Trainer raising the bar for talented filly

16 February 2015

Ron Gussey is considering a Group Three test for his smart filly Midnight Mistress during the upcoming Auckland Cup carnival. The Avondale trainer’s confidence was boosted at Ellerslie this afternoon when his three-year-old went back to back with a strong winning performance in the Rating 65 sprint.

WS graduate Midnight Mistress beat a subsequent winner in Fully Funded on her home track last month and she has handled another rise in class with ease. She ran out the 1200 metres powerfully, prompting connections to eye the Westbury Stud Classic (1400m) on March 4.

“She’ll have one more run and then a spell – the further she goes the better she will be,” Gussey said. By Savabeel, she is out of the Listed Castletown Stakes winner Vera Pro Gratis, a daughter of the dual Gr 3 Cornwall Handicap and Rotorua Cup winner Nat The Brat.

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 …