Chris Russell (left), new board member of the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders Association. Photo / Duncan Brown
Chris Russell, a successful Hawke's Bay businessman and a passionate owner and breeder of thoroughbreds, has been appointed the Hawke's Bay/Poverty Bay member on the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders Association.
Russell takes over from the formerly Hawke's Bay-based Jo Griffin, who has moved to Australia with husband Greg to start
a new thoroughbred breeding business there.
Chris Russell has been a member of the Hawke's Bay/Poverty Bay branch of New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders for many years and has also held a position on committee.
He has been a racehorse owner for 25 years with the first horse he and brother Ken raced being Miss Virginia, who won two races back in January of 1992.
"I've probably been breeding horses for about the same amount of time as I've raced them," Russell said this week.
"My brothers Roger and Howard had a share in the stallion Virginia Privateer, who stood here in Hawke's Bay, and my brother Ken and I got interested from there as Miss Virginia was by Virginia Privateer."
Roger Russell, who is now deceased, and his brother Howard owned an Australian-bred mare called Jazz Concert, who left the unraced mare Johnny Loves Jazz. She turned out to be the foundation mare for a large number of horses Chris and Ken Russell have bred and raced in the ensuing years.
The best horses Chris and Ken Russell have been involved in the breeding of have been Native Jazz and Pentamerous.
Native Jazz was by St Hilarion out of Johnny Loves Jazz and won seven races including the Group 2 Craiglee Stakes in Australia. He also finished second in the Group 1 Adelaide Cup.
Pentamerous was by Pentire out of Johnny Loves Jazz and, although she was the winner of only one race, she left the seven race winner Shoot Out, whose victories included the Group 1 Australian Derby and Group 1 Randwick Guineas.
Chris and his family now own a 45-acre property in Valley Rd, Hawke's Bay, where they have 20 horses, which include broodmares and young horses.
He will also stand the stallion O'Reilly's Choice on the property in the coming breeding season.
"O'Reilly's Choice is by O'Reilly out of the Redoute's Choice mare Dorotea Dior and was the winner of one race from only nine starts."
Chris Russell has had experience at serving on a national body through the business he and brother Ken built up known as Russell Roads. He was a member of the New Zealand Contractors Federation for many years and also served as chairman of that organisation.
"I have served on a national body so I think I know what is required when it comes to the position I'm going into," Russell said.
"I met with the chief executive of New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders, Michael Martin, and the president a couple of weeks ago and we had a good talk about the way the breeding industry is going.
"The industry has obviously struggled, especially the smaller breeders like ourselves, and I'll be looking to see how we can improve the position of the smaller breeder," Russell said.
He added that he can understand the need for big studs to make a good return on their investment, given the millions of dollars it costs to buy and stand a stallion at stud, but it should have a filtering down effect.
"If we want to get back to the heights of the past years we also need to look after all thoroughbred breeders because you never know where a top horse will come from."
Wanganui Cup start next
Hastings owned and trained Wait A Sec earned a probable start in the Listed $50,000 Wanganui Cup on June 3 with another top winning performance in a $22,500 Rating 75 race over 1550m at Awapuni last Saturday.
It was the Postponed 6-year-old's sixth win from 35 starts and his second one this campaign, following an easy 3-1/2 length victory over 2500m at Hastings on April 15.
Wait A Sec is in the Guy Lowry and Grant Cullen stable and it was a good training feat to get the horse to successfully drop back in distance.
The horse was a shade slow to begin and jockey Johnathan Parkes let him settle at the tail of the field in the early stages. They were still back third last coming to the home bend but, while the rest of the field fanned on the corner, Parkes stuck to the inside and got a great run through to quickly join the leaders.
Wait A Sec shot clear early in the home straight and had plenty in reserve to hold out the challengers by three-quarters of a length.
Wait A Sec is owned by his Hastings co-breeder Ian Henderson in partnership with his Perth-based son Paul.
