13/05/2026
As the turf season at Riccarton came to an end last week, we certainly are feeling a little bit of a let up in what has been a crazy few months!
Heading back to early April, Betty Spaghetti posted a big run for third in the TAB Southern Alps Challenge - our first runner in this $350,000 Innovation Race that adds a real target to the local calendar. Undoubtedly our best overall result of the season came days later at Ashburton, when Incredible, Champagne Diblu and Ballistic Miss earned a winning treble for our team from just four runners - the other runner being The Entertainer who finished second to the latter!
The winning roll continued at Riccarton the following Saturday, with Vendabelle and Mi Bella posting victories while Sweetheart finished her season with a runner-up result in the Listed Warstep Stakes. As we know, black-type is such a big tick for these fillies and we are proud to have three individual stakes performers from a small group of three-year-olds this year. A big thank you to Jim Bruford (Queen Of Sheba), Windsor Park Stud (Sweetheart) and Little Avondale Stud (Luna Capella) for the opportunity to train these talented girls, we can’t wait to see them back in the spring!
We also saw nice placings from My Sharona and O’Ceirins Belle as they kick off new campaigns, while youngsters Bonanza and Pure Champagne impressed at the trials at Riccarton and Ashburton.
In such busy times post-New Year, we also farewelled a couple of long-term members in Kikimora and Ugo as they head for a well-earned retirement. Joining us as yearlings, these two became part of the furniture at Champagne Racing, both full of personality and recording 9 wins on the track (and for Kiki, many second placings!). A big thank you to Jess Land for helping Ugo find his next home as a sporthorse, and we can’t wait to see some mini Kiki’s running around in the future.
Away from the track, we welcomed a pair of lease fillies from Beaufort Downs into the stable for their first preparation post-breaking in! The Proisir out of Via Veneto was snapped up in less than 48 hours, while the Ocean Park out of Olympia (a half to Victorian winner Olympiad) still has availability left! Both have settled in well to stable life, so get in touch with Anna to get involved for no buy-in cost, just ongoing monthly fees. We can assure they have had the best start to life at Beaufort, Annabel & Olly Tuthill are phenomenal horse people (and wonderful humans!) who also care for most of our team whilst spelling - check out our recent video for a little feature on the farm.
In the mix, Anna also attended the Rugby, Racing & Beer Auction hosted by Windsor Park, another stellar afternoon with amazing guest speakers and a number of lovely young horses on offer.
Looking ahead, we will have a pair of runners heading to the Riccarton Synthetic on Thursday in Delight and Incredible - best of luck to their connections and all involved with horses heading to the races this month! It is getting chilly in Christchurch as we head into winter, so another massive shoutout to our dedicated staff who show up no matter the conditions we face each day.
Finally, thank you to all supporting the Champagne team, your kind comments and messages are much appreciated. See you next month!
