A very successful season complete for Wexford Stables.
Our stable this season has produced 51 winners, 7 of which were at Group or Listed level.
Wexford Stables finish this season as Matamata's leading trainers by a large margin and have won in excess of $1 Million in prize money....
We have a great team of horses, staff and owners and these are all huge playing factors to the attainment of these results.
We now eagerly look toward the 2015/2016 season knowing we have a very strong team of horses under our care. which we believe are more than capable of topping the achievements above.
"Thank you for being a part of Wexford Stables"

Dashing Ryder Stakes winner Secret Spirit has well and truly secured her future position in the blossoming Nearco Stud broodmare band as she banked her second Listed race feature in just her first campaign on the track.

The rising three-year-old daughter of Swiss Ace had been successful in the Listed Great Northern Foal Stakes at Ellerslie in May and was having her first run since that victory when taking out the final black-type race of the season on the weekend.

Adrian Clark and the Challenge Racehorse Syndicate  photo: Race Images

Cheered on by her massive support network of owners in the Challenge No.2 Syndicate who race her, syndicate manager Adrian Clark was in the thick of the action as he welcomed back the filly who was bred by friend and business associate Greg Tomlinson who established Nearco Stud with Clark’s assistance just over five years ago.

Clark, who runs his own successful bloodstock consultancy, manages Tomlinson’s racing and breeding investments after a chance meeting with the Christchurch entrepreneur at a Christchurch sale back in 2010.

“Greg had raced horses for years, but never bred,” he said. “He wanted to establish a broodmare band and was extremely serious about it and wanted to get his teeth right into the industry.”

“The first mare I bought for him was Tip The Wink, who at the time was a racemare and purchased as the foundation broodmare,” Clark said.

“Luckily enough she won her first start for Greg and it’s grown quickly and significantly from there.”

Success followed quickly to the point where Nearco now have fifty broodmares and an extensive portfolio of stallion shares. It was through the use of one of the shares held in Westbury Stud based stallion Swiss Ace that the mating resulted in the filly who now races as Secret Spirit.

“We look to support all of our stallion shares and on this occasion we had leased the filly’s dam Spirit Of Sandford for the mating with Swiss Ace,” explained Clark.

“Secret Spirit was a lovely foal although at that stage her pedigree suggested she wasn’t a yearling that would be successful being sold at Karaka so we kept her instead.”

That’s where the second side of Clark’s business interests came into play as he leased the filly from Nearco to become a member of the second year Challenge Racehorse Syndication, a project he had established in 2012 to provide an affordable entry into racehorse ownership.

“It was a standard business transaction as the syndication project was starting to go well after the success of the first year and I was looking around for fillies for the second stage of it,” he said.

“As it turns out we have two horses in that syndicate and both have now won stakes races with Avisto also successful twice in Listed events.”

Clark was delighted with the success of Secret Spirit who he predicts will be even better as she gets older.

“Initially we thought she might just be a sprinting type but she has shown she really wants to get over more ground so I’m convinced she will get to a mile and further which augurs well for the spring.

“She does trace back to Daria’s Fun who won an Auckland Cup so there is no reason to suggest she won’t stay as she gets older.

“Whatever she does though her future is assured at Nearco so I am delighted for everyone involved.” – NZ Racing Desk 

We are totally mystified by the positive result within our stable.  We operate an extremely rigid regime to ensure that none of our horses races with a prohibited substance in its system.  Our immediate priority is to undertake a comprehensive review of our training and feeding processes so that we can reassure all our owners that we are doing everything possible to ensure compliance with the rules of racing, including assisting where we can the RIU with its investigations. 

Kind Regards

Lance O'Sullivan and Andrew Scott

Promising stayer Prize Lad showed he had thrived during his recent summer break as he scored a fresh up win over 1400 metres in commanding fashion at Te Rapa on Saturday.

Most pundits had expected the son of Darci Brahma and dual Auckland Cup winner Prize Lady to need the run over an unsuitable distance however co-trainer Lance O’Sullivan had an inkling the four-year-old gelding could be competitive as he stripped a fit horse to commence a new campaign.

Prize Lad photo: Trish Dunell

“He had showed plenty during his last preparation and he has thrived since he had been back in work this time in,” he explained.

“After his last start at Ellerslie in December we had our vet look at him as he was quite scratchy in his action. He recommended we give him three months in the paddock so that’s what we did and he did a lot of maturing while he was out.

“We have taken him along slowly however he was very fit to resume and I was expecting a good run although not necessarily a winning one.”

Despite handling the slow going on offer on the weekend O’Sullivan is confident his charge will be better suited to a drier surface in the future.

