Kiwis at home, and abroad
A round of applause for the Whangarei Racing Club. They put on a top program and gave us a glimpse of what New Zealand racing might be like when the Entain cash infusion (less than we’d hoped for) kicks in next season.
This was a regular meeting. There were no stakes races to boost the total on offer for the day. The nine races were worth $375,000 with five races attracting a stake of $60,000 each.
Additionally, their track is the best winter turf track in the country. Had trainers the opportunity to race more often at Ruakaka, leading up to Saturday’s meeting, perhaps the fields might have been stronger as connections would be encouraged to keep more horses in work.
The two-year-olds’ event was won in 1:10.55 for the 1200 metres while the Rating 65 race took 1:10.30. The Rating 84 over 1400 metres was run in 1:23.75. These are great winter times so the club deserves credit for making such a good fist of things.
The premier meeting, at Trentham, offered $380,000 spread over ten races and included two premier jumps races of $75,000 each.
Their Rating 75 handicap over 1400 metres took 1:40.52 and the open Whyte Handicap (1600m) was run in a labouring 1:54.78.
Meanwhile, in Australia, Randwick ran ten races worth $1.44 million. Flemington’s nine races totalled $1.265 million, Eagle Farm’s nine, $745,000, Belmont’s nine, $685,000 and Morphettville’s, $570,000.
The level of Australian metropolitan racing puts our stakes into perspective. The NSW country meeting at Wyong ran eight races worth $330,000, not a whole lot less than either Ruakaka or Trentham. The TAB/Entain deal will likely not have much effect on the one–way horse traffic from New Zealand to Australia.
The future and the past
Ruakaka race four, the Winter Championship (1200m) for two-year-olds fell to a son of Cambridge Stud’s Embellish (Savabeel), a sire that is one of many hopes for our industry.
Whiskey Lies (Embellish) has done all that has been asked of him and Saturday’s win was his third in succession. He had one run last September but is unbeaten this preparation, enjoying home cooking as all his starts have been at Ruakaka.
Barely holding on to win by a nose in June, he lifted when looking beaten on July 1 but in Saturday’s race he kept finding to put them away over the last 100 metres, his easiest win yet. He is very much a jump and run type, goes to the front and dares his rivals to pass him in the run home.
From 12 runners in his initial crop Embellish has three winners including stakes-placed Luberon. Two of his progeny have achieved black type without winning, a promising start for the young son of Savabeel (Zabeel).
Whiskey Lies was purchased out of the Wentwood Grange draft of the 2022 NZB Karaka Yearling Sale (Book 2) for $12,000 and has already more than repaid his owner many times over.
His dam, Champagne Katie (Darci Brahma) is three from three re winners. His granddam is a half-sister to champion New Zealand two-year-old, Lycra (Tights), winner of the Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and Ellerslie Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m).
Race five, the Whangarei Cup Stayers Final (2100m) saw Bosch, representing the last small crop of 12 foals by Pentire (Be My Guest), take out a gritty victory, his second career win.
After 21 consecutive seasons at Rich Hill Stud, Pentire is fondly remembered as their foundation sire. Remarkably versatile, he sired the brilliant Hall of Fame sprinter Mufhasa, the classy four-time Group 1 champion Xcellent, the 2015 Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) winner, Prince of Penzance and 46 further stakes winners.
Bosch’s dam, Highlight (High Chaparral), also won at Ruakaka but then ventured to Sydney where she won twice. Highlight’s granddam is the speedy, twice Listed two-year-old stakes winner, Superjet (Jetball). Superjet’s half-sister is Platinum Lady (Centaine), granddam of the outstanding South African filly, Princess Victoria (Victory Moon), a four-time Group 1 winner and champion at both two and three.
Superjet’s dam, Precious Platinum (Sir Tristram), is a half-sister to another South African champion, Petrava (Imposing), they being daughters of Fairdale Stud’s top mare Silver Liner (Sovereign Edition).
Race seven, the Winter Thee-Year-Old Championship (1600m) resulted in the cleverly-named Delorean (Time Test) breaking through for her maiden victory against seven other former winners.
The win was unexpected as she was the outsider of the field. However, she did well to win after drifting back before they left the back straight. Advancing sharply at the 600 metres (due to the slow tempo), she almost co-led, three deep, and despite hanging went to the line in quite good fashion.
