Wandering Eyes

The progeny of New Zealand’s top stallions consistently make their mark across Australasia and Hong Kong, and there is no better place to secure this season’s crop of their yearlings than Karaka 2026. ALMANZOR Almanzor Cambridge Stud’s Almanzor has been in incredible form in recent weeks, with four new Group winners since November 22 including his latest Group One winner. Having previously made his mark as a classic sire through the deeds of Group One Victoria Derby (2500m) winner Manzoice, Almanzor has shown a different kind of influence through these last few weeks. First Five (NZ) triumphed in the Group One Telegraph (1200m) at Trentham and the Group Three J Swap Sprint (1400m) at Te Rapa, while Qali Al Farrasha (NZ) took out the Group Two Auckland Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1400m), Lux Libertas (NZ) won the Group Two Manawatu Challenge Stakes (1400m) and Mary Shan (NZ) captured the Group Three Great Northern Challenge Stakes (1600m). Almanzor has sired 29 stakes winners overall among a total of 347 winners from 653 runners. He has become a regular presence among the top half-dozen on the New Zealand sires’ premiership, including a career-best third spot in 2024-25 with 41 winners and $2.88m in stakes. Almanzor has sired 81 winners in Australia, seven of them at black-type level, and there have been four winners from only nine runners in Hong Kong. Almanzor had a total of 35 yearlings sold at Karaka 2025 for an average of $151,214. His yearlings have sold for up to $675,000 in the Karaka sale ring. The catalogues for Karaka 2026 feature 24 yearlings by Almanzor in Book 1, nine in Book 2 and two in the Summer Sale. Lot 74 is a three-quarter-sister to Almanzor’s Victoria Derby winner Manzoice. Lot 114 is a full-brother to Mary Shan, who prior to her recent Group Three victory had placed in the Group Two Eight Carat Classic (1600m), Group Two Soliloquy Stakes (1600m), $1m Elsdon Park Aotearoa Classic (1600m) and Listed Matamata Cup (1600m). She also ran fourth in the Group One Levin Classic (1600m). Lot 500 is a half-brother to the Group One Doomben 10,000 (1200m), Kingsford-Smith Cup (1300m) and Canterbury Stakes (1300m) winner (The) Bostonian (NZ) (Jimmy Choux). Lot 534 is a half-brother to promising two-year-old Harvey Wallbanger (NZ) (Home Affairs), who has followed his impressive debut victory with black-type placings in the Group Two Eclipse Stakes (1200m) and Listed Counties Challenge Stakes (1100m). Lot 236 is a half-brother to the promising two-year-old Spellbound (NZ) (Per Incanto), who has placed in the Listed Counties Challenge Stakes (1100m) since the catalogue went to print. Their dam Xpression (NZ) (Showcasing) was herself a Group Two winner and Group One placegetter and has produced two stakes performers from three foals to race. Lot 243 is out of Group One Queensland Oaks (2400m) placegetter Zenella (NZ) (Zabeel) and is a half-brother to the Listed winner Miss Ella (NZ) (Iffraaj). CONTRIBUTER Contributer A significant void was left in New Zealand’s stallion ranks when Mapperley Stud announced the untimely death of Contributer in September 2024 at the age of 15. The son of High Chaparral retired to Mapperley after an eight-win racing career that was headed by Group One triumphs in the Group One Chipping Norton Stakes (1600m) and Ranvet Stakes (2000m). Contributer has sired 131 winners from 222 runners, with 12 stakes winners including Lion’s Roar (NZ) in the Group One Randwick Guineas (1600m) and Campionessa (NZ) in the Group One Zabeel Classic (2000m). Campionessa also won four Group Two races including the Peter Young Stakes (1800m) at Caulfield. Contributer’s progeny have been stakes winners over distances ranging from 1200 metres (Maria Farina (NZ) in the Listed Stewards’ Stakes) to 2500 metres (Campionessa in the Listed Metropolitan Trophy). Yearlings by Contributer averaged $123,750 in Book of Karaka 2025, and they have sold for as much as $260,000 in previous years. Nine yearlings from Contributer’s final full-sized crop will go through the ring in Book 1 of Karaka 2026. There are also six of his progeny in Book 2. Lot 306 is a full-sister to Contributer’s Group One-winning daughter Campionessa and is also a half-sister to the Listed winners Leedox (NZ) (Time Test) and Tennessee (NZ) (Per Incanto). Lot 468 is a colt out of a three-quarter-sister to the five-time Group One winner and high-class sire Pierro. OCEAN PARK Ocean Park Himself a $150,000 yearling purchase from Karaka 2010, Ocean Park (NZ) went on to win five Group One races including the Cox Plate (2040m) before retiring to stud at Waikato Stud. He has continued his excellence in that new career, with 363 winners from 600 runners including 25 at stakes level. Ocean Park has sired Group One winners from 1400 to 3200 metres, headed by Tofane (NZ) with her quartet of triumphs in the All Aged Stakes (1400m), Stradbroke Handicap (1400m), Tattersall’s Tiara (1400m) and CF Orr Stakes (1400m). Others to win at the elite level include Kolding (NZ) in the Epsom Handicap (1600m), All Aged Stakes and George Main Stakes (1600m), along with Kovalica (NZ) in the Queensland Derby (2400m). The latest additions to that stakes-winning list are three-year-old fillies Tellum (NZ) and Ohope Wins (NZ). Tellum scored an impressive front-running triumph in the Group Two Eight Carat Classic (1600m) at Ellerslie on Boxing Day, while Ohope Wins powered home from off the pace for an emphatic victory in the Group Two Sir Patrick Hogan Stakes (2000m) at the same venue on New Year’s Day. Another exciting prospect is the Allan Sharrock-trained four-year-old Komocean (NZ), who improved her career record to three wins from four starts with a four-length runaway at New Plymouth on December 31. Ocean Park’s progeny averaged $113,889 in Book 1 of Karaka 2025. His yearlings have sold for up to $450,000 at Karaka. Five yearlings by Ocean Park will go through the ring in Book 1 of Karaka 2026, followed by another five in Book 2 and one in the Summer Sale. Lot 222 is a full-brother to Kovalica, who has turned his $110,000 purchase price at Karaka 2021 into more than A$4.37m in prize-money. His seven wins include the Queensland Derby, the Group Two Q22 (2200m) and the Group Two Queensland Guineas (1600m), and he has twice placed in the Group One Doomben Cup (2000m). Lot 418 is a three-quarter-brother to the triple Group One winner and A$6.6m earner Kolding, who himself was purchased for $170,000 from Karaka 2017. PER INCANTO Per Incanto Little Avondale Stud’s Per Incanto has saved some of his very best results for Australia, where he has been represented by multiple Group One-winning sprinters Jimmysstar (NZ) and Roch ‘N’ Horse (NZ), along with fellow Group One stars Gringotts (NZ) and Little Brose. Per Incanto has sired a total of 460 winners from 694 runners, with 35 individual black-type winners including nine at Group One level. Another emerging talent who looks close to joining that Group One list is Evaporate (NZ), who has had 19 starts for six wins, eight placings and A$2.76m in stakes. His wins include the Group Two Stutt Stakes (1600m) and Group Three Carbine Club Stakes (1600m) and Sandown Stakes (1500m), while he has run second in the Group One Toorak Handicap (1600m), third in the Group One Caulfield Guineas (1600m), third in the Group One CF Orr Stakes (1400m), second in the $3.5m NZB Kiwi (1500m) and third in the A$10m Golden Eagle (1500m). Per Incanto had 22 yearlings sell during Karaka 2025 last January, averaging $158,864 with a top price of $375,000. His yearlings have previously sold for up to $500,000 at Karaka, while two of his two-year-olds sold for $750,000 and $700,000 at the NZB Ready to Run Sale in November. Karaka 2026 features 22 yearlings by Per Incanto in Book 1, along with eight in Book 2 and one in the Summer Sale. Lot 100 is a half-brother to the dam of Evaporate. The colt is also a full-brother to the Group Three winner Belluci Babe (NZ) (Per Incanto). Lot 296 is a filly out of an unraced Savabeel mare who is a half-sister to multiple Group One winner and sire Grunt (NZ) and full-sister to the Group Two winner Zayydani (NZ) (Savabeel). Lot 425 is out of the Group One Railway Stakes (1200m) winner Fleur De Lune (NZ) (Stravinsky). This filly is a full-sister to this season’s Group Three Sweynesse Stakes (1215m) winner Twain (NZ) (Per Incanto). Lot 466 is a half-brother to four winners including the seven-race winner Running Glory (NZ) (Kermadec), who finished second in Hong Kong’s Group Three Centenary Vase (1800m). PROISIR Proisir The last few years have seen progeny of Rich Hill Stud’s Proisir play a starring role both on racetracks and in the sale ring, where there have been price tags of $1.6m, $1.1m, $850,000 and $700,000 for his yearlings at Karaka 2024 and Karaka 2025. Proisir was added to the Rich Hill Stud stallion roster in 2015 at an introductory service fee of $7,000, and his remarkable rise has seen that figure soar to $70,000. He is the sire of 253 winners from 405 runners, with 23 individual stakes winners including Group One stars Levante (NZ), Legarto (NZ), Waitak (NZ), Prowess (NZ), Dark Destroyer (NZ) and Pier (NZ). Legarto, Prowess and Dark Destroyer were all themselves purchased from Karaka as yearlings. Proisir is the only stallion not named Savabeel to finish at the top of the New Zealand premiership in the last decade, taking top honours in 2022-23. He finished second to Savabeel in the both of the two following seasons, and he currently holds top spot again so far in 2025-26. Karaka 2026 features a bumper contingent of Proisir yearlings, with 54 in Book 1 and nine in Book 2. Lot 28 is a colt out of the multiple Group Two winner and Group One placegetter Our Abbadean (NZ) (Lookin At Lucky). Trelawney Stud offers Lot 94, a colt that is a half-brother to dual Group One winner and sire Grunt (NZ) along with Group Two winner Zayydani (NZ) (Savabeel). Lot 202 is out of a half-sister to the multiple Group One-winning sprinting star I Wish I Win (NZ) (Savabeel). Pencarrow Stud’s draft features a filly catalogued as Lot 365, who is a half-sister to last season’s Group One Queensland Derby (2400m) winner Maison Louis (NZ) (Super Seth). Lot 387 is a full-sister to the multiple Group One winner Prowess as well as fillies that have fetched $1.6m and $1.1m at Karaka 2024 and 2025 respectively. All of these fillies have been offered by Hallmark Stud. Lot 459 is a half-sister to the Group One New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) and Railway Stakes (1200m) winner Crocetti (NZ) (Zacinto). SATONO ALADDIN Satono Aladdin Rich Hill Stud has had outstanding success tapping into Japan for its stallion prospects, most notably with the high-class Pentire siring 16 Group One winners. Lightning might be striking twice with Satono Aladdin. The son of breed-shaping Japanese champion Deep Impact had a high-quality racetrack career of his own, winning eight times from 29 starts including a Group One triumph in the Yasuda Kinen (1600m) as a six-year-old. The Rich Hill Stud team didn’t have to wait as long as that for Satono Aladdin’s progeny to make a Group One impact. Satono Aladdin has sired 229 winners from 389 runners, with 13 individual stakes winners. His New Zealand record stands at 38 winners from 76 runners, with 17 winners from 31 runners in Australia and four winners from just nine runners in Hong Kong. Pennyweka (NZ) headlines Satono Aladdin’s list of progeny with her classic double in the Group One New Zealand Oaks (2400m) and Australian Oaks (2400m). Firestorm (NZ) has won five races including the Group Two Millie Fox Stakes (1300m) and ran second in a photo finish to the Group One Coolmore Classic (1500m). Tokyo Tycoon (NZ) was New Zealand’s champion two-year-old of 2022-23 and won the $1m TAB Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m). Sacred Satono (NZ) is a seven-race winner including the Group