Aspinal Deserved Stakes Winner

20 October 2012

Pins’ daughter Aspinal finally broke through at black type level when she won the Listed Lion Red Plate. The six-year-old is in the closing stages of her racing career and was a deserved winner of the Rotorua feature.

“It’s been a long time coming this stakes win and she’s always been the bridesmaid,” said Cambridge trainer Tony Pike, who prepares the mare with Mark Donoghue. “She’s in foal to Zabeel so it’s great to finally get this one for Little Avondale Stud.”

From the family of her unbeaten stablemate and Gr.2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas winner Sacred Falls (O’Reilly), Aspinal has now won six races with previous placed efforts in the Gr.1 Railway Stakes, the Gr.3 Traderacks Stakes, the Gr.3 Darley Plate and the Listed Newmarket Handicap. She also finished fourth in the Listed Mona Lisa Stakes at Wyong during a brief Australian campaign last year.

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.