Racing: Showcasing setting new high in New Zealand

Showcasing. Photo / Supplied

Former Haunui Farm stallion Showcasing has taken his standing as a sire of winning two-year-olds in New Zealand to a possible record level.

His progeny won both the two New Zealand black type races run on Saturday with Rainbow Dash proving too strong in the Listed Waikato Equine Veterinary Centre 2YO Stakes (1100m) at Te Rapa and All About Magic picking up the Listed Champagne Stakes (1200m) at Riccarton.

Rainbow Dash notched her third win from six starts with the triumph being a minor consolation for her close second when beaten a mere nose by Aretha in the Group 2 Matamata Breeders' Stakes (1200m) in February, while All About Magic, trained by Michael and Matthew Pitman, registered win three of her five starts and has been runner-up once.

Showcasing has been represented by 12 individual two-year-old winners of 16 races in New Zealand this season and that is a modern day record. It will take an extensive study well back through the ages to establish if that feat has been bettered.

Mark Chitty, who stood Showcasing at Haunui Farm, has delved back as far as 2006-07 and since then the most two-year-old wins recorded in New Zealand was eight, achieved by Showcasing in 2017-18 and fellow Haunui Farm sire Iffraaj in 2013-14.

"It would be a long time since a sire in New Zealand has broken 10 in a season, if it has been done," Chitty said.

Showcasing, a son of Oasis Dream, has dominated the two-year-old scene since his first crop hit the racetracks in New Zealand in the 2014-15 term when he was the Champion Two-Year-Old Sire (on stake earnings) and leading First Season Sire. Since then, he has continually topped the list on individual two-year-old winners.

He sired seven individual juvenile winners in 2015-16, five in 2016-17 and eight last season, including three black type winners.

Despite that success, the decision was made last year that Showcasing would no longer shuttle to New Zealand and instead remain at Whitsbury Manor Stud in England. Whitsbury Stud purchased the 50 per cent shareholding in Showcasing owned by the New Zealand-based shareholders.

"His success in Europe has seen his service fee soar so much over there it wasn't practical to shuttle him back here to stand at $15,000," Chitty said. "His fee over there this year is £55,000. He was well-patronised here and fortunately there are a few more crops of his here to carry on. And they're proving they are not just two-year-olds."

As well as the juvenile wins of Rainbow Dash and All About Magic last weekend, Showcasing was also successfully represented at Riccarton by the easiest winner of the day, Morweka, a five-year-old mare who scored effortlessly by seven-and-a-half lengths.

Later on the Riccarton programme, Showcasing's progeny also came close to winning the main staying race, the Great Autumn Premier (2500m), when his six-year-old mare Diorissimo went down just a nose to Dee And Gee. Another six-year-old Showcasing mare, Shezatoucha, finished third in the same race.

Showcasing's progeny also includes the 2015 Karaka Million 2YO (1200m) winner Hardline, Appellant (third in this year's Karaka Million 2YO), Group 2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes winners Showboy and Xpression and Group 3 winners Carnival (CJC Stewards Handicap, 1200m) and Bit Lippy (Group 3 Taranaki 2YO Classic, 1200m).

- NZ Racing Desk