Wood celebrates another big result
Dennis Ryan - Raceform • December 8th, 2025 10:00 AM • 5 min read
John Wood has lost count of the number of wins he has celebrated over the past three decades, but he does offer a fair indication that it’s been “quite a few”.
Wood, a former Waikato businessman now living in semi-retirement in Kerikeri, traces his beginnings in racing and breeding to the 1980s, when he was gifted a mare that was to become the ancestress of the majority of the horses he has bred and raced.
“It would have been more than 30 years ago when my old mate Bill Wills gave me a mare by the name of Kaiponu,” Wood recalled. “She was 21 or 22, had no teeth and they couldn’t get her in foal, so I got an old horseman I knew around to give her a good going over, she started to pick up and we managed to get her cycling again.
“I didn’t want to send her too far from home, so Alistair Scown had a stallion by the name of Dealers Choice that wasn’t being used much. He was a half-brother to the Robinsons’ champion colt Piko and he was a good stayer himself winning the Adelaide Cup.
“So, we took the mare around there and what do you know, she got in foal.”
The resulting filly named Madam’s Choice was unraced but became the dam of three winners, two of which were Wood’s first stakes winners, Classic Spirit and No Fibs. Trained by the late Sheryl Douglas (McGlade), between the pair they won 20 races.
Older foal Classic Spirit won 11 through the late 1990s-early 2000s, headed by the Gr.3 Rotorua Challenge Plate and Cornwall Handicap as well as two editions of the Te Awamutu Cup. No Fibs, also a toff on winter tracks, won nine races including the Gr.3 Rotorua Cup, Listed FR Bodle Memorial and two Winter Oats.
As a broodmare No Fibs produced three winners, the best of them the Graham Thomas-trained Mangaroa Flo Jo, whose seven wins included the Gr.3 Manawatu Breeders’ Stakes.
The line founded by Kaiponu was also responsible for the late Bill Wills’ best performer as an owner-trainer-breeder, Hello Dolly. Her 10 wins included the Gr.1 Captain Cook Stakes and two editions of the Hawke’s Bay Challenge Stakes before it was upgraded to Group One and now known as the Howden Insurance Mile.
More recently the family has gained international fame, with Kaiponu also the ancestress of the intrepid Henry Dwyer-trained Asfoora. Last year she won the Gr.1 Royal Ascot King Charles lll Stakes and this year added the Gr.1 Nunthorpe Stakes and Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp, earning the coveted Cartier Sprinter of the Year title.
With such a prolific line tracing back to Wood’s foundation broodmare, there’s a certain irony that his latest winner, Circus Dancer, is one that he didn’t breed himself. There is a common thread, however, the presence in her pedigree of stallions associated with Windsor Park Stud.
Wood in fact had two runners carrying his dark green and white colours in Saturday’s O’Leary’s Fillies’ Stakes, both of them by Windsor Park shuttle stallion Circus Maximus. The Cody Cole-trained Circus Dancer, who had cleared maiden grade in her previous start debut, was bred by the late Rick Orr, a successful Canterbury-based owner-breeder, while the Ben and Ryan Foote-trained Circus Trix, also a previous start maiden graduate, is Mangaroa Flo Jo’s latest winner.
Despite their form, the Wood pair were the two outsiders in what, to be fair, was a quality field, but that didn’t stop Circus Dancer from upsetting the favourite War Princess at odds of 24-to-one, while 30-to-one shot Circus Trix also acquitted herself well to finish fourth, less than two lengths from her ownership mate.
“They shouldn’t have been at such long odds, they’re both good fillies, but that was okay with me,” Wood said. “I’ve had a wonderful relationship with the team at Windsor Park over the years and have done very well with horses by their stallions.”
Wood’s list of winners with that connection includes No Fibs (by Casual Lies), Mangaroa Flo Jo (by High Chaparral) and the stakes-placed Charmer (by Charm Spirit).
“I’m a big fan of Circus Maximus and I’m also breeding to Profondo, Paddington and Auguste Rodin. I came by Circus Dancer through Nick Downs, who told me there was this filly on Gavelhouse going up as part of Rick Orr’s estate, so I asked him to see if he could buy her for me, which he did.”
Circus Maximus was denied an even bigger weekend when another member of his first New Zealand crop, Road To Paris, threw away certain victory in the Gr.3 Wellington Stakes at Otaki on Sunday after shying at the winning post and unseating his rider Masa Hashizume.
Wood’s current racing team – which he estimates at 11 either fully or part-owned – includes the Shaune Ritchie/Colm Murray-trained Auckland and New Zealand Cup winner Mahrajaan.
“I supported Shaune when he went up to England to source a proven horse and it turned out a very worthwhile exercise with Mahrajaan. All told I’ve got horses with five trainers – besides Cody, Shaune and the Footes, Stephen Marsh and Chris Wood also have horses for me.
“I’m very lucky that my wife Jo is considerate even though she’s not a horse-person, she’s totally supportive and that’s something I truly appreciate.
“Besides Windsor Park, the Hawkins family at Wentwood Grange play a big part caring for my mares and their various offspring, although I’ve long been aware that if you’ve got broodmares, it’s very easy for the numbers to grow around you.
“It’s probably getting to the stage where I need to start turning the volume down – as a sole operator still breeding from four mares it’s tough doing it by yourself. But days like last weekend certainly make it all worthwhile and give you something to smile about.”
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