Three Counties Bowl (1100m) and Group Three Bonecrusher Stakes (1400m) and has placed in the Group One Telegraph (1200m) and Tarzino Trophy (1400m). Lantern Way (NZ) and Magic Carpet (NZ) have won two of the last three runnings of the Group Two Hawke’s Bay Guineas (1400m). Satono Aladdin had 41 yearlings sold at Karaka 2025 for an average of $147,683. His yearlings have sold for as much as $900,000, and he had two-year-olds sell for up to $675,000 at the recent NZB Ready to Run Sale. Satono Aladdin is the sire of 54 yearlings in Book 1 of Karaka 2026. There are also 14 of his progeny in Book 2 and one in the Summer Sale. Lot 192 is offered by Ardsley Stud and is a full-sister to their dual Oaks winner Pennyweka. Half-brother Notabadspillane (NZ) (Time Test) has placed in the Group Three New Zealand Cup (3200m) since the catalogue went to print. Wentwood Grange’s Satono Aladdin colt catalogued as Lot 521 is a half-brother to the 10-time Group One winner Mr Brightside (NZ) (Bullbars). Lot 549 is a half-brother to the Group One George Ryder Stakes (1500m) winner and A$6m earner Gringotts (NZ) (Per Incanto). Lot 553 is a half-sister to the multiple Group One winner and Sydney Group Two winner Belclare (NZ) (Per Incanto). Lot 73 is a half-sister to Madison County (NZ) (Pins), who won the Group One New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) and Group One Levin Classic (1600m) and was runner-up in the Group One Australian Derby (2400m). Lot 105 is a colt out of Sayyzel (NZ) (Snitzel), an unraced half-sister to Australian Group Two winners Shanwah (NZ) (Too Darn Hot) and Excelida (Exceed And Excel). Lot 131 is out of the Group Two Cal Isuzu Stakes (1600m) winner and Group One placegetter Sinarahma (NZ) (Darci Brahma). Jamieson Park’s colt catalogued as Lot 187 is out of the Group One Thorndon Mile (1600m) winner Thee Auld Floozie (NZ) (Mastercraftsman), who is the dam of the stakes-performed Just A Floozie (NZ) (I Am Invincible). Lot 292 is a half-sister to the multiple Group winner and Group One Queen of the Turf Stakes (1600m) placegetter Annavisto (NZ) (Reliable Man). Lot 462 is a filly out of a stakes-performed three-quarter-sister to the multiple Group One winner Lucia Valentina (NZ) (Savabeel). Lot 530 is a filly out of an unraced full-sister to the Group One Cox Plate (2040m) winner El Segundo (NZ) (Pins). SAVABEEL Savabeel With 11 of his yearlings selling for $800,000 or more at Karaka through the last decade, and almost two dozen of his NZB National Yearling Sale graduates going on to Group One glory, Savabeel has been a colossus of the Karaka sale ring in recent years. The Waikato Stud kingpin’s extraordinary career was honoured with induction into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame in 2025. Savabeel boasts 10 Grosvenor Awards for champion New Zealand sire by domestic progeny earnings, 10 Dewar Awards for combined Australian and New Zealand progeny earnings, and nine Centaine Awards for combined progeny earnings worldwide. Overall, Arion Pedigrees statistics credit Savabeel with 1036 winners from 1419 runners including 154 individual stakes winners. No fewer than 35 of his progeny have won at Group One level. Those elite performers range from the 1200-metre heroics of freakish sprinter I Wish I Win (NZ) to the supreme stamina of Derby, Oaks and Cup winners such as Orchestral (NZ), Sangster (NZ), Major Beel (NZ), Scarlett Lady (NZ), Savvy Coup (NZ), Amarelinha (NZ) and Savaria (NZ). Many of his other progeny have excelled at a mile, like Atishu (NZ), Probabeel (NZ) and Shillelagh (NZ). Notably, of those 35 Group One winners, 23 are Karaka yearling graduates – Probabeel, Atishu, Lucia Valentina (NZ), Sangster, Soriano (NZ), Scarlett Lady, Orchestral, Savvy Coup, Mo’unga (NZ), Costume (NZ), Prise De Fer (NZ), The Chosen One (NZ), Diademe (NZ), Savaglee, Amarelinha, Brambles (NZ), Sword Of Osman (NZ), Nicoletta (NZ), Savaria (NZ), Cool Aza Beel (NZ), Noverre (NZ), Hasahalo (NZ) and Embellish (NZ). There has been massive demand for Savabeel’s progeny at Karaka through the last decade. Since 2015, he has had 464 yearlings sell for a total of $117m and an average price of $253,459. Tavistock (NZ) is a distant second placegetter during this period, with 280 yearlings selling for a total of $40m and average of $144,455. Savabeel broke new ground at Karaka 2025 with his highest ever price – and an all-time record for a filly sold at Karaka. Mulcaster Bloodstock and Chris Waller Racing went to $2.4m to buy the full-sister to Orchestral. As always, Karaka 2026 is the place to go to secure the latest crop of Savabeel yearlings. There are 35 catalogued, all of them in Book 1. A potential headline act is Waikato Stud’s colt catalogued as Lot 452. He is a full-brother to last season’s champion New Zealand three-year-old Savaglee (NZ) (Savabeel), who won the Group One New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) and three Group Two races. He also placed in the Group One Australian Guineas (1600m) and Waikato Sprint (1400m). Lot 246 is out of the stakes-winning Zoustar mare Zouzarella. Lot 259 is a Cambridge Stud colt from a high-quality European family stacked with black type. Lot 367 is a half-brother to the dual Group One winner Mustang Valley (NZ) (Vanbrugh). SHAMEXPRESS Shamexpress Windsor Park Stud’s Shamexpress (NZ) has produced a number of high-class horses during his career, but he will now be forever linked with just one name – Ka Ying Rising (NZ). Within the space of just a 19-race career so far, Ka Ying Rising has established himself as an all-time great of Hong Kong racing and a world-champion sprinter. He has won 17 of those 19 starts, including the last 16 in a row – just one shy of the all-time record of 17, set by Silent Witness (El Moxie) more than 20 years ago. Ka Ying Rising has won the Group One Hong Kong Sprint (1200m) twice, the Group One Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1200m), the Group One Centenary Sprint Cup (1200m) and the Group One Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m), along with a historic first win by an overseas-trained horse in the A$20m The Everest (1200m) in Sydney in October. Those statistics, and the breathtaking dominance of many of those performances, will themselves be enough for Shamexpress to live long in the memory. But his career is not simply limited to one horse. He is the sire of 154 winners from 236 runners, with 16 individual stakes winners. His other notable performers include multiple Group One winner Coventina Bay (NZ), dual Melbourne Group Two winner Grinzinger Belle (NZ), Group Two Foxbridge Plate (1200m) winner Sterling Express (NZ) and multiple Group Three-winning stayer Blue Sky At Night (NZ). Shamexpress has sired 82 winners from 143 runners in New Zealand, 60 from 83 in Australia and eight from only 14 in Hong Kong. Ka Ying Rising’s emergence has unsurprisingly led to increased demand for progeny of Shamexpress at Karaka, with an average price of $112,000 at Karaka 2025 last January. He also averaged $191,666 at the Ready to Run Sale in November. Karaka 2026 gives buyers another select offering of Shamexpress yearlings, with four in Book 1 and three in Book 2. Lot 82 is a full-brother to Maracana (NZ) (Shamexress), who has won five races headed by the Group Three Drinkwise Mile (1600m). She also placed in the Group Two Moonee Valley Fillies’ Classic (1600m). the yearling immediately before him in the catalogue, Lot 81, is a filly out of a half-sister to Maracana. SUPER SETH Super Seth As the first Group One Caulfield Guineas (1600m) winner to retire to stud in New Zealand in three decades, huge anticipation surrounded the arrival of Super Seth at Waikato Stud in 2020. The son of champion New Zealand-bred racehorse and influential stallion Dundeel (NZ) has lived up to and surpassed all of those high expectations. Super Seth was New Zealand’s leading first-season sire in 2023-24 and followed that up with the second-season title in 2024-25. He has sired 65 winners from 118 runners, with eight individual stakes winners. But what has really set him apart is his immediate Group One impact. His first two crops have already produced four Group One winners, and they all happened between March and June of this year – Feroce (NZ) in the Australian Guineas (1600m), Linebacker (NZ) in the Randwick Guineas (1600m), La Dorada (NZ) in the Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) and Maison Louis (NZ) in the Queensland Derby (2400m). For good measure, La Dorada also triumphed in the $1m TAB Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m) and the Group Two Matamata Breeders’ Stakes (1200m). Super Seth’s service fee was set at $35,000 from 2020 to 2023, then rose to $45,000 after a strong run of results with his first crop of two-year-olds. His Group One gold rush earlier this year has earned a further increase to $75,000. Super Seth yearlings have sold for up to $700,000 at Karaka, and at the recent NZB Ready to Run Sale, he had five two-year-olds sell for an average of $186,000. An impeccably bred crop of Super Seth yearlings will go through the ring during Karaka 2026 – 40 in Book 1 and seven in Book 2. Lot 104 is a son of the Group One-winning Savabeel mare Savy Yong Blonk (NZ). Lot 138 is set to be a major drawcard, being a half-brother to the three-time Group One winner Provence (NZ) (Savabeel) as well as last season’s $1.5m TAB Karaka Millions 3YO (1600m) and inaugural $3.5m NZB Kiwi (1500m) winner Damask Rose (NZ) (Savabeel). Lot 298 is a half-brother to Tuxedo (NZ) (Tivaci), who was runner-up in last season’s Karaka Millions 3YO and is among the leading contenders for the $1m Elsdon Park Aotearoa Classic (1600m) at the 2026 edition of that same Karaka Millions meeting on the eve of the sale. Lot 382 is a half-brother to five black-type performers including Group One New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) winner Kahma Lass (NZ) (Darci Brahma). Another half-sibling, the three-year-old filly Drops Of God (NZ) (Hello Youmzain), recently won by five and a half lengths on debut at Te Aroha. Lot 522 is out of Group Three winner Lilikoi (NZ) (Charm Spirit). This colt’s promising half-sister Passiflora (NZ) (Farnan) has had three starts for two wins and a placing. TARZINO Tarzino The incredible classic successes of the progeny of Tavistock (NZ) are a hard act for anyone to follow, but his son Tarzino (NZ) is putting together a stellar record of his own. Himself the winner of the Group One Victoria Derby (2500m) and Rosehill Guineas (2000m), the Westbury Stud stallion is the sire of six stakes winners including Gypsy Goddess (NZ) in the Queensland Oaks (2200m), Jungle Magnate (NZ) in the South Australian Derby (2500m) and Willydoit (NZ) in last season’s New Zealand Derby (2400m). But Tarzino is not merely a stamina sire. His exciting daughter Tomodachi (NZ) has won six races including the Group Three Rotorua Stakes (1400m), and in the current season she has finished third in the Group One Proisir Plate (1400m) and fourth in the Group One Telegraph (1200m). Tarzino’s yearlings averaged $96,000 in Book 1 of Karaka 2025, and his progeny have sold for up to $300,000. Karaka 2026 features three Tarzino yearlings in Book 1, 9 in Book 2 and six in the Summer Sale. Lot 2 is a colt from the Westbury Stud draft and is the first foal out of the four-race-winning Snitzel mare Narrated. Lot 638 is a half-brother to the Group Three BJ McLachlan Stakes (1200m) placegetter Baby Wong (Press Statement). Lot 718 is a full-brother to the promising Honor Mission (NZ) (Tarzino), who has recorded a win and a placing from a five-start career to date. Their dam Commiserate (Congrats) placed in the Listed Oaklands Plate (1600m). Karaka 2026 will take place at the Karaka Sales Centre from January 25 to 29, with Book 1 on January 25 and 26, Book 2 on January 27 and the new Karaka Summer Sale on January 29. View the full article

