Family Takes Another Winning Trick

11 February 2013

An established WS family added to its record in Victoria yesterday when Obligation was successful at the Ballarat meeting.

The Pins four-year-old has now progressed to two wins and three placings from his seven appearances.

Trained at Caulfield by Luke Oliver, the gelding is a son of the unraced O’Reilly mare Alexandra Star, whose two othger foals to race have also been multiple Australian winners. She is a half-sister to the dual Gr.2 Edward Manifold and Queen of the Turf Stakes winner Ugachaka (Danasinga) and the Gr.3 Manawatu Challenge Stakes winner, Country Rose (Centaine).

Obligation was originally purchased by trans-Tasman trainer Graeme Rogerson out of WS’s 2010 Premier Sale draft for $100,000. Leading Melbourne horseman Peter Moody bought the Pins colt out of Ugachaka offered by WS at Karaka in 2013 for $80,000.

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.