Year: 2025

Zeefa Zed’s record hasn’t always emulated his talent, and John Wheeler is hoping the gelding can put his true ability on display in Saturday’s Norm Bevan Memorial Maiden Steeplechase (4000m). A 10-year-old by Zed, Zeefa Zed has won seven races including one over the hurdles last season, but hasn’t kicked off this term how Wheeler would have anticipated, losing the rider at Te Rapa on two separate occasions. “He’s a bit of an arrogant horse, but also he’s a pretty good horse that hasn’t had a lot of luck,” he…

Tony Pike found it difficult to split his juvenile charges the last time they took each other on and it’s the same story at Ruakaka. The Cambridge trainer has form runners Boombox and Ashoka in Saturday’s ITM/GIB 2YO Championship (1200m), in what will be a rematch of their Ellerslie meeting earlier this month. On that occasion, it was the former who held bragging rights, but it wouldn’t come as any surprise to Pike if Ashoka was able to reverse that result. “He was good at Ellerslie, he just kept drifting…

The first progeny of Windsor Park Stud stallion Profondo made a favourable impression during the NZB National Weanling Sale at Karaka on Thursday. The son of Japanese super-sire Deep Impact was himself a A$1.9 million yearling and won the Gr.1 Spring Champion Stakes (2000m) in Sydney as a three-year-old. He commenced his stud career at Windsor Park in 2023 and has served books of 177 and 173 mares in his first two seasons. Thursday’s catalogue featured four weanlings from Profondo’s first crop. They all sold for a total of $250,000,…

Little Avondale stallion Per Incanto’s outstanding season carried on in the Karaka sale ring on Thursday, where his weanling colt fetched a sale-topping $190,000 in the opening hour of the NZB National Weanling Sale. Catalogued as Lot 13, the colt is the second foal out of the Shamexpress mare London Express – the winner of seven races including the Listed Castletown Stakes (1200m) as a late-season two-year-old. The sale-topping colt was offered by Seaton Park and was bought by Australian bloodstock agent James Mitchell, who signed for his purchase in…

Little Avondale stallion Per Incanto’s outstanding season carried on in the Karaka sale ring on Thursday, where his weanling colt fetched a sale-topping $190,000 in the opening hour of the NZB National Weanling Sale. Catalogued as Lot 13, the colt is the second foal out of the Shamexpress mare London Express – the winner of seven races including the Listed Castletown Stakes (1200m) as a late-season two-year-old. The sale-topping colt was offered by Seaton Park and was bought by Australian bloodstock agent James Mitchell, who signed for his purchase in…

Little Avondale stallion Per Incanto’s outstanding season carried on in the Karaka sale ring on Thursday, where his weanling colt fetched a sale-topping $190,000 in the opening hour of the NZB National Weanling Sale. Catalogued as Lot 13, the colt is the second foal out of the Shamexpress mare London Express – the winner of seven races including the Listed Castletown Stakes (1200m) as a late-season two-year-old. The sale-topping colt was offered by Seaton Park and was bought by Australian bloodstock agent James Mitchell, who signed for his purchase in…

Little Avondale stallion Per Incanto’s outstanding season carried on in the Karaka sale ring on Thursday, where his weanling colt fetched a sale-topping $190,000 in the opening hour of the NZB National Weanling Sale. Catalogued as Lot 13, the colt is the second foal out of the Shamexpress mare London Express – the winner of seven races including the Listed Castletown Stakes (1200m) as a late-season two-year-old. The sale-topping colt was offered by Seaton Park and was bought by Australian bloodstock agent James Mitchell, who signed for his purchase in…

Successful pinhookers Kaha Nui Farm were to the fore at Karaka on Thursday, and were rewarded with the crown of leading buyer at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Weanling Sale. The boutique Waikato thoroughbred operation, operated by Nicky and Nick White, purchased three weanlings for a total spend of $300,000, and the couple were pleased with their acquisitions, who will return through the Karaka sales ring in next year’s National Yearling Sale. “It has been a really good sale and we have given it a nudge on a number of lots,…

Billy Boy was always going to require patient handling and those waiting tactics are being rewarded in the second phase of the strapping son of So You Think’s career. The seven-year-old is a three-time winner on the flat, but it is in a jumping role that the gelding is excelling and will put his perfect record on the line in Saturday’s Aztech Engineering Wellington Hurdle (3100m). He is prepared at Wanganui by former top jumps jockey Jo Rathbone, who numbered victory aboard the Kevin Myers’ Honey in the 2011 edition…

Pukekohe’s Wednesday meeting marked the end of an era for Auckland Thoroughbred Racing, as Ross Coles, a treasured figure in the industry, retired after 60 years as Clerk of the Course. Coles couldn’t have scripted his final day in the role, but despite a few theatrics, it was just another day at the office, and he didn’t have any last-minute reservations about retirement. “You take it as it comes, yesterday had it all, with young Sam McNab having his first winner,” he said. “I listen to George (Simon, commentator) very…