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.

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.