A champion colt that competes at the top of his game for three seasons winning G1 races at two, three and four acquires a legion of fans along the way, so this week we are paying tribute to Anamoe, ahead of his first yearlings being sold next week at Magic Millions.
The story of Anamoe, his dam Anamato and grand dam Voltage is one iconic chapter in the ever- blossoming tale of the famous “Belle” family of NZ.
This beloved tribe is a branch of the breedshaping line from the imported mare Manto (family 18) which was nurtured to fame and fortune by renowned Kiwi breeders Jim and Annie Sarten in a long association with Haunui Farm - one which continues to this day with their daughter Marie Leicester.
The Sartens were gifted a thoroughbred mare they had provided grazing for on their Taranaki farm, during the dark days of WWII.
Her name was Belle Star and she was by the very good imported German stallion Lucullus. The Sartens mated her to Foxbridge - the great sire then in the infancy of his towering stud career - and got the good sprinting filly Belle Fox.
Belle Fox was a difficult breeder, stubbornly failing to conceive and finally producing a cripple for a first foal. She would have been cast off by most breeders then and now, but the Sartens persisted - and finally in her sixth season Belle Fox rewarded them with a colt by Fair's Fair.
Named Supreme Court he would win 16 races including the G1 Railway Hcp.
From these humble beginnings the family descending from Belle Fox grew into one of NZ's most respected and enduring sources of stakes winners, and champions!
More than 100 stakes winners and at least 24 G1 winners descend directly from Belle Fox.
Belle Fox produced just five foals and Belle Rosa (Instinct) founded a successful branch through her champion daughter Star Belle, a NZ Ellerslie Triple Crown winner who crossed the Tasman and won the Liston, Craiglee and Turnbull Stakes.
Star Belle’s half sister Phar Belle (Pharamond) became the third dam of the freakish and ill fated Golden Slipper Stakes / Newmarket Handicap winner Belle Du Jour (Dehere).
Another daughter of Belle Fox was Belle Time (Summertime) and hers is the prolific branch from which Anamoe descends.
G1 winners Asgard and Honey Belle were foaled by Belle Time and from her descend luminaries such as 2YO Triple Crown winner Dance Hero, NZ HOTY Melody Belle, NZ Filly Of The Year Tri Belle, champion and 7 x G1 winner Grand Armee and G1 mare Winning Belle (dam of G1 winner Plucky Belle) as well as Anamoe’s G1 winning dam Anamato.
Grand Armee’s dam Tambour, multiple stakes producer Eldarin, Volte ( dam of G1 Rosehill Guineas winner Dealer Principal ) and their G1 Oakleigh Plate winning full brother Drum were all sired by Sir Tristram’s Golden Slipper winner Marauding and were half siblings to Anamato as was the Listed winner Port Watch (Star Watch).
Another half sister Volted In by Rory's Jester never won a race but became the grand dam of NZ dual G1 winner Yourdeel (Dundeel).
This illustrious collection of thoroughbreds were all foaled by three times Listed placed Voltage, a daughter of the great American-bred sire Whiskey Road. How well named she was, for at stud this good but far from great race mare was able to fully express all the genetic electricity contained in her high powered pedigree.
The Australasian Blue Hen was bred by Newhaven Park and born in 1984.
Her US-bred sire Whiskey Road raced just four times and was a stakes winner in Ireland. The beautifully bred son of the immortal Triple Crown winner Nijinsky was produced from US Hall Of Fame racemare Bowl Of Flowers, herself a daughter of Blue Hen Flower Bowl - the dam of the great sires and full brothers Graustark and His Majesty by Ribot.
In giving birth to His Majesty this great mare sadly lost her life, but thank goodness her little colt survived because he would change the breed forever as the damsire of Danehill!
There's a great story attached to the importation into Australia of Whiskey Road that just makes you smile.
In the mid 70's retired Olympic rider and hobby race horse trainer Mr Neale Lavis OAM was dabbling in breeding a few.
Mr Lavis had been a member of the four man Australian equestrian team that made history by winning gold in the three day eventing team event at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games. He also took out silver in the individual competition.
Aged 30 at the time, Neale was the youngest of the Rome Olympic team, riding his great horse 'Mirrabooka.'
One day at the Lavis homestead in Braidwood the phone rang and on the line was friend Bridget Woodford Smith of Huntworth Stud. She had just received a call from an acquaintance who was a bloodstock agent in Ireland. He had a stallion to sell that he believed was a massive bargain. It was, of course, Whiskey Road.
Bridget and Neale quickly formed a syndicate and the son of Nijinsky II was soon headed to Oz, having been purchased for $20,000.
In his first season at stud, Bridget sent two mares to the Braidwood property. One was for Whiskey Road, the other was for the second stallion on the place Kid Wilkes, who stood on a lowly fee.
Oops. Neale had a moment, got them mixed up and served the wrong mare with Whiskey Road.
