Cracking Karaka Day For WS

2 February 2012

New Zealand buyers paid heavily for the choice lots out of WS’s draft on the second day of the Select Sale at Karaka. Matamata trainer Roger James opened up early to secure an O’Reilly filly for $160,000 and later in the session it was Awapuni horsewoman Lisa Latta who dug even deeper to claim a daughter of No Excuse Needed for $200,000.

The latter is out of the O’Reilly mare Miracle Miss who won five races and was placed in the Gr 1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas. She is also a sister to the Chittick family’s dual Gr 3 Desert Gold Stakes and Taranaki Breeders’ Stakes winner Dating with Senator (Gr 1 Auckland Cup) and Lumley Lass (Gr 1 New Zealand St Leger) other star turns featured in the pedigree.

The James-purchased O’Reilly filly is out of the unraced Stravinsky mare Holiday In Goa and from one of the finest families in the Stud Book. It is the famed Eight Carat clan that boasts such thoroughbred luminaries as Octagonal, Diamond Lover, Marquise, Kaapstad and Mouawad within its ranks.

Singapore interests snapped up a colt by in-form sire Fast ‘N’ Famous out of Just Centaine for $40,000. The Pins mare is a half-sister to former WS stallion and Gr 2 Ascot Vale Stakes winner Scaredee Cat from the family of another farm favourite in the triple Gr 1 Epsom Handicap, George Ryder Stakes and Spring Champion Stakes winner Kinjite.

The Corner with Garry Chittick

I keep on proposing my retirement from the burden of a weekly Corner. I make the excuse it is hard to be credible, hard to let the two of you know about anything in our sport that hasn’t been covered before.

27 October 2025

WS-bred On The Lash scores at Sha Tin

Twenty-four hours following the final WS Cox Plate meeting run on the Moonee Valley track of old before it shuts for two years to make way for a new precinct, the race’s 2004 winner, Savabeel, continued his roll of runners, and this time it was via five-year-old On The Lash (ex Candelabra) at Sha Tin.