Year: 2025

Barry Donoghue has savoured his first top level success as a breeder and one that has boosted prospects of another major celebration. The Waikato-based horseman bred and sold Gr.1 Might And Power Stakes (2000m) winner Globe (NZ) (Charm Spirit) and will offer a half-brother through his BMD Bloodstock draft at next month’s New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale. “It was brilliant and not something that we expected or dreamed of until it came around,” Donoghue said. Globe’s latest victory at Caulfield has significantly lifted the profile of Lot 248,…

New Zealand sourced runners were to the fore at Sha Tin on Sunday with six winners from the ten races. Sky Heart (NZ) (Ardrossan) landed the fourth win of his 13-start career when fighting bravely to score in a Class 3 over 1400m. The Caspar Fownes-trained five-year-old overcame barrier 13 to win by a nose under Ellis Wong for the Kwan family after being sidelined for the best part of six months. “He’s a good horse and we’ve always had a very high opinion of him, but he’s just had…

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French jockey Corentin Berge had to wait longer than anticipated to partner Sicillian at the races, but he made that opportunity count at Arawa Park on Sunday, earning his first win on New Zealand soil. Berge arrived in New Zealand last month and had five raceday rides prior to the Arawa Park Hotel Rotorua (1400m), a take two aboard the Wexford-trained mare having been scheduled to ride her at Matamata last Saturday before the late abandonment. He retained the ride for the following weekend and had confidence that she could…

After a couple of unlucky runs in big races this season, Antipodean (NZ) (Derryn) turned his fortunes around at Selangor on Sunday with a deserved victory in the RM300,000 NZB Ready to Run Sale Championship (1400m). Antipodean was bought for $23,000 by trainer Simon Dunderdale from Regal Farm’s draft at the 2022 Ready to Run Sale at Karaka. The star five-year-old has now had 20 starts for 12 wins and six placings, including a perfect six-from-six record over 1400 metres. Previously the winner of last year’s RM200,000 Selangor Gold Cup…

Plenty of drama has surrounded Ka Ying Rising (NZ) (Shamexpress) ahead of Saturday’s A$20 million The Everest (1200m) at Randwick, but trainer David Hayes assures everything is fine with the Kiwi-bred sprinting sensation. “I got a call yesterday (Sunday) at lunchtime from JD, my son, and Gareth Hall (racing broadcaster) had rung him and said his twitter account had been hacked and sent out some false information, which basically had him scratched, lame in behind and not eating,” Hayes said. “That’s not the horse I have been training anyway. “The…

Harness Racing legend Barry Purdon had a weekend to remember. On Friday he made a winning return to the sulky, following a six-year hiatus, when piloting Group One-performing trotter Higher Power to victory at Alexandra Park, and on Sunday, his famous silks were to the fore once again, but this time in the thoroughbred code, when his exciting galloper Yamato Satona scored on debut in the opening race at Arawa Park for trainers Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott. Purdon was trackside in Rotorua with his wife Katrina, who shares in…

High class three-year-old Autumn Boy may not have a New Zealand suffix next to his name, but his Kiwi roots run deep. The Gr.1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) winner was bred and sold by Beltana Stud’s Richard Rutherford, who is continuing to breed from the Chris Waller-trained colt’s dam Rosegarden. “It was terrific result all around and he’s a cracking horse,” said Rutherford, whose boutique breeding operation is located at Parnassus, about 130km north of Christchurch. Autumn Boy was offered through Amarina Farm’s draft at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling…