22 AUGUST 2014 22 AUGUST 2014
In This Issue Events Calendar Page 1 Events Calendar Page 2 Makfi Challenge Stakes: Runner Profile Page 6 Breeding Report Page 8 Westbury Runners to Follow Page 10 Gold Brose Keeps Striking Gold 30 August Makfi Challenge Stakes, Hawke s Bay 06 September NZTBA Awards Dinner 07 September NZTBA Westbury Stud 2014 Stallion Parade Pictured on Front Cover: Swiss Ace (Photo Credit: Lesley Warwick)
Makfi Challenge Stakes 2014 A relatively lightly raced mare with just 19 starts to her name thus far, the Zabeel mare Zonza has always looked a horse with well above average. Zonza has won three times and boasts a further five seconds from her fist nine starts on the track, including a stakes placing in the Champion Stakes Prelude as a threeyear-old at Ellerslie. In May of 2013 Zonza s connections owners, and trainer Roger James, embarked on her first visit to Australia with the daughter of Zabeel to contest the Listed Rowley Mile at Hawkesbury. The mare never got into the action around the tight circuit at Hawkesbury and finished out of the money. This was far from the consistent nature of form Zonza had displayed in New Zealand, and the decision was made to back her up the following week in the Listed Lord Mayor s Plate at Rosehill. Zonza ran a much better race finishing second to the very capable performer Moriarty and beating home the talented Strike the Stars. With the Group 1 Makfi Challenge Stakes just 8 days away, we look at another high profile runner featuring in the entries, as we look to gain a closer understanding of who might claim New Zealand s first Group 1 race of the 2014-15 racing season. SPOTLIGHT ON: Zonza Details: Breeding: Owners: Trainer: 2008 Bay mare Zabeel-Sonet, by Gold Brose B J Lindsay MNZM & Mrs J E A Lindsay Roger James A win in the Makfi Challenge Stakes for Zonza would come as a well deserved compensation for her owners Brendan and Jo Lindsay, after their talented racemare J Adane ran third to Seachange and Cog Hill in the 2007 version of the Makfi Challenge Stakes (then known as the Mudgway Partsworld Stakes). J Dane later went on to be beaten by the barest of noses in the $2 million Kelt Capital Stakes by Princess Coup.
Makfi Challenge Stakes 2014 Racing Report After a short break Zonza returned to the track as a five-year-old, winning in a fresh up state at Te Rapa over 1400m, beating Happy Guys and Thunderbird One, in a very respectable time of 1:22.05 on a dead surface. The strength of her win at Te Rapa was all her connections needed to have another crack at black type company in Australia. This time they headed to Melbourne to take on the fillies and mares in the A$135,000 Group 3 White Maintenance Classic at Caulfield, which she won convincingly in the hands of top jockey Damien Oliver. Zonza has raced six times since her Group 3 victory at Caulfield all in good quality Group company for two close up fourths in the Group 3 Westbury Classic over 1400m at Ellerslie, and again in the Group 2 Japan-New Zealand International Trophy at Tauranga over 1600m. Zonza was also bred by the Lindsay s who have become substantial investors in the industry in recent years, and have accumulated some outstanding bloodstock for their Karaka-based operation. Zonza is by the prolific Cambridge Stud sire Zabeel and is out of the Gold Brose mare Sonet, who raced on just one occasion before injury curtailed her career. Sonet won two trials and her one raceday start was in the Listed Counties Challenge Stakes where she ran home strongly for sixth behind Centennial, Prude, and Zirna. Sonet is out of the Danehill mare Lorelei s Song who comes from the same family as champion European racemare Miesque, dam of the Champion racehorse and sire Kingmambo. The Lindsay s have a half sister to Zonza named Sonobella (by Starcraft) while Zonza looks sure to be a valuable addition to the impressive broodmare band at Lindsay Racing in the years ahead. A win in the Makfi will not only be just compensation for her owners, but trainer Roger James will also be looking for a little more luck in 2014 after his charge Full of Spirit finished second to Survived in the 2013 running of the feature. The one thing these two mares share is their birthplace at Westbury Stud in Karaka. From Racing Coordinator Nicole Brown One of the Gerry Harvey bred and owned runners of particular interest, Sisterhood (Postponed x Scene Queen), is looking to step out at the trials next week and is raced in partnership with the recently established Social Racing Group. Trained by Brendon and Keith Hawtin, Sisterhood (pictured as a yearling) has had one educational trial to date, and has illustrated above average ability, and will hopefully provide Mr. Harvey and her large group of owners plenty of excitement! Sisterhood is from the Redoute s Choice mare Scene Queen who has a two-year-old Makfi filly in the stable of Graeme & Debbie Rogerson, a filly by Redwood heading to Karaka Yearling Sales next January, and is infoal to exciting young stallion Reliable Man. Scene Queen is out of a half-sister to the Group 1 winner Fitnah, who is the dam of Waikato Stud stallion No Excuse Needed.
