Blue Swede stakes his Derby claim

5 June 2011

Top Family In Fine Form

A highly-successful WS family added two further winning strikes to its honours board last weekend with a trans-Tasman double. Lopov was successful at the Sale meeting in Melbourne while Double O Seven furthered his record with a victory in trying conditions at Hastings.

A three-year-old son of red-hot stallion Savabeel, Lopov was a clear-cut winner over 1700 metres to take his career stats to two wins and five placings from his 12 appearances. He is prepared by Danny O’Brien who has enjoyed a long and successful association with WS and he purchased his latest winner from their 2009 Select Sale draft at Karaka for $25,000. The gelding hails from one of the Matamata farm’s most productive families.

Lopov is out out of the winning Pins mare Prickle, who was also Gr 2 placed in the Wakefield Challenge Stakes. She is a sister to the multiple Sydney winner Legsman with their dam Centaine’s daughter Snobbish and the feature name in this pedigree is the multiple Gr 1 winner Slight Chance. She is also the dam of the promising young Australian stallion Dane Shadow and Gr 3 winner Salgado.

On the home front, the genuine Double O Seven gave the country’s leading amateur rider Scott Wenn a comfortable time to score by a wide margin. Bred by Garry Chittick and sold as a weanling for $22,000, he is by No Excuse Needed out of Impassive Lady, a half-sister by Defensive Play to the dam of Prickle.

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.