Pins Succumbs To Colic

[Wandering Eyes]

Champion stallion Pins (Aus) (Snippets {GB}-No Finer {Aus}, by Kaoru Star {Aus}) has died at Waikato Stud following complications from a colic attack. The 21-year-old retired to Waikato in New Zealand in 2000 following a racing career that was highlighted by a win in the G1 Australian Guineas at Flemington and since then he has sired eight individual Group 1 winners and 75 stakes winners.

“I was on course the day he won and knew then that he would be a great horse to be a part of and he has been such a great stallion for us for the past 18 years,” Waikato Stud’s Mark Chittick said. “He has been a massive part of the growth we have experienced here at Waikato and he has also been a big part of my growth personally. He was such a great character and had a great personality, but always knew how to keep you on your toes. He was an incredible stallion and his versatility as a sire has always amazed me,” he added.

Pins’s influence extends throughout Australasia; he was a dual winner of the Centaine Award for the leading New Zealand-based sire for global progeny earnings and his record of stakes winners-to-runners places him in the top seven stallions of Australasia. In Hong Kong, he was twice champion sire and produced the dual Horse of the Year Ambitious Dragon (NZ) and the champion sprinter Aerovelocity (NZ). The latter won Group 1 races in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore and between the pair of them they amassed earnings of over £8-million.

In Australia Pins is responsible for G1 Cox Plate winner El Segundo (NZ) while in New Zealand his performers are headed by Classic and dual Group 1 winner Katie Lee (Aus) who made history in 2009 when she became the first horse to complete the New Zealand 2000 and 1000 Guineas double. Waikato Stud also enjoyed top level success with horses they bred and raced themselves by Pins including the G1 New Zealand Oaks winner Legs (NZ).

“A huge highlight for us was racing his dual Group One-winning daughter Legs, who is now a prominent member of our broodmare band here at Waikato Stud. It is so hard for a stallion to achieve what he has accomplished and we are so grateful for the influence he has had on our broodmare band,” Chittick said.

Success on the racetrack generally leads to success in the sales ring and the progeny of Pins remained popular among buyers to the present day with his yearlings in 2018 averaging just over NZ$133,000, more than four times his service fee, with a top price of NZ$420,000. Pins is also well-established as a broodmare sire with his daughters having produced 28 stakes winners. They include 2016 G1 Kingston Town Classic winner Stratum Star (Aus) (Stratum {Aus}), G1 Queensland Derby winner Brambles (NZ) (Savabeel {Aus}) and G1 New Zealand Oaks winner Savvy Coup (NZ) (Savabeel {Aus}).

 

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