Ireland of the South Pacific
As the current racing season begins to wind down, there are still more than 20 stakes races to be run in our two countries next month and Kiwi thoroughbreds in Australia continue to represent our industry with good results.
A Group 3 win from ex-New Zealand trained London Banker (Tavistock) was Saturday’s headline act, but metropolitan wins by Tilianam (Savabeel), Shameless Miss (Shamexpress), Another Rally (Tavistock) and Reliable Star (Reliable Man) keep the flag flying.
Added to that is the seemingly unquenchable Australian demand for our breeding stock, evidenced by the number of lots from the Valachi Downs Dispersal Sale on Friday night that are headed across the Tasman. New Zealand breeders should be encouraged and have good reason to look forward to the upcoming breeding season.
If New Zealand has evolved to be the Ireland of the South Pacific, (primarily a nursery), so be it. We are pretty good at it.
Take it to the bank
London Banker began his career in New Zealand with Roger James and Robert Wellwood and took six starts to break his maiden, wrapping up his four-year-old season with a hat trick of wins, including at Ellerslie and Tauranga.
From five starts in the spring and summer of his five-year-old season, his best effort was a fighting fifth in the Feilding Gold Cup (Listed, 2100m), before he was transferred to Queensland.
This time a year ago, he took little time to find winning form; bagging an Eagle Farm victory on the last day of the season then reeling off three more wins at Doomben during the first six weeks of the current season.
Rested until this past April, he had two starts to prime him for distance racing before a steady fifth in the Chairman’s Handicap (Gr 3, 2143) and a solid, close up fourth in the Premier’s Cup (Gr 3, 2400m), both at Eagle Farm, but found the class of the Q22 (Gr 2, 2200m) a bit rich.
Although given a lovely run to the 800 metres by Willie Pike in the Tattersall’s Cup (Gr 3, 2400m), the six-year-old gelding was shuffled back on the inner and had to wait for the leaders to roll out upon straightening but when that happened London Banker shot through and from the 200 metres was never going to be headed for his ninth win and, most importantly, his maiden stakes win.
London Banker’s dam, Palos De Lago (Encosta De Lago) was conceived in Australia, but was foaled in New Zealand.
Kiwi Chronicles contacted Philip Brown of Ancroft Stud, who co-bred London Banker as well as his dam. “Palos De Lago was lucky to survive and had to be tube fed as a foal having contracted equine influenza,” said Brown. “She was also the most expensive foal the stud had ever bred. The service fee to Encosta De Lago was $180,000. She only had a few starts for a maiden win and came back to New Zealand carrying a colt foal by So You Think.”
London Banker is her second foal and was purchased by Roger James for $100,000 at the NZB Karaka Premier Sale in 2017.
His granddam, Palos Verdes (Oak Ridge), was a dual Group 3- winner of the NE Manion Cup (2400m) in Sydney, the Hobart Cup (2400m) in Tasmania and recorded two Listed wins, one at Flemington, among her career total of ten wins. She was a fine racemare, but she excelled as a broodmare.
Palos Verdes crossed the Tasman a few times herself, firstly after she was offered at the Anniversary Session of the 1993 NZB Karaka Yearling Sale.
Once finished with racing, her mating with Pins (Snippets) in 2000 resulted in the outstanding weight-for-age performer El Segundo, who had a real love for Moonee Valley and especially the WS Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m).
Four of El Segundo’s 12 wins were at the elite level, taking out the Cox Plate in 2007, having finished second to another Cox Plate specialist, Fields Of Omagh (Rubiton), the previous year. He scored two Group 2s at Moonee Valley as well.
In 2008 he returned to the The Valley to run fourth behind champion So You Think (High Chaparral), that race being towards the end of his career, which included the time-honoured Caulfield Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m), the Underwood Stakes (Gr 1, 1800m) and the CF Orr Stakes, a Group 1 run over the much shorter 1400 metres. He was a very versatile performer and perhaps the reason for London Banker’s name as he banked almost $A4 million.
Long time between drinks
The bloodline has been largely controlled by the Brown family of Ancroft Stud in Matamata and the beginnings of the better recent performers from this line can be attributed to one of Ancroft Stud’s former stallions, Battle-Waggon (Never Say Die).
