Bondarenko Looks Good At Geelong

26 June 2011

A filly with a Gr 1 pedigree got her career away to the perfect start in Melbourne yesterday when Bondarenko posted a stirring performance to win on debut. The three-year-old showed a good turn of foot to sweep hone down the outside of the synthetic track at Geelong in the hands of apprentice Rosie Myers who is making the utmost of her stint in Australia.

Bondarenko is by the farm’s current Centaine Award pacemaker and Australian Guineas winner Pins from the unraced Zabeel mare Match Pint. She is out of the Garry Chittick-bred and raced Gr 1 Otaki-Maori WFA winner Critic, a daughter of the influential Centaine who will add another New Zealand Broodmare Sire title to his collection at the end of this season.

A $40,000 buy for Team Corstens from WS’s Select Sale draft to Karaka in 2009, Bondarenko’s family tree also features the Gr 1 Easter Handicap winner Prince Kaapstad. A half-sister to the winners Laver Arena (Centaine) and Kathy O’Reilly, Bondarenko is prepared at Flemington by John Sadler.

Pins completed a trans-Tasman double when the promising Sans Souci from a long break to win in trying conditions at Te Aroha. A debut winner at two and a black-type placegetter in the Listed Castletown Stakes, the half-sister to the Gr 2 Concorde Handicap winner Ego had not raced for nine months but overcame a heavy track to score for trainer Jason Bridgman.

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.