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 $27,500 special conditions maiden at Ellerslie today completed an important week for Hallmark Stud's son of Danehill.
Haayil got his first stakeswinner at Newcastle on Thursday when Allgunadoit (ex Saving Grace by Take Your Partner) won the Spring Stakes 1600m G3, coming with a strong run from the back to defeat the favourite Niello and Danbird. Bred by Hallmark's Denny, Lyn and Mark Baker,Allgunadoit broke Ebony Grosve's 1996 course record and led trainer Kevin Moses to consider races like the Caulfield Guineas for him. His dam Saving Grace, from the family of the very good Group One-winning Australian sprinter Sunny Coronation, was sold at last year's New Zealand May Broodmare Sale to Wellington breeder Michelle Dewar. The mare has a yearling colt by Diamond Express and is due to foal to Haayil.
Allgunadoit is one of three stakes performers for his sire - the others are Zahdeal (7 wins and Group 3-placed) and Nipscay (four wins and stakes-placed).
Haayil received modest support in his first three seasons at stud but that changed dramatically after the buzz generated by his first yearlings, conceived on a fee of $2000, and sold for an average of more than $20,000 at the 2000 New Zealand yearling sales. Consequently Haayil has 102 two-year-olds this season, but only eight of them have so far been named. It's a fair bet that Allgunadoit's performance will alter that very quickly.
Following the example of the mighty Warriors, GOLD BROSE and FALTAAT have bracketed the week for Westbury Stud in the best possible way: with three wins in New Zealand stakes races for three-year-olds.
Last weekend's HBRI Gold Trail Stakes G3 winner Taatletail (ex Defensive Lady by Defensive Play) was bred by Deborah Ho of Macau who has since sold the mare, covered by Cullen, to The Philippines. Taatletail is her sire's fifth southern hemisphere stakeswinner and the first from his 2000 crop.
Nat Nat (ex Cuddly by Bakharoff; bred by Westbury studmaster Russell Warwick) added another win and a notable piece of history to Faltaat's record when he set a new national record for 1200m at Riccarton Park today.
At the same meeting Classic Clare (Gold Brose-Funny Features by Archway; bred by Goldbro Services Pty Ltd) won the CJC Canterbury Belle S. LR, adding the $5750 FAMIS bonus to her share of the $30,000 principal prizemoney.
Making it something of a Westbury quinella was Lady Libertine (Tuscany Flyer-Liberty Rose by Clay Hero; bred by Strath Consultancy Ltd). Tuscany Flyer is now serving his first southern book of mares at John Shaw's Prebbleton Farm, Christchurch.
Ninety minutes earlier another three-year-old filly Montreal Gold (Gold Brose-Lady Ballina by Lord Ballina; bred by the N.C. Lockyer Family Trust) had won the Lindauer Guineas Trial LR at Ellerslie. These two victories take Gold Brose's tally of stakeswinners to 13 from 313 foals of racing age (including just-turned two-year-olds).
The catch is, of course, that Gold Brose died almost three years ago. It's a loss that hardly needs underlining but the results keep doing it anyway. He had a second winner at Riccarton today in the muscular, upstanding shape of three-year-old gelding Forrest (ex Eliza by Deputy Governor; bred & owned by Ngaire & Wendy Fraser). Forrest made his season debut over 1000 metres in intermediate class and won comfortably.
GENEROUS - Spring is a testing time for all studmasters, but especially for those with second-crop stallions whose progeny are widely expected to make classic performers. Generous is already well-established as a sire in Europe, but his status in this part of the world is yet to be determined. The first half of this season was always going to be critical for him.
Glenmorgan Farm has every reason to be happy with what three-year-olds by Generous have done this week. On Monday Philamor (ex Plaid by Morcon) was an impressive winner at the Te Teko trials for his owner-breeders Robin & Muriel Archer; Generosa (ex Cousins by Danehill; bred, trained and part-owned by Bart Cummings) won in class record time over 1550 metres at Canterbury, NSW on Tuesday; and on Wednesday Legend (ex Better Believe by Success Express; bred by Bruce & Margaret Gray) won at Avondale. Then, at New Plymouth today, the grey filly Hautap Hunny (ex Fairlane by Kenfair; bred by the Endurance Horse Trust) ran second at her first start, over 990 metres.
