FROM STUD AND STABLE American To Establish Stud In New Zealand

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31976, 1 May 1969, Page 5

FROM STUD AND STABLE American To Establish Stud In New Zealand

The New Zealand thoroughbred industry stands to gain much if an American millionaire is given permission to purchase a property in the Matamata district.

The interested American is Mr Nelson Bunker Hunt, who proposes to bring two of his American stallions here and make them available to New Zealand breeders.

Mr Hunt, a Texas oil magnate with valuable interests also in Europe and the Middle East, entered racing in the United States only 15 years ago, but he has quickly built up an impressive band of brood mares and racehorses. Trial Offer Mr Hunt has been negotiating for the purchase of Dormoranne, and her win in the Telegraph Handicap at Woodville last Saturday is expected to clinch the sale. If the deal goes ’hrough Dormoranne is still likely to remain in New Zealand, and in the Taranaki stable of B. F. Deacon.

Dormoranne is not Mr Hunt’s first venture in New Zealand bloodstock. He bought Trial Offer a few years' ago, not long after that brilliant Byland mare had achieved fame with wins in the New Zealand Oaks, the New Zealand Derby, the Wellington Guineas, and Great Northern Oaks. Trial Offers’ first foal is a fine colt by Graustark, a brilliant son of Ribot In Australia Mr Hunt bought the brilliant New Zea-land-bred fillies, Lady Sybil and Farmer’s Daughter, the latter changing hands at 40,000gns. In Australia Mr Hunt also

bought the brilliant filly Wiggle, and his success with this speedster probably influenced him into extending his activities in the Southern ! Hemisphere. Wiggle won 14 races in Australia, and six more for the Hunt stable in the United States. Lady Sybil also found early fame as a producer. To Amerigo she produced Amerigo Lady, which won the Hollywood Oaks in the United States among other stakes before being sold by Mr Hunt to Mr Paul Mellon. Mr Hunt has diversified stallion interests. Pretendre, second to Charlottown in the 1966 English Derby, is his exclusive property and stands in Kentucky.

He owns the Middle Park Stakes winner, Gustav (by Grey Sovereign), which stands in Virginia; also half of Clem, a son of the Australian champion Shannon, and winner of over $500,000. Kentucky sires in which Mr Hunt owns shares include My Babu, Sailor, Cavan, T.V. Lark, Ridan, and Graustark. In France he owns 25 per cent of Tompion and he has a share in the great French racehorse and young sire, Diatome. European Champion More recently he has become a part-owner of Vaguely Noble, which was classed as the European Horse of the

Year after his win over Sir Ivor and others in the 1968 Prix de I’Arc de Triomphe. It was after his sale for 136,000gns to Mrs R. A. Franklyn at the Tattersails December Sales in 1967 that Mr Hunt acquired a half-share in Vaguely Noble. Later Vaguely Noble was syndicated for five million dollars and sent to the United States to take up stud duties.

Mr Hunt is a firm believer in performance in a prospective brood mare, and he has bought extensively in all parts of the racing world to lengthen the impressive list of mares. His Plum Lane Farm in the United States has produced top performers in the Kentucky Derby winner Bold Venture, Busanda (the dam of Buckpasser), and others. And one of the gems of the stud is the eight-year-old Homeward Bound, winner of the English Oaks in 1964, the Princess Elizabeth Stakes and the Yorkshire Oaks.