With only two crops on the ground in the southern hemisphere, Time Test (Dubawi) could do with a good one to promote his standing. He gets winners – he has 16 in New Zealand and a further ten in Australia. Watch this space.
Delorean, from Time Test’s first crop, was found by agent Paul Willetts at the 2021 NZB Karaka Yearling Sale (Book 2) for $32,500. She is an all-Little Avondale Stud product as her dam, Yamanya is by their resident premier sire, Per Incanto (Street Cry) and is her only runner to date. Yemanya ranks as a sister to Matamata Slipper (Listed, 1200m) winner Rocanto (Per Incanto) who was twice Group 1 placed at two.
Rocanto and Yemanya are from a half-sister to Sydney Listed winner, Secret Liaisons (T.V. Heart Throb), the dam of Eagle Farm Group 1 winner, Reigning To Win (King Of Kings).
Paying his way
Bold Mac (The Bold One), the Chris Waller-trained son of Grangewilliam Stud’s The Bold One (Fastnet Rock) added Sydney win three (all at Benchmark 88 level) to the three he gained in New Zealand and is proving a worthwhile advertisement for his sire.
The five-year-old must be a candidate to become The Bold One’s first stakes winner. He ran second in the McKell Cup (Listed, 2000m) three starts back and it is, surely, only a matter of time before he breaks through.
The Bold One himself had to be content with a stakes placing before being retired with four wins. His support is mainly due to his magnificent bloodlines. He is by the highly desirable Danehill (Danzig) stallion Fastnet Rock and his female line ranks alongside the best in the New Zealand Stud Book. At $4,000, his fee best suits the small breeder who wants to race rather than sell. He averages 42 mares per season.
What we do know is they can run. He has a strike-rate of 41 per cent winners to starters and you know he is getting his winners from ordinary mares. Bold Mac doesn’t know any different. He jumps, stays handy, makes his move in the straight and tries his best. There are many owners of richly bred stock who’d be delighted with $400,000 in the bank.
His ownership is unchanged from his racing in New Zealand and he was bred by one of his co-owners who also owned his dam, Mrs Mac (Columbia). She had just two foals.
There are plenty of winners in Bold Mac’s family. His dam won four. His dam’s half-sister, Zumba (No Excuse Needed), won seven. His granddam, Nautical (Yachtie), won three but there is precious little black type to be found close up. The only stakes winner within the first five generations is Rapanella (Rapier II), a dual Listed winner who raced during the 1980s.
The family was, at one time, very desirable but you have to go back seven generations to find a half-sister to three stakes winners including George Main Stakes (Gr 1, 8f) winner, Gendarme (Ruthless). That win was in 1954 and two years earlier he landed the Great Northern Guineas (Gr 2, 8f). He was a top–class racehorse who won 15 times and was 13 times second in 36 starts.
Unsung
Similar to The Bold One, Niagara (Encosta De Lago) finds himself off the beaten track, on the other side of the North Island, a little south of Havelock North in Hawkes Bay.
He has had several homes and averaged 105 mares per season during his first four years. Stakes results, or the lack of told, and in his next six seasons he averaged just 22 mares per season.
To date he has sired four individual stakes winners and five stakes-placed winners but through it all enjoys a first–class winners to starters ratio of 62 per cent, with 118 winners from 189 runners.
He will get you a winner and one of his better runners is Jaguary. Like Bold Mac, Jaguary started his race career in New Zealand but left these shores as a placed maiden. Arriving in South Australia, he proceeded to win four of his first five starts and after Saturday’s win at Morphettville the seven-year-old now has ten wins (eight in town) and earnings of $340,000.
At $3,000, Niagara’s fee is even less than The Bold One’s and is therefore excellent value for breeders with a few mares who are more into racing versus selling, so, like The Bold One, he has a place.
Jaguary was bred by well travelled photographer Trish Dunell. Dunell is everywhere. Have camera, will travel, might be her motto. You can find Dunell at every race meeting and every sale. One can only imagine her petrol bill as she never rests and is a fixture at every thoroughbred event.
The best Dunell has bred is possibly Spalato (Elusive City), winner of two the biggest prizes in Singapore, namely the Singapore Derby (Listed, 2000m) and the Patrons’ Bowl (Listed, 1600m). Spalato won ten of his 17 starts and more than $S1.5 million. He was very talented. His dam, Ellington (Express Duke) and Jaguary’s dam, Guipure (Spartacus), are half-sisters.