PANSPACIFICFLIGHT mare Arden’s Choice has taken her earnings past $200,000 during her winter campaign in Auckland.

The Group I winner rounded off her three-year-old season with an impressive win at Alexandra Park on 29 July. After seconds at her two previous starts, she was a hot favourite in the 2200-metre mobile event. Handled patiently by Zac Butcher, she came with a well-timed run to beat Mr Handleman by half a head in a time of 2:41.2.

Easily the best-performed of Panspacificflight’s New Zealand progeny, Arden’s Choice has now had five wins, nine seconds and three thirds in her 27 starts for stakes of $212,000.

You can watch Arden’s Choice’s latest win here

THIS TIME last year Wyndham trainer Brendon McLellan was cleaning up the heats of the inaugural Macca Lodge winter series at Addington with the Panspacificflight gelding Wick.

Well this time “Snow” has an even stronger grip on the series with three horses all but qualified and a fourth still in the running for the $11,000 final at the end of the month.

The McLellan-trained Vera’s Delight stormed into third in the first heat on 08 July and his runners Luciano and Pass The Speights finished first and third in the second heat on 15 July. The first three place-getters qualify for the final provided they start in two heats, so “Snow” is lining those three up, as well as Mr Handleman, in the third heat this Friday night.

Macca Lodge again has overall naming rights for the Trained South of the Waitaki races in Christchurch this season. The big event is the $20,000 Show Day race for C1 and C2 pacers.

FOOTNOTE: Brendon cleaned up the Macca Lodge final on 29 July with Mr Handleman finishing first, Luciano third and Vera’s Delight fourth.

ARDEN LODGE owner John Stiven has been in the harness racing game long enough to know that you have to celebrate the triumphs when they come along because the losses, like a shadowy companion, are always lurking. They can strike you down, like a blow to the back of the head, when you have no idea they’re coming.

Just a few months ago, on the second Tuesday in November, John and wife Judy were understandably ecstatic when a horse they bred, Arden Rooney, won the holy grail of harness racing in this part of the world, the New Zealand Trotting Cup. Apart from fulfilling every breeder’s dream, the win obviously boosted the value of the dam, Tosca Hanover, and her offspring.

And a week or two later the Walton Hanover mare produced a healthy Panspacificflight colt — the first colt she’d produced since Arden Rooney.

NZ Cup winner Arden Rooney’s little half-brother, by Panspacificflight, at one-month old

Then in February the first big blow. Maritime Arden, a half-sister to Arden Rooney, died from a stomach ailment in Canterbury while having a short spell from racing. The four-year-old Somebeachsomewhere mare had won three races for trainer Mark Jones and would have been a very valuable broodmare.

Then in late May her Panspacificflight half-brother was found dead in his loose box at Arden Lodge. He’d managed to strangle himself in a freak accident.

“As my son Scott said, there was more chance of winning Lotto than that happening,” John said. “But we’ve just got to take it on the chin and move on.”

The Stivens are doubly disappointed because the colt’s death denies his sire another possible stand-out performer from relatively small numbers. It was John who drew Macca Lodge’s Brent McIntyre’s attention to Panspacificflight as a sire prospect in the United States back in 2010. While they’ve had good fortune with Group I winner Arden’s Choice, they’ve also had bad luck with promising three-year-old First Class Arden dropping dead on the training track at Barry Purdon’s Clevedon stable this season.

On the bright side, the Stivens still own a Well Said half-sister to Arden Rooney, Articulate Arden, who qualified as a two-year-old this season for the All Stars Stable, and Tosca Hanover is in foal to Bettor’s Delight so the resultant foal will be a full brother or sister to the cup winner.

And the Stivens still have two other Panspacificflight weanling colts, Arden In Flight (out of the one-win mare Rockahula Arden) and Palio Arden (out of the the Presidential Ball mare Ruby Morn).

PANSPACIFICFLIGHT four-year-old gelding The Manipulator was good enough to be racing at the Jewels in Cambridge at Queen’s Birthday Weekend, but instead he was in a lowly $8000 C2-4 race at Ashburton.

Injury kept him away from the track for a year and he didn’t have any chance to qualify for the big day of of racing. He didn’t resume until premier day at Addington on 21 May when he went out a $1.30 favourite for co-trainer Natalie Rasmussen and won well, if narrowly, after sitting parked out for the last lap.

Stable driver Tim Williams was in the sulky for Sunday’s standing start race at Ashburton. The Manipulator, again a raging hot favourite, got away well and was never in real danger of defeat when he found the front. He ran his last half in 55.8, and last quarter in 26.6, to hold out the trailing horse, Smarter VC, by a neck.

FOOTNOTE: Sadly The Manipulator has been retired after breaking down again in the same knee that caused his problems last season. He had four wins from just eight starts.

