Type | Horse breeding Farm & Thoroughbred Racing Stable |
---|---|
Industry | Thoroughbred Horse racing |
Headquarters | Denman, NSW, Australia |
Key people | Vivian Oldfield Sean Buckley Grant Mackay |
Golden Grove Stud is a 259 acre property, established in 2014 by Sean Buckley and Vivian Oldfield in Denman in the Hunter Valley. [1] It specialises in all aspects of equine care and selectively produces high achieving racehorses. [2]
Golden Grove Stud is responsible for having produced the 2019-20 Australian Racehorse of The Year & winner of the 2022 King's Stand Stakes Nature Strip (Nicconi), as well as stakes performers Li’l Kontra (Krupt), Flying Award (Shamus Award) & The Barrister (Star Witness). [3] [4] [5] [6]
Other stakes winning graduates of note include Captain Duffy (Listed Geelong Classic, Geelong), Crown Witness (G3 Quezette Stakes, Caulfield) and Sovereign Award (G3 Caulfield, Flemington).
Thoroughbred horse racing is an important spectator sport in Australia, and gambling on horse races is a very popular pastime with A$14.3 billion wagered in 2009/10 with bookmakers and the Totalisator Agency Board (TAB). The two forms of Thoroughbred horseracing in Australia are flat racing, and races over fences or hurdles in Victoria and South Australia. Thoroughbred racing is the third most attended spectator sport in Australia, behind Australian rules football and rugby league, with almost two million admissions to 360 registered racecourses throughout Australia in 2009/10. Horseracing commenced soon after European settlement, and is now well-appointed with automatic totalizators, starting gates and photo finish cameras on nearly all Australian racecourses.
The Spring Racing Carnival is the name of an Australian Thoroughbred horse racing series held annually in Melbourne during October and November.
Vain was a champion Thoroughbred racehorse that dominated Australian sprint racing in the period 1968–70, when he won 12 of the 14 races he contested and ran second in the other two. He went on to become a leading sire in Australia.
Gabriel Marie "Gai" Waterhouse is an Australian horse trainer and businesswoman. The daughter of Tommy J. Smith, a leading trainer of Thoroughbred racehorses, Waterhouse was born and raised in Sydney. After graduating from the University of New South Wales, she worked as an actor for a time, appearing in both Australian and English television series. Having worked under her father for a period of 15 years, Waterhouse was granted an Australian Jockey Club (AJC) licence in 1992, and trained her first Group One (G1) winner later that year.
Redoute's Choice was a multiple Group One-winning Australian Thoroughbred racehorse and also a champion sire. He is by the phenomenal international sire Danehill (USA) out of the lightly raced mare Shantha's Choice. His dam is a half-sister to the Group One winners Hurricane Sky and Umatilla, and later produced the Group One winners Platinum Scissors and Manhattan Rain.
James "Jimmy" Wilson was an Australian rules footballer who played with Geelong in the Victorian Football Association (VFA), captaining the side for a few seasons during the 1870s and 1880s. This was an era when the club won a number of premierships prior to the inception of the Victorian Football League (VFL).
Street Cry was a Thoroughbred racehorse, winner of the 2002 Dubai World Cup, the 2002 Stephen Foster Handicap and runner up in the 2002 Whitney Handicap. He was an international shuttle stallion that stood at the Darley Studs in Australia and the US.
Miss Andretti was the 2007 Australian Champion Racehorse of the Year and is the only Thoroughbred in racing history to simultaneously hold a total of five track records in Australia and England.
Starspangledbanner is an Australian-bred and internationally raced Thoroughbred racehorse who won six of his sixteen group or listed race starts including the group one (G1) Golden Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot, G1 July Cup at Newmarket, G1 Oakleigh Plate and the G1 Caulfield Guineas for A$2,198,503 in prize money.
Choisir was an Australian-bred dual hemisphere-winning Thoroughbred racehorse. He became the first Australian-trained winner of the Group Two King's Stand Stakes. The same year, Choisir also won the Golden Jubilee Stakes and was second in the July Cup.
Tranquil Star was one of the hardiest and best performed Australian-bred Thoroughbred race-mares. She is the only mare to have won the double of the Caulfield Stakes, now known as the Yalumba Stakes, and the Cox Plate, which is the most prestigious weight-for-age (wfa) race in Australia. Tranquil Star had 111 starts and won over distances ranging from 5 furlongs to 14 furlongs. She was later inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.
Dundeel, or It’s a Dundeel as he is known in Australia, is a champion New Zealand Thoroughbred racehorse. He is the fifth and most recent winner of the Australian Triple Crown.
Ultra Thoroughbred Racing Pty Ltd is a racing syndicate and breeder of Thoroughbred racehorses based in Melbourne, Australia and owned by Sean Buckley. Although based in Melbourne, the company has significant interests throughout Australia, with land holdings in Victoria and the Hunter Valley in New South Wales. The business primarily bases its racing interests in Australia, however, races internationally with a particular focus on the New Zealand market in recent times.
Chris Waller, is a Hall of Fame trainer in Australian Thoroughbred racing best known for training the racemare Winx, a four-time winner of Australian Horse of the Year honours.
Pierro was an Australian racehorse who is now retired and standing at stud. A bay horse, he stands at 16.1hh. He was from the fifth crop of the champion racehorse and stallion Lonhro out of the dam Miss Rite Note (IRE)(by Daylami). Pierro had a short racing career, racing in just two seasons and retiring to stud as a three-year-old. He ran in a total of 14 races, with 11 wins and 3 placings, including 5 Group 1 wins. His distances ranged from 1200m to 2040m. He was bred at Musk Creek Farm and sold for $230,000 in the Magic Millions sale. He was an unbeaten Triple Crown winner at 2 years, and a dual Group 1 winner at 3 years, earning him the title of both the highest rated Australian juvenile since 1977, and the highest rated 3yo sprinter in the world in 2013. He is now retired to stud at Coolmore, in Jerrys Plains of NSW, where he was purchased for $40 million. This has proved to be a very worthwhile investment for Coolmore thus far, as has had an illustrious career as a stallion to date, including four Group 1 winning progeny. He has had progeny sell for up to $1.1 million, highlighting the promising nature of his progeny for the years to come. His stud fee of $88,000 reflects his high quality characteristics on sale to any buyer who has a worthwhile mare and can afford the fee.
Nature Strip is an Australian Thoroughbred racehorse who was the 2020 and 2022 Australian Champion Racehorse of the Year, a nine-time Group 1 winner, and the winner of The Everest in 2021, the richest turf race in the world.
Sunlight is a three-time Group 1 winning Australian bred thoroughbred racehorse.
Bivouac is a multiple Group 1 winning Australian thoroughbred racehorse.
James McDonald is a New Zealand thoroughbred racing jockey and member of the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame. On 2 November 2021, McDonald rode the winning horse Verry Elleegant in the 2021 Melbourne Cup. He is the World Jockey of the Year for 2021 in the TRC Global Rankings.
Home Affairs is an Australian thoroughbred racehorse that has won multiple Group One races.