Pedigree rises to top at Eagle Farm
A history-making Waikato Stud family was to the fore at Eagle Farm on Wednesday afternoon when Roller Coaster successfully returned to action.
The lightly raced 3-year-old son of Ocean Park is out of the Pins mare Curvy, whose dam More To Love is a half-sister by Danasinga to Starcraft.
He was a multiple Group 1 winner in New Zealand and Australia before an international campaign that netted him a brace of top-flight victories and credited the Matamata farm as the first New Zealand stud to breed a Group 1 winner in Europe.
Starcraft, who has gone on to a successful career at stud, is a son of the Chittick family’s Flying Floozie, who won three consecutive New Zealand Broodmare of the Year titles.
Family member Roller Coaster is trained by Chris Waller and was returning from a four-month break when he won over 1400 metres in the hands of James Orman.
He was bought out of Riversley Park’s New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale draft for $80,000 by Hughes Bloodstock.
Tivaci’s Movie Night steals the show at Newcastle
A sister to the Gr.1 ATC Flight Stakes (1600m) winner Never Been Kissed, the Waikato Stud-bred and raced Movie Night (NZ) was rewarded for her consistency, breaking her maiden with an all-the-way win over 1400m at Newcastle for trainer Tom Charlton.
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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.
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