Double Delight At Waipukurau

26 March 2012

WS was represented by a running double at Waipukurau on Friday with Aldebaran Star and Tacticall presented at the top of their games. The former is a half-brother by No Excuse Needed to the stakes-winner Tootsie (Pins) and had been around the mark in four previous starts this year.

Originally a $14,000 weanling pruchase at Karaka in 2008, Aldebaran Star sat outside the leader to the turn and kicked too strongly for his rivals in the straight to post his third career victory. “He bounced out well and put himself on the speed and had a lot to give on the turn,” rider Joanthan Parkes said. Thwe four-year-old is trained at Awapuni by part-owner Trina Marshall.

Tacticall was bred by WS with Stephen Luey, who now races the three-year-old, and she opened her account at her fifth start with a clear-cut win over 1200 metres. By Scaredee Cat, Tacticall is trained by Lisa Latta who has also prepared her half-brother Justanexcuse (No Excuse Needed) to win nine races, including this season’s Gr 3 Challenge Stakes.

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 …