Kiwis Conquer the Carnival

This year’s Melbourne Spring Carnival has been a prolific one, particularly the past week, for New Zealand bred and sold thoroughbreds.

Prince of Penzance (NZ) victorious in the Group 1 Emirates Melbourne Cup.

With five Group 1 victories across the Caulfield Cup Carnival and Melbourne Cup Carnival, New Zealand-bred or sold horses won 38% of Group 1 races during the two carnivals. So far this season, kiwi horses have won 23% of Group 1 races in Australia yet they make up less than 6% of the racing population.

In the space of seven days New Zealand Bloodstock graduates won the Group 1 Victoria Derby, the Group 1 Melbourne Cup and the Group 1 Emirates Stakes.

The holy grail of Australasian racing, the Group 1 Melbourne Cup saw history made when Prince of Penzance (NZ) (Pentire) raced to victory for rider Michelle Payne, the first female jockey to win the great race.

Trained by Darren Weir, Prince of Penzance joins some of the turf’s greats to have won the Melbourne Cup from New Zealand. In the past 50 years 48% of the Melbourne Cup winners have been born in New Zealand.

Among the esteemed group are seven of Bart Cummings’ famous 12 Melbourne Cup winners. Cummings had an affinity with kiwi horses starting with Light Fingers (NZ) in 1965.

Purchased by Queensland bloodstock agent John Foote for just NZ$50,000 at the 2011 Karaka Premier Sale, Prince of Penzance is a great example of the value that can be found at Karaka having now won over A$4.4m in prizemoney, more than 88 times his purchase price.

Prince of Penzance is by proven sire Pentire, the sire of 14 Group 1 winners. Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup victory by Prince of Penzance was Pentire’s 13th Group 1 winner, the 14th came on Saturday with Xtravagant (NZ) winning the Group 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas by a dominant 8.5 lengths.

Another race that kiwi horses have an impressive record in is the Group 1 Victoria Derby in which Tarzino (NZ) (Tavistock) triumphed this season.

With victory in this year’s running of the spring classic, Tarzino becomes the seventh kiwi-bred horse to win the race in the past 10 years.

He adds to the impressive record of New Zealand three-year-olds in Australia, with kiwi horses winning 45% of Group 1 Derbies in Australia in the past five seasons.

Kiwi bred or sold horses have now won the last two Group 1 Victoria Derbies and the last two Group 1 Australian Derbies.

Trained by Mick Price, Tarzino was purchased by Rick Connolly for NZ$45,000 at the 2014 Karaka Select Sale. With the average price at the Karaka Select Sale around NZ$45,000, graduates of the Sale have won 27 Group 1 races in the past three seasons.

Tarzino is by a rising star of the New Zealand sire ranks, Tavistock (NZ). He is from the second crop of the Cambridge Stud sire, who sired Group 1 Rosehill Guineas winner Volkstok’n’barrell (NZ) from his first crop.

The most recent win for New Zealand came on Saturday with Turn Me Loose (NZ) (Iffraaj) powering to victory in the Group 1 Emirates Stakes.

Purchased by Melbourne’s Todd Hartley for NZ$52,500 at the NZB Ready to Run Sale in 2013, Turn Me Loose won his first Group 1 race exactly one year earlier. The son of Iffraaj won the Group 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas in 2014, less than a year after being bought at the NZB Ready to Run Sale.

Iffraaj was the leading sire of three-year-olds in New Zealand last season and is the sire of five Group 1 winners. He was also represented on the weekend by Group 2 winner Serena Miss (NZ) who finished third in the Group 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas against the colts and geldings.

Flemington was not the only happy hunting ground for New Zealand with Caulfield also providing a wealth of success.

NZB Ready to Run graduate Mongolian Khan (Holy Roman Emperor) was triumphant in the Group 1 Caulfield Cup, giving graduates of Karaka the coveted Caulfield/Melbourne Cup double.

Racing in the colours of Mr Lang Lin’s Inner Mongolia Rider Horse Group, Mongolian Khan claimed his third Group 1 victory having won two in the previous season as a three-year-old. The Rider Horse Group purchased last season’s New Zealand Horse of the Year for NZ$220,000 at the 2013 NZB Ready to Run Sale.

Undefeated at 2400m, Mongolian Khan won the Group 1 New Zealand Derby and the Group 1 Australian Derby last season, becoming the first horse to win the double since the great Bonecrusher (NZ).

Kiwi-bred Criterion (NZ) (Sebring) was also victorious during Caulfield’s carnival, winning the Group 1 Caulfield Stakes.

Bred and raised by owner Sir Owen Glenn at Graham and Helen-Gaye Bax’s Blandford Lodge property in Matamata, Criterion went on to be the runner-up in the Group 1 Cox Plate before finishing an unlucky third in the Group 1 Melbourne Cup.

The Group 1 success for New Zealand this spring started in Sydney with Kermadec (NZ) (Teofilo) winning the Group 1 George Main Stakes at Randwick, the second feature mile he has won on the course following his victory in the Group 1 Doncaster Mile earlier this year.

Bred by the Hawkins family of Wentwood Grange in Cambridge, Kermadec was purchased by New Zealand bloodstock agent Guy Mulcaster for ex-pat kiwi trainer Chris Waller at the 2013 Karaka Premier Sale for NZ$260,000.

Sydney’s leading trainer Waller was back in the winner’s circle with Preferment (NZ) (Zabeel) victorious in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes. Also purchased at the 2013 Karaka Premier Sale by Mulcaster and Waller, the son of Zabeel was bought for NZ$160,000.

The Group 1 Victoria Derby winner from last season, Preferment is the second successive kiwi to win the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes following the win of Lucia Valentina (NZ) (Savabeel) in 2014.

Bred-shaping sire Zabeel recently passed away but his legacy continues on through the likes of Savabeel, a son of the great stallion who was New Zealand’s Champion Sire last season.

Savabeel’s daughter Lucia Valentina was herself back in the winner’s circle during the spring, winning the Group 2 Matriarch Stakes on Saturday at Flemington. She was one of four kiwi winners on the day with Rhythm to Spare (NZ) (Pins) and Divan (NZ) (Zabeel) also winners.

Along with Saturday’s winners and the three Group 1 races, the past week also saw three-year-old Hursley (NZ) (Makfi) win the Listed TCL Stakes on Thursday at Flemington and Karaka graduate Sea Lord (Street Cry) victorious in the Listed MSS Security Sprint on Derby Day.

Makfi is among a group of promising young sires in New Zealand starting to make their mark on the sire ranks. With his oldest progeny only three-year-olds, Makfi sired a Group 1 winner from his first crop with Marky Mark (NZ) winning the Group 1 Manawatu Sires Produce as a juvenile last season.

The spring success comes on the back of an equally impressive Sydney Autumn Carnival for New Zealand. Only two years old, The Championships at Randwick have been dominated by New Zealand bred or sold horses, winning 50% of Group 1 races at the Carnival both years.

Kiwis have won the last two Group 1 Australian Derbies (Mongolian Khan & Criterion), the last two Group 1 Australian Oaks’ (Gust of Wind (NZ) & Rising Romance (NZ)), the last two Group 1 Doncaster Miles (Kermadec & Sacred Falls (NZ)) and the last two Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Criterion & Dundeel (NZ)).  

The next sale at Karaka is the NZB Ready to Run Sale on 18 & 19 November followed by the National Yearling Sales Series in January.