Common bloodlines among the season’s staying stars
Richard Edmunds - Raceform • July 26th, 2025 9:00 AM • 3 min read
A recurring sire and granddam made New Zealand’s three biggest staying races something of a family affair this season.
Cambridge Stud stallion Almanzor played a starring role in this distance category in 2024-25. His daughter Mehzebeen won three black-type staying races including the Gr. 3 New Zealand Cup, while son Trav took out the Gr. 2 Auckland Cup.
On the other side of the pedigree, Pencarrow Stud mare Beyond The Sunset is the second dam of both Mehzebeen and the Gr. 3 Wellington Cup hero Wolfgang.
Those common bloodlines are not the only thing shared between Mehzebeen and Wolfgang, who also had a similar story of breakthrough success in the 2024-25 season.
Mehzebeen showed bright promise as a three-year-old in the 2022-23 season, running second behind Pennyweka in the Gr. 1 New Zealand Oaks in only the fifth start of her career. But her rise through the ranks stalled somewhat during her four-year-old preparation. She managed two wins from nine starts that season including the $80,000 Taupo Cup but was unplaced – albeit without a lot of luck – in the Listed Metropolitan Trophy and Gr. 2 Avondale Cup.
It was a very different story in a 2024-25 campaign that showed early promise with a big finish for second in the Waverley Cup. Mehzebeen stepped back up to stakes company with an emphatic all-the-way win in the 2600m Metropolitan Trophy on the opening day of Riccarton’s New Zealand Cup Carnival, then backed up a week later and romped to New Zealand Cup success by three lengths.
Mehzebeen failed to produce her best form in an Australian summer campaign that produced two unplaced finishes, but trainers Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson brought her back to her best in the autumn with victory in the Listed Hawke’s Bay Cup and a third in the New Zealand St Leger.
The latter event was won by Wolfgang, who made Trentham his own in 2024-25. He became only the third horse in history to win the Wellington Cup and St Leger in the same season, joining Concentrate (1930) and Waisake (2021).
Wolfgang is owned by his breeder Simms Davison in partnership with Peter and Kim McKay. Peter McKay trains the gelding in partnership with son Shaun. Wolfgang is a son of the McKay family’s Gr. 1 New Zealand Derby and Thorndon Mile hero Puccini.
Coming into this season, Wolfgang’s career spanned 32 starts and had produced four wins between 1300 and 2100m. He had earned just over $150,000 in stakes. Within the space of 13 appearances as a six-year-old, he added another four wins and more than $490,000.
Wolfgang kicked off his season with back-to-back open handicap victories over 1600 and 2000m at Hastings and Matamata respectively. The McKays decided to give him an opportunity across the Tasman, where he was far from disgraced in finishing sixth in the 2400m Gr. 2 Herbert Power Stakes at Caulfield and fourth in the Gr. 3 Geelong Cup over the same distance.
Upon his return home, Wolfgang finished second in the Gr. 3 Balmerino Stakes and second in the 2300m Gr. 3 Manawatu Cup, but he also finished outside the placings in three starts at Pukekohe and Ellerslie including the Gr. 3 Counties Cup and Queen Elizabeth II Cup.
Wolfgang’s up-and-down form leading into the Wellington Cup saw him start at double-figure odds in the famous Trentham two-miler, but he launched a powerful finish from third-last to win impressively by a length and a half.
Second in the Listed Kaimai Stakes and eighth in the Gr. 1 New Zealand Stakes in his next two starts over 2000m, Wolfgang signed off his season with his second feature win at Trentham in the St Leger.
Among the beaten brigade in both of Wolfgang’s big Trentham wins was Trav, who was an eye-catching fourth in the Wellington Cup and later finished seventh in the St Leger. In between times, he had his own moment in the staying spotlight in the $600,000 Auckland Cup on Champions Day at Ellerslie.
Trav was slow to leave the starting gates and settled in 17th among an 18-horse field, but he launched a withering finish in the hands of Masa Hashizume to beat the Sydney raider Tajanis by a long head. Trav is bred, trained and part-owned by Raymond Connors, who achieved something of a “David versus Goliath” result with his Ellerslie triumph. The second and third placegetters Tajanis and Interpretation represent Australia’s most powerful stables, Chris Waller and Ciaron Maher.
Outside of the New Zealand, Wellington and Auckland Cups, other notable performances came from the likes of Blue Sky At Night (Gr. 3 Avondale Cup and Waikato Cup), Son Of Sun (Gr. 3 Queen Elizabeth II Cup) and Nereus (Gr. 3 Counties Cup, second in the Listed Hawke’s Bay Cup).
Three-year-olds have featured in this category in the past, including wins by Orchestral and Pennyweka in the last two years. Group One triumphs in Australia enhanced the claims of that pair, while this year’s standouts – Gr. 1 New Zealand Derby winner Willydoit and Gr. 1 New Zealand Oaks heroine Leica Lucy – finished fourth in the Australian Derby and Oaks respectively.
