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.

The Corner with Garry Chittick

The writing of my Corner started many years ago, motivated by an irritation that I felt needed scratching. It was never my intention to make my commentary regular; neither did I intend to reinvent the direction of racing administration. It is both disappointing and ironical that what should be a simple, straightforward business provides a regular need for comment.

27 October 2026

Ocean Park’s With Grace seals NZ Cup berth

South Auckland mare With Grace secured her berth in next month’s Gr.3 Martin Collins New Zealand Cup (3200m) at Riccarton when extending her winning sequence to four with victory in the Baker Tilly Staples Rodway 2100 at Te Rapa on Labour Day Monday.