Just one week out from the iconic TAB Karaka Millions Raceday, where NZB graduates will take to the track for their share of $4.6m in stakes, NZB has unveiled new custom made trophies for winning connections of the $1m TAB Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m) and $1.5m TAB Karaka Millions 3YO (1600m) races. Crafted by master jeweller Nicola (Nic) Cerrone, director and creative mind behind Melbourne-based Cerrone Jewellers, the trophies are stamped with his signature artisan craftmanship that has earned him a loyal following for more than 50 years. The ownership group in both sale graduate races will receive a 35cm tall trophy to keep, with the winning trainer and jockey of both races receiving minis. “We are delighted to reveal the distinctive new Karaka Millions trophies, a fitting year with the celebration of our 100th National Yearling Sale,” commented NZB’s Jessie Gower. “The TAB Karaka Millions are iconic races and these trophies reflect that well. The unique design is inspired by the KM icon that can be found against every Karaka Millions eligible horse, be it in a racebook or catalogue. I’m sure all connections will be eyeing these ones up.” The new trophies add an extra layer of excitement in what is shaping up to be another spectacular night of racing. The live barrier draw for the two TAB Karaka Millions races will be held at the Karaka Sales Centre on Wednesday 21 January from 10.15am, and broadcast live on Trackside 1. The 2026 TAB Karaka Millions 2YO and TAB Karaka Millions 3YO will be run at Ellerslie on January 24, as part of a star-studded twilight card that also features the $700,000 Group One Sistema Railway (1200m), the $1m Group Three Elsdon Park Aotearoa Classic (1600m), the $250,000 Group Three Almanzor Trophy (1200m) and the $100,000 Jo Giles Stakes (1400m). TAB Karaka Millions night serves as the perfect curtain-raiser for the 100th edition of the New Zealand National Yearling Sale, which gets underway the following day. Book 1 of Karaka 2026 takes place on January 25 and 26, followed by Book 2 on January 27 and the new Karaka Summer Sale on January 29. View the full article

