{"id":209176,"date":"2025-12-31T00:52:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T00:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/209176\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T00:52:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T00:52:14","slug":"ancient-spirit-on-his-way-for-white-robe-lodge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/209176\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient Spirit on His Way for White Robe Lodge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Friday was a bittersweet day for White Robe Lodge.<\/p>\n

The Otago stud farm lost their Group One-producing stallion Ghibellines, but their fortunes quickly took a turn for the better when their young sire Ancient Spirit recorded his first stakes win when his daughter Bobby Mcgee took out the Listed NZB Airfreight Stakes (1400m) down the road at Wingatui.<\/p>\n

\"Bobby<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good result, we thought that filly was above average and she won well,\u201d White Robe Lodge Stud Manager Wayne Stewart said.<\/p>\n

While saddened by the passing of Ghibellines, the southern horseman is choosing to take a silver lining view to recent events.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a sad day what happened before that but there are plenty of good things to look forward to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A son of champion sire Shamardal and Group One-winning mare Camarilla, Ghibellines was a half-brother to four-time Group One winner Guelph and Dazzler, the dam of triple Group One winner and subsequent Group One-producing sire Bivouac.<\/p>\n

Ghibellines had just the eight career starts, all at stakes level, with his highlight being victory in the Gr.2 Todman Stakes (1200m), while he also placed in the Gr.2 Danehill Stakes (1200m) and Listed Canonbury Stakes (1100m).<\/p>\n

He retired to stud at White Robe Lodge where he sired nine stakes winners, including Group One winner Smokin\u2019 Romans.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe consistently left reasonable horses right from the start,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cHe left that Dunedin Guineas winner (El Gladiador) in his first crop and most seasons he had multiple winners.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs time went on, they did take a wee bit of time to develop and mature, and today\u2019s market is hard, people want those two and three-year-old winners. He did a good job, he was a good bread and butter sire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ancient<\/p>\n

The farm is now looking forward to the future with their two stallions, Ancient Spirit and Alflaila, with the latter having just finished serving his first book of mares.<\/p>\n

Stewart was buoyed by Ancient Spirit\u2019s stakes-winning result last week, and is hopeful other promising horses from the same crop can build on his momentum.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has had quite a few three-year-old runners and we always thought his best would be in the autumn, so it is always really nice to get spring horses,\u201d he said. \u201cHe has never covered big books of mares, but he has had good quality books of mares. He has got a good chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has had quite a few placegetters lately that have been a bit unlucky so hopefully they turn into winners now.\u201d<\/p>\n

That next win could come at Ellerslie on New Year\u2019s Day where his promising daughter Fly Zenno will line-up in the Gr.2 Sir Patrick Hogan Stakes (2000m).<\/p>\n

Bred by Stewart and his wife Karen, Fly Zenno was offered through White Robe Lodge\u2019s 2024 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 2 Yearling Sale draft where she was purchased by Conor and Sarah Fahy, under their Kawa Park banner, for $30,000.<\/p>\n

She showed promise when runner-up over a mile at Ellerslie earlier this month and Stewart said she will be ideally suited to the step-up to 2000m on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is bred to get a trip. She is from a lovely family,\u201d Stewart said of the half-sister to stakes winner New York Minute.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know they have always thought that she could be an Oaks type of filly, so it would be good to head that way. 2000m should suit her really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

White Robe Lodge will head to Karaka next month with two yearlings in New Zealand Bloodstock\u2019s Book 2 Sale, including 579, an Ancient Spirit colt out of stakes winner Ortem Fire, a half-sister to Group Three winner Inferno, the dam of Smokin\u2019 Romans. \u2013 LOVERACING.NZ News Desk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last Friday was a bittersweet day for White Robe Lodge. The Otago stud farm lost their Group One-producing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-209176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}