When Dean Hawkins and Nick Hewson forged a friendship some 20 years ago, as all youngsters involved in the breeding industry do they dreamt of their own Group One winner, and last Saturday at Ellerslie that dream became reality when Lickety Split won the Sistema Stakes.
The filly, bred and part-owned by the Cambridge mates, fought hard to hold off the Karaka Million winner Dynastic by a nose in the prestigious two-year-old race. According to Hewson it was a massive thrill getting a Group One win with the Turn Me Loose filly at just her second start. That capped a run of form by progeny of the young Windsor Park Stud stallion, who claimed another big result in Adelaide on Monday when his three-year-old daughter Ancient Girl won the Listed Morphettville Guineas.
“We weren’t expecting her to be a Group One winner as a two-year-old, we thought she would make a nice three-year-old, it’s an amazing feat,” Hewson enthused of the filly he races with his wife Claire, Hawkins and his wife Tee (Tennille), Matt & Jess Kilkenny and Matt Delahunty
“Dean and I have been great mates from when we both worked at Windsor Park Stud after we left school. I was in Hong Kong when Dean picked She’s Slinky out at the National Broodmare Sale at Karaka and bought her for $7,500.
“We sent her to Exosphere and her first foal was Neon Moon, a winner of three races, her second foal, also a filly by Turn Me Loose, is Kayden’s Joy and she has been placed in Australia. Lickety Split is her third foal and she has a Charm Spirit yearling filly that we have kept and is in foal to Circus Maximus.
“We are due a colt, she has had all fillies, which at the time I thought was a bad thing but not now.”
She’s Slinky is a stakes-placed Handsome Ransom mare who won four races and is one of only two foals out of the unraced Elnadim mare She Sed. The family produces good fillies and mares, with She Sed being a half-sister to Classic Babe, a stakes winner of six races who produced Passchendaele, whose six wins included the Gr. 2 Waikato Gold Cup, and she in turn is a stakes producer.
Their dam Ala Nami was a half-sister to the grand racemare Danjiki, whose 10 wins included seven at stakes level here and in Australia. Her list is headed by the Gr. 2 New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes and she also finished second in the Gr. 2 QTC Stradbroke Handicap. Further back in the pedigree is the champion racehorse and successful sire Strawberry Road.
Hewson and Hawkins were both born into the game, Dean being the son of Des and Jan Hawkins who founded Wentwood Grange, while Nick’s parents Gwenda and Graeme are successful breeders based in Taranaki, having bred the new Zealand 2000 Guineas winner Be Boss and Group One-placed Sully.
These days Hewson is back working at Windsor Park Stud after living in Hong Kong, and Hawkins has joined his brothers Leigh and Sean in the ownership and management of Wentwood Grange. After initially working school holidays at Windsor Park, Hewson took a permanent job there when he left high school. However his other passion was rugby, and at age 21 he was offered an opportunity to play in Hong Kong.
“I was playing age grade rugby here in New Zealand and was in the seniors at 21 when I got offered a position with the Valley Rugby Club in Hong Kong,” he said. “I had a great time, I played sevens and 15s and travelled all over the world.
“While I was there, I went to university, and completed a Business Management degree, and when I finished playing rugby I was the COO for the Valley Rugby Club, but I always intended to come back to New Zealand
“Roddy (Schick) came over to Hong Kong and wanted me to come back and work at the farm selling nominations. Claire and I thought it would be a good time to come back as the twins Emily and Jacob were six and it would be a good move both work and family-wise. That was two years ago.
“Matt Delahunty and Matt Kilkenny, who race the filly with us, were mates from my rugby days in Hong Kong and they have both returned home as well, so we were all able to be at the races on Sunday.”
That Group One feeling could come again for Hewson this Saturday when Vanbrugh filly Mustang Valley contests the Gr. 1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand Oaks. She is raced by Windsor Park in partnership with a syndicate managed by Hewson that includes his former Hong Kong team-mates and races in the Valley Club colours.
- Michelle Saba, NZTBA
