You’ve all done verrrrry well!

Within the introductory speeches at Saturday’s NZTBA Breeders’ Awards dinner, a recurring theme was the success of New Zealand-breds on the world stage. With approximately 7 per cent of the runners in Australia, our New Zealand stud book enjoys far greater results in proportion to our representation. Due to outstanding success, particularly from the Ready To Run Sale, our record in Hong Kong is similarly first class.

Courtesy of repeats, many will be familiar with the 70s and 80s TV English comedy set around the fictional Grace Brothers department store: “Are You Being Served?” and the character known as Young Mister Grace (he was in his 90s). In a croaky voice he would often exclaim to his staff: “You’ve all done verrrrrry well!”, the effort in expressing such, causing him to fall into the arms of his always attractive nurse.

The phrase applies to the New Zealand industry and Saturday’s gathering provided an opportunity to reflect on a job well done, beginning with the breeders of 20 Group 1 winners followed by recognition of the Breeder of the Year, the Small Breeder of the Year, the Young Achiever Award, the Personality of the Year and the NZB Filly of the Year.

Three awards were made to actual horses vs people. Dual Oaks winner Ohope Wins (Ocean Park) claimed the New Zealand Bloodstock Filly of the Year award but the other two awards were very closely associated. Named NZTBA Horse of the Year was the Hong Kong superstar Ka Ying Rising (Shamexpress).

It is appropriate that the NZTBA has introduced this category because the New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) Awards (scheduled for early September) also includes their version of Horse of the Year but is confined to New Zealand runners whereas the Breeders’ Association recognises the scope of world-wide racing and that our life-blood, the exported thoroughbred, deserves to be appreciated.

No one could doubt the selection of Ka Ying Rising as he strolled to 20 successive career wins including a flying visit to Randwick last spring to show a clean pair of heels to Australia’s best sprinters in the world’s richest turf race, the $20 million The Everest (Gr 1, 1200m).

His dam, Missy Moo (Per Incanto) claimed her second Broodmare of the Year Award, which, in the writer’s humble opinion, is the most important award and the only title which shows up on pedigree pages forever, as part of a mare’s produce record.

Should Ka Ying Rising continue his winning ways this coming season and defend his Everest title along the way, it is entirely possible that Missy Moo could match three-time Broodmare of the Year winners Flying Floozie (Pompeii Court), Songline (Western Symphony) and the incomparable Eight Carat (Pieces Of Eight) – whose name is now attached to the award which was first made in 1953.

In order, the above mares produced Starcraft (Soviet Star), Sunline (Desert Sun) and Octagonal (Zabeel). That’s tough company.

As of this year Missy Moo is a back-to-back winner as were Opulence (Danroad), Triassic (Tights), Benediction (Day Is Done) and Imitation (Oakville). These mares produced Verry Elleegant (Zed), So You Think (High Chaparral), Might And Power (Zabeel) and Bonecrusher (Pag-Asa). Another tough school.

Non back-to-back dual winners of the prestigious award are Bagalollies (Zabeel), Sunbride (Tai-Yang) and Taiona (Sovereign Edition). Taiona is significant regarding Missy Moo’s 2026 title because Missy Moo is Taiona’s great granddaughter. Interestingly, 2024 Broodmare of the Year Lilahjay (Tavistock), dam of ten-time Group 1 winner Mr Brightside (Bullbars), is also a great granddaughter of Taiona.

As detailed here in Kiwi Chronicles soon after the sad passing of Savabeel (Zabeel) a few weeks ago, Taiona was a major part of the Sir Tristram (Sir Ivor) story as Sir Patrick Hogan attempted to sell her until Melbourne trainer Geoff Murphy convinced Hogan to keep her. He informed Hogan that her foal by Sir Tristram, named Sovereign Red, would win at Group 1 level. Murphy was right – six times.

According to Brian de Lore and his first rate book The Horsemakers, Hogan bought Taiona’s dam Vickyjoy (Sabaean) for $5000 at the same time as he leased Vickyjoy’s dam False Credit, in search of Le Filou (Vatellor) blood, which Hogan keenly desired. Vickyjoy was tiny and no racehorse but for Hogan she produced 11 foals including Taiona, a foundation mare for Cambridge Stud.

Since then 19 stakes winners trace directly to Taiona and eight are Group 1 winners. Three are listed above. The remaining five are Sovereign Red’s Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) and Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m)-winning brother, Gurner’s Lane, plus their Group 1 sister Trichelle. Also featured are dual Group 1 winners Foxwood (Centaine) and Purple (Commands) as well as recent Telegraph Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Mercurial (Burgundy).

This is the biggie

Three stallion awards were presented with Little Avondale Stud’s Per Incanto (Street Cry) notching two: the Centaine Award (world-wide earnings by a New Zealand based sire), his second such award, and the Dewar Award (Australasian earnings by a New Zealand based sire).

“This is the biggie for us”, said Little Avondale’s Sam Williams, beaming with pride. “Dad [Buzz] won this three times with Oncidium and it’s just so great to also get one with Per Incanto. Catriona, our family and I are thrilled to win the Dewar. Its history goes back sixty years. I was interviewed by an Australian racing radio station this week and was happy to point out just how tough it is to take on the power of the Australian stallion industry and match them. One statistic says it all, that Per Incanto had 94 runners while the other top nine sires averaged 270 runners.”

It was meaningful that Sam invited his stallion manager Helen Phinney to join him on stage for the presentation of both awards. The Per Incanto story is a lengthy tale and any regular visitor to Karaka is aware of just how consistently impassioned Sam Williams has been throughout. From the early days he pushed and pushed the stallion’s qualities, committed to his success.

The Grosvenor Award for the Leading Sire by New Zealand earnings was taken out for the second time by Rich Hill Stud’s Proisir (Choisir), wrestling the title away from a gallant Savabeel and denying the late champion a record-equalling 11th title. Maybe next year as one should never write off Savabeel.

With mere days remaining in the current season Proisir had a lead of more than $400,000 but the numbers were much closer during the first half of the season. Proisir’s total was assisted by two Group 1 winners including million-dollar earner Legarto while Savabeel’s total was helped along by Belle Cheval whose New Zealand bank exceeded $900,000. The upcoming season could well see the same two stallions stage a similar battle, so, watch this space.

Before you go to sleep

Savabeel was not the recipient of any awards this year but the industry’s loss, not to mention Waikato Stud’s loss, resulted in special recognition by the Breeders’ Association who asked Garry Chittick to say a few words regarding the champion sire as the dominant force on both the racetrack and in the sales ring for longer than the past decade.

Chittick’s comments underlined the stud’s fortune in securing the stallion, the purchase deal being completed during a dinner function at the Chittick residence. Once Chittick was happy with the deal struck between the stud and trainer Graeme Rogerson, the promise was made that 50 per cent of the agreed price would be lodged in Rogerson’s Australian bank account the following day.

Later that evening, preparing for a good night’s sleep, Gary said to his wife Mary: “Before you put your head on the pillow, I think you should know that while dinner was going on we spent $10 million.”

Chittick added that the New Zealand studs and breeders rallied around and supported the decision strongly. Savabeel was fully syndicated within a few days and aren’t we glad that the deal was completed, affecting our industry in ways that could only be imagined at the time.

Young Achiever of the Year is Waikato Stud’s foaling manager Jess Greenfield while the Personality of the Year went to a deserving Rodney Schick of Windsor Park Stud who stated: “First you need a bloody good wife and Gina has been the absolute backbone for me for all our married life, but especially over these past 18 months. It’s an absolute privilege to receive this award from your peers.”

Breeders of the Year

Small Breeder of the Year recognises those who have a small band of breeding stock, and was essentially a one-horse race as Ka Ying Rising’s breeders Grandmoral Lodge (Fraser and Erin Auret) bagged the title for a second time. There could not have been any other result although two breeders, namely Marie Leicester and Don & Dame Wendy Pye made a significant impression by each breeding two stakes winners from different mares. In any other year those results would have been well worthy given the odds of such success.

Breeders of the Year are Cambridge Stud’s Sir Brendan and Lady Jo Lindsay. Sir Brendan’s speech indicated just how much he treasured this award having purchased Cambridge Stud from Sir Patrick and Lady Justine Hogan in late 2017 and taking over the running of the stud the following year.

The Hogans were named Breeders of the Year on multiple occasions but this was the first award for Cambridge Stud since it changed hands, a fact not lost on Lindsay. Apart from breeding two Group 1 winners and more than 100 winners for the season, the stud also enjoyed great success at the 2026 NZB Karaka Yearling Sale, selling the sale topper and claiming the title as Leading Vendor.

Racing

It was the last Saturday of the season and Te Rapa hosted the only meeting in the country as Otaki was forced to postpone their meeting until Thursday. One might easily have wondered where the snow was as it was a bitterly cold day at the Hamiton track. The size of the attendance is testament to the support by the locals but it was noticeable that hardly a soul ventured outside of the clubhouse. The blood of the trainers and jockeys must be quite thick.

It was the last Saturday for the Australian season and of the several Kiwi results the win by Satono Jasmine (Satono Aladdin) stood out. The three-year-old filly keeps stepping up and from eight starts, her Randwick victory, from equal last at the top of the straight, was her first on a Saturday and fourth in succession. It was clearly her best effort to date, as echoed by rider Chad Schofield who stated: “When I pulled her to the outside in the straight, she accelerated hard and fast. Every time I ride her, she has felt better.”

Trainer Brad Widdup admits he does not know where the ability comes from but also doesn’t know where the ceiling is. The filly’s dam is an unraced High Chaparral (Sadler’s Wells) mare whose dam, Genuine Spin (Pins), won at Flemington and Moonee Valley and ranks as a sister to two stakes winners including Group 3 winner Stickpin (Pins).