History-Making Pins Mare Retired

16 August 2011

Pins’ dual Gr 1 winning daughter Katie Lee has been retired after an outstanding racing career that made New Zealand racing history. The grey five-year-old had disappointed when returning to racing in the Gr 3 Waikato Stud Foxbridge Plate at Te Rapa last weekend and she will now begin her stud career.

Owner Sir Patrick Hogan said it was apparent the five-year-old had lost her interest for racing and she would either visit his champion stallion Zabeel in the spring or be mated in Australia.

Sir Patrick purchased Katie Lee for $340,000 out of Hallmark Stud’s Premier Sale draft to Karaka in 2008.

She was trained throughout by Graeme and Debbie Rogerson and showed her class as a two-year-old with two victories, including the Gr 3 Eclipse Stakes, but returned to a new level at three. The grey brilliantly completed the New Zealand 1000 and 2000 Guineas double as well as taking both the Eight Carat and Sir Tristram Classics at Gr 2 level and the Listed Sarten Memorial.

Her stellar season earned her NZ Filly of the Year honours and was the top-rated filly and second-highest three-year-old on the Free Handicap (1200-1600m).

As a four-year-old Katie Lee won the Gr 3 Traderack Stakes in what was to be her last career success. She retires to the stud with eight wins and eight placings from 23 starts and stake-earnings of $1,100,675.

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.