Bits and Bridles

The longevity of the stock of Majestic Son was highlighted at Motukarara on Sunday with three of his older progeny winning races.

The trio of wins was led by the Mark and Nathan Purdon trained nine year old entire Oscar Bonavena who won his second DG Jones Memorial/Banks Peninsula Trotting Cup.

Eight year old trotting mare There You Go trained by Justin Smith at Te Pirata won at long odds at just her eighth start, whilst nine year old gelding Prince Teka also at long odds, won for Loburn trainer Gerard McCrea.

Majestic Son has carved out a tremendous record as a sire and has been New Zealand Trotting Stallion Of The Year five times.

His top three earners have been Sundees Son $1,401,248, Oscar Bonavena $1,211,113 and Majestic Man $839,980. Both Oscar Bonavena and Majestic Man won races as two year olds.

Another trotting stallion will be honoured on Friday night when the inaugural $50,000 Group Three ‘The Sundon’ is run at Addington.

The race is for two year old trotters and as a racehorse, Sundon was unbeaten as a two year in eleven starts.

At stud he proved a game changer.

Between 1996 and 2025 his progeny have won a staggering 3,123 races, worth $32,269,843. His top two winners have been Moment Of Truth 29 wins and One Over Kenny 26.

Four of the seven runners in Friday’s juvenile feature have Sundon blood on their dam side – Brookes Spirit, Landman, Who’s Ya Daddy and Kyvalley Ray.

Sundon was named New Zealand Stallion of the Year three times when the trotting and pacing stallions competed for the one title and he was up against the likes of Holmes Hanover, In The Pocket and Christian Cullen.

Tamahere trainer Luk Chin is closing in on his 200^th winner.

Chin currently sits on 199 and of those 188 have been trotters and Luk has driven 159 himself.

His biggest wins as a trainer have been the 1992 Group Two New Zealand Trotting Derby with Lady Cabello, the Group Three Northern Trotting Breeders Stakes with Fayanni in 2009 and 2010 and Jasinova in 2024.

His biggest winners have been Jasinova (20), Safrakova (14) and Djokovic (13).

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink