Dating Completes Stunning Double For Stud

9 October 2011

WS celebrated an outstanding day of racing with feature race victories at both North Island venues this afternoon. The Chittick family’s colours were carried to victory by Dating in the Gr 3 Taranaki Breeders’ Stakes at Hawera while at their local meeting it was the home-bred No Excuse Maggie who claimed the Listed Matamata Cup.

Dating was making her first appearance since the Gr 1 AJC Oaks in the autumn but she had placed in a recent trial to further her preparation. “She felt great and she looked a million dollars before the race as well,” successful rider Jonathan Riddell said.

The Graeme and Debbie Rogerson-trained daughter of O’Reilly and the Sound Reason mare Mandate took up a handy sit and she was travelling well before the turn. “She was a fraction slow but Graeme told me to be positive so I rode her forward and got some cover,” Riddell said. “I peeled out and probably got there a fraction early but she won nicely – she’s a very good horse.”

Dating has now won five of her 13 starts with the Listed Ryder Stakes to her credit as a two-year-old, the Gr 3 Desert Gold Stakes at three and now the Taranaki Breeders’ Stakes as a four-year-old. A half-sister to the multiple winners Miracle Miss, Coup Timaru and Big Sweep, she hails from the family of the Gr 1 Auckland Cup winner Senator and the Gr 1 New Zealand St Leger winner Lumley Lass.

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.

9 July 2026

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.