Pedigrees can sparkle with the repetition of certain superior mares, the likes of Natalma, Lalun, Plucky Liege and La Troienne. Another is 1950s US mare Flower Bowl (Alibhai), and she might be part of the strength behind rising star Reserve Bank (Capitalist), who made it three wins on end in Saturday’s The Goodwood (Gr 1,... Read More

It’s a good thing for Phil Campbell, and a few others, that he makes a plan and sticks to it. In 1999 Campbell and his father Graham, who founded Blue Gum Farm, paid $32,000 for a Listed-winning broodmare named Delgara (Delgado), and from her they bred a filly by Umatilla (Miswaki). In 2006, the filly... Read More

You think of the sons of Street Cry (Machiavellian) enjoying success at stud and you think Pride Of Dubai, Per Incanto, Street Boss and of course Hualalai. Whoa. Huala-who? He’s a ten-year-old, he’s had only 16 runners, and on Saturday he became Australia’s newest stakes-winning stallion when his first-crop five-year-old Volcanic Express swooshed home from... Read More

Gavin O’Dea is an accountant and small-time breeder from Hawera who at 77 and having been breeding for 40 years has seen a thing or two. But he hadn’t before seen the like of what happened at Trentham in March last year when a horse he bred, Sergeant Major (Proisir), contested the Sires Prelude 2YO... Read More

Cherry Taylor will be forever grateful she was heavily pregnant the day Sayyida (Zabeel) suffered a broken leg. Ciaron Maher, Ethan Brown, Kevin and Vicki Payne, the Hayes brothers, and dozens of other people in the racing game ought to be grateful too, for Taylor’s fevered actions that day have helped all of them prosper.... Read More