For New Zealand-based sires, commercial credibility depends largely on racetrack performances in Australia. To date nineteen of the 59 foals from Generous' first crop have been named in Australia, among them the Gai Waterhouse-trained Olivia de Belle (ex Silver Chalice; bred by Bill Stewart) who won as a two-year-old at Illawarra in July, then won her first three-year-old start in Sydney.
Test Your Knowledge:
Generous is one of four King George & Queen Elizabeth Stakes winners currently standing in New Zealand. Who are the other three? (Answer at the end of this article).
LORD BALLINA - Montreal Gold is the eighth stakeswinner on Lord Ballina's record as a broodmare sire and the second to win the Guineas Trial at Ellerslie. The first was Bella Astarta (by Centaine) in 1997. Three years later the race was won by Ballina Kate, a daughter of Lord Ballina.
The other six stakeswinners in whose pedigrees the Ardsley Stud veteran appears as damsire are: G1 Bodie (by Stark South), G2 Distinctly Secret (by Distinctly North), G3 Citra's Prince (by Prince Salieri), G3 Simigan (by Honor Grades), SW Class Eulogy (by Kingdom Bay) and SW Centamira (by Centaine).
Eighth on last season's New Zealand Broodmare Sire list (by progeny earnings), Lord Ballina remains a significant force as a sire in his own right. He's been a top 10 stallion in New Zealand for three of the past five years and was eleventh in 2002-03 with 23 winners from 60 runners and almost $500,000 in prizemoney. His progeny earnings in Australia total almost $A12 million, with $5.3 million in New Zealand.
Lord Ballina is the sire of 32 stakeswinners (about 4% of his live foals) ten of them at Group One level, and six of those in Australia: Derby winners Showella, Mirror Magic, Royal Magic and Count Chivas, brilliant sprinter-miler Bureaucracy and Winfield (now Coolmore) Classic winnerAcushla Marie. New Zealand Group One winner Cent Home has also represented his sire with distinction across a remarkable seven seasons of racing.
It's hard to say which of Lord Ballina's leading progeny deserves the description "best", but Count Chivas, winner of the Sydney Cup G1 as well as the South Australian Derby G1, must come close. Four times Group One-placed in Australia, Count Chivas at his best was outstanding in championship company and one of the bravest Melbourne Cup runners-up, narrowly beaten in 1996 by Saintly, to whom he gave 1.5 kg.
Now serving his 18th book of mares, Lord Ballina has received very steady and loyal support from his owners and other breeders over the years and, although his 2002 book was one of his smallest, it still totalled fifty mares. With his "form" as a stallion thoroughly exposed and the characteristics of his progeny well-known, Lord Ballina can be accurately assessed as one of the most admirable of New Zealand's small group of proven sires.
Waikato Stud's CENTAINE is another member of that group who continues to be highly influential as both sire and broodmare sire. His daughter Professionelle is the dam of Saturday's STC Shannon S. G2 winner Sportsman (by Supremo), already a Group winner last season, as well as the Melbourne stakeswinner King Of Prussia (by Anabaa). Professionelle is a winning sister to G3 Starcent, dam of G1-placed Ambitious, two other winners and yet-to-race fillies by O'Reilly, Pins & Danasinga.
Centaine's daughters have now left 25 stakeswinners, two of them to Lord Ballina (Cent Home & Vitrinite).
CAPE CROSS & STRAVINSKY - Cambridge Stud's star pair of shuttle stallions have already made plenty of headlines in Europe and the United States, and both of them opened their southern hemisphere accounts this week.
Stravinsky got the slightly better start, courtesy of Alinsky's successful dash over 400m on New Plymouth's Extreme card at New Plymouth today. Alinsky is from the brilliant Group One-winning sprinter Alynda, and is part-owned and co-trained by his breeder Alan Jones. Another first-crop sire PINS provided the fast-finishing runner-up, the cleverly named Acupuncture (ex Quack by Magic Ring; bred by Tim Bodle).
Among the also-rans in that race was Akicita (AUS) (Cape Cross-Cramoisy by Arazi; bred by Toby Enterprises Pty Ltd), who won a 450-metre trial in very businesslike fashion at Wanganui on Tuesday. A day earlier the Cape Cross-Gardenia filly (bred by Sir Patrick & Lady Hogan) became her sire's first New Zealand trial winner when she won a 600 metre trial at Te Teko.
ENTREPRENEUR - Well, he hasn't set either the Thames or the Waikato on fire but it's a very poor sire that can't leave a few better-than-average horses, and Entrepreneur (Sadler's Wells-Exclusive Order) had more going for him than most during his two seasons at The Oaks in New Zealand: great looks, world-class performance, a fashionable pedigree and wonderful opportunities.
