Debut Filly Makes A Statement

29 January 2011

Pins filly Read My Lips turned potential into performance at Te Aroha today with victory at the first time of asking and the promise of more to come. The WS-bred three-year-old had been a trial winner last season before going out for a break and had come back this term for another trial success and a placing before making her debut.

Ridden by Chad Ormsby for Matamata trainer John Sargent, she jumped well to race behind the pace on the rails and was angled off the fence before the turn. She challenged three wide early in the run home and proved far too strong with a comfortable length to spare at the post.

Read My Lips is out of the winning O’Reilly mare Look At Moiye who is a daughter of the Gr 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas winner Facing The Music. She is raced by the 5.30 On A Friday Syndicate that features the former champion trainer Dave O’Sullivan within its ranks. “There’s 14 of us and we all meet up every Friday night and have a few beers and tell a few lies!” he said. “This filly has done everything right and she looks like she win win a few more.”

The result was also a boost for Read My Lips’ half-brother by No Excuse Needed. He is part of WS’s Select Sale draft at Karaka and is also closely related to the promising recent winner Magic Potion.

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.

9 July 2026

WS graduate Honour Roll out to add stakes success at Otaki

Waikato Stud will be cheering on one of its promising graduates on Friday when Honour Roll contests the Listed John Turkington Forestry Castletown Stakes (1200m) at Otaki. The WS-bred son of the late Champion sire …