Philip Brown’s father Bill Brown bred London Banker’s fourth dam, Chiquatito (Battle-Waggon), who was foaled in 1972. She was a four-times winner and Group 2 placed. Coincidentally, like London Banker, she won a Queensland Tattersall’s Club race at Eagle Farm.
Brown added: “Dad had liking for Red Mars mares and leased Chiquatito’s dam, Miss Spy from Hawke’s Bay breeder Ted Laxon, Laurie Laxon’s dad.”
The Ancroft Browns bred from Chiquatito, the first flat race black-type performer from the family since her fourth dam, Lady Spy (Lord Quex), took out Ellerslie’s Christmas Handicap (Listed, 8f), which was the feature mile race of the annual Christmas-New Year carnival. The race always drew a top field.
Lady Spy, an only foal, was bred in 1925 and won 15 races, so it was a long time between black-type drinks although Lady Spy’s daughter, Flying Spy (Hunting Song) won 16 races (four at two years) including two editions of the New Zealand Grand National Hurdles (Listed, 20,75f).
The infusion of Battle-Waggon’s blood and the resultant Chiquatito is the branch of the family that is responsible for El Segundo, Palos Verdes and London Banker. Chiquatito produced dual Listed winner Gold Deck (Decies) in 1981 and in 1986, Raumancer (Otehi Bay), a winner and third in the Cambridge Breeders’ Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m), the dam of Palos Verdes.
Brown, along with his wife Catherine, have kept the line going. “We have a Tavistock mare named Chatelaine. She is with Patrick Payne in Victoria and has won her last two starts and four in total. Her dam is a three-quarter sister to El Segundo. The next dam, Raumancer, was a very good filly and was group placed from just a few starts.”
A son of 1954 Derby (Gr 1, 1m 4f) winner Never Say Die (Nasrullah), Battle-Waggon was very lightly raced having won once from four starts in the colours of The Queen. Another son of Never Say Die to find success in New Zealand was White Robe Lodge’s champion sire Mellay who arrived here in 1965, one year prior to Battle-Waggon.
Not only are they by the same sire, they have even more in common. Mellay’s dam, Meld (Alycidon) and Battle-Waggon’s dam, Carrozza (Dante), each won The Oaks (Gr 1, 12f).
Battle-Waggon’s first crop, foaled in 1967, were a sensation including Panzer Chief, who went on a Guineas roll at three and later won the Golden Gate Handicap (Listed, 8.5f) in California. New Zealand Derby (Gr 2, 12f) winner Fairview Lad and leading filly Susan Jane were also among his first crop.
Brown shared this fun fact: “With just two crops to race Battle-Waggon came within a whisker of heading Pakistan II (Palestine) for the New Zealand Sire premiership of 1970-71. The race for leading sire came right down to the wire.”
He would ultimately sire 21 stakes winners, three fewer than Mellay. Perhaps his best were the grand old campaigner Battle Heights (23 wins) and the top-class racemare Battle Eve (25 wins).
Under the radar
Working away quietly at Windsor Park Stud is Shamexpress (O’Reilly) who sired his eighth stakes winner when his Sanibel put in some giant strides in the run home to bag the Tauranga Stakes (Listed, 1400m) on Saturday.
Last at the 600 metres, Kate Hercock pushed her wide rounding into the straight and once balanced she powered down the outside for a big win.
The mare doesn’t win out of turn and in 31 starts has just four victories, her third taking place at her previous start at Trentham late last month.
For Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) victor Shamexpress, the current season is his best yet with four stakes winners but not just any stakes winners. Dual Group 1 winner Coventina Bay heads the list with impressive back-to-back wins in the Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m) and Ellerslie’s New Zealand Stakes (2000m).
Chiming in is also Zola Express who bagged the Awapuni Gold Cup (Gr 2, 2000m) in April defeating two good ones in Tiptronic (O’Reilly) and Vernanme (O’Reilly). Back in January the exciting Shamus snared the Wellington Guineas (Gr 2, 1400m). He won his first four starts and looks to have a great future.
