Miss Starlight another class act for John and Karen Parsons
Dennis Ryan - Raceform • September 19th, 2025 5:00 PM
Preparing high-class fillies and mares from their North Canterbury base is nothing new for husband-and-wife training partners John and Karen Parsons, who last Saturday produced another with the potential to add to that list.
Notable names in the Parsons catalogue date back more than 30 years, the first of them the Inglewood Stud homebred Seamist, whose 10 stakes wins during the early 1990s – ranging from Ellerslie to Gore – included the Gr. 1 Auckland Stakes.
A pair they bred themselves were also well-travelled as they each compiled a string of major wins. Final Touch, the Champion Sprinter of 2012-13, included three Group Ones in her 12 wins for stake-earnings of more than $800,000. At Trentham the daughter of Kashani won the Gr. 1 Telegraph and Captain Cook Stakes, along with the Waikato Draught Sprint at Te Rapa.
Nearly a decade later Kiwi Ida won 14 races and more than $500,000 in stakes. The closet the Australian-bred mare came to Group One success was her third placing in the Waikato Draught Sprint, while her wins included the Gr. 2 Westbury Classic and Manawatu Challenge Stakes.
Now the Parsons have another vying to reach the top. Last Saturday Miss Starlight took her unbeaten record to three wins as she made a successful transition from the Riccarton Polytrack to the turf surface with an impressive performance in the Listed NZB Canterbury Belle Stakes.
In her wake as she scored by nearly two lengths from lower North Island raiders Bona Sforza, Intention and Spark were several highly rated fillies. That forced an overhaul of the TAB’s fixed-odds market for the Gr. 1 Barneswood Farm New Zealand 1000 Guineas, elevating Miss Starlight to equal third favourite at $10 alongside triple Listed winner Platinum Diamond. The market is headed by last week’s Gr. 3 Gold Trail Stakes winner Lollapalooza at $3.20 and Gr. 3 Northland Breeders’ Stakes winner Tajana at $5.
Capping a memorable raceday for the Parsons, Miss Starlight’s five-year-old sister On File combined with former stable apprentice Tina Comignaghi to win the Rating 75 final race on the Riccarton programme, taking her record to four wins from 25 starts.
“It was a great day alright,” was Karen Parsons’ typically succinct comment when RaceForm caught up with her and husband John on Monday. “We were really confident after our foreman Mahi (Singh) told us we’d win with both of them, the way they had been working.
“Tina did her bit too, she rode them so well, and it was wonderful to see them both win like that.”
Advancing years, and in 76-year-old John’s case major eyesight issues, have forced the Parsons to rely more and more on others to keep the stable ticking over. Until five years ago John was one of racing’s rare licence-holders in both the gallops and harness codes, but he opted to forfeit the latter due to his eyesight challenges.
Beach training from their Balcairn stable, initially at Leithfield and then Waikuku, was a big part of their model but has also gone by the board due to the erosion of suitable sand surfaces. They’ve counteracted that by upgrading their home track with a mixture of sand and other materials to what Karen describes as “pretty similar to the all-weather mixture at Riccarton”.
“We’re lucky to have good staff,” she adds. “Mahi took a leaf from John’s book – he works from before dawn to dark, he rides work, he does everything, and he’s a very good judge.
“Tina’s just wonderful, she’s come a long way since she started here as a work rider. When we realised how well she rode, we convinced her to start an apprenticeship, but to begin with she lacked a lot of confidence.
“She’s overcome that and is now the best jockey in the South Island. She finished third on the premiership last season and we’re so proud of her. She still comes up from Christchurch to ride work and we wouldn’t be without her.”
“John still gets up first thing every morning to chip in, and it was good that he was able to get along to the races on Saturday.”
As well as their training skills – John’s tally stands at 1,335 and Karen’s at 1,010 – much of the Parsons’ success can be attributed to horses they have bred themselves.
“Too many!” is John’s response when asked how many mares they’re still breeding with. “We own a share in Sweynesse and he’s been a regular with a couple of mares going to him each year. He’s probably under-rated but we’re happy with what we’ve got by him, and looking at what Miss Starlight did on Saturday, she might be best we’ve had by him.
“We’ve also got a couple of mares going to White Robe’s new stallion (Alflaila). He looks like a decent sort of horse. All told we’re sending five mares to stud, the other is going to The Chosen One after we lost a mare in foal to him earlier in the year.”
Miss Starlight boasts strong international bloodlines, being a descendant of the Duke and Duchess of Bedford’s mighty producer Mrs Moss. Her descendants include the dual Group One winner and leading stallion Tavistock, Japan Cup winner Jupiter Island, hardy Australian stayer Precedence and a long list of fellow stakes winners.
Firelight, the dam of Miss Firelight and On File, is by the Irish, English, North American and Hong Kong Group One winner Fantastic Light from Mrs Moss’s grand-daughter Worship. She won five races, the first of them when trained by Sir Mark Todd, who bred her in partnership with his wife Caroline and playwright and noted English breeder Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber.
The remaining four wins were from the Parsons stable and she has since produced eight foals, six of which have been winners. Starlight has a yearling filly by Staphanos, who stands alongside Sweynesse at Cambridge’s Novara Park, and not surprisingly she returns to the latter this spring.
After a season when not a single South Island-trained horse made the shortlist of 21 horses in the six New Zealand Horse of the Year categories, the continuing emergence of one such as Miss Starlight will be more than welcome.
“She’s a filly we’ve always liked, she just needed time,” says John Parsons. “Her next start will probably be the Barneswood Farm Stakes at Ashburton and that should set her up for the 1000 Guineas.”