Pictured: Redwood on parade at Breeders Luncheon (Photo Credit: Lesley Warwick) Breeding Report From Sales Manager Gareth Smith BREEDERS LUNCHEONS This week is the last week of our breeders luncheon functions we have been holding at the farm over the last three months. No doubt those of you who work at the Karaka farm would have seen the breeding clients viewing the stallions and then heading to the serving barn for a long lunch. Breeders have choices when it comes to stallions, it s a competitive market and we are not the only farm offering breeding solutions for their mares. Our current stallion roster is made up of seven stallions that have been purchased from France, England, United States Of America and Australia. I have had indirect and direct feedback from many of you as to what you think goes on in these lunch meetings, that can take up to two and a half hours to complete. While it might be obvious to you that both Russell and I are partial to a nice lunch that is not the purpose of these meetings that have now been held for three years. The breeders attending these functions are our clients that support Westbury by sending their mares to one or more of our stallions. They have invested considerable sums of money into breeding their mares commercially. The aim of most breeders, being successful sellers at the yearling sales and producing a superior race horse on the track. They can t do it without us and we can t be successful with out them. So why the long lunch? The last five stallions we have secured to stand at Westbury Reliable Man, Redwood, Makfi, Red Giant and Swiss Ace are all Group 1 winners. They have been sourced by Russell with one aim in mind, to appeal to our breeding clients and hopefully be successful sires for us and our clients who support them. At the breeders luncheons we discuss with our clients what appeals to them in terms of a stallion, what has worked for them in the past and what sort of stallion they will support in the future. This feedback is critical for us as we search the world each year for new stallions to stand at Westbury. To be successful in this business we need to be driven to find what our customers needs are and then do all we can to find stallions that will meet their expectations. A sandwich or two is a small cost to pay.
Westbury Runners to Follow Postponed 22/08 Singapore Class 4 Handicap S$60,000 1200m 23/08 MVRC SAJ Fruit Supply Handicap A$80,000 2040m Listed Mitchell McKenzie Stakes A$121,000 1200m 24/08 Singapore Class 4 Handicap S$60,000 1100m Postillion - Faber Heights (Sing.) (NZ) 2009 (G. by Ex Danvers) Post d France (NZ) 2008 (G. by Ex Creil) Sovereign Duke (AUS) 2011 (G. by Ex Sovereign Duchess) Speedy Dwarf (NZ) 2007 (G. by Ex Ruby Bay) Dragon Force (NZ) 2010 (G. by Ex Trudy Tee) Captain Rio 23/08 ATC Group 3 Show County Handicap A$125,800 1200m Gilgandra Ellerslie Taranaki Keith Kilby Memorial H., A$6,000 1600m TDM Construction H., NZ$17,500 1200m Ekraar & Echoes of Heaven at Linwood Park S., NZ$25,000 1400m Terravista (AUS) 2009 Pictured above (G. ex Parfore) Light Magic (NZ) 2007 (F. by Captain Rio-Switch Belle) Alice Webb Ellis (NZ) 2009 (F. by Captain Rio-Storm Brose) Kindaleica (NZ) 2010 (G. by Captain Rio-Leica Gazelle) Horse to Follow Consensus 3YO F. (Postponed x Kate Cross) Selector: Katie Seddon Comments: Has won two of her four career starts to date - on debut, and then The Northern Advocate over 1000m. Placed fourth in the Pearl stakes from second last in the field of 10 at the 200m mark. Likes to make a bold late finish. Tip of the Week Under The Louvre Race: #5, R3, Moonee Valley Bet: $20 to win Selector: Gareth Smith Comments: Robert Smerdon trained, Nick Hall rides. Very impressive winner this track and distance last start.
