Three Stakes Winners in a Day for Pins

2 October 2011

Waikato Stud’s Champion sire Pins registered three individual Stakes Winners in three different countries on Saturday.

Adding kudos to the earlier New Zealand-based win of Pinsgold at Canterbury, talented son Antonio Lombardo produced a brilliant front running performance in the Gr.2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas (1400m), winning as he liked by 1 ¾ lengths.

In Australia, it was Xcellent’s half-brother Instructor who provided the black-type entrée. The performance was superbly followed by WS-homebred I’m Jake, who led rivals a merry chase in the Listed RM Ansett Classic (2413m) at Mornington.

Pins’ Saturday bonanza was then notably extended in Hong Kong, where his 5YO son Ambitious Dragon – the reigning ‘Hong Kong Horse of the Year’, brought up winner number five for the day with a staggering first-up win in the HK-3 National Day Cup (1400m).

All told, Pins is the sire of 42 Stakes Winners – 9 at Group One level, and is strongly recommended by a 66.4% winners-to-runners ratio.

The Champion Hong Kong sire was New Zealand’s leading sire by Global Earnings last season and stands for a fee of NZ$40,000 plus GST.

The Corner with Garry Chittick

No Corner last week; this week the Annual Thoroughbred Racing Awards night certainly deserves acknowledgment. It is the second of two nights of measurement of Thoroughbred achievements for the year, with the first focussing on our Breeders’ awards.

9 September 2026

Savabeel’s Group 1 daughter Belle Cheval retired

Belle Cheval, by champion sire Savabeel, enjoyed a stellar career: placing in the NZ 1000 Guineas, winning the Almanzor Trophy and Uncle Remus Stakes, finishing second in The Kiwi, then claiming Group 1 glory in Australia’s Vinery Stud Stakes before retiring to broodmare duties.