Saturday’s final event at Rosehill is the biggest test of Cross Tasman’s (NZ) (Super Seth) career, but it is also an audition for bigger things later in the year. The Super Seth four-year-old is a horse that Randwick trainers John O’Shea & Tom Charlton can see lining up in rich races next spring. The gelding is after a hat-trick of wins to start the prep and Charlton keen to see how he performs at his first start in Saturday metro grade. “Ideally, if everything goes to plan, he might be one we’ll try and qualify for The Big Dance,” he said. “There could be a couple of options for him, country races to try and get them in that, and then we can maybe set our sights on the spring a bit more.” Cross Tasman’s only win in four starts in his initial campaign came in a Hawkesbury Super Maiden, but his two starts this time in have realised wins in a 1250m BM64 on the Kensington track at Randwick and a 1300m BM72 win at Randwick on Boxing Day. The NZ$260,000 Karaka purchase was scratched from last Saturday at Wyong due to the hot conditions and is likely to have contrasting conditions at Rosehill with rain predicted late Friday into Saturday. Cross Tasman’s maiden win came on a Soft 7 surface, while his dam Daffodil (NZ) (No Excuse Needed) won two of her three Group Ones on Soft tracks, including the ATC Oaks. “He drew a bit sticky last Saturday in very hot conditions and we didn’t feel that was the right thing to do, so we elected to wait this weekend,” Charlton said. “We thought he’d definitely get through the grades. I wouldn’t have said two starts for the prep for two wins, but he’s a very laid-back, unassuming horse at home. “He doesn’t give too much away, which is not a bad thing.” Cross Tasman drew barrier four in the TAB Handicap, for which he was a $1.95 favourite on Friday morning, and will have the services of Dylan Gibbons. View the full article

Warwoven (Sword Of State), the raging favourite for Saturday’s Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic (1200m), is in doubt for the A$3 million race after exhibiting signs of lameness on the eve of the event. As is custom prior to the Magic Millions feature, Queensland stewards carried out Friday morning veterinary inspections and Warwoven was found to be lame in the off foreleg. The Sword Of State colt’s stablemate Masvingo (Zourstar), who is owned in similar interests, was also lame, in the near foreleg, with the Bjorn Baker-trained pair to be given until early Saturday morning to prove their fitness. “Both runners will undergo a further examination tomorrow morning prior to scratching time,” Racing Queensland stewards said in their release. Warwoven being declared unfit to race would drastically reshape the 1200-metre race with the unbeaten colt into as short as $1.70 before the news of his condition broke. The A$380,000 Gold Coast yearling has headed betting since his brilliant win at Eagle Farm on January 3, which followed a dominant debut win at Randwick on December 20. The $6 second favourite for the Magic Millions is unbeaten Chris and Corey Munce-trained Hellbent colt Zip Lock, from Maribyrnong Plate winner Tornado Valley (Too Darn Hot) ($8) and Shiki (Too Darn Hot) ($11). View the full article

In the midst of an experience they would never wish to relive, Gareth Downey and Mel Gamble found solace last Saturday when Chica Mojito finally got the win she deserved in the A$500,000 The Lakes Mile at Wyong. Unfortunately the former New Zealand couple weren’t able to enjoy the action at one of the biggest fixtures on the New South Wales track, committed instead to the challenges of the north-east Victoria bushfires involving their workplace, Lindsay Park Racing. The Hayes family’s private training and spelling property at Creightons Creek, 150 kilometres north-east of Melbourne, was impacted by the massive Longwood bushfire that by the start of this week had devastated some 400,000 hectares of rural Victoria. Sadly, the losses included one Longwood resident, much wildlife and a lot of livestock including seven horses in the Lindsay Park spelling paddocks, and numerous farm and residential buildings. Amongst those destroyed was an estimated 90 percent of Lindsay Park’s 390-hectare fencing and pastures. Lindsay Park’s core training facility was fortuitously spared, in large part thanks to irrigation systems and associated infrastructure, allowing that part of the operation to remain functional. Downey, well-known in New Zealand from his time with Waikato Stud and then as General Manager of Valachi Downs, now works as Chief Executive of Lindsay Park Racing having joined them three years ago. His wife Mel works there too managing marketing and communications. Together they have bred and raced on a small scale, with their most notable success the Gr.1 Thorndon Mile with Macavelli Miss in 2006. On Saturday the Chris Waller-trained Chica Mojito added her name to that list with her dominant win in The Lakes Mile. 2Chica Mojito scores her first Australian win in The Lakes (1600m) at Wyong. Photo: bradleyphotos.com.au234370.jpg “It’s hard to put into words what we’ve all experienced over the past five days,” Downey said when RaceForm spoke to him on Monday. “On the Friday all hell broke loose with winds up to 100 kilometres an hour and 45-degree heat. The CFA (Country Fire Authority) firefighters were saying they had never seen anything like it and they did an utterly fantastic job to contain it as well as they did. “For everyone at Lindsay Park, we all know we did the very best we could but will of course always wish there was more we could have done.” Downey and Gamble live on their own 70-acre property in the Strathbogie Ranges about half an hour’s drive from Lindsay Park, and they had to evacuate that for what thankfully transpired as only a precautionary measure. “Everyone’s lives around here have been tipped upside down, we’ve all been through a hell of a lot with some of our staff losing their homes or property and some coming close to disaster while trying to defend their own places. The common feeling about the last five days is that it seems more like five weeks – that’s how surreal it’s all been. “Chica Mojito’s win up at Wyong was something else again. Normally when one of our horses is due to race we get very excited about it, but the distractions were so immense on Saturday that we almost forgot what time the race actually was. “I was here at Lindsay Park and Mel was at our temporary accommodation, so we tuned in separately and when she won like she did, we were straight on the phone to each other and there was basically a lot of crying. “It was such a difficult situation for us and our reaction was more an emotional release rather than a celebration.” Downey deflects credit for Chica Mojito’s existence to his wife, who sourced her dam, the Cecconi mare Cantina, online. “We were looking for a semi-commercial mare and just kept getting outbid. Then Mel saw this nondescript-looking mare in foal to Redwood as part of a dispersal sale for the princely sum of $1,000. “Mel just had a sense there was something special about the mare and she felt sorry for her so she bought her, which I have to admit I gave her some grief about at the time. The Redwood filly she produced was named Tequila and won her second start like a horse really going places, but then she did a tendon. “We then bred Cantina twice to Zacinto when he was standing at Valachi Downs; the first was a colt who won one race and the next was the filly who is Chica Mojito.” Initially trained by Ben and Ryan Foote, Chica Mojito won her second start and later that spring lined up in the New Zealand 1000 Guineas but finished midfield after a luckless run. Her next-start third in the Gr.3 Eulogy Stakes attracted the interest of Australian syndicator Brad Spicer and a deal was done with Downey and Gamble retaining a 50 percent interest and she was transferred to Chris Waller. Saturday’s Wyong win was her first since and thoroughly deserved given the number of times she had gone close, including four runner-up performances in Sydney, third placings in the Gr.3 Gosford Belle of the Turf Stakes and Listed Queensland Tattersall’s Mile and fourths in the Gr.2 Queensland Guineas and Gr.3 James HB Carr Stakes. “We were beginning to wonder if it was ever going to happen, she started being talked about as the next Tom Kitten,” Downey said. “It wasn’t as if she was racing poorly, more that there was always something that went wrong, so to see her come out and win so well at Wyong in track record time was remarkable.” Chica Mojito’s share of the $500,000 stake took her earnings past A$600,000 and now with that confidence booster behind her, connections are looking at further opportunities on this side of Tasman. “Chris plans to pop her out for a week and then send her over for the Group Two fillies and mares’ race on Champions Day at Ellerslie,” Downey said in reference to the Gr.2 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Classic, formerly known as the Westbury Classic. “He did the same last year for good results with Konasana, who had a similar profile to Chica, and all going to plan she’ll also run in the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes. “That’s pretty exciting being a Group One and we definitely plan to get over to New Zealand for that, it will be quite a buzz to come home.” View the full article

