Classy Kinnaird provides Coolmore’s Home Affairs with first stakes winner
Coolmore’s first-season sire Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) supplied his first stakes winner courtesy of his talented son Kinnaird, who advertised his Karaka Million 2YO (RL, 1200m) credentials when he led home a quinella for the stallion in the Eclipse Stakes (Gr 2, 12000m) at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day.
Trained by Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson and sporting the tangerine colours of Te Akau, the colt was making his first appearance since scoring over 1100 metres on his debut at Otaki in November.
Opie Bosson settled Kinnaird off the pace from his wide draw, but soon found a gap on the rail and unleashed a potent turn of foot to run down the Tony Pike-trained Harvey Wallbanger (Home Affairs) by a length.
Bosson said he had been looking for a run out wide down the home straight, but elected to keep the rail once the gap materialised.
“I wanted to come out, but he was a bit shy of the horse outside of me, so he gave me no choice but to come back in,” Bosson said.
“Once he balanced up, he has got a good finish on him. As soon as I asked the question he really knuckled down and wanted to win, which is what you need in a colt going into a Karaka Million.”
Walker was full of praise for Bosson’s ride, believing it proved the difference on the colt.
“It was an Opie of old ride, that was a brilliant ride,” the winning trainer said. “He is still new, he is still green, he did a lot wrong, but the experience and the class of Opie got him through.”
Kinnaird was purchased out of Highview’s 2025 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Yearling Sale draft by Te Akau Racing principal David Ellis for NZ$340,000 and the NZ$1 million Karaka Million 2YO is now on the agenda for the colt.
Te Akau have won eight of the last nine editions of the Karaka Millions 2YO, with Walker winning the race with Tokyo Tycoon (Satono Aladdin) (2023) and La Dorada (Super Seth) (2025), the last in partnership with Bergerson, and he is looking forward to Kinnaird contesting the race on January 24.
“We are on the right track. It was a nice win,” he said. “He will go straight in [to the Karaka Millions].
Bosson knows what it takes to win a Karaka Millions 2YO, having ridden five Te Akau-trained juveniles to win the rich feature, and he believes Kinnaird has the ability to make it six.
“He has got a lot of upside about him,” Bosson said. “He is still learning and we have still got the option of putting the blinkers on too.”
Out of the winning O’Reilly (Last Tycoon) mare Orinda, Kinnaird is a half-brother to Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Jon Snow (Iffraaj) as well as Listed scorer Princess Rhaenys (Iffraaj). Orinda is a half-sister to dual Group 3 winner Mr Ubiquitous (Tale Of The Cat).
Kinnaird and Harvey Wallbanger are two of three winners for Home Affairs, who has just completed covering his fourth season at Coolmore Stud in the Hunter Valley. The son of I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) covered 205 mares at a fee of $82,500 (inc GST).
The Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner supplied the top lot at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale when Mitsu Nakauchida purchased a filly by the stallion out of Sunlight (Zoustar) for $3.2 million, and has 46 yearlings entered at this year’s edition which gets under way on January 13.