Gr.1 Sire No Excuse Needed Passes Away

26 September 2015

Waikato Stud is saddened to announce that Gr.1 sire No Excuse Needed passed away this afternoon after suffering a paddock accident.

“No Excuse Needed was a sire who gave us some great thrills,” said Waikato Stud boss Mark Chittick.

“He left the two Gr.1 winners I Do and Daffodil and it was a real privilege to have raced both of these horses ourselves.

“Up until last year, he was also responsible for the stud’s $480,000 yearling price high thanks to his son ex Lodore Mystic, who was bought by Peter and Kim McKay, one in the same trainers as his Karaka Million hero Vincent Mangano.”

The handsome Machiavellian sire came to stand at Waikato Stud thanks to the recommendation of New Zealand Bloodstock’s Andrew Seabrook.

Delivering from the get-go, No Excuse Needed was awarded Leading First Season Sire in 2006/07 and followed this up with the Champion New Zealand Two-Year-Old Sire title the following season.

No Excuse Needed sired 17 stakes winners, with leading Gr.1 ambassadors including the AJC Oaks winning Champion New Zealand Three-Year-Old Daffodil and the Chittick family’s winning-most horse ever bred I Do, whose career netted 15 wins, 6 of which black-type.

No Excuse Needed was 17.

The Corner with Garry Chittick

I keep on proposing my retirement from the burden of a weekly Corner. I make the excuse it is hard to be credible, hard to let the two of you know about anything in our sport that hasn’t been covered before.

27 October 2025

WS-bred On The Lash scores at Sha Tin

Twenty-four hours following the final WS Cox Plate meeting run on the Moonee Valley track of old before it shuts for two years to make way for a new precinct, the race’s 2004 winner, Savabeel, continued his roll of runners, and this time it was via five-year-old On The Lash (ex Candelabra) at Sha Tin.