Epingle claims upset group two win

8 May 2015

Epingle’s future racing opportunities are limited, but in the meantime she is taking her chances. The WS graduate added a Group Two success to her record at the Gold Coast recently when she posted an upset win in the Chairman’s Handicap.

Trained by Michael Kent and ridden by Hugh Bowman, she came with a well-timed run to score at odds of 20-1. “She’s a natural stayer,” Kent said. “If you look at her she’s only a light little thing. This will be her last prep. She’ll go to stud at the end of the year.”

The late O’Reilly also made his presence felt at the meeting with his daughter Bohemian Lily, raced by her Kiwi breeder Kevin Hickman, downed a competitive field of three-year-olds in the Listed Border Securities Plate. “She was sent over from New Zealand specifically to target the Oaks,” trainer Gai Waterhouse said.

Meanwhile, Pins five-year-old Eternity won for the fourth time in her career when successful at Trentham. Trained by Kevin Gray, whose son Stephen bought the mare for $145,000 from WS’s 2011 Premier draft at Trentham, she is out of the Centaine mare Beyond who won four races herself.

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 …