It’s been a charmed ride for Julie Maghzal
Garrick Knight - Raceform • November 28th, 2025 1:18 PM • 4 min read
Christchurch retiree Julie Maghzal is having the time of her life as a hobby owner and breeder.
Maghzal and her co-owner and daughter Sasha were on hand with wider family at Addington last Friday night to watch their pride and joy, Habibti Pat, defeat the boys in the $200,000 Gr.1 Garrards New Zealand Trotting Derby.
A few years ago, Maghzal won our most prestigious trotting race, the Dominion, in the most stunning of fashions with Habibi Inta, who she now stands as a stallion.
Her “little hobby”, as she puts it, as turned into a great source of joy for her and her family despite breeding from only one broodmare.
“I am very lucky, because it’s all fallen into place so nicely.”
Maghzal’s decision, along with her late husband Gaby, to buy the broodmare Ten To One in 2006 proved to be the turning point in the couple’s racing fortunes.
Gaby, who died in 2019, was not from a racing background but, as Julie explains, he quickly fell in love with the sport that she had been born into.
“My father, Bob Day, was only an amateur trainer, but he had some really good horses in his time, the likes of Merrin (12 wins), Ipiana (seven) and Western Approach (seven).
“I was always around horses and then when I met Gaby, who was Middle Eastern and a bit of a gambler, he thought ‘this is great!’ and that’s sort of where it got started for me.”
Their first foray into breeding and ownership came via her father, who loaned them his use of the Fallacy mare Three Tens in 1980.
“My Dad and Dick Petrie shared the mare. Dick had the farm and Dad had the horse, so it worked out nicely and they bred year about.
“One year, Gaby and I used Dad’s turn to breed her to Game Pride, and we ended up getting the Two-Year-Old Trotter of the Year! You couldn’t dream of a luckier start, could you?”
That horse was Signor Gabrielli, who ended up winning eight races – including the NZ 2YO Trotting Stakes – under the tutelage of Patrick O’Reilly Snr.
A few decades later, after raising a family, the Maghzals would reignite their passion for harness racing by going back to that same family and it led them down the path to where Julie is today.
They purchased Ten To One, a well-raced Sundon mare out of a half-sister to Signor Gabrielli, to be a broodmare.
“We happened to see Dick was selling Ten To One so Gaby rung him up and bought her and the rest is history.”
Over the next eight years, Ten To One would leave six winners from eight foals, three of them Group One winners – Habibti, Habibti Ivy and Habibi Inta.
The latter two were raced by the Maghzals and Habibti Ivy is the dam of Julie’s latest star, Habibti Pat.
Ten To One’s efforts were acknowledged when she was announced as New Zealand’s Trotting Broodmare of the Year in 2018.
Julie says a defining moment for her and Gaby came when Habibi Inta was a juvenile.
“We got offered huge money for him as a two-year-old and everyone told me we should have taken it.
“But I spoke to his trainer, Paul Nairn, and he told me this horse has the most wonderful conformation, he could be your stallion for the future.”
Nairn’s reputation as perhaps our greatest ever trainer of trotters came up trumps with Habibi Inta winning 11 races and nearly $400,000, including the stunning seven-length Dominion win in 2019, not long after Gaby had died.
“That was a real highlight because we’d all had such a difficult year and we adore the horse, so to win it in that fashion was special.”
Habibi Inta’s racetrack deeds were enough for Nairn’s prophecy to come true and the son of Love You is now in his fourth season at Christchurch’s Phoebe Stud.
“It’s really nice to see a lot of people have gone to him and from I can gather, they are all very happy and love their foals. His two-year-olds will start racing next year and we are all looking forward to that.”
Habibti Ivy is Julie’s only broodmare and her first foal, the now five-year-old full-sister to Habibti Pat in The Ivy League, is owned by Southland breeders John and Katrina Price, who purchased her as a weanling for a substantial sum.
She’s retired but did earn a Group One placing – for Nairn, naturally.
The next two foals are both Propulsion fillies – a two-year-old and yearling – and they’ve joined their older half-sister at Ben and Greg Hope’s Woodend Beach stable.
Habibti Ivy missed last year but a full-brother by Father Patrick was born last month, and she’s gone back to him again.
“I’ve just stuck with him as a sire because it seems to work so well and it was nice to finally get a colt out of her. The two Propulsions are lovely, strong types though and we are looking forward to racing them.”
Julie was quick to pay tribute to the Hopes for having the foresight to skip the Trotting Oaks on the same night and go to the Derby.
“It was a great move, because as we saw, it gave her time to settle, and we know what a terrific stayer she is.”
There was also a sense of relief after Habibti Pat galloped in the bend a week prior in the $500,000 Ascent and skittled half the field.
“These horses are young, and it can happen, but we just felt so terrible for everyone else who got knocked over.”
Habibit Pat will have a break now, so the regular family retreats to Addington Raceway will be put on hold for a while, but there is plenty to look back on fondly from the year, and even more to look forward to.
“It’s been a lovely ride so far and being able to share it with my family has meant so much to me.”
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