Patience rewarded with panna cotta

9 March 2015

Pins mare Panna Cotta put a number of issues behind her when she won the closing event of the Auckland Cup carnival on Saturday. The four-year-old showed her true worth with a gritty defeat of the Rating 65 sprinters for the third win of her career.

Bred by WS, the mare is raced by a syndicate that includes Mark Chittick and Mapperley Stud’s Simms Davison. “She’s always showed a fair bit, but she’s had some problems and a niggling cough,” trainer Stephen Marsh said. “The owners have been very patient and there’s a few more wins in her yet.”

Panna Cotta is out of the winning O’Reilly mare Vanilla Sky, who has been a good producer at stud. She is also the dam of the Listed Lion Red Plate winner and Group One performer Raid (Pins) and Lapel (Pins), the winner of eight races in Australia.

The Corner with Garry Chittick

It would appear I now have to continue my weekly Corner with the amount of rumblings at the start of our new racing season. I have been around long enough to know we can never please all; my tenure as Chairman of the Racing Board was subjected to as much vitriol as subsequent Boards have had to bear, so what’s different this time, or is it different.

5 August 2026

First foal for Waikato’s Group 1 winner Skew Wiff

Group 1-winning Savabeel mare Skew Wiff (ex Starvoia), known affectionately as ‘Wiffy’, foaled a filly by Super Seth in the early hours of Wednesday, 5 August.