Hera strikes in Australia

6 November 2014

New Zealand mare Hera is on the board in Australia following her success at Rosehill on Saturday. The O’Reilly mare showed significant improvement on her resuming effort last month when she opened her account for Broadmeadow trainer Kris Lees.

The four-year-old began her career with Roger James at Cambridge and was the winner of the Listed Great Northern Foal Stakes at two. She bloomed in her classic season to add the Group Two victories in the Eight Carat Classic and the Sir Tristram Fillies’ Classic to her record. She was subsequently sold to Australian interests and a fourth placing in the Gr.3 Carr Stakes had been her previous best effort across the Tasman.

Purchased by James for $28,000 from WS’s Select Sale team in 2012, Hera is out of the unraced Centaine mare Corsica. She is from the family of the former champion juvenile and multiple Group One winner Ballroom Babe.

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.

9 July 2026

WS graduate Honour Roll out to add stakes success at Otaki

Waikato Stud will be cheering on one of its promising graduates on Friday when Honour Roll contests the Listed John Turkington Forestry Castletown Stakes (1200m) at Otaki. The WS-bred son of the late Champion sire …