Gold Brose Keeps Striking Gold As published on www.thoroughbredinternet.com One of the mysteries of the breeding world was the failure of Habitat (above right), one of the best stallions ever to stand in Ireland, to establish a worthwhile sire-line. He did, of course, come up with a few decent sire-sons, but overall he proved to be a disappointing male-line influence, not helped by the fact that many of the better stallions from his line died relatively young. By contrast, he proved to be an outstanding broodmare sire. His sons followed suit, generally faring better as sires of broodmares than of stallions. To this day, mares from Habitat s line continue to produce good winners including Parfore, whose excellent son Tiger Tees broke through the milliondollar barrier by taking the VRC Aurie s Star Handicap at Flemington, named after the course s permanent six-furlong record-holder. She is a daughter of the Habitat-line stallion Gold Brose (left), one of the good sires from the line not to make old bones, writes John Berry. One of several top-class horses trained in England for Nijinsky s American owner Charles Englehard by Fulke Johnston-Houghton, Habitat won five of his eight starts as a three-year-old in 1969, his only season of racing. He excelled at a mile, and two of his victories at that distance came in races which nowadays carry Group One status: the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury (under Ron Hutchinson) and the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp (under Lester Piggott). At the end of the year he was bought for 400,000 by Capt. Tim Rogers, brother of the Curragh-based Derby-winning trainer Mick, to stand in Ireland at Airlie Stud in Co. Meath. He had proved a money-spinner for Mr. Englehard (having fetched $105,000 as a yearling) and proved to have been at least as well bought by Capt. Rogers. Living until the age of 21, Habitat proved himself a terrific stallion, coming up with scores of strong, fast sons and daughters, sprinter/milers who generally proved both precocious and progressive. He did well with both colts and fillies. Four of his greatest children (Habibti, Marwell, Rose Bowl and Flying Water) were fillies, but he sired several colts of similar class, including Double Form, Distant Relative and Steinlen, plus a swag of top two-year-olds. As mentioned above, although he came up with a few adequate sires, none of his sons proved nearly as influential at stud as he himself had been. His daughters, though, often proved superb matrons, breeding the likes of Reference Point, Barathea, Shaamit, Marling, Grand Lodge, King Of Kings, Las Meninas, Most Welcome, Dance Design, Never So Bold, Creator and ther fullsiblings Zieten and Blue Duster. Interestingly, Habitat s Northern Dancer half-brother Northfields also proved a good sire of racehorses of both sexes before becoming much better known as a sire of excellent broodmares than of stallions. Habitat was perhaps unlucky not to make more of a mark as a sire of sires, as the horse who seemed arguably his best sire-son died young: Double Form(below), Europe s champion sprinter of 1979 when trained by Johnston-Houghton, died four years later aged only eight when seemingly on the brink of establishing himself as a top stallion. The blow was intensified when Double Form s best son Double Schwartz, who was trained by Charlie Nelson to emulate his father by taking the Prix de l Abbaye de Longchamp, also died young. The second best colt to emerge from Double Form s three crops was Huntingdale, who was trained in Newmarket by Jeremy Hindley to land the Group One Dewhurst Stakes on his home track as a two-year-old in 1985. Habitat horses proved popular down under, enjoying more success at stud in Australia and New Zealand than in general they had done in the British Isles, and it was no surprise to see Huntingdale head to Australia after his career in England had gone off the rails.
