Last Saturday’s results will take a lot of beating for the team at Haunui Farm for a number of reasons.

Wins by Sahar (Iffraaj) and Rondinella (Ocean Park) at Te Rapa provided a great thrill for the Chitty family.

Not only did they carry the Haunui colours, it was a double for their dam Valpolicella, the grand Red Ransom mare who is a seventh-generation member of Haunui’s prolific foundation family.

Haunui’s Mark Chitty said: “It’s been well documented that Rondinella was shaping up very nicely in her 3YO season, but she suffered a very bad hoof injury that we thought could put her on the side lines for 12 months.

“But thanks to a big team effort and, the work of Luke Pertab, our farrier, who had her at his water walker and rehabilitation unit, we’ve managed to get her back to the track. To see her win first up on Saturday was very satisfying on all fronts.”

Not only did the Te Rapa card provide a Haunui double, former resident stallion Showcasing landed a treble on the day with wins by Maybeashowoff, Show Down and Amastar plus another winner at the opening day of the NZ Cup Week at Riccarton with Monza Circuito.

And at Flemington Haunui stallions Iffraaj (Zafonic) and Belardo (Lope De Vega) enjoyed some significant results.

Jaameh (Iffraaj) added to his sire’s black type record in Australia taking out the G3 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2600m) after narrowly missing out on a place in the Melbourne Cup field.

Later in the day Iffraaj proved his versatility with Jungle Cat running third in the G1 VRC Sprint Classic (1200m), adding to his G1 win in the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (1400m) in September.

The accolades in the VRC Sprint Classic went to Lope De Vega’s son Santa Ana Lane who claimed his third G1 win for the year and his fourth in total.

Haunui stands Lope De Vega’s only son at stud in Australasia, dual G1 winner and champion 2YO Belardo.

He has his first Southern Hemisphere foals on the ground this spring.