The running of the Group One Livamol Classic at Hastings recently turned into an all Hawkes Bay affair.
The winner Wait A Sec (Postponed[USA]-Security) was born just down the road from the Hastings racecourse in Poukawa, foaled by Iain Henderson who races him in partnership with his son Paul. He descends from a family that produced one of Hawkes Bay’s best fillies in the 70’s and races in the colours made famous by another great Hawkes Bay legend in Game.
Wait A Sec is trained by Guy Lowry and Grant Cullen at Game Lodge in Hastings. Guy Lowry is a member of the famous Lowry clan that produced Game and numerous other champions and he has those famous black and white chequered silks with the red cap and sash as his stable colours.
Although one of the less favoured runners, Wait A Sec was enjoying a purple patch of form going into the Livamol Classic. Six months ago the seven-year-old gelding resumed running in a rating 75 race and started a winning streak of seven wins and two thirds in nine starts, including a win in the Egmont Cup eight days before the Livamol.
He is the eighth foal of the Grosvenor mare Security, and her fourth winner, two of whom are also by the Westbury Stud senior statesman Postponed(USA). Security was placed as a race horse, she is out of the Stakes placed seven race winning mare Secrecy (Diplomatic Agent[[USA[]). She is a half-sister to the former Champion filly Mun Lee who won 14 races including the Gr.1 Waikato Draught Sprint.
Mun Lee was bred and raced by Hawkes Bay farmer Don Gordon who purchased her dam, the Ra Ora bred Phareno (Pharamond[FR]- Centeno) in the early 70’s. As well as Mun Lee, he bred three other fillies including Secrecy and War Cry. War Cry was unraced but left the Stakes winners Full Noise, Dancing Daze and General Booth. Another filly Tiffany Rose bred by Ra Ora also left three Stakes winners.
Secrecy left five winners including Political who won four and is best known as the grandam of the Gr.1 Makfi Stakes winner Survived, also bred and raced by Gordon.
Wait A Sec was bred by Iain Henderson and his two mates Gerald Innes and Kelly Whitehouse, after they bought the mare from a mixed bloodstock sale.
Henderson takes up the story.
“I bought the mare at a weanling and broodmare sale. I knew Don Gordon well, and I knew the family and Secrecy was a top mare in my mind. So I talked Gerald and Kelly into coming in with me,” he recalled.
“She was in foal to Postponed (USA) at the time and we took that filly to the sales and sold her as a yearling. I was so impressed with her as a yearling that I booked the mare back to Postponed and the result was Wait A Sec”.
“I foaled him myself, so it’s very pleasing to see him win a Group One. That’s the first Stakes winner I have bred so there was great excitement in our household after the Livamol.”
Henderson has 55 acres at Poukawa about 12 kilometres south of Hastings, where he retains 15 acres to keep his horses and raise a few sheep and cattle and the rest is leased for cropping.
Unfortunately Wait A Sec was to be Secrecy’s last foal.
“We didn’t have any luck with the mare and I was having a bad run with all my other horses, so I gave up on the breeding and we ceased breeding from her. I reckon now I am cashed up a bit I should get another one,” he added, “I have been looking on Gavel House, so it’s quite on the cards.” - Michelle Saba
