Icing on the Tauranga cake

17 November 2013

WS’s successful day at Tauranga was capped off when Costume downed fellow farm graduate Etoile Filante in the Rating 75 metric mile. Their quinella followed the earlier success of the No Excuse Needed mare I Do in the open sprint.

Bred and raced by Garry Chittick, Costume is trained by Graeme and Debbie Rogerson and continued her impressive progress with her third win at her 12th appearance. By Savabeel, she is out of the O’Reilly mare Disguised and is from an international family that features the Gr 1 King’s Stand Stakes winner and successful sire Godswalk.

Etoile Filante was bred by the farm with David Williams, who now races the mare out of Peter and Dawn Williams’ stable. The daughter of Pins and Etoile Du Nord has three wins and two placings from her seven raceday appearances.

Pure Alpha delivers again as Ardrossan continues to rise

Ardrossan gelding Pure Alpha led throughout to win by 1.29 lengths at Eagle Farm for owner Ozzie Kheir, taking his earnings past $300,000. The result caps a stellar run for sire Ardrossan, whose yearlings fetched up to $450,000 this year on strong Hong Kong form.

28 August 2026

The Corner with Garry Chittick

It is difficult to maintain momentum when sitting in judgment of racing’s governance. After all, I get no pleasure in searching for non-credible decisions, but one is perpetually bewildered by the rationale behind many of the positions that make little sense.