“With his conformation he is always going to appreciate some cut in the track but I do think he will be best on a dead surface as opposed to true winter going,” he said.

“We will most likely just potter around with him over the winter months as I think he is the type who could be very competitive in some of the better middle distance races during the spring.”

The victory continued a stellar run for O’Sullivan and training partner Andrew Scott who are currently tied for fifth on the national premiership ladder with 48 wins for the season to date.

“We’ve certainly had a great season so far although we will be relatively quiet over the next few months as we don’t tend to have a lot of winter horses,” said O’Sullivan.

“We have a number of very promising horses for next year including several rising three-year-old fillies that haven’t made an appearance on raceday yet so we have a lot to look forward to.” – NZ Racing Desk

High hopes are held for the unbeaten three-year-old Sniper when he returns from his winter break.

Trained by Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott, the son of Alamosa was a trial winner before Christmas and the wait for his autumn debut proved worthwhile with a dominant win on his home track at Matamata.

Sniper Photo - Race Images Palmerston North

Sniper was then sent south toward the end of April to Awapuni where he overcame a Heavy 11 track to beat the older horses in a Rating 65 sprint.

“We gave him a trip down to Palmerston North for the experience and he handled it really well,” Scott said.

“It was only his ability that got him home that day. He wasn’t handling the ground and he wasn’t able to show the turn of foot that he did at Matamata.

“When he got home he was in need of a break,” Scott said. “He’s back at (co-owner) Mark Lupton’s Flemington Farm.”

Out of a sister to the dual Group Three winner Tickle, Sniper is expected to improve on firmer going and over middle distances.

“When he comes back in the spring he will be a really nice stayer in the making,” Scott said.

“He’s an honest, willing sort and he hasn’t put a foot wrong, he’s a very promising horse.”

Meanwhile, the Gr.3 Foxbridge Plate in August is likely to mark the reappearance of the stable’s leading sprinter Whosyourmaster.

“He ran really well in it last year,” Scott said.

Whosyourmaster closed late to finish fifth behind I Do in the Te Rapa feature to kick start another successful campaign.

He subsequently finished runner-up in the Gr.1 Railway Stakes and closed off this season with consecutive Listed wins in the Lightning Handicap at Trentham and in the NZB Leasing & Finance Sprint at Hawke’s Bay. – NZ Racing Desk.

Patience is the key to Sound Proposition realising his full potential and his trainers are prepared to give the three-year-old all the time he needs.

The son of Savabeel came a long way in a short time in his first preparation that resulted in a third placing behind the star Australasian three-year-olds Mongolian Khan and Volkstok’n’barrell in the Gr.1 New Zealand Derby.

Sound Proposition Photo - Trish Dunell

“He’s still quite an immature horse so we’re giving him a nice break,” said Lance O’Sullivan, who prepares Sound Proposition at Matamata with Andrew Scott.

“He’s a very lightly-framed type and if we look after him and be patient he’s going to be a really good racehorse.”

Sound Proposition ran fifth on debut on his home track in November and two starts later he opened his account at Tauranga.

He again beat the older horses on Karaka Million night at Ellerslie with subsequent stakes performer Arrow In The Sand finishing runner-up.

Sound Proposition was a solid sixth in the Gr.2 Avondale Guineas before he came from well back in the field to run third in the Auckland classic in February,

“We got him back seven weeks after the Derby and had him in the stable for a week before we decided it wasn’t the right thing for him and we put him back out,” O’Sullivan said.

The Hawke’s Bay carnival has been ruled out for Sound Proposition with Wexford Stables taking a much longer-term approach with the gelding.

“We plan to have him back and ready around Christmas time and target a race like the Auckland Cup,” O’Sullivan said. – NZ Racing Desk.

Landed Gentry was side-lined by illness after a promising start to his career in the spring and the merit of that performance has been highlighted by subsequent results.

The Bachelor Duke two-year-old will make his first appearance since finishing third in October when he resumes in the Bill Woods Memorial 800 at Ruakaka on Wednesday.

Andrew Scott Photo - Tara Hughes

“He ran well at Ellerslie and the form out of that race has been strong,” co-trainer Andrew Scott said. 

“He got a bad cough after that and it took him quite a long time to shake it off.”

Landed Gentry ran third on debut behind Windborne, who was the Listed winner of the Murdoch Newell Stakes at her next start, and Halleloojah, a runner-up to the Group One performer Rocanto at his following outing.

“He has been working well ahead of Ruakaka and while he might be a fraction under-done, it’s only 800 metres,” Scott said.

“He’s forward enough to be competitive if he can get a bit of luck from the draw.”

