Year: 2025

Within the space of just two starts as a four-year-old, Grail Seeker has announced her arrival as one of the brightest stars in New Zealand racing. A first-up winner of the Gr.1 Tarzino Trophy (1400m) at Hastings back at the beginning of September, the Iffraaj mare lined up for her first race in 119 days at Trentham on Saturday and blew her rivals away again in the Gr.1 TAB Telegraph (1200m). It was the 40th win of a standout season for trainers Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott, and one of…

Progressive mare Nigella Lane had hinted in her most recent starts that another winning turn was coming her way and she delivered on those signs with a dominant performance to take out the Lockwood Coromandel Peninsula Thames Cup (1600m) at Te Aroha. Successful over 1600m at Tauranga in November, the five-year-old then finished off well for sixth at Wanganui before going a slashing race for fourth behind stablemate Khafre in the Listed Matamata Cup (1600m) last month. Manning believed that Saturday’s Thames Cup was a prime target given she was…

Outsider Ruby Rocks overcame plenty of pre-race drama to register her biggest career victory when she led all the way to upset at odds of $61 in Saturday’s Listed Lincoln Farms Marton Cup (2200m). Trainer Roger Allen and the eight-year-old mare had to endure a horror journey to the Trentham track from their Opaki base after a serious motor vehicle accident left them sitting in traffic as the Remutaka Hill section of State Highway Two was closed for several hours. Allen only arrived on course with the mare fifteen minutes…

A black-type victory eluded My Lips Are Sealed by the barest of margins in the Gr.3 Eulogy Stakes (1600m) at Trentham last season, but the talented mare returned to Wellington on Saturday and went one better in the Gr.3 Rydges Wellington Airport Phar Lap Trophy (1600m). The daughter of Ace High showed plenty of early promise as a three-year-old, scoring a first-up victory by two and a half lengths at Avondale in September of 2023. She was unsuited to the Good4 track conditions when she contested the Gr.2 Soliloquy Stakes…

Debutant runner Tale Of The Gypsy continued the winning roll for the Stephen Marsh stable when she headed off stablemate Miss Moet All to take out the opening event at Te Aroha, the Graeme Wright Transport (1000m). Although unseen at the trials before stepping out for the first time on race day on Saturday, the daughter of Written By had been spruiked as a major winning chance in the seven-horse field, starting a warm $2.90 favourite for the 1000m contest. Awkwardly away for rider George Rooke, Tale Of The Gypsy…