Gunnadoo far too slick again

8 April 2013

Promising southern three-year-old Gunnadoo jumped another class with a winning run at Riccarton, the scene of his grand-dam Facing The Music’s finest racing moment. She won four races with her career highlight a victory in the 1993 Gr 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas.

A WS graduate, Gunnadoo showed he had inherited a measure of the family ability when he broke his maiden at his fourth appearance at Ashburton. He had no trouble mastering Rating 65 company this afternoon with a dominant two and a-quarter length win after leading all the way.

Trained by Tarsha and part-owner Michael Stokes, he is a son of No Excuse Needed and the O’Reilly mare Look At Moiye. She was a four-time winner and finished runner-up in the Listed Ryder Stakes as a two-year-old.

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.