Matamata trainer Pam Gerard has doubled her representation in the $4 million NZB Kiwi (1500m), with Slot Holder Auckland Thoroughbred Racing (ATR) announcing Affirmative Action (AUS) (Yes Yes Yes) as their representative in the Southern Hemisphere’s richest three-year-old race. The Yes Yes Yes gelding will join stablemate Romanoff (NZ) (Belardo) in the Champions Day feature at Ellerslie on 7 March, after he secured the Canterbury Jockey Club’s slot after beating Affirmative Action by the barest of margins in the $700,000 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai 53rd New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton Park last November. Gerard is rapt to have two representatives in The NZB Kiwi and said it is rewarding for her hard-working team at Ballymore Racing. “It is great to get two from our little team in there, it is pretty exciting,” Gerard said. “Everyone wants to be there on the big days and it’s a good reward for everyone (at home).” Affirmative Action was purchased out of Wentwood Grange’s NZB Karaka 2024 Book 2 draft for $115,000 by Ballymore Stables, Paul Moroney Bloodstock and Catheryne Bruggeman. He has won two and placed in three of his five starts to date, including victory in the Listed Sir Colin Meads Trophy (1200m), and placings in the New Zealand 2000 Guineas, and Gr.2 Jimmy Schick Shaw’s Auckland Guineas (1400m), and he has earned north of $260,000 in prizemoney. Gerard said several NZB Kiwi Slot Holders have been interested in securing Affirmative Action for the race and elected to partner with ATR following his Guineas placing on Boxing Day. “He has been very popular and we haven’t rushed it,” Gerard said. “We are at the stage now where we are ready to make a commitment and we went with Auckland Thoroughbred Racing. “Affirmative Action has put his hand right up there and they put a good case forward.” Gerard has been pleased with the way he has come through his Guineas run. “I am really happy with him,” she said. “He always takes two or three days to come through. This time he has come through it even better, so we knew there was going to be improvement in him. “Every time he has a race he comes back a little wiser and a little more professional.” Gerard is also pleased with the progression of Romanoff after he finished ninth in the $400,000 Gr.2 Levin Track Supporters Levin Classic (1400m) at RACE Trentham a fortnight ago. “He went a really nice race down at Wellington,” Gerard said. “He didn’t get all favours, we got caught very wide. I thought his run was pretty good considering he was four and five wide the whole way. “He has come through it super well, ate up after his run and is in a very good space.” Gerard is enjoying her golden run with three-year-olds, having trained last year’s standout colt Savaglee (NZ) (Savabeel), and she puts her success down to sales selection and early conditioning. “It all starts at the sales,” she said. “We are very lucky that we have bought the right horses. It is up to be me to get them up and going and get them into those early three-year-old races, which we have been quite successful with each year. “We have got a system that seems to work for us. It means that they are in work for a long time through the winter, but it allows you to get them going early.” Romanoff and Affirmative Action put on a spectacle in the 2000 Guineas and they will be out to replicate that battle in next week’s $1.5 million TAB Karaka Millions 3YO (1600m), their final lead-in race to The NZB Kiwi. “They will both line-up in the Karaka Millions and then go onto the Kiwi after that,” Gerard said. “There is a nice little break before it, so they have got time to have a week in the paddock or whatever we think is best for them and freshen them up a little bit because obviously they have got to drop back to 1500m.” View the full article

Stephen Nickalls had the ride of a lifetime several years ago with his quality filly Llanacord, and now he is hoping he has found another. The daughter of Contributer won the 2021 edition of the Gr.2 Lowland Stakes (2100m) before placing in the Gr.1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) at Trentham. She then crossed the Tasman where she was 10th in the Gr.1 Australasian Oaks (2000m) before she was runner-up in the Gr.3 SA Fillies Classic (2500m). Five years on and Nickalls believes he has a filly that fits the same mould in Iffigive, another daughter of Contributer who has placed in her last two starts. “This filly right the way through has always reminded us a lot of Llanacord,” Nickalls said. “The fact that she has the same ownership adds to the similarities. “She has always been very similar and it looks like she will be a nice progressive three-year-old.” Iffigive will be tested at stakes level for the first time on Saturday when she heads to Trentham to contest the Gr.3 NZB Desert Gold Stakes (1600m), and off her recent performances Nickalls is hopeful of a bold showing. “She had two super placings. She ran second at Woodville behind Empirical and it was a really tough run,” the Rangiotu trainer said. “She knocked a knee after that so had a fortnight in the paddock, which might have been a blessing as it gave her some time to mature and develop. “On Boxing Day at Otaki she hit the front and then flicked her ears and had a look around. By the time she realised the others were going past her she then knuckled down and came again. It was a very good run and she has improved from that Boxing Day run. “We took her away to Waipuk the other day where she galloped with another one of mine over there for Kate (Hercock, jockey) to have a look at, and she did everything right. “I am very excited and looking forward to the weekend.” Iffigive has drawn barrier 11, but that poses no concerns for Nickalls. “With the rain around it won’t be the worst draw,” he said. A solid performance on Saturday will set up a return trip Trentham in a fortnight where Iffigive will seek to replicate Llanacord’s success in the Jennian Homes-sponsored Lowland Stakes. “If she performs well and does everything right, we will press on to the Lowland in a fortnight,” Nickalls said. “We always thought she was going to get over ground. Her mother was a very good hurdler, so I don’t think getting over ground and staying is going to be a problem. “We think she will stay and she is a lovely, big filly, so we want to get her over those staying trips.” Iffigive holds a nomination for the Gr.1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand Oaks (2400m), but Nickalls said the race’s transfer to Ellerslie next month has him questioning whether they will head north to tackle the fillies classic. “We are not 100 percent sure (about the NZ Oaks),” he said. “With the shift to Auckland, and the way they have changed the programme around, it makes it a little more difficult. You have to go the opposite way around and the programming doesn’t work the same as when it did when it was there (Trentham) in March. “If she performs well and does everything right, we will certainly look at it.” View the full article

Trainer Angel Sanchez-Pinero is sanctioned for multiple violations that add up to eight years suspended and $90,000 in fines.View the full article

Group One hope The Dirty Dee will spearhead a strong team at Trentham for Robbie Patterson and unlike a number of trainers, he’s unconcerned about the prospect of rain-affected ground on Saturday. The New Plymouth conditioner is bullish about the chances of his daughter of Derryn in the Gr.3 NZB Desert Gold Stakes (1600m) as she works her way toward the Gr.1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand Oaks (2400m) at Ellerslie. “A wet track definitely won’t worry her, and I gave her a good jump-out on Monday and she found the line really strongly and pulled up well,” Patterson said. The Dirty Dee was an impressive debut winner on her home track before she finished runner-up at Trentham in early December. “She was just unlucky and got a knock that cost her winning and she’s done nothing wrong, that’s for sure,” Patterson said. Safely through this weekend, the filly will make her next appearance in the Gr.2 David & Karyn Ellis Fillies’ Classic (2100m) on February 7. “She’ll go to Te Rapa and then on to the Oaks, that’s the plan and I may even trial her right-handed which would be ideal ahead of Ellerslie,” Patterson said. Craig Grylls will be aboard The Dirty Dee and will also take the reins on the stable’s other black-type contenders on Saturday, One Bold Cat in the Gr.3 Totara Lodge Trentham Stakes (2100m) and Belles Beau in the Gr.2 Harcourts Thorndon Mile (160m). One Bold Cat bounced back to his best with victory under 58kg in the Listed Marton Cup (2200m) and under the set weights and penalties conditions will drop back a kilo. “He was really good last time and no reason at all why he can’t carry on with it,” Patterson said. “He’s done super well since then and he’s a happy horse.” Belles Beau finished runner-up most recently in the Gr.2 Manawatu Challenge Stakes (1400m) and will relish the step up in distance. “He got home well and he’s screaming out for a mile, the ground will be perfect, so he’ll have everything in his favour if he gets a bit of luck,” Patterson said. Outside of his stakes contenders, he also likes the chances of Belles Fate in the Neteffextpayroll Handicap (1400m). The Iffraaj mare finished an encouraging third when resuming over the course and distance last month and her fortunes will also be guided by Grylls. “She was super the other day fresh-up behind that smart horse (Afternoon Siesta) for John Bary,” Patterson said. “Any easing of the ground won’t worry her at all, and she’s really thrived since that run, she wouldn’t have to improve much to win a race like this.” View the full article