PANSPACIFICFLIGHT made a big impression with his first two-year-old crop in the United States back in 2010 and six years later some of those horses are still winning. 

GD Airliner . . . the Panspacificflight eight-year-old has won 40 races and $US562,000 in stakes

GD Airliner is one such horse. Now an eight-year-old, he won for the third time this season when he took out the feature pace in 1:54.3 at Buffalo Raceway in New York on 28 May.

The durable gelding has had 40 wins and is one of Panspacificflight’s biggest earners with stakes of $US562,000. He has a best time of 1:50.

GD Airliner was from Panspacificflight’s stellar first crop that made the rookie stallion Indiana Sire Of The Year with only two-year-olds racing. Not surprisingly, he was the top stallion the following year, too, with two crops of racing age.

MACCA LODGE were in action at the PGG Wrightson Christchurch autumn sale, outlaying $8000 for an un-named Well Said weanling filly from the Smarty Pants family.

The filly, out of the Life Sign mare Imprint, is a half-sister to Opulent, who won the Group I Caduceus Club Classic as a two-year-old before being exported to Australia. Racing in West Australia as Am Opulent, she’s won a further 14 races.

Half-brother Idealindiamonds has won seven races from just 13 starts for David and Catherine Butt, who also owned Opulent and will get her back to breed from.

John Howe, of Christchurch, bought Imprint for $14,000 at the sale and Kaiapoi breeder Katie Carville paid $16,500 for another of her daughters, Idolise, a five-year-old American Ideal mare.

Imprint is a half-sister to Crackabella, The Fascinator and Giveitawhirlgirl, the dam of dual Group I winner Twist And Twirl, Feels Like Magic (now racing in the United States) and Bettor Give It (the winner of 15 races in Australia).

Well Said is a half-brother in blood to Net Ten EOM, the young Somebeachsomewhere sire represented in New Zealand by Macca Lodge.

PANSPACIFICFLIGHT four-year-old In Full Flight is now two from two from the Ohaupo stable of Jason and Megan Teaz after winning again at Alexandra Park on Friday night.

As a cast-off from the Dickie stable, In Full Flight drew a bit of harness racing media attention with his storming maiden win on 15 April, coming from last and running a sub-56 last half wide on the track.

But this time he showed gate speed to hold the trail before Megan challenged hard for the lead around the bottom bend the final time. In Full Flight was headed in the straight but fought back to win by a head in 2:43.7 for the mobile 2200 metres.

Watch In Full Flight’s second win here

This was a penalty-free win in a junior drivers race so In Full Flight should be hard to beat the next time he lines up.

MACCA LODGE product Bonnie’s Khaleesi will do her winter racing from the Auckland stable of Tony Herlihy at Ardmore.

Bonnie’s Khaleesi after her first win at Invercargill in February 2015.

The Live Or Die four-year-old mare has won three races for Tony Stratford in Southland and has looked close to winning form with fourths in her two starts this campaign.

Brent and Sheree McIntyre race Bonnie’s Khaleesi with Brent’s sister Jan Nelson and her husband Wally. She’s a daughter of the Camtastic mare Bonnie Lass who won 10 races for the two couples.

Since producing Bonnie’s Khaleesi, Bonnie Lass has left the qualified three-year-old Panspacificflight filly Iechyd Da; Tairlaw Toll, a Somebeachsomewhere yearling; and Maya Angelou, a Big Jim weanling.

FOOTNOTE: Have a look at our “Macca Milestones” page to see how Bonnie’s Khaleesi’s been doing.

WHEN BRENT MCINTYRE acquired the frozen semen rights to North American sire Panspacificflight a few years back, he knew he was getting a proven sire who would succeed at stud here. But he couldn’t have dreamt how successful his first crop would be.

For a start 20 of Panspacificflight’s first crop of 23 foals qualified (that’s just about all those who survived). Fifteen of them have gone on to success on the track with Bigandme belatedly adding to the record when he won as a six-year-old at Wyndham in March 2018.

By our count these 15 horses, now eight-year-olds, have won nearly 140 races between them. Wow!

Nearly all have now been exported and are still performing well in Australia and now back in the United States where the stallion was domiciled before his untimely death in 2018.

Panspacificflight was already a proven sire in the US before Macca Lodge started importing his frozen semen and he’s now left the winners of $US19 million in stakes there. But in May 2016 there was a Panspacificflight winner in New Jersey with a difference — he was bred in New Zealand.

Panspacificflight

Wick won five races and nearly $40,000 in stakes for Wyndham trainer Brendon McLellan before being exported. Now, racing as Wick N, he’s won 15 times in the US and took a mile rate of 1:51 at Harrah’s Philadelphia on 01 July 2018.

