Double strike for pins

4 July 2016

WS stalwart Pins produced a winning double in Melbourne yesterday with Pin Your Hopes and Makatiti successful at Caulfield. The former is in career best form for trainers Matthew Ellerton and Simon Zahra with three wins and a second from his last four starts.

Pin Your Hopes ended a two year drought when he won at Cranbourne in May and then scored at Flemington after finishing runner-up at Sandown. “I think the soft tracks have really helped him,” Zahra said. “I think the firmer tracks stopped him and he lost his confidence, but now he’s letting go.”

The John Sadler-trained Makatiti has also been in great touch this preparation with two wins and three placings from five appearances. The three-year-old was purchased out of WS’s 2014 Premier Sale line-up at Karaka for $80,000.

He is a son of the unraced O’Reilly mare Enjoy who is a daughter of the dual stakes winner Playful Fingers. She is a half-sister to the Group One performers Hancock Park ad Clever Zoe.

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.