{"id":390924,"date":"2026-04-21T19:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T19:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/390924\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T19:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T19:56:12","slug":"golden-family-delivering-for-waikato-stud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/390924\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden Family Delivering for Waikato Stud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>O\u2019Reilly mare Gram may only be 10 years old, but she is already proving to be a powerhouse producer for Waikato Stud.<\/p>\n<p>From her first three foals she has left Gr.1 Australian Derby (2400m) hero Major Beel, Australian placegetter Rose Gold, and Solid Gold, who carried owner-breeder Waikato Stud\u2019s familiar silks to victory in last Saturday\u2019s Gr.3 Championship Stakes (2100m) at Ellerslie.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Solid Gold (inside) winning the Gr.3 Championship Stakes (2100m) at Ellerslie last Saturday. Photo: Kenton Wright (Race Images)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/breednet-images-solid-gold-g3-30594.jpg\" style=\"width: 600px; height: 352px;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The daughter of Savabeel has shown plenty of ability to date for trainers Roger James and Robert Wellwood, and after overcoming a few early issues, she broke through for her maiden win at Ellerslie earlier this month and was subsequently backed into favoritism for last weekend\u2019s three-year-old feature.<\/p>\n<p>She duly delivered and Waikato Stud principal Mark Chittick was rapt to attain black-type with Solid Gold so early in her career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey (James and Wellwood) have always held her in high regard, so it is nice seeing that come to fruition,\u201d Chittick said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe had a bit of a setback earlier on where we had to take a chip out of her fetlock, so it is nice to have got a Group win to her name while she is still a three-year-old.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Solid Gold may now press on to the Queensland Winter Carnival where the Gr.1 Queensland Oaks (2200m) is on the cards, but regardless of whether the trip comes to fruition or not, Chittick is excited about the future with his filly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the confidence that they (trainers) have given us, it is only the start, hopefully now we will be able to continue on for a year or two,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Solid Gold\u2019s dam Gram also showed plenty of ability on the track as a younger horse, however, injury curtailed her racing career.<\/p>\n<p>A daughter of Group Two-winning mare Gold Rocks, Gram is a half-sister to Gr.2 Matamata Breeders\u2019 Stakes (1200m) winners Gold Fever (2017) and Gold Rush (2016), and Chittick was keen to continue the siblings\u2019 sequence in the race.<\/p>\n<p>Gram showed similar ability to her half-sisters and was entrusted to the care of trainers Stephen Autridge and Jamie Richards with the juvenile feature in mind, but fate had other ideas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have always wanted to win the Matamata Breeders\u2019 Stakes, so we did all the nice early stuff with her and she went to Te Akau when Jamie and Stephen were there,\u201d Chittick said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately one weekend when she was out in the paddock she overreached and damaged her tendon and we did all sorts to try and get her back to racing but that wasn\u2019t to be, so we sent her to Savabeel and took that colt (Major Beel) to the Gold Coast Sale where Gai Waterhouse bought him and he won the AJC Derby, and this filly follows on from him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Gram failed to make it to the racetrack, her family has continued their love affair with the Matamata Breeders\u2019 Stakes, with Gold Fever\u2019s daughter La Dorada winning last year\u2019s edition prior to her victory in the Gr.1 Manawatu Sires\u2019 Produce Stakes (1400m).<\/p>\n<p>With two Group winners from her first three foals, Gram has already left her mark as a broodmare, and Chittick is hoping her golden run can continue, with her two-year-old full-sister to Solid Gold and Major Beel showing early promise for trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, who purchased her at last year\u2019s Magic Millions\u2019 Gold Coast Yearling Sale for A$325,000.<\/p>\n<p>Gram is currently in-foal to Waikato Stud\u2019s former resident stallion Super Seth, who was recently sold to global thoroughbred giant Coolmore. \u2013 LOVERACING.NZ News Desk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"O\u2019Reilly mare Gram may only be 10 years old, but she is already proving to be a powerhouse&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-390924","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\/390924","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=390924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}