The stable will also unveil another promising newcomer in Larceny, who is likely to run in the Waipu Hotel 1200 in favour of the 1400m maiden.

“In his first trial he did it all wrong and in his second one he just got beaten by a horse (Jacqui Ickx), who has since won two races,” Scott said.

“He won his third trial really well and while he’s open to improvement with the experience, he’s another who is fit enough to be competitive.” – NZ Racing Desk.

Star kiwi sprinter Aerovelocity (NZ) (Pins) flew the New Zealand flag last night with a commanding victory in the S$1,000,000 Group 1 Krisflyer International Sprint (1200m) in Singapore.

The son of Pins has now won two legs of the Global Sprint Challenge Series following his victory in the Group 1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen in Japan at his last start six weeks ago.

Aerovelocity now only has to win one more leg of the 10-race Series to claim the US$1m bonus. There are six races left for him to achieve the feat, three of which are in the UK with Australia, Japan and Hong Kong each to host one of the remaining races later in the year.

From the stable of Paul O’Sullivan, Aerovelocity has been in stellar form this season, winning the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint in December, followed by a runner-up place in the HK-1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize before conquering in Japan.

Making his debut in New Zealand, under the name Naisoso Warrior, he had one start for one win when trained by Wexford Stables’ Andrew Scott.

“It was a very good result and is a credit to Karaka,” commented O’Sullivan. “It was a fantastic win - he is just a great warrior.

“He is going home now to have a lovely spell. He won’t go to England so he will either go to Japan for the Sprinters Stakes or he will run in the Hong Kong International again.”

Commencing the race strongly from barrier 3 for jockey Zac Purton, Aerovelocity was one of the first away, taking the lead early on. With 800m left to run, Aerovelocity travelled on the rail with Kiwi Karma (NZ) (Fast ‘n’ Famous) up on the outside while Emperor Max (Holy Roman Emperor) tracked behind the New Zealand-bred pair.

Attempting to challenge Aerovelocity, the race-favourite, on the turn for home, Kiwi Karma was unable to hold on giving Emperor Max opportunity to drive down the outside in his own bid to catch the Pins gelding. Aerovelocity, however, was uncatchable as he sprinted powerfully to the line to win by one-and-a-half-lengths over Emperor Max and Lucky Nine (Dubawi), who finished in second and third place respectively.

It was a popular victory with a large group of the horse’s Hong Kong supporters travelling to Singapore to cheer him on, waving pink and green flags, representing the silks worn by Purton, as he returned to scale.

Owned by Daniel Yeung Ngai, winning his tenth race in a career of 18 starts has now earned him NZ$4,853,279 in prizemoney.

Paul O’Sullivan purchased the six-year-old gelding for $120,000 at the 2010 Karaka Premier Sale from Windsor Park Stud.

Bred by Nelson Schick and Steve Till, the son of Pins is out of winning mare Exodus (Kaapstad), a full-sister to Kapitain Kash (Kaapstad), winner of the Group 2 Counties Cup, and is a half-sister to Dante’s Paradiso (Danske), winner of the Listed Tattersalls Club Cup, and stakes placegetter Lord Vader (Grosvenor).

Also featuring in Singapore over the weekend was Affleck (NZ) (Battle Paint), winning the S$500,000 Sgp-1 Singapore Guineas (1600m) which was held on Friday night.

Bred by Chequers Stud, Affleck was a star two-year-old and has carried his winning form into his three-year-old season for trainer Laurie Laxon. The son of Battle Paint is the winner of seven of his 10 starts, finishing second in his three defeats.

Aerovelocity and Affleck were two of five New Zealand-bred runners to win over the weekend in Singapore with Five Hundred Bucks (NZ) (Gold Centre) joining Affleck’s success on Friday night and These Streets (NZ) (Elusive City) and Well Done (NZ) (Falkirk) winning last night.

Trish Dunell

Fascination Street, left, is too good for Platinum Witness in the Rotorua Stakes.

The only worry winning rider Michael Coleman had in Saturday's Listed Rotorua Stakes was trying to contain the exuberance of his mount Fascination Street.

The four-year-old Elusive City mare travelled strongly in the testing ground throughout the fillies' and mares' weight-for-age feature and simply pulled herself into the race. When Coleman let her go at the 500m mark the result was never in doubt.

Her connections have always chased a black type victory after placings earlier in her career in the Ryder Stakes, Gold Trail Stakes and Hawke's Bay Guineas and their wish came true on Saturday.

Since trainers Andrew Scott and Lance O'Sullivan added blinkers to her gear she has fashioned an extremely consistent form line and is now the winner of four races and  $115,000 for her army of owners in the Challenge No. 1 Syndicate.