Those opportunities included thirty-six mares by Sir Tristram among his first book of 123 mares in 1998. That season he also served five Zabeel mares, five Grosvenor mares, three mares by Kaapstad, three by Sound Reason, and two each by Marscay and Centaine.
The best performer from that crop so far is General Booth (bred by Jeanette Broome and Don Gordon from the very good broodmare War Cry, by War Hawk II), who won the JRA Cup LR at Moonee Valley last weekend.
And today he got his second southern hemisphere stakeswinner when Luscilla (Entrepreneur-Madam Valeta by Palace Music; from a half-sister to G1 Golden Sword; bred by Alan Burnet & Windsor Park Stud Ltd) easily won the $40,000 Mason Appliances 4yo LR, over 1400m at New Plymouth. This gives Entrepreneur a total of five stakeswinners, including this year's Irish Oaks G1 winner Vintage Tipple.
Completing a good day for Entrepreneur his up-and-coming four-year-old son Sain Khapital (ex Khapkap by Kaapstad; Terry Jarvis) made it two wins from two starts over 1000 metres at Melbourne's Sandown-Hillside course in 56 seconds flat.
New Zealand Feast at Cranbourne
Five of the nine winners at Thursday's Cranbourne meeting (minimum prizemoney $A11,000) in Victoria were bred in New Zealand. They were:
Tchaikovsky (3c Tale Of The Cat-Zorina by Nureyev; bred by Peter & Philip Vela)
Stark Touch (6m Stark South-Touche Amora by Touching Wood; Mrs J.L. Hepi)
Jay Jaye (4m Deputy Governor-Karsavina by Western Symphony; Windsor Park Stud Ltd)
Maythehorsebefast (3g Zabeel-Lady Wyllie; Sir Patrick & Lady Hogan, and Arthur Kelly)
College Crest (4g College Chapel-Pleasure by Nassipour - also dam of G1 Piachay; Don & Rochelle McLaren)
Test Your Knowledge Answer:
Generous won the King George in 1991; Pentire in 1996; Montjeu in 2000; and Golan in 2002.
- Susan Archer
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 $27,500 special conditions maiden at Ellerslie today completed an important week for Hallmark Stud's son of Danehill.
Haayil got his first stakeswinner at Newcastle on Thursday when Allgunadoit (ex Saving Grace by Take Your Partner) won the Spring Stakes 1600m G3, coming with a strong run from the back to defeat the favourite Niello and Danbird. Bred by Hallmark's Denny, Lyn and Mark Baker,Allgunadoit broke Ebony Grosve's 1996 course record and led trainer Kevin Moses to consider races like the Caulfield Guineas for him. His dam Saving Grace, from the family of the very good Group One-winning Australian sprinter Sunny Coronation, was sold at last year's New Zealand May Broodmare Sale to Wellington breeder Michelle Dewar. The mare has a yearling colt by Diamond Express and is due to foal to Haayil.
Allgunadoit is one of three stakes performers for his sire - the others are Zahdeal (7 wins and Group 3-placed) and Nipscay (four wins and stakes-placed).
Haayil received modest support in his first three seasons at stud but that changed dramatically after the buzz generated by his first yearlings, conceived on a fee of $2000, and sold for an average of more than $20,000 at the 2000 New Zealand yearling sales. Consequently Haayil has 102 two-year-olds this season, but only eight of them have so far been named. It's a fair bet that Allgunadoit's performance will alter that very quickly.
Following the example of the mighty Warriors, GOLD BROSE and FALTAAT have bracketed the week for Westbury Stud in the best possible way: with three wins in New Zealand stakes races for three-year-olds.
Last weekend's HBRI Gold Trail Stakes G3 winner Taatletail (ex Defensive Lady by Defensive Play) was bred by Deborah Ho of Macau who has since sold the mare, covered by Cullen, to The Philippines. Taatletail is her sire's fifth southern hemisphere stakeswinner and the first from his 2000 crop.
Nat Nat (ex Cuddly by Bakharoff; bred by Westbury studmaster Russell Warwick) added another win and a notable piece of history to Faltaat's record when he set a new national record for 1200m at Riccarton Park today.
At the same meeting Classic Clare (Gold Brose-Funny Features by Archway; bred by Goldbro Services Pty Ltd) won the CJC Canterbury Belle S. LR, adding the $5750 FAMIS bonus to her share of the $30,000 principal prizemoney.
