Filly pins down carnival target

10 July 2017

Dashing filly Florence Jean has booked at least one appearance at the Hawke’s Bay spring carnival. Owner-trainer John Morell was unsure before today’s outing at Ruakaka whether the WS-bred and sold daughter of Pins would be taking on the best of her age group in the new season, but he has no doubts now.

Florence Jean thumped her rivals in the Tavistock Owners’ Syndicate 2YO on her return to racing and the Gr.3 Hawke’s Bay Breeders’ Gold Trail Stakes is now a target with the possibility of a lead-up run on the first day of the Hastings meeting, “We’ll see what happens, but we will be looking at those races,” Morell said. “It’s been hard to get a line on her at home. She’s only had a couple of runs and she doesn’t put in a lot, but once the blinkers are on her she is a different horse.”

Florence Jean had also won at Ruakaka on debut in January and she was then an unlucky sixth in the Gr.2 Matamata Breeders’ Stakes. “She got flattened at the start so she still went a good race and we turned her out after that,” Morell said. “She’s had a couple of setbacks, one was a foot abscess, so there’s still a lot of improvement in her.”

Florence Jean was sent straight to the front at Ruakaka by regular rider Alysha Collett and the filly bolted clear in the straight to win by six lengths. “She jumped well and there wasn’t a lot of early pressure,” she said. “She was too good and had her ears pricked on the line. She’s strengthened and she’s a little professional.”

A sister to the multiple winner Morse Code, Florence Jean is out of the O’Reilly mare Really Reputable. She is a half-sister to the Australian stakes winner and Group One performer Stickpin.

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.