Pins Means A Lot To NZ

A trio of Group and Listed wins on Saturday was a solid reminder of what former champion sire Pins means to New Zealand racing and breeding.

Pins died suddenly from a colic attack last April at Waikato Stud in NZ at the age of 21.

The Australian-bred son of Snippets was a G1 Australian Guineas who went on to become a champion NZ-based sire, leaving to date more than 725 winners including eight individual G1 winners among more than 77 stakes winners.

He was a dual winner of the Centaine Award for the leading New Zealand-based sire by global progeny earnings and was also twice champion sire in Hong Kong where his progeny have included Horse of the Year Ambitious Dragon and champion sprinter Aerovelocity.

The Australasian G1 winners by Pins have included Cox Plate winner El Segundo and dual G1 winner Katie Lee, the first filly to complete the NZ 1000 and 2000 Guineas double.

This season he has been represented by 46 individual winners 74 races in NZ and Australia including seven stakes winners, led by his G1 star Madison County.

On Saturday he increased his NZ black type score this season to five stakes winners of nine races when he had three daughters land feature races at Ellerslie and Wingatui.

PINMEDOWN (Pins x Alleyway by Oregon) won the G3 Sunline Vase at Ellerslie for her second win in the NZ Bloodstock Filly of the Year Series, taking her third on the table with 14 points.

She had previously won the G2 Eight Carat Classic at Ellerslie on Boxing Day and is proving to be a fine Karaka sale bargain after she was purchased for $NZ28,000 by Paul Moroney from the Ardsley Stud draft at the 2017 National Yearling Sale.

Pinmedown is the seventh foal from Alleyway and her second winner. Alleyway is a half-sister to stakes winning Kaapstad mare Recall, the dam of Hong Kong Horse of the Year Ambitious Dragon.

Pinmedown has now earned $123,750 prize-money.

EMILY MARGARET (Pins x Seven Schillings by O'Reilly) has won both legs of the New Zealand Bloodstock Southern Filly of the Year Series.

The classy grey won the Listed Canterbury Belle Stakes in the spring and the result was the same when the series resumed in Saturday’s Listed NZB Insurance Stakes at Wingatui.

Bought by Rodger Finlay for $55,000 at the 2017 NZB Select Sale at Karaka, Emily Margaret has now had 11 starts for three wins, five placings and $93,250 in prize-money.

PRINCESS KERERU (Pins x Fleur d'Amour by Thorn Park) broke through for her first stakes win in Saturday’s G3 Waikato Stud Plate at Ellerslie.

Passed in at the 2015 NZB Select Sale at Karaka on a $40,000 reserve, Princess Kereru had emerged as a top class sprinter with a second in the G1 Railway at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day.

Trained by Ken and Bev Kelso and Mark Donoghue, Princess Kereru has now had 23 starts for six wins, seven placings and $212,875 in prize-money – more than five times her reserve at Karaka.

She is the first foal and winner from Fleur d’Amour, a half-sister to G2 winner and G1 placed Thunder Lady (Mastercraftsman) and a granddaughter of the G2 winner Fleur De Chine (Centaine).

Fleur De Chine is the dam of G1 winner Tully Thunder (Thunder Gulch) and third dam of G1 ATC Derby winner Levendi (Pierro).