Gold Brose Keeps Striking Gold cont... Huntingdale (right) started his threeyear-old campaign promisingly by finishing third to Dancing Brave and Green Desert in the 1986 2,000 Guineas, but he failed to reproduce the form in his two subsequent runs that year. His four-year-old campaign was a washout (he ran poorly in a Listed race at Leicester in the spring before reportedly going amiss) and, although he was initially pencilled in for stud duties in Ireland, he ended up heading to Australia. This was easy to understand, bearing in mind that at the time the Habitat horses Habituate (sire of two VRC Newmarket Handicap winners, Special and Grandiose) and Arch Sculptor were doing well as sprinting stallions in South Australia, while Imperial Seal was getting established as a very good stallion in New Zealand. Over the next few years, Marwell s Mill Reef Stakes-winning full-brother Lord Seymour proved himself a reasonably successful sire in Victoria, while another Habitat horse, Crossways, came up with a champion, Veandercross, in New Zealand. Against this background, it was easy to predict success for Huntingdale (whose dam Abbeydale had been placed in the 1,000 Guineas) in Australia. Disappointingly, this did not prove to be the case, but he did come up with one tremendous sprinter: Gold Brose. Huntingdale was a good-looking chestnut horse. Gold Brose came out in his father s image only much more so, being a truly magnificent animal. He was big, but that did not stop him from being precocious, as he showed when winning his first three starts in Sydney as a two-year-old during the 1992/ 93 season, starting off with an impressive victory on debut in the Group Two STC Silver Slipper Stakes, which was then still run in the spring. He set a new race record, running the 1100m in 1:03.9 seconds. Although his dam Cryptic Verse had been a decent winner, Gold Brose s pedigree lacked the concentration of black type which was already becoming the be-all-and-end-all of bloodstock auctions. Despite his imposing physique, he had been an inexpensive yearling (at $15,000) when bought by Rick Smith from his breeder Ann Raymond, and he was in a small stable. Frank Lewis was one of the most respected trainers in Sydney, but times were changing and the smaller oldtime handlers were being marginalised as the big battalions got ever bigger. Nonetheless, Gold Brose was clearly the boom juvenile in New South Wales, an obvious favourite for Australia s premier juvenile race, the STC Golden Slipper, set to be run at Rosehill eight days before Easter. Injury, however, intervened, and Gold Brose had already been sent off to the spelling paddock by the time that the Golden Slipper was run. Happily, he came back as a three-year-old, almost fulfilling the huge potential which he had shown in the early days. His finest hour came when Lewis sent him down to Melbourne for the VRC Carnival at Flemington. The Carnival s programme has been rejigged in recent years, but traditionally the VRC Linlithgow Stakes was one of the weight-for-age highlights. Run at mile for much of its existence, it has been won by many of the greats, including Amounis, Phar Lap, Chatham, Ajax, Royal Gem and Matrice. In 1967 it was shortened to seven furlongs, but that did not dent its prestige, with Vain winning it a couple of years later. Settled into its position on Oaks Day, it had another shortening of its distance when it was changed to 1200m in 1992. Again it soon showed that it had lost nothing for the change, as the following year s edition attracted a cracking field, with a revivified Gold Brose slamming some top-class opponents, headed by Alannon and Keltrice. The writer of this article was lucky enough to see Gold Brose that day, and still regards him as one of the most imposing and impressive colts he has ever seen. The Linlithgow Stakes, incidentally, is now the Carnival s principal sprint and is run on the final Saturday, following the down-grading of the 1200m handicap on VRC Derby Day which used to take pole position. This year, under the name of the Emirates Classic, it looks set to provide the muchanticipated intercontinental showdown between Lankan Rupee and Slade Power. At the end of his injury-interrupted career, Gold Brose retired to Westbury Farm in New Zealand, relatively lightly raced with a record of five wins and a second from only eight starts. He proved an instant success, coming up with five stakes winners in his first crop including NZ Champion Three- Year-Old Buzz Lightyear (a Group One winner in 1999/2000 of the NZ 2,000 Guineas and the Bayer Classic) and Group Two winner Catamarca.
