Year: 2022

Andrew Forsman’s young troops have served him so well in Melbourne and he sends Mr Maestro into battle for the final time this spring at Flemington on Saturday. The Cambridge trainer has enjoyed satisfying three-year-old successes with the Savabeel colt and stablemate She’s Licketysplit, who has returned home after stamping her quality in four appearances. The daughter of Turn Me Loose won the Gr.2 Edward Manifold Stakes (1600m) in between third placings in the Gr.2 Tranquil Star Stakes (1400m) and the Gr.1 Thousand Guineas (1600m). She’s Licketysplit wound up her…

Wexford Stables were excited to see Gr.1 New Zealand Derby (2400m) hero Asterix back at the trials at his home track of Matamata on Thursday. The Tavistock gelding went under foot reconstruction surgery following his Derby victory in March and trainers Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott have been pleased with the way he has returned following lengthy rehabilitation. “It was really good getting him back to the trials,” O’Sullivan said. “It has been a long time off the scene, so it is good to get him back and he has…

History-making New Zealand bred galloper Starcraft has passed away aged 22. A five-time winner at the elite level and a member of New Zealand’s Racing Hall of Fame, the chestnut was bred by Waikato Stud and sold by the Matamata nursery at Karaka in 2002 for $80,000 to the bid of Robt Dawe. He was a son of Soviet Star and three-time Broodmare of the Year Flying Floozie and was raced by the late Paul Makin. During the mid-2000s, Starcraft gained fame in both Hemispheres, first as the champion Australian…

The New Year will bring new opportunities for two young thoroughbred breeding industry participants. Morgan Wilks (22) and Alice Jeffries (21) have been named as the recipients of the 2023 Irish National Stud Scholarship, supported by the Keith and Faith Taylor Family Trust. The pair will fly to Ireland in January next year to complete the internationally recognised Irish National Stud Breeding Diploma before completing a six-month tenure at Trelawney Stud near Cambridge. “We had an outstanding calibre of candidates this year,” New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association chief executive Justine…