Lovin the Habibti run

Julie Maghzal has a lifetime of wonderful memories through her involvement in harness racing.

When the Greg and Ben Hope trained Habibti Pat (Father Patrick) recently won the New Zealand Trotting Derby, it was her fiftieth win as an owner, many of them with her late husband Gaby.

“We just thought the distance would suit her because she’s really tough. With the sprint races she got keen and that was her downfall in some of those races. I couldn’t help hug everybody because the win was so nice. I don’t do things like that normally and I was right out of my comfort zone but I was so excited,” Julie said.

Julie comes from a racing family, her father Bob Day successfully trained trotters.

“I was always there in the background and not really involved with the horses. I was a dancer so I didn’t want a horse coming anywhere near my feet. My father loved the game and did very very well. He had Merrin, Ipiana and Western Approach. He bred and raced some really good horses,” she said.

Merrin won twelve races including the 1970 Banks Peninsula Trotting Cup. He ran second in the 1971 Dominion won by Precocious and third in the 1971 New Zealand Trotting Free for All taken out by Tony Bear. Western Approach and Ipiana each won seven.

“When I danced as the lead role in Coppelia it was the same night Merrin was racing at Addington. My mother who was a very soft woman said to my father that he had two choices. He could either come and see his daughter in her finale or go to the races. And she added ‘I guess you should choose the one I want you to choose.’ When the horse won I was on stage and one of the dancers came up to me when we were dancing and told me Merrin had won so I knew long before my father.”

The Day’s foundation mare was Three Tens which Bob trained to win once at Kaikoura.

Three Tens had moderate success at stud, leaving Signor Gabreilli which won eight for Patrick O’Reilly Senior and was the first horse bred by and raced by Julie and Gaby.

“My father loaned Three Tens to Gaby and to breed a horse which won Two-Year-Old Of The Year, was a big thrill. We had never been involved in horse racing and it just went from there.”

She added that when Signor Gabrielli won his first race at Addington in January 1984 by four and a half lengths, Gaby opened his wallet.

“Everyone that was in the stand and the bar, he (Gaby) just shouted. He was so rapt.”

Signor Gabrielli’s best win was the 1984 New Zealand Two-Year-Old Trotting Stakes when he beat Wedgewood by a nose.

Gaby Maghzal came from the other side of the world to enjoy his racing. He was born in Beirut in Lebanon.

“He came out to New Zealand as a podiatrist. In Christchurch we owned Hanifins Clinic and he was the podiatrist there. He was Middle Eastern and a bit of a gambler and when he met my father who was an amateur horse trainer, Gaby thought that was wonderful. He was in with people that liked what he liked (laughter).”

The couple met in Wellington at a bar called the Western Park Tavern.

“He was working part time as a cocktail barman. He asked me out and we lived together from the day we met. We were together for nearly fifty years.”

Julie says Gaby liked nothing more than to have a good bet.

“They’d look at my husband and ask him if he was having a go and he’d say yep and just tap his wallet (laughter).”

Sadly Gaby passed away in July 2019 but Julie has continued on with the same passion he had for the horses.

Of her fifty-one winners Paul Nairn has trained 21.

“Paul was very big in my life earlier on.”

Blair Orange has driven thirty of her winners, the first being Habibti Ivy at Oamaru in December 2014.

“It started when Gaby rang Blair at the time he went from the Purdons to Ken Barrons. Gaby said he’d put his horses with Ken as long as Blair would drive them. Blair has been really loyal and it’s been a very good relationship. He looks after the horses and would never jeopardise a horse to win the race and we all appreciate that. The horse comes first.”

At stud, one of Three Ten’s fillies Ten Four, left Ten To One which won six races for Dick Petrie. After she finished racing Petrie bred one foal from her and from that point Gaby and Julie Maghzal began breeding from the mare; the beginning of the famous ‘Habibti’ line.

They bred Habibti which won sixteen races, Habibti Ivy the winner of nine and Habiti Inta which won eleven. All three were by Love You.

“Habibti means love you in Arabic and we put our mare four times to Love You. Habibi (different spelling) also means to love you when talking o a man or a boy. We just stuck with it and carried with it all the way through. Habibti Ivy is named after by granddaughter. I have another granddaughter called Sadie and there’s another horse we bred called Habibti Sadie.”

Habibti Ivy’s major wins were in the Group One Anzac Cup, the G2 Two New Zealand Trotting Oaks, the G3 Four and Five Year Old Trotting Championship and the G3 Alabar DG Jones Trotting Cup. She was beaten by a neck by Temporale in the Rowe Cup.

“Gaby loved seeing Habibti Ivy win the Oaks and run second in the Rowe Cup. They were real highlights for us. To be honest for our family, if you win a race in Blenheim, Manawatu or Addington it’s the same thing.”