They flooded the Rotorua birdcage on Saturday, sharing the joy with Coleman and Scott while co-trainer O'Sullivan was winging his way to China on a business trip.

Fascination Street has the rare ability to handle all types of tracks and has won over 1200 metres in a tick over 1:11 and 1400 metres which on Saturday took 1:30.07.

"She really deserved today's win," Scott said. "And it was a lovely ride by Michael. She copped the ground which we were worried about. Obviously she can handle the give in the ground and this was the race to aim her for."

Quality three-year-old Platinum Witness chased the winner home, boding well for a planned Queensland campaign while The Filly appreciated the track conditions with her third placing.

Though Fascination Street won comfortably, Coleman was a little concerned when she found the front a long way from home.

"She can be a bit vulnerable when she gets to the front."

Around 30 members of the Challenge No.1 Syndicate had a day to remember yesterday when Fascination Street stamped herself as a mare of quality when beating a very good field in the Listed Windsor Park Stud Rotorua Stakes (1400m).

It gave me enormous pleasure to see this group of excited owners standing together with huge smiles on their faces at the presentation ceremony – priceless!

It’s been quite a ride with Fascination Street (affectionately known as ‘Ellen’).  We had a terrible career-threatening injury with her as a spring three-year-old.  She had won at two & been placed third in the Listed Ryder Stakes.  At three she ran third in the Gold Trail Stakes and third in the Hawkes Bay Guineas.  Rightly so, we thought we had a 1000 Guineas filly on our hands.  But injury struck and it was serious.  She suffered a stifle injury and it took months (she was actually of the scene for 13 months) of slow rehab.  Special thanks to a number of people including Paul Pertab, Dave Keenan, Michelle Norman, Jim Cherry (& the team at Moemoea Park), Russell & Robyn Rogers, Debbie O’Hearn and, of course, Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott.  They all nursed her back to the rock-solid sound horse she is today.

Fascination Street was part of the very first Challenge Syndication.  So too was another Listed Race winner Dancer’s Tale.  The 50-odd members of the syndicate have had a hell of a ride and there is plenty more to come, clearly, with this mare who has the rare ability of being able to handle all conditions from rock-hard to knee-deep.  She has collected a cheque at every one of her starts to date; another rare thing in a thoroughbred.

I can’t finish without thanking John Sargent; I bought Fascination Street with him in mind to train and he – along with the late Hayden Allen – did great things with the filly in her first two seasons.

Fascination Street goes to the spelling paddock this week and will be out for 6 to 8 weeks.

Fascination Street was bred & sold by Greg and Jo Griffin of Lime Country Thoroughbreds. I purchased her from them at the 2012 Karaka Select Sale for $34,000.

Former Group One New Zealand Oaks winner Miss Mossman finally bounced back to winning form when she led all the way to win Saturday’s NZI 2100 at Te Rapa, much to the relief of trainers Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott.

With Scott in Queensland for a short break with his young family it was left to O’Sullivan to accept the accolades from the mare’s jubilant owners as she returned to the winners circle for the first time since her Oaks success in March 2014.

Miss Mossman photo: Trish Dunell

O’Sullivan and Scott had taken over the training of the mare when former mentor John Sargent relocated to Sydney and have experienced plenty of frustrations with the now four-year-old daughter of Mossman.

“While I’m thrilled for her very patient owners I think it was actually more of a relief to see her finally show what she is capable of with that win as she just hasn’t been delivering what we know she is capable of,” noted O’Sullivan.

“Her spring campaign was quite awful and we couldn’t really put our fingers on the problem. She does seem to be a mare that goes better at this time of the year but it hasn’t been until recently that she had started to show some spark in her work for us.”

After failing to find form in the spring, O’Sullivan gave the mare a six week break before bringing her back for an autumn campaign where she was having her third run when successful on the weekend.

“She showed a lot more interest at Hastings last time so I had hoped she had turned a corner,” he said.

“Craig (Grylls) has been riding her in work and he said she felt like she was ready to run a good race and as it panned out she got things to suit on Saturday.

“Everything played in her favour with a soft lead and she found a really good sprint to round of the effort nicely.

“Now she has found form we will head to the Rotorua Cup on Saturday as she will get in with a light weight so hopefully she can go on with it now.” – NZ Racing Desk

Yesterday’s Rating 85 Ellerslie winner Fascination Street will have one more start before a winter spell and the race targetted is the $50,000 Windsor Park Stud Rotorua Stakes-LR (1400m) for Fillies and Mares on the 9th of May.