Happy days for filly

4 January 2019

Happily To Be (NZ) ridden by Damien Thornton wins the Kellys Country Homes Maiden Plate at Seymour Racecourse on December 30, 2018 in Seymour, Australia. (Brett Holburt/Racing Photos)

Well-related filly Happily To Be looks a three-year-old with a bright future in Australia for Waikato Stud.

The well-related filly has been lightly-tried by Flemington trainer Danny O’Brien and has made an encouraging start to her career.

The daughter of Pins placed in two of her first three starts before breaking her maiden at Seymour last time out.

Bred and part-owned by the Matamata nursery, she is a daughter of the O’Reilly mare Merrily.

She is a half-sister to the stakes winner Glad and the family of the champion mare Black Caviar.

Happily To Be is also a half-sister to the Stephen Marsh-trained Exuberant.

A $160,000 Karaka yearling, the son of Savabeel won the Listed Wellesley Stakes on debut.

Jess Greenfield awarded 2026 Mary-Lynne Ryan Young Achiever Award

On Saturday night, Jess Greenfield was awarded the loveracing.nz Mary-Lynne Ryan Young Achiever Award at the Property Brokers National Breeding Awards at Karapiro. When asked by Steve Davis what the future looked like for Jess, Greenfield humbly replied: “Just keep working away at Waikato Stud and see where we end up.”

22 July 2026

Ocean Park Trans-Tasman Double

With Andrew Forsman’s 3yo Ocean Park filly Pine Leaf breaking her maiden by a widening four and a quarter-lengths in the last at Cambridge on Wednesday, celebrations continued as just ten minutes later it was the Chirs Waller trained Velaris who saluted at Canterbury with fellow Ocean Park runner I Park finishing a gallant third.