No Excuse Maggie Headlines Top Day

13 October 2012

WS graduate No Excuse Maggie capped a grand day for the Matamata farm with a dominant victory in the Gr.3 Taranaki Breeders’ Stakes at Hawera this afternoon. They grey mare bolted away with the day’s feature to go with her Listed Matamata Cup success of 12 months ago.

The John Bary-trained six-year-old is a daughter of resident sire No Excuse Needed whose daughter I Do had earlier won for the stud and trainer Allan Sharrock.

“I’m not sure what we’ll do with her now,” Bary said. “She seems to have come through the race really well, but we’ll get her home and then decide where to next. I had been quite confident as she’d been working well and when the rain came that really played into our hands.”

From the family of the Group One winners Glamour Puss and Vision And Power, No Excuse Maggie has now won six races and nearly $170,000.

Leading New Zealand first season sire title in 2006-07 and champion two-year-old sire in 2007-08, No Excuse Needed stands at $6000 + GST.

As embodied by No Excuse Maggie, the cross of No Excuse Needed over O’Reilly mares has resulted in a superb ratio of 73% winners-to-runners, 15.4 stakes winners-to-runners and with the multiple Gr.1 winner Daffodil.

It’s in the Blood: Taken

“Given the opportunities he’s (Ardrossan) had, it’s been a massive start,” Waikato chief Mark Chittick told It’s In The Blood.

26 June 2025

The Corner with Garry Chittick

Many years ago, Mary and I attended the Annual Time Form dinner, staged the night before the races at York. It was an unusual format with spouses separated, not a bad idea so long as you were compatible with your mixed table.