Rich Hill Stud has enjoyed a lengthy and successful association with an Ellerslie feature, with the 2025 edition one of extra special significance for the Waikato nursery.
The farm has sponsored the G2 Rich Hill Mile for the last 19 years and Wednesday saw the stud’s stallion roster dominant when making a winning impact across Ellerslie’s black-type card.
The prestigious New Year’s Day Rich Hill Mile prize was claimed by the Stephen Marsh-trained Bourbon Empress, a daughter of champion resident sire Proisir.
The gifted four-year-old overcame a wide barrier in style to post the fourth win of her 10-start career, she now moves to second favourite for the million dollar Listed Aotearoa Classic later this month.
“It capped off a great day for the farm with not only Proisir siring the winner, but also Satono Aladdin and Vadamos were to the fore with stakes winners,” Rich Hill’s John Thompson said.
Satono Aladdin’s precocious daughter Too Sweet was a dominant winner of the G2 Eclipse Stakes while Vadamos filly Real Class lived up to her name with victory in the G2 Sir Patrick Hogan Stakes.
Prepared by Roydon Bergerson, Too Sweet led all the way to advance her record to a brace of wins and a runner-up finish from three appearances and to head the market at $4 for the Listed Karaka Millions 2YO Classic.
Jenna Mahoney’s Real Class is also lightly tried with two successes from her four outings and is a joint $10 second favourite for the G1 New Zealand Oaks at Trentham in March.
Champion sire Proisir has eight yearlings catalogued for next week’s 2025 Gold Coast Yearling Sale, with six to represent Champion New Zealand 2YO Sire Satono Aladdin.
Rich Hill Release