Freddie Time has been Southland trainer Kelvin Tyler’s sole representative in the north over the last couple of months, but the Southland trainer has sent up some reinforcements as he looks to plunder the spoils on offer at Trentham in the coming weeks. “There is a bit of safety in numbers, I have brought some nice horses up,” Tyler said. “They are big and strong fields though, so we certainly aren’t getting ahead of ourselves.” Stakes performer Prince Alby has returned north to target the Gr.3 NZ Campus Of Innovation & Sport Wellington Cup (3200m) at the end of the month, while Indie Ardie and Sight To See are looking to cement their place in the $350,000 Life Direct Remutaka Classic (2100m) at the same meeting. The trio arrived at Otaki last week and Tyler has been pleased with how they have settled in. “I couldn’t be happier with them,” he said. “They have been up here for eight or nine days now and they have just settled in as they normally do up here at Howie and Lorraine’s (Mathews).” They have joined Freddie Time, who has been in great form for Tyler in the Central Districts this season, particularly in the last six weeks where he has won at Otaki before placing in the Gr.3 Manawatu Cup (2300m) and Listed Marton Cup (2200m) at Trentham. He will return to the Upper Hutt track on Saturday to contest the Gr.3 Totara Lodge Trentham Stakes (2100m) before he likely heads for a well-deserved freshen-up. “He has been really good and I thought his gallop on Tuesday morning was outstanding,” Tyler said. “A wet track won’t bother him. He is only a young horse, being four, but he is thriving at the moment and I am sure he will go another good race. “There’s a good chance he will have a freshen-up after this for two or three weeks and maybe get him back in the autumn for some nice races.” He will be joined in Saturday’s contest by Prince Alby, who ran fourth in the Gr.3 New Zealand Cup (3200m) at Riccarton in November before finishing last over 2200m at Wingatui on Boxing Day, and Tyler said the Trentham Stakes was his sole option as a lead-in race to the Wellington Cup. “With the programme changes there is just no lead-up for the stayers into the Wellington Cup, so they have got to run in a stakes race,” Tyler said. “It’s lucky the rain has come otherwise they would just go too fast for a lot of these stayers.” Tyler has been pleased with the progression of Sight To See and Indie Ardie, with both mares set to tackle Saturday’s Hardy Trade Supply Co 2200 ahead of the Remutaka Classic. “They are two handy wee mares on their way up,” Tyler said. “They have a decent amount of ability and hopefully everything goes well and we can get them into the Remutaka, which is a great race for their rating. “They are genuine horses, they try hard and you always know you are going to get the best out of them. “It is a big field, so they are going to need a bit of luck.” Closer to home, Tyler will be represented by a trio of runners at Wingatui on Saturday, including Mamaea in the Skevingtons Waikouaiti Open 2200, last-start winner Fourofus in the ODT Southern Mile 65 1600 and Flash Roca in the ODT Southern Mile 75 1600. “They are quite well placed in those races, but they are strong fields,” Tyler said. “The horses are all well and the best chance of mine there could be Fourofus.” View the full article

Ready to Run Sale graduate Speed Dragon (NZ) (Darci Brahma) delivered a milestone moment for his trainer Francis Lui with a spectacular come-from-behind victory in the A$4.2m Group Three January Cup (1800m) at Happy Valley on Wednesday. Speed Dragon, who was passed in at the 2021 Ready to Run Sale, has now had 16 starts in Hong Kong for four wins, a placing and HK$9.8m in stakes – the equivalent of more than NZ$2.1m, which is over 10 times his reserve at the Ready to Run Sale. The six-year-old’s stunning finish from the back of the 12-horse field in Wednesday’s January Sprint brought up 1000 wins in Hong Kong for Lui, who became only the sixth trainer to ever reach that milestone in Hong Kong. Lui identified the 10-time Group One-winning Ready to Run Sale graduate Golden Sixty (Medaglia d’Oro) as an obvious career highlight. “I feel very happy,” he said. “It’s a big number and it’s not easy. Golden Sixty is special, but every winner to me is very important and for the owners.” Speed Dragon was ridden to his half-length January Cup success by Lyle Hewitson, who was hugely impressed by his mount’s turn of foot. “I’m really happy that I could get it done,” he said. “I’ve been touched off in a few Group races and most of them were for Francis too, so to get the nose in front in such good fashion tonight, I’m thoroughly enjoying it. “I got shuffled back to last on the turn but thankfully that was the section where they picked up the speed and I got a track into it and he quickened so well. I had to wait for the gap, and before it had any chance to close, he was through and he won with authority. “So it was full of merit and he’s a horse that is just thriving here.” Speed Dragon was bred by The Oaks Stud. He was offered by Kiltannon Stables at the 2021 Ready to Run Sale but failed to meet his reserve. Initially named Keenasabean and retained to race in The Oaks Stud’s white and blue colours, he was a maiden winner at Te Rapa in December 2022 and ran fourth in the Group Two Auckland Guineas (1600m) behind subsequent multiple Group One winners Prowess (NZ) (Proisir) and Waitak (NZ) (Proisir). View the full article

Please click to read the advisory on positive samples linked to plant exposure The post RIB Advisory – Positive samples linked to plant exposure appeared first on Racing Integrity Board. View the full article

Centennial Farms' Donald V. Little, Jr. has been named president of the Belmont Child Care Association, Inc. (BCCA) Board of Directors, a position long held by Libby Imperio, who is stepping down, according to a release from the organization. Imperio's new role will be as immediate past president and advisor to the executive committee. Imperio has been a part of the BCCA board since 2009 and was named president in 2014. A vital part of BCCA and a champion of the backstretch community, she was responsible for several innovative means of supporting backstretch workers, including a college scholarship program which is awarded annually at the Anna House graduation. Under her tenure, the BCCA added a Women's Literacy Program and went from providing annual Christmas gifts for 50 families to 300 families. “My 12 years as president have brought with it so much success and growth to BCCA, and I will be forever grateful for all the support I received from the BCCA board, BCCA staff, and most importantly, the donors for what we have accomplished together,” said Imperio. Little has served on the BCCA board since 2016 and as vice president since 2019. President and co-owner of Centennial Farms since 1990, Little is also Chairman of the United States Polo Association (USPA) Club and holds a number of other equine-related positions. “When I was asked to become president of such an outstanding and important organization for the children and families of the New York Thoroughbred racing backstretch community, it was an easy yes! I am honored to serve and will do my best to help BCCA thrive,” said Little. Learn more about the BCCA at belmontchildcare.org. The post Little to Succeed Imperio at Belmont Child Care Association appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Friday, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, post time: 21:00, CAPE VERDI SPONSORED BY AZIZI DEVELOPMENTS-G2, AED850,000, 4yo/up, SH 3yo, f/m, 1600mT Field: Quid Pro Quo (SAF) (Lance {SAF}), Dubai Treasure (Ire) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}), Miss Of Change (Fr) (King Of Change {GB}), Capitana Bling (Ire) (Invincible Army {Ire}), Dubai Beach (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}), Riyabovka (Fr) (Saxon Warrior {Jpn}). TDN Analysis: Saeed bin Suroor is always dangerous with a Godolphin runner, and in Listed Boadicea Stakes heroine Dubai Treasure, he could be heard from in Friday's Cape Verdi. Fellow Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby sends out Meydan handicap runner-up Dubai Beach. Team Valor's dual South African Grade 1 heroine Quid Pro Quo makes her desert bow, as does Swedish listed victress Capitana Bling. Click here for the complete field. The post Black-Type Analysis: Godolphin Duo Versus Quid Pro Quo In Cape Verdi appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

New York's Rockridge Stud has welcomed the first foal by Chewing Gum, a hard-knocking son of Candy Ride (Arg) with 35 starts under his belt and wins including the GII Joe Hernandez Stakes at Santa Anita. His additional four black-type placings include a runner-up performance in the GI Jaipur Stakes to Casa Creed. Chewing Gum's first foal is a filly born Jan. 14 out of Hatta's Appeal (Miracle Man), a winning mare who hails from the extended family of Dayjur and Maplejinsky. Chewing Gum will stand for a private fee at Rockridge in 2026. The post Chewing Gum’s First Foal is a Filly appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

'TDN Rising Star' presented by Hagyard Senza Parole (Gun Runner) made light work of six overmatched rivals in what was most assuredly a prep for a return to stakes competition over the coming weeks. The 4-5 favorite was off alertly from the two hole and was allowed to find her footing before creeping closer midway up the backstretch. Kept well out into the track while clocking the pacesetters, Senza Parole went from the fence into the three path in the blink of an eye at the five-sixteenths and the race was all but parceled up. Edging towards the front under a hold turning into the lane, the chestnut went farther clear with each stride to crush. Named a 'Rising Star' when thumping Saratoga maidens in the summer of 2024, Senza Parole was a comebacking second off a 366-day absence at the Spa Aug. 24, was fifth in the GII Gallant Bloom Stakes and gutted out a narrow allowance victory sprinting at Aqueduct Nov. 13. The form of that event was flattered when runner-up Grammy Girl (Mastery) returned to take the Willa On the Move Stakes at Laurel. Senza Parole is the lone starter out of a daughter of three-time graded winner Sacristy (Pulpit), herself the dam of SW & GSP Catiche (Arrogate) and SW & GISP Flor de la Mar (Tiznow). Sacristy's half-sister Mozu Superflare (Speightstown) earned better than $3.7 million in Japan, including a victory–via DQ–in the G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen. Senza Parole has a 3-year-old half-sister named Senza Piu (Good Magic) and a yearling half-sister by Tacitus. Her dam is due to produce a full-sibling to Senza Parole this season. 7th-Gulfstream, $71,360, Alw (C), Opt. Clm ($62,500), 1-15, 4yo/up, f/m, 1m, 1:38.01, gd, 7 1/4 lengths. SENZA PAROLE (f, 4, Gun Runner–Senza Te, by Street Cry {Ire}) Sales history: $120,000 RNA Ylg '23 KEESEP; $240,000 RNA 2yo '24 OBSAPR. Lifetime Record: 5-3-1-0, $178,000. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV. O-Don Alberto Stable; B-Don Alberto Corporation (KY); T-Chad C Brown. Senza Parole and @iradortiz in front in race 7 for trainer Chad Brown. #GulfstreamPark #ChampionshipMeet pic.twitter.com/OE2N3GFWhx — Gulfstream Park (@GulfstreamPark) January 15, 2026 The post Gun Runner ‘Rising Star’ ‘Senz’-ational On Seasonal Debut appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

