By the champion Snitzel out of a Zabeel mare, the pedigree of the undefeated filly Macroura represents the heights of fashion, yet she descends from a mare purchased for $100 to be a polo pony and was in foal to a Palomino stallion, but ended up with a Broodmare Of The Year title due in no small part to a horse that was beloved on both sides of the Tasman.
The mare was Wuthering Heights, a daughter of the Court Martial stallion Avocat General (IRE), and the buyer outlaying the $100 was Tim Douglas.
In the mid-1960s Douglas’s friend Bill Brown was establishing his Ancroft Stud at Matamata and approached Douglas to see if would be interested in sending Wuthering Heights on a foal sharing arrangement to his newly acquired stallion Battle Waggon, a moderately performed son of English Derby winner Never Say Die from English Oaks winner Carrozza.
Douglas agreed and he took a liking to the colt foal, which was owned by Brown.
However, Brown did not share his friends high regard of the foal.
Luckily for Douglas, Brown consigned the colt to a weanling sale and for the grand sum of $260 Douglas took him home and was to train him.
He was named Battle Heights and for his first five years of his life may have been regraded, at best, as a talented handicapper.
He blossomed at six and from 1974 to 1977 there were few around and none were tougher.
When he broke down at the age of ten in the 1977 Mackinnon Stakes his name had been etched on the Sydney Cup, Wellington Cup, AJC Metropolitan, Queen Elizabeth Stakes, WS Cox Plate, and New Zealand International Stakes (twice).
When he won the AJC Craven Plate he erased Gunsynd’s record as the highest earner and he retired with 23 wins, 14 seconds and 15 thirds from 115 starts with earnings of almost $400,000.
There was great concern from the racing public when Battle Heights fractured his near front sesamoid when being eased down at the finish of the Mackinnon.
However, he went on to live a long and happy life, outliving his owner/trainer by a few months, when he finally laid down and could not get back up at the age of 31.
Somewhat to the dismay of Tim Douglas, Wuthering Heights produced filly after filly however her daughters have certainly made an impact on the breed.
Battle Heights sister Claudine is the dam of the Group 1 South Australia Derby winner Mapperley Heights and the Group 1 NZ Oaks heroine Royal Heights
Another daughter Gold Heights produced the Group 1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas winner Noble Heights, while yet another daughter of Wuthering Heights, Mountain Heights, is the great-granddam of the Melbourne Cup and Caulfield Cup winner Viewed.
It was said that on the farm of Tim Douglas there were plenty of unbroken granddaughters of Wuthering Heights, which included a mare by Philoctetes (GB) named Garden Heights.
Philoctetes (GB) was a son of Never Say Die out of a half-sister to the great Victorian based stallion Orgoglio.
For a long time, Garden Heights looked like letting the family down. She left nothing of note on the track but one of her daughters Gallant Heights produced the outstanding Allegro (Red Tempo) whose nine wins included three Group 1s, the Waikato Draught Sprint, WRC Captain Cook Stakes and Otaki Maori RC WFA Stakes.
Another daughter of Garden Heights, Madison Square is the dam of the Group II VRC Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner and Group 1 ATC Sydney Cup runner-up Hear That Bell (Ring That Bell) as well as the unraced Morcon filly Madison Avenue who would earn fame as the dam of the 2009-10 NZ Horse Of The Year Vosne Romanee (Electronic Zone).
Vosne Romanee could not make his modest $15,000 reserve at the NZB Select Yearling Sale in 2004.
Nine Year’s later Hong Kong’s Apollo Ng went to $90,000 to secure Cambridge Stud’s Zabeel half-sister to Vosne Romanee.
Named Zenaida she won a maiden at Gosford and placed at Canterbury and Wyong in seven starts however her worth was in the broodmare paddocks of Aquis Farm.
Her first foal is Macroura who puts her unbeaten record on the line in Saturday’s JJ Atkins Stakes (1400m) at Eagle Farm, the final Group 1 race of the season for two-year-olds.
The winner of an 1100 metre maiden on a heavy track at Kembla Grange on April 7, the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace trained filly then went to Randwick on May 2 where she narrowly edged out one of her opponents on Saturday, Wild Ruler, over 1000 metres.
Macroura became the 102nd stakes-winner for Snitzel with an impressive score in the Listed Woodlands Stakes (1100m), which was held this year at Rosehill on May 16. She looks to be among the many that will benefit by the reduction in distance of the JJ Atkins from 1600m to 1400 metres this year.
Ampulla Lodge offered an Exceed And Excel colt out of Zenaida at this year’s Easter Yearling Sale who was a $380,000 purchase for J Huynh.
Zenaida has a weanling filly by Snitzel’s Group I winning son Invader, but missed to that stallion last spring.
Snitzel is enjoying another great season and looks a lock for both the general sires and two year old sires titles on earnings.
