New Zealand Oaks Day brings out the best for owner-breeders
Dennis Ryan - Raceform • March 28th, 2025 5:30 PM • 6 min read
On a memorable day of autumn racing at Trentham last weekend, the part that breeders play in extending their role to ownership was highlighted with a string of feature wins.
Heading the breeder/owners’ pack was Taranaki farming couple Peter and Heather Crofskey, who for the second time in little more than a decade have reaped the fruits of their breeding exploits.
In 2013 their Ekraar filly Habibi became the champion staying three-year-old with a string of wins headed by the New Zealand Derby, and 12 years later Leica Lucy has made a similar emphatic statement.
The daughter of Grangewilliam Stud stallion Derryn was having her seventh start when she lined up as the red-hot favourite for the New Zealand Oaks. She had tasted defeat just once in the previous six, having followed a debut win on her home track New Plymouth in November with a head second at Trentham a month later.
Since then she had been unstoppable, stringing together easy wins in the Gr. 3 Eulogy Stakes and Desert Gold Stakes at 1600m, Gr. 2 Ellis Classic (200m) and Gr. 2 Lowland Stakes (2100m). Having sold a share in Leica Lucy to Australian owner-syndicator Ozzie Kheir, the Crofskeys, along with the indomitable trainer-jockey combination of Robbie Patterson and Craig Grylls, faced their final challenge with some trepidation.
Quite extraordinarily, the widest that Leica Lucy had drawn in any of her first six starts was gate four, and again she came up with the inside gate in the Oaks. That scenario is not always a blessing and more than once Grylls had been forced to clear traffic in the home straight, which again became the case with 300m to run last Saturday.
At that point, $20 shot Dubai Gold, who had finished nearly five lengths behind Leica Lucy when third in the Lowland Stakes, had thrown down the gauntlet, but the favourite was up for it as she dug deep to wrest the lead off the would-be usurper. At the line the margin was only a neck, but Leica Lucy had done everything expected of her in her final New Zealand start.
“The other filly gave us a decent fright and we’ve been around long enough to know that no win comes easily,” Heather Crofskey said earlier this week as she and her husband reflected on their latest saloon ride.
“It’s been a long and tough campaign, lining up every three weeks to get her to her prime goal, so well done to Robbie, Craig and everyone involved to get it done.”
Comparisons between star performers are both undesirable and unfathomable, and in the Crofskeys’ case they defer when the question is asked of Habibi and Leica Lucy.
“The one thing we do know is that they’re both special fillies to us and always will be. But racing Habibi was a different experience; back then we had a mortgage and a very supportive bank manager. Donna (Logan) and her team did a fantastic job with her, just as Robbie has with Lucy, but when a massive offer was on the table we really had to take the money.”
That led to Habibi racing in North America, which included unfamiliar dirt tracks, but back on turf she won at Listed level and placed at Group One at Canada’s Woodbine track as well as feature placings at Florida’s Gulfstream Park.
The Crofskeys admit that witnessing Habibi’s destiny so far away was not an enjoyable experience, and having retained a share in their latest star, they’re hoping to remain involved participants in the second stage of Leica Lucy’s career with Chris Waller.
“What Chris decides to do with her will be up to him, but we do know that she was quite tired after giving her all on Saturday, so we would be surprised if she was to make it to the Oaks at Randwick.
“But there are so many opportunities over there, and we’re looking forward to being able to continue to enjoy her.”
While Leica Lucy’s Australian destiny was preordained weeks before her New Zealand finale, a transtasman trip became a reality only last Saturday for Oaks runner-up Dubai Gold. Although she failed narrowly to upset the hotpot, the Pam Gerard-trained filly did more than enough for consideration to be given to a late entry for the Australian Oaks on April 12, or alternatively age-group features at the Queensland winter carnival.
The Sydney and Queensland carnivals featured prominently in the career of freakish racemare Winx. That began with her Sunshine Coast Guineas win at Caloundra in May 2015 and ended an unbeaten 33 races later – 25 of them Group Ones – with her memorable Queen Elizabeth Stakes farewell at Randwick in April 2019.
On Saturday at Trentham, Winx’s close relation Vegas Queen staged a performance just as courageous as Leica Lucy’s when she led throughout for victory on the Gr. 2 IRT Wellington Guineas. Vegas Queen, the 22nd stakes winner for her sire Proisir, is related to the great racemare through her third dam Vegas Magic, who is also the second dam of Winx.
She is raced by a partnership comprising her breeders Dirk and Nicci Oberholster of Whangarei’s Totara Park Stud, Nicci’s son Kurt Benney and fellow members of the Kamo Rugby Club’s Magpies Syndicate, and Ngapuke Racing’s Mandy and Matt Brown.
The Kenny Rae-trained filly races in the Browns’ black and red colours that were carried to victory in numerous major wins during the years they trained a select team from their North Canterbury farm. The most recently recalled of those was La Diosa, winner of the 2016 New Zealand 1000 Guineas and the following year’s Gr. 2 Surround Stakes at Randwick, while an earlier star was the 2003 New Zealand Cup winner Torlesse.
The connection between the Oberholsters and the Browns dates back to Nicci Oberholster’s father Les Donaldson having horses trained at Ngapuke and a subsequent enduring friendship. Totara Park Stud, midway between Whangarei and the coastal mecca of Tutukaka, is famous for champion
1970s colt Uncle Remus, who was bred by Nicci Oberholster’s grandmother Gace Donaldson and raced by her with respected horseman Kim Clotworthy.
Saturday became one for the ages for the Oberholsters when their big win with Vegas Queen was followed less than two hours later by another they bred, closely related Per Incanto gelding Gringotts, who staged his Group One breakthrough in the George Ryder Stakes at Rosehill.
“It was quite an afternoon,” Nicci recalled, “first the thrill of winning with Vegas Queen, then having to endure a lengthy inquiry before it was confirmed. That meant there was no official presentation, but we more than made up for that when the club hosted us up in the committee room.
“Mandy and Matt were with us and we made the most of the celebrations when Gringotts won the George Ryder.”
Veteran Wanganui breeder and former veterinarian Bill Stewart also had cause for celebration on Saturday when the Robbie Patterson-trained Our Jumala, who he still part-owns, won the Gr. 3 Wentwood Grange Cuddle Stakes.
In a tight finish the six-year-old daughter of Zed denied 2023 Cuddle Stakes winner Pearl Of Alsace of a perfect finale in what was the Pencarrow Stud homebred’s final start. For Stewart, however, it was a long-separated Cuddle Stakes double, having also owned and bred 1992 winner Adnamira. That daughter of Lord Ballina shares with Our Jumala a famous ancestor, that great Wanganui broodmare and New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame member Eulogy.
The other noteworthy owner-breeder result last Saturday came via New Zealand St Leger winner Wolfgang, who is raced by Mapperley Stud principal Simms Davison in partnership by co-trainer Peter McKay and his wife Kim. Returning to the scene of his Wellington Cup in January, the son of the McKays’ New Zealand Derby winner Puccini again proved the best stayer in the 2500m race as he stormed home to nab Final Return on the line.
Picture at the Top of the Page: The key players in Leica Lucy’s super season celebrate together for the final time after Saturday’s Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand Oaks. From left: Peter Crofskey, Robbie Patterson, Craig Grylls and Heather Crofskey. Photo: Supplied