John Velazquez, who served as chairman of the Jockeys' Guild for more than 20 years and as co-chair with Mike Smith since 2018, will be stepping down from that role. However, Velazquez will remain actively involved with the Guild as a board member. View the full article

By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk What a story it will be if Typhoon Tere could pull off a victory at Blenheim today. Incredibly, the nine-year-old son of Washington VC is having just his second race day start, over five years after his debut at Addington. Then (July 24, 2020) he was trained by Ken Barron. Now he is under the care of Jason and Ian Thomas. Recent years have had their challenges. “At one stage he cracked a pastern and had to be boxed for a while,” says Jason Thomas. That was well before he arrived at their Charing Cross stables in Canterbury. “We have had him about eight or nine months.” Not that he wasn’t exactly in tip top shape when he arrived. “He was a big boy!” laughs Thomas, “we had him on rations for a bit with plenty of dry hay.” Over the months they have gradually worked him into shape. “We’ve got him to the point where he is as good as we can get him and we just hope to keep him sound.” Initially the plan was for Typhoon Tere to resume at Motukarara on December 29. “But he got a virus so we pulled him out,” says Thomas. They then looked around for a suitable grass track meeting and decided on Blenheim. “We thought that after a five year break we couldn’t take him to Addington where they’d run a (1)57-58 mile,” says Thomas, “we need to take our time.” In December Typhoon Tere definitely showed he still has some ability, winning at the Ashburton trials when he came off the back of subsequent Nelson winner Shanky’s Shot. “He went really nice that day” says Thomas. Today he’ll line up in Race 3, the Event Rent Marlborough Mobile Pace (3.17pm). On the back of his trials form he opened a $2.70 favourite. The gelding’s owner Lance Proffit and his “new” trainers will have everything crossed that their patience and hard work will get its reward. View the full article

Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance's annual Off to the Races online benefit auction opens Thursday, Jan. 22 at 10 a.m. ET and closes Friday, Jan. 30 at 10 p.m. ET, it was announced Thursday. The online auction provides a chance to bid on 20 VIP racing experience packages, granting access to major race days at renowned racetracks across North America in 2026. “We are thrilled to open the fifth annual edition of the Off to the Races VIP auction,” said Emily Dresen, Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, Director of Fundraising & Events. “We can't wait to share these opportunities with race fans and industry participants-there is something for everyone! Thanks to our generous donors, we have the unique opportunity to celebrate the sport of horse racing and provide critical funding to support Thoroughbred aftercare.” Visit thoroughbredaftercare.org/offtotheraces to view and bid on all VIP experiences. The post Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance’s Off to the Races Auction Begins January 22 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Since the death of Ian Balding, we have been reflecting on treasured memories not only of the highly respected trainer but also of one of Kingsclere's greatest patrons, Paul Mellon. It was fitting, therefore, that Andrew Balding should have won at Newcastle last Friday with Level Look, who was bred by Emma Balding at Kingsclere Stud and is raced by the Kingsclere Racing Club, whose horses keep the famous black and gold Mellon silks alive. On a much grander scale, another fitting recent result was that of the General Sires' Championship of Great Britain and Ireland for 2025, in which both the new champion sire (Night Of Thunder) and the runner-up (Wootton Bassett) hail from families developed by Mellon. Continuity was a keystone of Paul Mellon's racing enterprise. The decades passed and he continued to enjoy success with the same families, equine and human. That too is the theme at Kingsclere Stud and Level Look is a classic example. His sixth dam Anippe (Aggressor) was among the two-year-olds trained at Kingsclere by Ian Balding in his second season as the licence-holder, 1965, during which year she won at Salisbury and Newbury. In 1968 she visited the first top-class horse whom Balding trained, Paul Mellon's home-bred 1964 Coventry and Dewhurst Stakes winner Silly Season. The result of that mating was Level Look's fifth dam Siliciana, who was trained by Balding to win the Lincoln Handicap in 1973. All the mares along the line from there to Little Look were trained at Kingsclere, as were all their sires except Little Look's maternal grandsire Intello. (The other stallions who contributed were Mill Reef, Selkirk, Dashing Blade and, most recently, Little Look's sire Passing Glance). Paul Mellon's connection with Kingsclere's human family dates back even farther. He began owning horses in England early in 1936 when sending Drinmore Lad, winner of the Camden Steeplechase Cup in Virginia, to the Wroughton stable owned by the widow of the Hon. Aubrey Hastings, on the suggestion of his compatriot and friend Ambrose Clark. The trainer there was Ivor Anthony, who had taken over the licence after Hastings had died in 1929 and who had subsequently sent out Mrs Clark's Kellsboro' Jack to win the Grand National in 1933. Mellon was welcomed at Wroughton by Mrs Hastings and her family, which included her teenaged son Peter, who was still at school at the time. The plan had been that Drinmore Lad would contest the Grand National. Early betting markets had him disputing favouritism with the mighty Golden Miller, who by this time was trained by Ivor Anthony's brother Owen at Letcombe Bassett, having left Basil Briscoe's Exning stable at the end of the 1934/'35 season. However, Drinmore Lad ran poorly in his lead-up race and didn't contest the great race (in which Golden Miller, who had just won his fifth Cheltenham Gold Cup, fell at the first fence). Drinmore Lad ended up never running in a Grand National but Mellon's love of England and its racing, both National Hunt and Flat, meant that plenty of other big races in Britain would feature his famous silks. There was, incidentally, a nice post-script to Drinmore Lad's tale when, 30 years later, Mellon owned a young National Hunt horse who looked so like him that he named him Drinny's Double. Trained by Bob Turnell, Drinny's Double carried Mellon's colours to victory in the Two-Mile Champion Chase at two consecutive Cheltenham Festivals, in 1967 and '68. Peter (whose surname became Hastings-Bass in 1954 to comply with a stipulation in the will of his maternal uncle, Sir William Bass) reached adulthood in time to serve in the Welsh Guards during the war, after which he acted as assistant to Ivor Anthony for six years before taking over the Wroughton stable. Mellon was a staunchly supportive patron from the outset. In 1953 Peter moved to Kingsclere, which he had bought from Evan Williams. The latter had ridden the Ivor Anthony-trained Royal Mail to victory in the Grand National in 1937 before starting to train at Kingsclere, whence he sent out Supreme Court to win the inaugural King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, whose value of £25,000 made it the most valuable race ever run in Britain at that time. Peter Hastings-Bass quickly became one of Britain's leading trainers. One notable result came when he provided Mellon with his first major victory in England courtesy of his home-bred American colt Midsummer Night in the Cambridgeshire Handicap in 1960. Three years later, the trainer enjoyed further success with another of Mellon's American home-breds when Secret Step, a four-year-old daughter of Native Dancer, won the July Cup at Newmarket and the King George Stakes at Goodwood. Tragically, Peter Hastings-Bass died of cancer in June 1964, aged only 44. Jockey Club rules did not permit his widow Priscilla to take over, so the license at Kingsclere passed to his 25-year-old assistant Ian Balding. Five years later, Balding married Peter and Priscilla's daughter Emma; two years after that, owner/breeder and trainer secured the biggest prize of them all when Mill Reef won the Derby. And now in 2026, 55 years after Mill Reef's superb three-year-old campaign and 90 years after Mellon made the acquaintance of Peter Hastings and his mother, we have just seen Mellon's colours carried to victory by a horse who has both Silly Season and Mill Reef in his pedigree, who was bred by Emma's Kingsclere Stud and is trained by Andrew. Long-running sagas of friendship don't come much better than that. Level Look's victory at Newcastle, of course, was not at a high level, unlike many of the triumphs during 2025 of the sons and daughters of Night Of Thunder and Wootton Bassett. Fittingly, one of the best contributors to Night Of Thunder's championship season was the Balding-trained Dewhurst winner Gewan. Mellon would have enjoyed that but, in truth, he would have appreciated all of the success enjoyed by both Night Of Thunder and Wootton Bassett. Both stallions have Mellon's Rokeby Farm in Virginia etched firmly in their pedigrees, each descending from one of his best mares. Night Of Thunder's family came to Europe in the autumn of 1979 when his fifth dam Leap Lively (Nijinsky) was one of the yearlings who left Rokeby Farm and headed across the Atlantic to Kingsclere. Ten years previously Mill Reef had made the same journey. She proved to be a very good filly, winning the G2 Fillies' Mile at Ascot as a juvenile in record time and finishing third in the following year's Oaks. She returned to Rokeby and in 1983 was one of the first mares to visit the Star Kingdom-line stallion Green Forest (Shecky Greene) who had been a champion miler in France the previous year. The resultant filly was tiny but had the heart of a lion. Trained by Ian Balding, Forest Flower gave Mellon two of his happiest days in the game. She won three major races as a two-year-old including, most appropriately, the G2 Mill Reef Stakes. The following year she galloped to even greater glory in the Irish 1,000 Guineas. Forest Flower bred nothing as special as she herself had been, despite visiting leading stallions on both sides of the Atlantic including Mr. Prospector and Shirley Heights. She also visited (in 1991) Mill Reef's Derby- and St Leger-winning son Reference Point, a magnificent racehorse who was disappointing at stud. The filly which that mating produced, Hertford Castle, turned out to be one of the most modest horses ever to carry Mellon's silks, cutting no ice at all in three maiden races in 1994. Consequently, she did not gain a place in Mellon's broodmare band. However, at stud she produced two listed-placed winners including Night Of Thunder's granddam Quiet Storm (Desert Prince). Sent to Galileo in 2005, Quiet Storm produced Forest Storm who, trained by Jim Bolger for Miss A. H. Marshall, emulated her dam by winning a maiden race and finishing second in listed company. Those were good achievements by Forest Storm but have been totally eclipsed by her greatest feat, producing a Dubawi colt in 2011 who stands proud as a 2,000 Guineas winner and now the Champion Sire of Britain and Ireland. Wootton Bassett comes from a family which garnered even greater honours for Rokeby. Mellon bought his fifth dam Blue Banner (War Admiral) as a yearling in 1953, on the advice of his original jumps trainer Jack Skinner, and she became a multiple stakes winner and then a terrific broodmare. In the short term she bred several stakes winners, but long term it was her unraced daughter Key Bridge who proved most significant. A daughter of Princequillo (who was also responsible for Mill Reef's dam Milan Mill), Key Bridge is notable not just as the fourth dam of Wootton Bassett but also as dam of two of the best horses ever raced by Rokeby Stable. Key Bridge's first star was Fort Marcy (Amerigo), an outstanding turf horse who won 21 races including the Washington DC International (which in the pre-Breeders' Cup days was easily the most significant turf race in North America) in both 1967 and 1970. In the latter year he was the Daily Racing Form's Horse of the Year. Nearly as great was Key To The Mint (Graustark). Despite not contesting the Kentucky Derby and then finishing only third in the Preakness and fourth in the Belmont, Key To The Mint ended 1972 voted American's Champion Three-Year-Old Colt thanks to a slew of stakes victories including Grade I triumphs in the Whitney, Travers and Woodward Stakes and the Suburban Handicap. Mellon subsequently bred several good horses by him including Java Gold (a three-time US Grade I winner) and Gold And Ivory, winner of three Group 1 races in Europe. Key Bridge's foals also included maiden winner Gliding By (Tom Rolfe), who produced two stakes winners trained by Ian Balding: Clare Bridge (Little Current), who won the Masaka Stakes at Kempton and the Gilltown Stud Stakes at the Curragh, and Song Of Sixpence (The Minstrel), the winner of 10 races including the Winter Hill Stakes at Windsor. Another daughter, Susquehanna Days (Chief's Crown), was less talented but scored at Warwick and Nottingham before being sold by Mellon at Tattersalls' December Sale in 1993 for 16,500gns. She now holds the considerably greater distinction of being the granddam of Wootton Bassett. One of the great gentlemen of the turf, Paul Mellon died in 1999 at the age of 91, but it seems as if his legacy will live forever. The post Mellon’s Great Legacy Encompasses Kingsclere And The Sires’ Championship appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Irish Thoroughbred Marketing boss Charles O'Neill has reported that the five new stallion sons of the late Wootton Bassett – Coolmore's Classic winners Henri Matisse and Camille Pisarro, Tally-Ho Stud's Maranoa Charlie, Rathbarry Stud newbie Unquestionable and Capital Stud's Topgear – are proving to be “a huge draw” for breeders and racing fans embarking on the two-day Stallion Trail, which kicks on Friday morning. Interest in the initiative, which began back in 2015, was also described by O'Neill to be “stronger than ever” with a number of foreign visitors expected to join the loyal cohort of racing fans on the Trail over the next two days. O'Neill said, “We're thrilled by the uptake and, more importantly, how the stud farms have really got behind the initiative. The stud farms have embraced the idea and, only for them, it wouldn't be possible. The first running of the Stallion Trail was back in 2015 and, in year three or four, interest did start to dwindle a little. However, the interest and the enthusiasm for the Stallion Trail from breeders and general racing fans is unbelievable, really. I would go as far as saying it is stronger than ever.” He added, “I think a big factor in that has to be down to the amount of new stallions that are retiring to Irish studs in recent years. And do you know what? The Wootton Bassett factor is proving to be a massive draw for this year's renewal. We have five new stallions by Wootton Bassett and, every second person I talk to, they tell me that they can't wait to get around to see them all. Racing fans love to see good horses, be that on the racecourse or when they retire to stud, so fingers crossed everyone has an enjoyable weekend.” The ITM Stallion Trail is not a parochial event, either. O'Neill reports that, along with the strong cohort of Irish breeders and racing fans, a good number of international visitors will be in attendance over the weekend. He concluded, “We have people from England, France and even Hungary who have come over for the tour. There will be plenty of international visitors on the Trail and I have actually been surprised just how busy the stud farms have been even before the Stallion Trail has kicked off. I'm kicking off the tour myself at nine o'clock in Tally-Ho Stud and I can't wait. There is actually a television crew coming over from France and they start filming at Tally-Ho and we will finish off at Ballyhane Stud before the ITM Mark O'Hanlon Memorial Quiz at The Lord Bagenal Inn in Leighlinbridge, County Carlow. Mark was with us for the first year of the Trail so it's going to be a big thing for us tomorrow night. It's 10 years since his passing and he was a great guy so we will be remembering him this weekend.” The post ‘The Wootton Bassett Factor Is Proving To Be A Huge Draw To The Stallion Trail’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

