Top Jockey’s Judgement Spot On

3 April 2011

Gr 1 winning jockey Jonathan Riddell celebrated further success at Awapuni on Saturday but in a different role. Jimmy Choux’s regular rider played a pivotal part in the success of the promising WS-bred and sold Aldebaran Star who is trained and part-owned by his partner Trina Marshall.

Riddell purchased the strapping son of No Excuse Needed at the 2009 Festival Sale after the chestnut had originally been sold through the Matamata farm’s weanling draft the previous year at Karaka for $14,000. A half-brother to the stakes winner Tootsie (Pins), he is out of the O’Reilly mare Hyades who is a half-sister to the Listed winner La Rose Noir and the Centaine mare is in turn the dam of Espurante (Listed AJC Bell Handicap).

Aldebaran Star blazed out of the gates on Saturday to dictate terms at the head of the field and, after pinching a break on the turn, kicked strongly in the straight for an emphatic victory. “He’s a big horse and likes to have his own way in front,” Marshall said.

The three-year-old’s victory was a deserved one in the $20,000 special conditions maiden as he had weighted in at all his previous five appearances. “He’s kept running seconds so to get one on a premier day is great,” Marshall said. “He’s always showed a lot of ability and mentally he’s been getting better with each run.”

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.