Ancient Spirit’s first stakes winner a timely boost for White Robe Lodge
Richard Edmunds - Raceform • December 30th, 2025 10:36 AM • 3 min read
Thoroughbred studs have most other walks of life beaten when it comes to how quickly they can veer between rewarding highs and crushing lows.
One of the season’s best examples of that came at Wingatui on Boxing Day, where improving filly Bobby Mcgee won the Listed NZB Airfreight Stakes to become the first black-type winner for White Robe Lodge stallion Ancient Spirit.
A stakes winner in a young stallion’s first crop of three-year-olds would normally be met with unbridled joy among the stud’s staff, but in this case the celebrations were muted. Just a few hours earlier, White Robe Lodge had announced the untimely death of headline stallion Ghibellines at the age of just 14.
“Ghibellines was a really sad loss for all of us,” stud manager Wayne Stewart told RaceForm. “The poor bugger got pneumonia and got crook very suddenly. It was out of our hands. But that result with Ancient Spirit gave us all a boost, and hopefully he can go on with it now and fill the void that Ghibellines is going to leave.”
Ancient Spirit retired to the famous Taieri Plains nursery in 2021, having won five of his 22 starts including the Gr.2 Baden-Baden Oettingen Rennen and Köln Mehl-Mülhens Rennen. Both of those successes came over 1600m, and he was a black-type performer up to 2000m. So his progeny were never expected to be precocious juveniles, but with maturity and increasing distances, they are now starting to hit their straps.
“It was a great result on Boxing Day with Bobby Mcgee, who Terry Kennedy has always had a very good opinion of,” Stewart said.
“That was probably as good a three-year-old race as we’ve seen in this part of the country for a while, with horses like the Te Akau pair (Cool Aza Rene and Marokopa Falls) and the Parsons filly (Miss Starlight) having performed well in good company through the spring.
“You always hope for stakes performers early in a stallion’s career, and he’s starting to build a bit of momentum now. We’ve said all along that his progeny would get better once they start getting over more ground – that’s what they’re bred to do.
“He’s also got Fly Zenno running in the Gr.2 Sir Patrick Hogan Stakes over 2000m at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day, so it would cap a pretty good week for the sire if she could run well there. She was a good second in a 1600m maiden last start and the 2000m should suit.
“Ancient Spirit’s a bit light on numbers this spring, but you expect that – people are waiting to see where the stallion is at. His books up until this year were larger and good-quality.
“It would be nice if we could have a classic sort of three-year-old sire, that’s what we were hoping for.”
Wingatui’s Boxing Day meeting also reinforced what a loss Ghibellines is to the South Island’s breeding industry. He sired three winners on the eight-race card – Trader in the Otago Engineering Rating 65 sprint, Generation Joy in the Property Brokers-Ray Kean Rating 65 over 2200m, and a Mayor Of Norwood-Capo Dell Impero quinella in the 2200m Grand Casino Open Handicap.
Ghibellines ranks seventh on the national sires’ premiership by winners this season with 20, and his overall record stands at 118 winners from 208 runners. His nine stakes winners include Smokin’ Romans in the Gr.1 Turnbull Stakes at Flemington, Campaldino in the Gr.2 Brisbane Cup, and Markus Aurelius in the Gr.2 Coupland’s Bakeries Mile.
“Ghibellines has done a good job,” Stewart said. “He’s struggled a little bit to get mares the last few years, but he leaves winners all the time. He’ll sire more than one winner at most meetings here in the South Island.
“His progeny just take a bit of time, and that’s not really what people want when they’re breeding horses or buy yearlings. They prefer horses that are ready-made.
“With Ghibellines, his progeny really come into their own as five and six-year-olds. You look at our horses like Mayor Of Norwood and Capo Dell Impero, they’re pretty consistent. And Trader looked like a good prospect with his win over 1200m on Boxing Day. We’ll see a bit more from his progeny yet.”
White Robe Lodge is preparing to embark on the big trek north to Karaka next month, where they will offer a pair of colts in Book 2 of the 2026 National Yearling Sale.
“We’ve got a nice colt by Ancient Spirit, so that result on Boxing Day didn’t do him any harm,” Stewart said. “He’s a half-brother to Inflamed, who won the Stewards’ Stakes at Riccarton last month. We really like the colt and he’s from the good old Smokin’ Romans family.
“The other one is a colt by Vanbrugh out of a Ghibellines mare, so we’ve got the Ghibellines connection too. He’s a nice type of a colt too.
“We’re a bit light on numbers this year. We sold a few off the farm earlier in the year, and we also lost a couple for one reason or another.
“There are some lovely Ancient Spirit foals this year, so we could be taking a few of them up to Karaka in a year’s time. That’s an exciting prospect.
“And then we’ve got Alflaila, who served his first book of mares this spring. He covered 110, which is the biggest book of mares we’ve had for a long time, and his fertility has been fantastic. He could end up with close to 100 foals. He’s done really well.
“There’s plenty going on and plenty to look forward to, and that’s always what you want.”
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