to get involved in New Zealand,” said bloodstock agent Mike McMahon, who manages Bourbon Lane in partnership with his co-founder Jamie Hill. The pair have become familiar names on the New Zealand scene, along with their major client and investor Dennis Foster.
“You could name 10 changes that have happened in the last few years that have taken things to a new level that we could never have really imagined. We’ve seen all those racing and prize-money improvements, the course at Ellerslie, the introduction of the $3.5 million NZB Kiwi (1500m), the list goes on and on. It really couldn’t have been a better scenario for us.”
Bourbon Lane was established in the United States in 2010 and quickly became a notable player in American racing, prompting the partners to look offshore.
“We’d been doing partnerships in the United States for a number of years, and in 2018 a lot of our competitors started offering a southern hemisphere option to their customers,” McMahon said.
“We actually tried South Africa first, and we were lucky enough to have a graded stakes winner there, but we eventually decided that New Zealand would be a better option. NZB really reached out to us and were very helpful in getting us established. Their North American representative Joe Miller, along with Danny Rolston who was there at the time, went above and beyond and could not have been more helpful.
“So NZB played a big part in dragging us into New Zealand, and Dennis Foster has a daughter living there as well, so it made a lot of sense.”
The Bourbon Lane partnership teamed up with leading Cambridge trainer Stephen Marsh, and they made their New Zealand sale-ring debut at Karaka 2019. They bought four yearlings at that sale for a total of $375,000. Mega Bourbon won three races, All Black Bourbon was a winner, and Sacred Bourbon placed twice.
But the big success story from that first Karaka intake was Bourbonaire. The son of Darci Brahma was a $120,000 purchase from the draft of Little Avondale Stud, and his five New Zealand starts produced a debut victory at Matamata and second placings in the New Zealand 2000 Guineas, the Gr.2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas (1400m) and the Gr.2 Sarten Memorial (1400m).
Bourbonaire earned $119,900 and was subsequently sold to Hong Kong, where he won another two races and banked HK$7.3 million (NZ$1.67 million).
“Bourbonaire was our very first horse, so the success that we had with him was extraordinary,” McMahon said. “We owned a big majority share in him, with Stephen Marsh himself having a small share alongside us. So it gave us the best possible start in New Zealand.
“And he was one of a couple of good sales that we’ve been able to do with Hong Kong. That’s a way of really greasing the wheel.
“Hong Kong seems to like the New Zealand breed better than just about any other in the world, which is definitely an attraction and adds to our options. The New Zealand breeders are really honed in on that market as well.”
Bourbonaire was far from being simply a stroke of beginner’s luck. Bourbon Lane’s firepower has only grown since, which is illustrated by a remarkable start to 2025. Their $80,000 Karaka 2022 purchase Bourbon Empress won the $270,000 Rich Hill Mile at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day, followed by highly rated two-year-old fillies Tale Of The Gypsy and To Cap It All making winning debuts at Te Aroha on January 4 and in the Listed Wellesley Stakes (1100m) at Trentham a week later.
Those recent successes all came from fillies and mares who are adding real broodmare value to their CVs. While breeding is not currently on the radar for Bourbon Lane in New Zealand, it is an option they are keeping open for the future.
“We haven’t been active in the breeding space yet in New Zealand, although we are in the United States,” McMahon said. “So far, we’ve been sellers in New Zealand. Stephen ‘the knife’ Marsh has had a tendency of gelding our colts!
“But we have built some relationships with stallion farms and studs. I hope that we might be able to move into that space in the future if we have the right horse to do so.”
In the meantime, the Bourbon Lane team is focusing squarely on the rich Karaka Millions twilight meeting at Ellerslie on Saturday. Bourbon Empress is set to carry their colours in the $1 million Elsdon Park Aotearoa Classic (1600m), while last-start winner and proven black-type performer Bourbon Proof contests the $1.5 million TAB Karaka Millions 3YO (1600m). Last month’s Gr.3 Bonecrusher Stakes (1400m) placegetter She’s Untouchable is being pointed towards the Gr.3 Cambridge Stud Almanzor Trophy (1200m).
“We are loaded right now and have a number of exciting horses aiming for that Karaka Millions night,” McMahon said. “We’re in great shape with a lot of great partners, a fantastic team set up around us, and a very good trainer and bloodstock agent.
“We try to find the types of horses that Jamie and I like and have had success with in the past, and it seems to be paying off.
“The Karaka sale is absolutely top-drawer. The team at NZB do a fantastic job and really streamline it for people outside the country. They are an amazing company, and that shows in the fact that the consignors are happy to take their top-quality yearlings there and do all of the incredible hospitality that they do. The standard is really set from the top down.
“We always have a very enjoyable time at Karaka, and I’m hoping that we’ll keep on coming down there every year for the next 20 or so years.
“We almost always have around 10 of our owners with us at Karaka. We all missed it during the Covid years – it’s just not the same when you’re on the other side of the world and just have your catalogue and a computer screen.
“We like to get out there and get our hands dirty around the sale grounds, getting a real feel for the horses and the crew that they all have around them.
“Our partners love to travel and are looking forward to doing that again this week. We’ll have a big team there to see our horses run on Karaka Millions night.”
Another unexpected development is the partnership between New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing and the Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita Park racecourses in the United States. The collaboration was announced earlier this month and connects New Zealand’s new Champions Day race meeting in March with the rich Pegasus World Cup and California Crown.
Winners of Gulfstream’s Gr.1 Pegasus World Cup Turf (1800m) and Gr.2 Pegasus World Cup Filly & Mare Turf (1600m) earn ballot-free entry into the Gr.1 Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes (2000m) and Gr.1 World Pool New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1600m) respectively, while the winners of the Rich Hill Stud Middle Distance Series and Sport Nation Champion Sprint Series are offered golden tickets into the Gr.1 California Crown John Henry Turf (2000m) and Gr.2 California Crown Eddie D Turf Sprint (1300m). Travel and freight costs are also covered for golden ticket-winning horses that travel internationally to compete.
“That’s another one of those 10 things in New Zealand racing that we could never have expected,” McMahon said.
“Taking our New Zealand horses to the United States and vice versa has never been in our game plan, but who knows? Having the travel costs covered to go and compete for such big money certainly has some appeal.
“But the downside of that is that you might travel all of that way and take a beating, and then you’ve put your horse off its calendar and have nothing to show for it. So it’s a risk.
“There’s big money right around the international thoroughbred scene at the moment, whether it’s in the UAE, Saudi Arabia or even Australia, where we haven’t had many runners yet. It’s an exciting time and there’s a lot of opportunities available around the world.”