Habibti’s biggest wins were the G1 New Zealand Trotting Derby, the G3 Zealand Trotting Stakes, the G3 Three New Zealand Trotting Oaks and the G3 Three Canterbury Park Trotting Cup while Habibi Inta’s major success came in the Dominion Handicap.

“It just about broke my heart. To see him come out and annihilate them in the Dominion. I’ll never forget Blair Orange saluting his dear friend Mike Austin who had died. They had always wanted to win this race.”

Habibi Inta also won the Four-Year-Old Ruby, the G3 Two-Year-Old Trotting Stakes, the G3 DG Jones Memorial Trotting Cup and the G3 South Bay Trotters Cup.

In March 2016 Habibi Inta won the Patrick O’Reilly Senior Memorial Two Year Old Mobile Trot at Methven. That was a special day for both the Maghzal and O’Reilly families.

“The whole family was there. I adore those people.”

Habibi Inta now stands at stud at Grant Beckett’s Phoebe Standardbreds. Three of his progeny will be offered at the NZB Standardbred Yearling Sales in Christchurch in February.

“I’d love to breed to Habibti Inta but at this point I don’t have any mares I can put him too.”

Gaby and Julie had two daughters Sasha and Nadine.

“Of my two daughters Sasha loved racing from the day we started. She loves to have a bet and loves the breeding. Nadine loves it but not to the same extent. Although I’ve found now Nadine is just loving it and she’s there with us every time. My grandchildren love it and ring me up and congratulate me, so it’s super.”

Although trotting remains Julie’s passion, the family have had their share of success with pacers.

“I swung towards the trotters but he was really keen on the pacers. When you look at the stats, we’ve had a fantastic ride over forty years.”

Gaby, Sasha and Nadine successfully raced Anna Livia which won nine races.

As a broodmare she left Ana Malak which won four in New Zealand and a further 15 in Australia and Ana Afreet which won 12 of her 18 starts in Australia.

Gaby and Julie also raced Malak Uswaad which won nine races – six for David and Catherine Butt and three for Peter and Leonne Jones before he was sold to America where he won a further twelve races and earned $542,585.

Habibti Ivy is the only mare Julie’s breeding from at the moment and since leaving Habibti Pat she has left two Propulsion fillies.

“They’re both with Greg and Ben Hope. They’re coming along really nicely. They’ve got loads of speed. I think they’re going to try and qualify Habibti Amar in the next three weeks. She’ll be three in January.”

Habibti Ivy’s latest foal is a Father Patrick colt.

“He’s a lovely looking colt that’s swung to the mother. I said that if a bred a colt I’d be able to sell it. Taking one look at it, I don’t know whether I will.” Julie laughed.

While she says she’s not fully across selecting stallions, she’s been impressed by the progeny of Father Patrick.

“Now that I’ve got the Father Patricks, I’m going back to him because he’s leaving the goods and seems to suit my mare.”

Gael Murray looks after Julie’s horses and has entered a Habibi Inta filly out of her Sundon mare Successor, in February’s NZB Standardbred Yearling Sales in Christchurch.

“Successor and Habibti Ivy share the same paddock. Gael does a wonderful job in looking after my horses.”

The Maghzal’s involvement with Greg and Nina Hope was through Ana Afreet. He qualified but never raced in New Zealand and went on to win 34 races and over $400,000.

“He was sold and I thought I liked the idea of the horses been trained on the beach. So I asked Greg if he would take her (Habibti Pat) and he did.”

Outside of her own breed Julie is in the ownership of Macho Man (Muscle Mass) which won for Kevin Townley on Friday night at Addington.

Gaby raced a few horses including Signor Vance, Clovelly Fleur and Silver Lopez with Kevin and his late father Doody in the 1990s.

“It’s a big part of my life and my family’s life. It’s a joy. I’ve probably got about 200 horse photos from Ajay (photographer Ajay Berry) packed up in the garage but the latest ones I’ve got in the house with a few Cups.”

Footnote:

Other members of the Three Tens family have recently been to the fore.

Habibti Sadie is the dam of Tactical Bid who has won four of his eleven starts. Habibti Sadie is also the mother of Magic Dash the winner of seven, four for Regan Todd and three for Michelle Wallis and Bernie Hackett.

Habibti Pat’s full-sister The Ivy League, won three races for Paul Nairn and is now being bred from by John and Katrina Price. She recently produced her first foal, a colt by Tactical Approach.

Penelope Lane bred and owned by Michelle Caig stems from another branch of the family. She’s out of Batal, a Game Pride daughter of Three Tens.

Batal won two races for Steve O’Brien and at stud she’s left Exotic Charm the dam of City Lane who’s the mother of Penelope Lane, the winner of four of her twelve starts.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink