Smart Giant A Horse To Follow

2 July 2011

Smart Giant completed a winning treble at Sha Tin last night for trainer John Moore and the best is yet to come from the progressive three-year-old. The son of Pins has now won two of his six starts and has only once failed to weigh in.

He was ridden to an impressive victory over 1400 metres by expatriate South African jockey Jeff Lloyd who was full of praise for the horse. “He shuffled out of the stalls and did a few things wrong and we had some work to do to get into a decent position,” he said.

“But he’s got a good turn of foot and put himself back in the race when it mattered and he really is just still learning. For an immature big baby, he probably couldn’t have done more than what he did winning but when he gets over further as a four-year-old, that’s when you’ll see the best of him.”

A $A160,000 yearling buy out of WS’s Sydney Easter draft in 2009, Smart Giant is out of the O’Reilly mare Spring who has now left four winners, including the outstanding mare Daffodil (No Excuse Needed). Raced by the Chittick family, the $1 million earner was retired last year with three Gr 1 victories to her credit in the AJC Oaks, NZ 1000 Guineas and the Hawke’s Bay Challenge Stakes.

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.