Winning Edge Stallions

Over the years Haunui Farm has been recognised for the strength of its stallion roster, with founder Geoff Chitty setting the ball rolling with the first two, Karayar and Ruling.

Unfortunately Geoff died with foals on the ground by Karayar and didn’t see the influence Ruling was to make. He sired NZ Derby winners Kaiser and Ruling Lad from his first 2 crops.

When Ron Chitty took over the reins at Haunui Farm he did so with strong views on criteria for stallion selection and it remains in place for the simple reason of its success. The strong preference is for Group 1 performers, which have been successful at two and have trained on as three-year-olds. The dam should be a top-class performer by a strong broodmare sire but also boasting a sire pedigree.

The first sire selected by Ron was Sea Anchor who produced a colt from his first crop likened to Dulcify, Manikato and even the immortal Tulloch. He was Red Anchor, who a week after winning the Cox Plate as a three-year-old trounced his rivals in the VRC Derby.

He was voted Australia’s Horse of the Year by the various state jurisdictions and was again the unanimous choice at the national racing writer awards. The world’s leading racing personality of the time, Robert Sangster, publicly declared him to be unquestionably world class.

Over the years the progeny of Haunui Farm stallions matching this criteria have excelled on the racetracks of Australasia, South Africa, Asia and beyond. On occasions some have gone that extra yard. Like Last Tycoon whose progeny includes champion racehorse and champion sire O’Reilly, or Tights, who enjoys the reflected glory of his daughter Triassic producing the world-recognised champion So You Think, or Soviet Star who was the sire of the globe-trotting Starcraft.

The tradition continues today with the dual hemisphere exploits of shuttle stallion Iffraaj.

Record-breaking Champion First Season Sire of Europe in 2010, Champion Second Season Sire of New Zealand for 2012-13, including leading New Zealand sire of stakes winning three-year-olds, which included Filly of the Year Fix.