Across the Tasman, Glenisla has won 19 races, posting a best time of 1:54.8 when she downed the 2015 Southland Oaks winner Smokin Bird at Menangle in March 2016. She now races in South Australia.

BREEDER ALERT: Wick and Glenisla are both out of Holmes Hanover mares. From just seven surviving foals bred on that cross, Panspacificflight has also left Julia Lady (five wins), Ansett Flight (four) and Blarney Babe (two).

Little Rascal, owned by Ian Dobson of Christian Cullen fame, was a premier racing specialist at Alexandra Park (six wins) and Addington (two wins), earning $120,000 before he was exported to Australia in April 2017. He has quickly made his mark there with five wins at Menangle and a best time of 1:51.8 when he beat My Field Marshall in a Group III race in September 2017.

BREEDER ALERT: Little Rascal and Southern Pursuit, who won four races from the Clark Barron stable before being exported to the US, are both out of Live Or Die mares.  They’re the only two progeny bred on that cross from Panspacificflight’s first two crops here. Broodmare Romola Hanover features in the pedigree of both Panspacificflight and Live Or Die.

Probably the most remarkable story from the first crop surrounds Panspacificflight’s first New Zealand winner, The Manipulator. Sold at the yearling sales to Auckland trainer Tony Herlihy, he had issues and ended up back where he started — at Macca Lodge. There he responded well to horse chiropractor Tommy Behrns and won on debut in the spring of 2014. Such was his promise that he was sent to the All Stars stable in Canterbury where he won once more before breaking down. He came back in 2016 to win two more races before he broke down again. That looked like the end of his racing career but after roaming around on a riverbank on breeder Neil Timms’s property he went back into work at Macca Lodge. The Manipulator had been going fair races until he put in a winning front-running performance at Gore in August 2018 and has since notched another win, his sixth, at Winton in September.

BREEDER ALERT: The Manipulator is out of the Presidential Ball mare Luckisaladytonight. Panspacificflight has clicked extraordinarily well with PB mares in the US, where the 10 foals bred on that cross have won an average of $US96,000 and four have gone 1:55, including big winner Paco Labrook (1:48.4).

The multiple winners from the first crop include Little Rascal (19 wins), US winner Wick (20), Southern Pursuit (11), The Manipulator (six) and Arden’s Concord (11). Panspacificflight isn’t available in Australia and his good winners there, like Glenisla (19 wins) Last Flight In (13), Sir Mac’s Man (eight), Straight Thru Blue (nine) and Wattlebank Flyer (20) have all been bred here.

Here’s the winning crop of 2011:

Arden’s Concord (Madam Maroussia, by Artiscape). Six wins here and five in Australia (1:55.7, S)
Bigandme (Alta Biannca, by Presidential Ball). Two wins
Dakota Fred (Happy Bromac, by Falcon Seelster)
First Flight In (Sharjanter, by Christian Cullen)
Glenisla (Touche Franco, by Holmes Hanover). Nineteen wins in Australia (1:54.8)
In Full Flight (Scherger Rain, by Sir Vancelot). Two wins (1:59.7, S)
Last Flight In (Orse M Denario, by Washington VC). One win here and 12 in Australia (1:53.1)
Little Rascal (Evita Franco, by Live Or Die). Eight wins here and 11 in Australia (1:51.8)
(Sir) Mac’s Man (Galleons Testimony, by Elsu). Eight wins in Australia (1:56.8, S)
Schwartz Denario (Ergo Denario, by Bettor’s Delight). Two wins
Southern Pursuit (Relentless Storm, by Live or Die). Four wins here and seven in the U.S.(1:51.2).
Straight Thru Blue (New York Franco, by Badlands Hanover). Nine wins in West and South Australia (1:56.4,S)
The Manipulator (Luckisaladytonight, by Presidential Ball). Six wins (1:59.7,D)
Wattlebank Flyer (Careful Seznicki, by Courage Under Fire). One win here and 19 in Australia (1:55.2,S)
Wick (On The Double, by Holmes Hanover). Five wins here and 15 in the United States (1:51)

THE TIME-HONOURED New Zealand Oaks at Addington this weekend is the next target for Panspacificflight filly Arden’s Choice, who finished a creditable fourth in the Group I Nevele R Fillies Final on the same track on Saturday.

As expected, the All Stars Stable dominated the three-year-old fillies’ feature with Dream About Me winning from Golden Goddess and Piccadilly Princess in the national record time of 2:18.1 for the 1950 metres.

Arden’s Choice was drawn perfectly behind the hot favourite Golden Goddess, who used her gate speed to lead early before handing up to Dream About Me. That pushed Arden’s Choice back to three back on the fence and she lost little ground on the hotpots in a last 800 metres run in 55.9 with a final quarter in 26.6.