The Dec. 20 Gun Runner Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots proved closely matched. A month later on Jan. 17, the next leg of the stakes series for current 3-year-olds there, the $250,000 Lecomte Stakes (G3), appears equally competitive.View the full article

Ocean Bear stretches out to a route for the first time in kicking off his 3-year-old season in the $175,000 California Chrome Cal Cup Derby.View the full article

Johnny Velazquez, who has served as Chairman of the Jockeys' Guild for more than 20 years and as Co-Chair with Mike Smith since 2018, will be stepping down from that role, the organization announced Thursday. The members have elected Smith and Javier Castellano as Co-Chairs; Joe Bravo, James Flores, and Julien Leparoux as Co-Vice Chairs; Tyler Gaffalione as Secretary; and Julien Leparoux as Treasurer. In addition, Alex Birzer, James Graham, Rodney Prescott, and Velazquez will serve on the Board of Directors. Velazquez will also remain actively involved with the Guild as a Board member. “There are absolutely no words to adequately recognize Johnny Velazquez and all that he has done,” said Hall of Fame jockey and longtime Guild Co-Chair Smith. “On behalf of the Guild and our members, we cannot thank him enough for his unwavering commitment, endless time, and relentless effort, not only on behalf of the jockeys and the Guild, but the industry as a whole. Although Johnny is stepping down as Co-Chair, he will remain on the Board and be active in the organization.” “I am proud of the strides that have been made in the areas of respect for the riders and the benefits that have been achieved over the years I presided as Chairman and as Co-Chairman of the Guild,” said Velazquez. “I look forward to being a part of the Guild and helping any way I can as a new generation takes the helm.” “I am so honored and appreciate Johnny, along with our Board, for having the confidence in me to join Mike as Co-Chair,” said Castellano. “Every single jockey is forever indebted to Johnny for where we are today. I am committed to representing the jockeys and the Guild in the best way possible.” “It has been my privilege to know Johnny personally for more than 30 years and worked with him closely for almost two decades as Chairman of the Guild,” said Terry Meyocks, President and CEO. “Through his leadership, the Guild was able to overcome many challenges and regain the respect of the industry leaders. I admire him and hold him in the highest regard and greatly appreciate all he has done for the jockeys and the industry. He has been, and will continue to be, an integral member of the Guild.” The post Velazquez Stepping Down as Chairman of the Jockeys’ Guild appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Oaklawn Park is raising the stakes for the weekend of the Jan. 31 Southwest Stakes (G3), announcing major enhancements to its high-profile horseplayer contests that will bring top players together for a premier national competition.View the full article