Making it something of a Westbury quinella was Lady Libertine (Tuscany Flyer-Liberty Rose by Clay Hero; bred by Strath Consultancy Ltd). Tuscany Flyer is now serving his first southern book of mares at John Shaw's Prebbleton Farm, Christchurch.
Ninety minutes earlier another three-year-old filly Montreal Gold (Gold Brose-Lady Ballina by Lord Ballina; bred by the N.C. Lockyer Family Trust) had won the Lindauer Guineas Trial LR at Ellerslie. These two victories take Gold Brose's tally of stakeswinners to 13 from 313 foals of racing age (including just-turned two-year-olds).
The catch is, of course, that Gold Brose died almost three years ago. It's a loss that hardly needs underlining but the results keep doing it anyway. He had a second winner at Riccarton today in the muscular, upstanding shape of three-year-old gelding Forrest (ex Eliza by Deputy Governor; bred & owned by Ngaire & Wendy Fraser). Forrest made his season debut over 1000 metres in intermediate class and won comfortably.
GENEROUS - Spring is a testing time for all studmasters, but especially for those with second-crop stallions whose progeny are widely expected to make classic performers. Generous is already well-established as a sire in Europe, but his status in this part of the world is yet to be determined. The first half of this season was always going to be critical for him.
Glenmorgan Farm has every reason to be happy with what three-year-olds by Generous have done this week. On Monday Philamor (ex Plaid by Morcon) was an impressive winner at the Te Teko trials for his owner-breeders Robin & Muriel Archer; Generosa (ex Cousins by Danehill; bred, trained and part-owned by Bart Cummings) won in class record time over 1550 metres at Canterbury, NSW on Tuesday; and on Wednesday Legend (ex Better Believe by Success Express; bred by Bruce & Margaret Gray) won at Avondale. Then, at New Plymouth today, the grey filly Hautap Hunny (ex Fairlane by Kenfair; bred by the Endurance Horse Trust) ran second at her first start, over 990 metres.
For New Zealand-based sires, commercial credibility depends largely on racetrack performances in Australia. To date nineteen of the 59 foals from Generous' first crop have been named in Australia, among them the Gai Waterhouse-trained Olivia de Belle (ex Silver Chalice; bred by Bill Stewart) who won as a two-year-old at Illawarra in July, then won her first three-year-old start in Sydney.
Test Your Knowledge:
Generous is one of four King George & Queen Elizabeth Stakes winners currently standing in New Zealand. Who are the other three? (Answer at the end of this article).
LORD BALLINA - Montreal Gold is the eighth stakeswinner on Lord Ballina's record as a broodmare sire and the second to win the Guineas Trial at Ellerslie. The first was Bella Astarta (by Centaine) in 1997. Three years later the race was won by Ballina Kate, a daughter of Lord Ballina.
The other six stakeswinners in whose pedigrees the Ardsley Stud veteran appears as damsire are: G1 Bodie (by Stark South), G2 Distinctly Secret (by Distinctly North), G3 Citra's Prince (by Prince Salieri), G3 Simigan (by Honor Grades), SW Class Eulogy (by Kingdom Bay) and SW Centamira (by Centaine).
Eighth on last season's New Zealand Broodmare Sire list (by progeny earnings), Lord Ballina remains a significant force as a sire in his own right. He's been a top 10 stallion in New Zealand for three of the past five years and was eleventh in 2002-03 with 23 winners from 60 runners and almost $500,000 in prizemoney. His progeny earnings in Australia total almost $A12 million, with $5.3 million in New Zealand.
Lord Ballina is the sire of 32 stakeswinners (about 4% of his live foals) ten of them at Group One level, and six of those in Australia: Derby winners Showella, Mirror Magic, Royal Magic and Count Chivas, brilliant sprinter-miler Bureaucracy and Winfield (now Coolmore) Classic winnerAcushla Marie. New Zealand Group One winner Cent Home has also represented his sire with distinction across a remarkable seven seasons of racing.
It's hard to say which of Lord Ballina's leading progeny deserves the description "best", but Count Chivas, winner of the Sydney Cup G1 as well as the South Australian Derby G1, must come close. Four times Group One-placed in Australia, Count Chivas at his best was outstanding in championship company and one of the bravest Melbourne Cup runners-up, narrowly beaten in 1996 by Saintly, to whom he gave 1.5 kg.
