Savabeel filly top Oaks hope

6 March 2015

Savabeel’s daughter Savaria is the new Gr 1 New Zealand Oaks favourite following her shared triumph in the Gr 3 Lowland Stakes. The filly has made excellent progress since she won her maiden at Hastings on New Year’s Day and is now down to $4 for the Trentham classic in a fortnight’s time.

“She’s shown us she’s a smart filly all the way through with the plan being to try and get her to the Oaks,” trainer Roydon Bergerson said. He prepares Savaria, who is out of the O’Reilly mare Amathea, for Des and Kay Fleming who paid $110,000 for her at Karaka in 2013.

Savaria settled back in the Lowland field at Hastings and she attacked the line strongly under rider Hayden Tinsley. They were locked together at the post with the Gr 1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas winner with judge Dick Hunt unable to split the pair.

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.