Rios’ daughter strikes again

18 May 2015

Rios

Group One producer Rios is maintaining his impressive winning strike rate. The WS resident has only had 10 runners to the races, but already five of them have won and his latest success story is A Tad Leica.

The Rudy Liefting-trained filly finished third on debut before she broke her maiden at Awapuni last month. On Saturday, she made a successful return to the Palmerston North track to defeat a competitive field of three-year-olds.

She came with a determined finishing run to run down the last-start winner Darci Mac and last season’s Listed Castletown Stakes winner Leeds. A Tad Leica is out of a half-sister to the multiple Group One winner Justa Tad.

The well-bred Rios is a son of Hussonet and the former Broodmare of the Year Gussy Godiva, also the dam of Gr 1 AJC Derby winner Roman Emperor. A Group Two winner and Group One placegetter, he is the sire of this season’s Gr 1 Levin Classic winner Gaulier.

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.

9 July 2026

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.