Now serving his 18th book of mares, Lord Ballina has received very steady and loyal support from his owners and other breeders over the years and, although his 2002 book was one of his smallest, it still totalled fifty mares. With his "form" as a stallion thoroughly exposed and the characteristics of his progeny well-known, Lord Ballina can be accurately assessed as one of the most admirable of New Zealand's small group of proven sires.
Waikato Stud's CENTAINE is another member of that group who continues to be highly influential as both sire and broodmare sire. His daughter Professionelle is the dam of Saturday's STC Shannon S. G2 winner Sportsman (by Supremo), already a Group winner last season, as well as the Melbourne stakeswinner King Of Prussia (by Anabaa). Professionelle is a winning sister to G3 Starcent, dam of G1-placed Ambitious, two other winners and yet-to-race fillies by O'Reilly, Pins & Danasinga.
Centaine's daughters have now left 25 stakeswinners, two of them to Lord Ballina (Cent Home & Vitrinite).
CAPE CROSS & STRAVINSKY - Cambridge Stud's star pair of shuttle stallions have already made plenty of headlines in Europe and the United States, and both of them opened their southern hemisphere accounts this week.
Stravinsky got the slightly better start, courtesy of Alinsky's successful dash over 400m on New Plymouth's Extreme card at New Plymouth today. Alinsky is from the brilliant Group One-winning sprinter Alynda, and is part-owned and co-trained by his breeder Alan Jones. Another first-crop sire PINS provided the fast-finishing runner-up, the cleverly named Acupuncture (ex Quack by Magic Ring; bred by Tim Bodle).
Among the also-rans in that race was Akicita (AUS) (Cape Cross-Cramoisy by Arazi; bred by Toby Enterprises Pty Ltd), who won a 450-metre trial in very businesslike fashion at Wanganui on Tuesday. A day earlier the Cape Cross-Gardenia filly (bred by Sir Patrick & Lady Hogan) became her sire's first New Zealand trial winner when she won a 600 metre trial at Te Teko.
ENTREPRENEUR - Well, he hasn't set either the Thames or the Waikato on fire but it's a very poor sire that can't leave a few better-than-average horses, and Entrepreneur (Sadler's Wells-Exclusive Order) had more going for him than most during his two seasons at The Oaks in New Zealand: great looks, world-class performance, a fashionable pedigree and wonderful opportunities.
Those opportunities included thirty-six mares by Sir Tristram among his first book of 123 mares in 1998. That season he also served five Zabeel mares, five Grosvenor mares, three mares by Kaapstad, three by Sound Reason, and two each by Marscay and Centaine.
The best performer from that crop so far is General Booth (bred by Jeanette Broome and Don Gordon from the very good broodmare War Cry, by War Hawk II), who won the JRA Cup LR at Moonee Valley last weekend.
And today he got his second southern hemisphere stakeswinner when Luscilla (Entrepreneur-Madam Valeta by Palace Music; from a half-sister to G1 Golden Sword; bred by Alan Burnet & Windsor Park Stud Ltd) easily won the $40,000 Mason Appliances 4yo LR, over 1400m at New Plymouth. This gives Entrepreneur a total of five stakeswinners, including this year's Irish Oaks G1 winner Vintage Tipple.
Completing a good day for Entrepreneur his up-and-coming four-year-old son Sain Khapital (ex Khapkap by Kaapstad; Terry Jarvis) made it two wins from two starts over 1000 metres at Melbourne's Sandown-Hillside course in 56 seconds flat.
New Zealand Feast at Cranbourne
Five of the nine winners at Thursday's Cranbourne meeting (minimum prizemoney $A11,000) in Victoria were bred in New Zealand. They were:
Tchaikovsky (3c Tale Of The Cat-Zorina by Nureyev; bred by Peter & Philip Vela)
Stark Touch (6m Stark South-Touche Amora by Touching Wood; Mrs J.L. Hepi)
Jay Jaye (4m Deputy Governor-Karsavina by Western Symphony; Windsor Park Stud Ltd)
Maythehorsebefast (3g Zabeel-Lady Wyllie; Sir Patrick & Lady Hogan, and Arthur Kelly)
College Crest (4g College Chapel-Pleasure by Nassipour - also dam of G1 Piachay; Don & Rochelle McLaren)
Test Your Knowledge Answer:
Generous won the King George in 1991; Pentire in 1996; Montjeu in 2000; and Golan in 2002.
- Susan Archer
