Pins mare takes another winning step

30 October 2013

Progressive mare Etoile Filante furthered her record in a driving finish at Pukekohe Park this afternoon. The patiently-handled daughter of Pins was making the third appearance of her current preparation and now boasts career statistics of three wins and a placing from six appearances.

The four-year-old was bred by WS with David Williams, who races the mare from the Byerley Park stable of Peter and Dawn Williams. Etoile Filante settled in the last trio before she was drawn wide at the top of the straight and then finished resolutely under Mark Du Plessis for the victory.

She is out of the Zabeel mare Etoile du Nord, who won five races including the Listed Marton Cup and she was a multiple Group placegetter. It is also the family of the Gr 1 Breeders’ Cup mile winner and successful sire Artie Schiller.

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 …