Hawke’s Bay Racing will stage a new $100,000 race on the third day of this year’s spring carnival, on October 10.
Known as the East Coast Challenge, the race will be a Special Conditions Maiden event run over 1400 metres and open to three-year-olds and upwards.
The size of the field will be limited to 16 starters plus four emergencies and is open to horses that have finished first or second in one of 11 designated qualifying races, run during the month of September.
Horses may contest multiple qualifying races and, if they win one, they are still eligible to contest others.
Two of the qualifying races are classified as Wild Card events and will be run on the first two days of the Hawke’s Bay Spring Carnival, on September 12 and September 26. The distances for these two races will be 1200m and 1300m respectively and the first and second placegetters in both races will be exempt from the ballot for the East Coast Challenge.
If either of the first two placegetters in both of those races are already qualified for the final then a non-qualified horse, or horses, will be able to gain entry.
Should the number of acceptors exceed the field limit, the following order of elimination will apply:
(a) Lowest rated second placegetters from qualifying races.
(b) Thereafter in order of the horses with the lowest handicap rating at time of final acceptances.
(c) In the event of equal ratings, the NZTR Chief Handicapper shall determine the order of elimination.
Horses will be automatically nominated via qualifying results with final acceptances closing at 9am on Wednesday, October 7.
Nomination and/or acceptance fees may apply and apprentice jockeys can claim allowances in accordance with the Rules of Racing.
A travel subsidy of $1500 plus GST will be payable to any South Island-trained horse that competes in the final.
Qualifying races
- New Plymouth, September 5
- Woodville, September 6
- Timaru, September 6
- Taupo, September 11
- Hastings, September 12
- Riccarton, September 12
- Matamata, September 16
- Trentham, September 19
- Te Rapa, September 25
- Riccarton, September 26
- Hastings, September 26
Asterix now leaving his mark in Aussie
Hawke’s Bay-owned Asterix, winner of the Group 1 New Zealand Derby four years ago, has taken on a new lease of life as a seven-year-old racing in Australia.
The Tavistock gelding collected his fourth feature win of the season when taking out last Saturday’s A$200,000 Group 3 Tattersall’s Cup (2400m) at Eagle Farm and took his stake earnings past $1.5million.
Formerly trained by the Matamata partnership of Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott, Asterix is now in the stable of champion Australian trainer Chris Waller.
He was a $450,000 purchase from the 2020 Ready To Run Two-year-old sale and his owners include Havelock North couples Sam and Birdie Kelt and Andrew and Lauren Scott as well as former New Zealand cricket representative Mark Greatbatch.
He won four races in New Zealand before being transferred to Waller, the last of them being in the Group 2 Avondale Cup (2400m) at Ellerslie in February 2024.
Asterix initially took time to find his feet in his new Australian surroundings and it was11 races and more than a year later before he recorded his first stakes success in that country.
That was in the Listed A$300,000 The Beauford (2300m) at Newcastle in November last year and he has since added three more black type victories in the last couple of months, the A$200,000 Group 3 JRA Plate (2000m) at Randwick, the Listed A$300,000 Gosford Gold Cup (2100m) and last Saturday’s Tattersall’s Cup.
Asterix was ridden by senior New South Wales jockey Tim Clark last Saturday and settled at the tail of the six-horse field before launching an irresistible finish down the home straight. Clark angled him to the outside and drove him home over the top of his rivals, getting up to beat Pounding by a long neck.
“I just felt my main priority was to get him to settle,” Clark said afterwards. “He has raced a bit keenly previously, so I felt it was really important to get the first two-thirds of the race right. If I could do that, I knew he'd take care of the rest.”
Asterix became the fourth Tattersall’s Cup winner for Waller, who had previously won it with Index Linked (2016), Brimham Rocks (2020) and Manzoice (2025).
The gelding had finished sixth in his two most recent starts before last Saturday, in the Group 1 Doomben Cup (2000m) and Group 2 Q22 (2200m), and the drop back in grade was all he needed, according to Waller’s assistant trainer Charlie Duckworth.
“Tim gave him a lovely ride. He didn’t panic early and just let it all unfold in front of him, and then the horse was really strong late,” Duckworth added.
Asterix was bred by Sir Owen Glenn's Go Bloodstock and is by Tavistock out of the Shirocco mare Mourasana.
