Top Gr 1 finish for WS

25 January 2014

WS familiar silks were beaten into second place in today’s Gr 1 Thorndon Mile but there was a big slice of compensation for the Matamata farm. The Garry Chittick-bred and owned Costume (Savabeel) finished runner-up behind upset winner Touch Of Ruby, a daughter of the stud’s resident Pins.

“This is her final race and she’s in foal to Jimmy Choux and we thought if she ran in the first four it would make her worth a lot more money,” successful trainer Stephen Autridge said. “It’s what everyone dreams of and it doesn’t often happen so it’s fantastic.”

A Touch Of Ruby came from well back in the field for her fourth career victory and deny Costume victory. “I didn’t intend to be that far back and she travelled into it really well,” winning rider Craig Grylls said. “They ran it hard up front and that set it up for something to come from the back.”

Costume is a half-sister to the Listed Soliloquy Stakes winner Masquerade (No Excuse Needed) with their dam the O’Reilly mare Disguised. WS will offer a Pins filly (Lot 446) out of Disguised during the Premier Sale at Karaka next week.

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.

9 July 2026

WS graduate Honour Roll out to add stakes success at Otaki

Waikato Stud will be cheering on one of its promising graduates on Friday when Honour Roll contests the Listed John Turkington Forestry Castletown Stakes (1200m) at Otaki. The WS-bred son of the late Champion sire …