Gold Brose Keeps Striking Gold cont... There were four more stakes winners in his second crop, and then in his 1999 crop he came up with his second Group One winner: NZ Champion Two-Year- Old Grout, winner of both the country s Group One juvenile races. Long-term, Gold Brose (like so many Habitat-line sires) has made his biggest impact as a broodmare sire. Tragically, he had to be put down because of laminitis aged in 2000, just before Westbury Farm, at the head of whose roster he stood proudly, was due to relocate from Cambridge to Karaka. Even so, 14 years after his death, his daughters are still coming up with top horses, many of them reminiscent of their maternal grandsire: strong, fast and genuine. Tiger Tees (below) dam Parfore ranks an excellent broodmare having also bred the Group winners Terravista and Our Lukas; while the former fast filly Gold Class is now another notable matron, having been represented by the stakes winners Intimate Moment, Gold Rum and Bonnie Mac. Other stars bred by Gold Brose mares include the NZ Group One winners Arlingtonboulevard, Il Quello Veloce (below top) and Miss Raggedy Ann (below bottom), as well as the HKtrained sprinting star Little Bridge (a Group One winner at Royal Ascot in 2011 in the King s Stand Stakes) and 2012 Singapore Derby winner Chase Me. As mentioned above, Huntingdale proved to be a disappointing stallion, to the extent that, despite breeding Gold Brose, he ended up being exported from Australia to South Africa (where he sired Zimbabwe Guineas winner Prince Bouchard). However, he made a worthwhile contribution to the story of the Habitat line by breeding Gold Brose and he did so without the help of an obviously special mare: Gold Brose s dam Cryptic Verse had been a decent filly in her racing days, but her immediate family was not distinguished. Her sire, the former Ballydoyle inmate Yeats, was never the height of fashion, even if he did sire a handful of excellent horses headed by the outstanding MVRC W.S. Cox Plate winner Our Poetic Prince, and also including Poetic King, Rapan Boy, Mingling Glances, Dancing Poet and Just Blooming. Farther back, hers was an American family, with Cryptic Verse s dam Under Cover (a daughter of Marscay s maternal grandsire Under Cover) having been imported from the States. There weren t many stars close up but, taking a broader view, it was a lovely family. Under Cover s grand-dam Scattered was a half-sister to Somethingroyal, dam of one of the few big powerful chestnut horses who can be ranked clearly (and vastly) superior to Gold Brose: Secretariat. Interestingly, Somethingroyal was also the dam of Habitat s sire Sir Gaylord (above right), which may or may not have been a factor in Ann Raymond s decision to send Cryptic Verse to the Habitat-line sire Huntingdale. As well as Secretariat, Sir Gaylord and Sir Gaylord s descendant Gold Brose, other stallions to have emerged from the family include Hula Chief (USA, not NZ), Chichicastenango and Cure The Blues, while its most recent star has been the outstanding Japanese sprinter Lord Kanaloa. Habitat was unlucky in that several of the best stallions descending from him died young. Gold Brose came into this category and, as his daughters children keep reminding us, it was particularly sad that he did not live longer. Thanks to a continuing flow of good horses produced by his daughters, the loss of this lovely horse continues to be felt not only by Westbury Farm, but by the entire NZ Thoroughbred community.