Birchley to shoot for black type with beckham

15 August 2016

Beckham’s purple patch of form continued at Eagle Farm on Saturday with further success for the WS blueblood. The six-year-old posted the seventh victory of his career to have trainer Liam Birchley thinking of loftier goals.

“For a stallion, Beckham is a gentleman and very consistent,” he said. “He has three wins, two seconds and a fourth this time in. He is very well bred, being by top Kiwi sire Pins out of the Group One-winning mare Glamour Puss, so I would like to win black type with him. He wasn’t far away in the Listed Eye Liner Stakes in the winter and he is up to that type of class. But where we find those races is up in the air at the moment.”

Beckham, whose genuine nature is reflected by a further 11 placings, began his career with Peter McKay. He was a winner for the Matamata trainer before he transferred to Birchley’s Eagle Farm stable.

The Corner with Garry Chittick

It would appear I now have to continue my weekly Corner with the amount of rumblings at the start of our new racing season. I have been around long enough to know we can never please all; my tenure as Chairman of the Racing Board was subjected to as much vitriol as subsequent Boards have had to bear, so what’s different this time, or is it different.

5 August 2026

First foal for Waikato’s Group 1 winner Skew Wiff

Group 1-winning Savabeel mare Skew Wiff (ex Starvoia), known affectionately as ‘Wiffy’, foaled a filly by Super Seth in the early hours of Wednesday, 5 August.