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.

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.

9 July 2026

WS graduate Honour Roll out to add stakes success at Otaki

Waikato Stud will be cheering on one of its promising graduates on Friday when Honour Roll contests the Listed John Turkington Forestry Castletown Stakes (1200m) at Otaki. The WS-bred son of the late Champion sire …