Shameless Miss (Shamexpress) could be the next stakes winner for the sire after her solid effort when racing clear in the Stayer’s Cup (2600m) at Randwick on Saturday, her sixth win in 14 starts.
Sanibel was knocked down to agent Phill Cataldo in conjunction with the mare’s trainer, Shaun Brown, at the 2018 NZB Karaka Yearling Sale (Book 2) for $45,000. She is from Margaux Belle, an unraced Kaapstad (Sir Tristram) half-sister to the quality racemare Veloce Bella (Volksraad) which makes her Windsor Park-bred through and through.
Veloce Bella showed talent at two, twice earning black-type before being put away for her spring three year-old campaign which started with four wins in four starts including the Avondale Guineas (Gr 2, 1600m) and the Eight Carat Classic (Gr 2, 1600m).
In the autumn she captured another Group 2, the Sir Tristram Fillies Classic (2000m), battled on for seventh in the New Zealand Derby (Gr 1, 2400m), then finished third in the New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m).
As can often happen, she found racing against older horses at four a challenge, finding form in the autumn when registering third placings in the International Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) and the NZ Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m), before claiming her seventh win in the Travis Stakes (Gr 2, 2000m). Four winter starts in Brisbane brought one Group 3 third placing.
At five, it was January before she found form again, scoring a treble, the third leg being the prestigious International Stakes the following month. At six, her 12th and last win was in the Trentham Stakes (Gr 3, 2100m).
Paying the rent
Margaux Belle’s dam, Wave To Lottie (Crested Wave), is a sister Jodhi, the granddam of this season’s Adelaide Cup (Gr 2, 3200m) winner Daqiansweet Junior (Sweet Orange) who also finished third in the recent Sydney Cup (Gr 1, 3200m). Twice a winner in New Zealand, Daqiansweet Junior has thrived since his transfer to Victoria, winning five of his nine starts.
Margaux Belle’s granddam, Tiger Lily (Sovereign Edition), is a half-sister to two stakes winners, namely Frank Underwood Cup (Listed, 1900m) winner Fast Food (Kirrama) and to Clifford Plate (Listed, 2000m) winner Tiger Jones (Ruling).
The latter was raced in New Zealand by race caller supremo and all-round character Keith Haub. Haub bought the horse for $2,200 but when asked by his wife how he was going to pay for him, said: “No problem. I sold your car.” When trainer Colin Jillings first saw the colt he asked Haub if he’d looked at his legs, to which Haub replied: “Yep, he’s got four of ’em.”
Jillings trained him to win four races at two as well as finish third in the Ellerslie Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and the Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m).
At three, Tiger Jones returned to Ellerslie for the Clifford Plate (Listed, 2000m). The writer was present that day and witnessed Haub, Ellerslie’s race caller, at his professional best. It was quite a sight, Haub raising both arms in triumph as his horse ran to the line, however his voice hardly wavered. He was two separate characters: the visual and the audio, with Haub wrapping up the call with a somewhat bland: “And it’s Tiger Jones to pay the rent.”
That same month, Haub was approached by former Keeper of the NZ Stud Book, then-agent Glyn Tucker, about selling the horse prior to the Wellington Derby (Gr 2, 2400m). A deal was done after the race (he finished seventh) for $80,000 to an American owner.
Master trainer Jillings suggested to the new owners that they might get a good chunk of their investment back if they allowed him to freshen the colt before boarding the plane and he’d have him ready to win first up before acclimatising. The plan worked and Tiger Jones won on his American debut at Hollywood Park.
Haub’s success didn’t end there. Later, he cashed out an insurance policy to buy McGinty (One Pound Sterling), a great little champion whose heart was bigger than himself, retiring to Haunui Farm with 14 wins in 27 starts including six Group 1s.
McGinty would later sire another big winner for Haub, New Zealand Derby and Air New Zealand Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) winner The Gentry, one of McGinty’s 26 stakes winners.
More recently, Haub’s name can be seen as a part-owner of Ellerslie Championship Stakes (Gr 2, 2100m) Hezashocka (Shocking). Since his transfer to Australia, Hezashocka has added a Benchmark 78 handicap at Flemington last month and finished a nose second in the Neds Whatever You Bet On Quality Handicap (2000m) at Caulfield on Saturday.