I Do Committed To Stakes Targets

4 January 2013

I Do warmed up for important future assignments with a runaway victory in Rating 85 company at Otaki this afternoon. With the benefit of Dylan Turner’s four kilo claim, she covered extra ground before cruising clear in the straight to win by three lengths.

The daughter of No Excuse Needed has now won six of her 17 career appearances for co-breeders and owners WS and Taranaki trainer Allan Sharrock. “She sat three wide with no cover today so it was a nice trial, and that’s what I treated it as, to set her up for the Anniversary at Trentham and then she’ll go on to the Taranaki Cup,” he said. “I think she’ll be a 2000 metre mare and the Anniversary (1600m) is the race on the way up and then 1800 metres of the Taranaki Cup will be ideal at this stage.”

I Do is a grand-daughter of the Gr 3 New Zealand St Leger winner Freequent and Sharrock expects her to benefit further with more time. “She’s 16.1 hands but she doesn’t carry any bodyweight and the key is to space her races and then give her time to get over them,” he said. “She’s done a good job this time in with three wins and a third out of four starts.”

Tivaci’s Movie Night steals the show at Newcastle

A sister to the Gr.1 ATC Flight Stakes (1600m) winner Never Been Kissed, the Waikato Stud-bred and raced Movie Night (NZ) was rewarded for her consistency, breaking her maiden with an all-the-way win over 1400m at Newcastle for trainer Tom Charlton.

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Oilman’s stud stake could change course of NZ breeding

Eighteen months ago, Texas oilman Nelson Bunker Hunt walked through the lush Waikato pasture of Matamata’s Balcarres Stud and announced he wanted some just like it for his own.

Today he has-360 acres about a mile down the road which has been transformed from a dairy farm to one of New Zealand’s leading horse and cattle breeding establishments.