New Zealand Racing, 2012-13

[my miss storm cat]

Happy New Year.

Good luck to Habibi, to Shuka (You can do this! You don't have to be 2nd!!!), Postman's Daughter, Floria (is she black? Good Lord she is pretty) and Platinum Princess in the Rich Hill Mile (am sure I'm leaving a few out in that one) AND in the Railway go Durham Town, The Hombre (Sam Spratt up!), Antonio, Ginner Hart, Jetset Lad and whoever else I'm forgetting!!!!!

(edit - Annie in the Auckland Cup....

This can go on all day).

[_ed_]

Happy new year!

What an amazing day at Ellerslie. Fleur de Lune got her G1 win in the Railway! She had been second in five of them - behind the likes of Mufhasa and Jimmy Choux - but never won one till today. So thrilled for her. Great race by Durham Town too. Not The Hombre's day - he messed up the start and wasn't really part of the race at all after that.

Habibi - wow. What a special girl. 5 starts, 5 wins. And this was a monstrous performance today.

Fix was fabulous in the Royal - Kidwelly got past her, but she fought back.

And there were some crazy upsets - Hiace at 40-1 in the City of Auckland, Miss Pelear at 28-1 in the Rich Hill...

Just an amazing day. 10 awesome races - worth watching all the replays if you have time.

[my miss storm cat]

Good for her! I'd forgotten how many 2nds she had had.

Yeah, my The Hombre... he wins so rarely so I didn't expect him to (doesn't he win basically two times per year? ) but it's always interesting to see which jockey has the mount since it always seems to change!

Habibi won again? That's awesome and yes i will watch ALL the replays throughout the day.

Hey ed anything on Xcellent lately? I wish his site werre still up...

For absolutely no reason I was watching the replay of... not the Trentham but the one where him and Sir Slick were one and two...

[my miss storm cat]

Watched ALL the replays... great races!

Fix was amazing (huge fan of her dad).

You are so lucky you got to be there!

[_ed_]

Yeah, it was brilliant. It was a really long day, with trophies being handed out after almost ever race, but it went by so fast!

The weather was much better than Boxing Day too! Much more like what we expect in Auckland this time of year.

Originally Posted by my miss storm cat

Hey ed anything on Xcellent lately? I wish his site werre still up...

I haven't heard anything about him for ages! This is the last time I saw him mentioned in an article, back in August 2011:

Millionaire gallopers Rough Habit, Christopher Vance and Xcellent are all resident at Cambridge Thoroughbred Lodge, which is set on a 40-hectare farm in a picturesque, rural setting on the Rotorua Thermal Highway on SH1, approximately 25 minutes' drive from Hamilton.

I'd love to go there and see him some time. It's only about a 2-hour drive from Auckland, so there's no excuse not to!

[my miss storm cat]

I hope you get a chance to do it one day!

What's coming up... is the Telegraph this month or next?

[_ed_]

Yep, that's right! The Telegraph is on the 19th.

And we're already starting to look ahead to the Derby on March 2. Habibi is the 5-1 favourite after her feats at Ellerslie.