Horlicks (NZ)
Horlicks (NZ) - 1989 Japan Cup winner
Japan Cup heroine
4:04 PM Thursday Jan 28, 2010
Horlicks is forever linked with the world record time she set for the 1989 Japan Cup, a scarcely believable 2:22.2. It remains one of the most significant international victories by a New Zealand-bred horse.
Never headed when leading a field, Horlicks won six Group One races, in three countries, from 2000 to 2400 metres, meeting and beating the best of her generation.
...this intelligent, wonderful mare who always rises to the occasion
Her story began when Hawke’s Bay breeder Graham de Gruchy took out a bank loan to buy a yearling filly he named Malt. Beautifully bred, she never raced, but produced a rangy, athletic grey filly to Okawa Stud’s Three Legs that Graham sent to champion trainers Dave & Paul O’Sullivan.
They weren’t too impressed with the lazy trackworker, until she won four of her eight starts at three, and gradually revealed an indomitable will to win and the ability to maintain a ferocious pace over middle distances.
At four Horlicks defeated the mighty Bonecrusher in her first Group One win, the ARC New Zealand Stakes at Ellerslie. At five she claimed New Zealand’s first million-dollar race and was the unluckiest of seconds in the MVRC Cox Plate, but it was as a six-year-old that she struck her very best form. Track record-setting wins in the VRC MacKinnon Stakes at Flemington and the second New Zealand million-dollar race bracketed the Japan Cup.
Horlicks was retired from racing in October 1990 and began an outstanding second career at stud, leaving 2000 Melbourne Cup winner Brew, high-class Group Two-winning filly Bubble, and the dams of Fiumicino (AJC Australian Derby G1) and multiple Group winner Tusker.
HORLICKS (NZ) 1983 grey mare
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| BREEDING |
Three Legs (GB)-Malt (NZ) by Moss Trooper |
| RECORD |
40 starts from 3 to 7: 17 wins from 1200m to 2400m, 12 placings
$NZ3,411,682, $A625,000 |
| BREEDER |
Graham de Gruchy, Hawke's Bay |
| OWNER |
Graham de Gruchy, Hawke's Bay
|
| TRAINERS |
David & Paul O'Sullivan, Matamata |
| REGULAR JOCKEY |
Lance O'Sullivan
|
GROUP ONE WINS
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Japan Cup Jpn-1, VRC MacKinnon S. G1, ARC New Zealand S. G1 – twice, ARC DB Draught Classic G1 - twice
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