New Zealand

Horse racing is an area in which Australia and New Zealand have shared resources more than any other.

Australian racehorses have retired to make names for themselves at New Zealand studs. Australian owners and trainers are among the biggest buyers at New Zealand studs the same trade occurs in reverse.

For a couple of hundred years, New Zealand was the only country to which Australian horses could travel freely without quarantine restrictions.

As a result the trade in racehorses, stallions and mares flowed with little inhibition and considerable, healthy rivalry.

There was a time when stoutly-bred New Zealand geldings had a near mortgage on the Melbourne Cup. But as the Australian racing has opened up to the world and due to other commercial factors, Australian-breds are reversing the trend somewhat with success in some of New Zealand’s biggest races.

Prominent among them have been 2014-15 New Zealand Horse of the Year and Champion 3YO Mongolian Khan, Champion 2YO Marky Mark, Champion Sprinters Bounding and Sacred Star along with Group 1 winners Platinum Witness, O’Marilyn, More Than Sacred and Costa Viva.

After South Africa, New Zealand was the second greatest source of both international level Group 1 wins and stakes successes for Australian-breds in the last racing season.