Hawke’s Bay weanling tour tomorrow
This year’s annual Hawke’s Bay/Poverty Bay weanling tour will be held this Sunday, July 5.
The tour will start with a breakfast at Game Lodge Racing Stables in Southland Road, Hastings, before going on to other locations where a number of well-bred weanlings and yearlings will be paraded.
At the conclusion of the tour there will be a luncheon and silent auction at Valley d’Vine Restaurant at Eskdale.
The tour is free to members and the general public while the luncheon is restricted to 100 people at a cost of $40/head for members of the Hawke’s Bay Poverty Bay Thoroughbred Breeders Association and $50/head for non-members.
First season sires popular at sale
A highly successful NZB National Weanling Sale for first-season sires last week ended with a Paddington colt selling for $190,000.
Offered by Seaton Park at Karaka on Thursday, the colt is a half-brother to Group 1 Randwick Guineas (1600m) winner Lion’s Roar and was bought by Byerley Bloodstock’s Liam Peters for the second-highest price of the day.
“It was obviously a big point going into the sale, him being a supplementary entry and a half-brother to a Group 1 winner,” Peters said. “He’s out of a family that obviously throws plenty of black type.
“And I was always personally a big fan of Paddington as a racehorse. I was quite shocked that he ended up shuttling to New Zealand – I thought he was one of those top-class racehorses that they (Coolmore) might have thought too valuable to travel. But it’s great that we have access to him through New Zealand. I’m really happy to have secured this bloke.”
The Paddington colt is set to join the imposing string of horses racing in the cerise and white colours of Peters’ grandfather, dominant Western Australian owner Bob Peters.
“He likes trying to aim for those Guineas or Derby style of horses, and we really hope that this bloke ends up fitting that profile,” Liam Peters said. “He definitely looks like he will.
“It’s great to be tapping into that Siyouni bloodline as well through Paddington and the exchange rate definitely helps when we’re buying in New Zealand.
“We’ll bring him straight home now and put him out with a few of our other weanlings and see how he compares with them. Hopefully, he’s one of the standouts going forward.”
Paddington is shuttling to Windsor Park Stud after an unprecedented sequence of four consecutive Group 1 wins in the space of 68 days in his three-year-old UK season.
He was trained by Aidan O’Brien and won the Irish 2000 Guineas (1600m), then added the St James’s Palace Stakes (1600m), Eclipse Stakes (2000m) and Sussex Stakes (1600m).
He was Champion Miler in Great Britain and Ireland and Joint Champion 3YO in Ireland in 2023, and he had a World Thoroughbred Ranking of 124.
Paddington will stand for a $30,000 service fee in the upcoming breeding season.
He was one of a quartet of first-season sires to feature in this year’s National Weanling Sale catalogue, and all four made their mark on Thursday of last week.
Cambridge Stud’s multiple Group 1 winner Chaldean topped the sale with his colt out of Novashow that was bought by Bhima for $250,000. The striking colt was also on Peters’ radar.
“We didn’t bid on any others, but we were going to have a go on the Chaldean at the beginning of the day – he just looked like an absolute ripper,” he said.
“He’s another first-crop shuttler who had plenty of class as well, so hopefully those two stallions can continue to throw some really good types like that and get more good results.”
Super Seth’s move across the Tasman to command a six-figure service fee at Coolmore leaves limited opportunities for buyers to secure his New Zealand-bred progeny, so it was no surprise to see him play a starring role at the sales.
Nine members of Super Seth’s penultimate Kiwi weanling crop went through the ring on Thursday. Eight of them sold for a total of $965,000, with an average price of $120,625.
A pair of Super Seth colts fetched $180,000 each, the equal third-highest prices of this year’s sale. The first of them was Lot 16 and was a colt offered by Waikato Stud, where Super Seth stood until his blockbuster sale to Coolmore earlier this year. The colt was out of the twice-winning Savabeel mare Popular, whose three foals to race are all winners and was the highest-priced of three purchases for Paul Pertab.
Later in the day, Haunui Farm offered a colt by Super Seth out of the Per Incanto mare Incanto Rose who also fetched $180,000 and was bought by Bleakley Bloodstock Limited.
Super Seth will stand for A$137,500 in his debut season at Coolmore in the coming breeding season, having produced Group 1 winners Feroce, Linebacker, Maison Louis and La Dorada from his first two crops.