Pins Strikes 1st Stakes Winner for the Season

9 August 2011

Waikato Stud’s 39 time stakes producing sire Pins struck his first winner for the 2011/12 season on Sunday.

Just seven days in to the new season, son Our Nautique picked up stakes win # 2 in the Listed Joseph Grace Handicap (1700m) at Santa Rosa in California.

The six-year-old gelding has proven quite a revelation in the States.

Since his 2010 US arrival, the six-year-old has enjoyed a black-type double in the Gr.3 San Franciso Mile at Golden Gate and the Listed Joseph Grace Handicap (1700m) and of his 12 starts, he has achieved six wins and five placings.

Our Nautique is bred and co-owned by Rob Tunnicliffe, who races the horse in partnership with trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.

Prior to his US export in 2010, Our Nautique was raced in New Zealand.

Known as Nautique, he registered two wins here for Richard and Chris Otto.

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.