Pacorus proving a gold mine
Pacorus, a horse that cost Havelock North couple Dave and Jenny Morison just $15,000 at the 2013 Karaka yearling sales, is fast turning into a great money spinner for them and the other owners of the horse.
The Tavistock 5-year-old took his stake earnings to more than $193,000 with a decisive 2-1/4 length win in last Sunday's Group 3 $75,000 Rotorua Cup.
After the Morisons purchased Pacorus they asked Cambridge trainer Chris Wood if he could arrange other people to help them race the horse and Wood brought in eight other stable clients.
Pacorus has proved to be a model of consistency with eight wins, two seconds and four thirds from only 28 starts. He won five races in the space of six starts between last winter and spring but his form then dropped away when he resumed racing earlier this year.
"He just hadn't been right so I had the chiropractor come in and look at him," explained Wood after the horse's return to form last Sunday.
"She found a niggle in his back so she worked on him and he has come right so I was happy leading into the race. He was coming in fresh but he's a clean-winded horse so that didn't worry me.
"He also got a track that suited him so it all played in his favour. He doesn't want it bottomless but when it races like it did today [heavy-11] then he is going to be right in the fight."
Wood said he now has two options for the horse tomorrow week, either the $50,000 Wanganui Cup (2040m) or the $40,000 Cornwall Handicap (2200m) at Ellerslie.
HB-born jumps' jockeys dominate
Hawke's Bay-born jumps jockeys Shaun Fannin and Aaron Kuru captured three of the four major jumping races in New Zealand last weekend.
Fannin, 21, combined with premier jumps trainer Kevin Myers to win all three steeplechase races at Te Rapa on Saturday and Riverton on Sunday while 25-year-old Kuru took out the feature hurdle event at Riverton.
Fannin ventured to Riverton to partner the Myers-trained Crash Bandicoot to victory in the 111th running of the DT Kings Transport Great Western Steeplechase on Sunday.
The previous day the pair combined to land the Warren Storm Lifebrokers Waikato
Steeplechase with The Big Opal and the Neil Treweek Steeplechase with Highly Likely.
Fannin said he was honoured to have won the Great Western for the second year in a row, after success aboard the Kelly Thompson-trained Cecil last year.
"People come from miles to attend and it is not always the best weather but they're in their winter woollies and having a great time," Fannin said.
"There are some fantastic names on the honour board that have won the race previously and to have my name up there is a great privilege."
The Big Opal was the seventh Waikato Steeplechase winner trained by Myers, who has also won the Waikato Hurdles four times.
Broadway Lad, in 1997, was the stable's first Waikato Steeplechase winner and Our Jonty won the following year, before Rioch (2013), Palemo (2014), Sea King (2015 and 2016) and The Big Opal extended Myers' dominance. No other trainer has won the race more than three times.
Fannin's winning treble last weekend took his career tally of wins to 51 while Kuru brought up his 52nd success when he steered Gold Leaf to victory in the Great Western Hurdle at Sunday's Riverton meeting.
Both jockeys began their careers in Hastings, with Fannin originally attached to the stable of Guy Lowry and Grant Cullen before transferring to Myers in Whanganui. Kuru first learnt to ride when based with Patrick Campbell before working for a time for fellow Hastings trainer John Bary. He is now based in Cambridge.
Johnson focused in title quest
Chris Johnson is prepared to go the extra mile in his quest for a second national jockeys' premiership.
The veteran South Island rider won the title with 139 winners in the 1995-96 season and a treble at Rotorua on Sunday took him to 84 for this term, five behind pacemaker Danielle Johnson.
"Depending how things go, he might even go back to hurdle racing," his manager John Tannahill said.
Johnson, 53, hasn't ridden over fences for a while, but has an outstanding record.
"It would be three or four years since he rode over the jumps," Tannahill said.
"He's ridden 55 winners over hurdles from about 260 rides, but he's only had one steeplechase ride and fell at the first fence."
Johnson's jumping CV features wins in the Great Northern, Grand National and Wellington Hurdles.
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