But no worries, all was forgiven because the resulting foal was the 1981 Melbourne Cup winner Just A Dash!
Whiskey Road went on to a fantastic stud career, siring 24 stakeswinners - his greatest of course the AJC / QLD Derby / Cox Plate winner and international champion Strawberry Road - and became a broodmare sire of enduring influence.
The grand old stallion has a big part to play in Anamoe’s stud career so that influence will be going strong for many years yet.
The freakish Strawberry Road was bred from a mare descending from Manto's daughter Flora McIvor, also the ancestress of Anamoe.
Back to Voltage - she boasted as her first five damsires Sovereign Edition, Hermes, Summertime, Foxbridge and Lucullus - a collection of genes exemplifying everything the NZ Thoroughbred's peerless reputation was built on.
The mating of Voltage to Redoute's Choice brought together the brothers His Majesty and Graustark supported by a 4f x 3m duplication of Nijinsky and added the turbocharged affinity of the Best In Show damline, with its sex balancing line of the Alibhai sonTraffic Judge (he being the sire of Flower Bowl)
The mighty Canny Lad contributed his own gifts not least being a line to the beautifully bred Beau Pere son Beau Cheval out of the legendary Kiwi racemare Cuddle.
Beau Pere (twice NZ Champion sire) threw Flower Bowl's dam Flower Bed during his later years at stud in the USA.
( Notably Beau Pere also appears on the tail female line of the number one nick for Street Boss, Exceed And Excel)
The filly by Redoute's Choice named Anamato was the result of her dam's only visit to the legendary Arrowfield stallion. She was raced by her breeders Royce and Julie Ritchie with David Hayes.
Always a strikingly attractive filly, Anamato won the G1 Schweppes Oaks in Adelaide and was also placed in a trio of other elite races, including the G1 VRC Oaks and the G1 American Oaks at Hollywood Park.
She did us proud - Anamato was trying to become the first Australian horse to win a major race in North America since Phar Lap in 1932!
It was a classy performance and it gave international currency to her already impressive pedigree page.
The jetsetting Anamato was an obvious candidate for purchase by Godolphin as they sought to establish and expand their Australian racing and breeding empire.
The global giant already owned her half sister Eldarin (Marauding) and secured Anamato via a substantial private deal. The mare was then sent to Kentucky to be covered by Darley’s hot young sire Street Cry.
That mating was unsuccessful and Anamato was sent to Europe where she met up with another Darley star on a meteoric rise - Dubawi.
Her first foal was a 2011 colt by him named Baha, who raced once
A Dubawi filly followed. Named Adoringly she was unraced but is the dam of two stakes placed horses and her 2023 Frankel filly Fondness was born in Australia. She has a 2025 colt by Street Boss on the ground.
Anamato's 2013 foal was Anamba by Shamardal, a Listed winner in GB who is now a producer.
In 2014 another filly arrived by Darley's great son of Galileo, New Approach.
Named Amuletum she is the dam of the outstanding filly Tiz Invincible ( I Am Invincible) who swept to victory in the G2 ATC and Furious Stakes, and her full brother the promising Navy Pilot.
Ciaron Maher and partners had paid $550,000 for Tiz Invincible as a yearling at the 2022 Inglis Easter Sale from the Segenhoe draft.
Upon her retirement the partners offered the mare at the Inglis Chairman's 2025, and she was snapped up by Tom Magnier for $2.8 million.
Amuletum produced a 2021 colt to Pierata who was a $200,000 MM Gold Coast buy for Justin Fung/Aquis Stallions, before Navy Pilot arrived in 2022.
Amuletum was in foal to Kingman when she arrived in Australia and the resulting filly Royal Mule was a winner before commencing her stud career for Godolphin. She has a 2025 filly by Exceedance.
Amuletum herself foaled a full sister to Tiz Invincible and Navy Pilot in 2024, and then produced one of the last valuable colts by the recently deceased supersire Wootton Bassett.
Anamato was finally returned home to Australia in 2014, where her mate for the next three seasons would be the great Lonhro.
Her 2015 filly sadly died, but next came two more daughters; Amitto a three time winner, and Outline, who placed at two.
Both mares naturally went to the Street Boss harem - Amitto's first foal, a colt named Liberate, sadly died young. She has a 2024 foaled full brother on the ground.
Outline has been covered four times by Street Boss for one foal - a 2024 colt. Her 2021 covering was by Bivouac and her colt by him named Summary is unraced.
It will be interesting to see if the magic genetic wand has waved again with those young colts coming through!
In 2017, the well travelled Anamato was sent down to Northwood Park in Victoria for her fateful date with Street Boss.
That's where a spark was created that would further ignite the Street Cry dynasty in Australia, which already had breeders in a fever of excitement thanks to the deeds of Winx!
The great mare had won three of her four Cox Plates when Anamato went to Street Boss. Now another champion was soon to rise.
Anamato produced three more foals before her retirement from breeding last year. They were the 5 times winner Dartboard (Shooting To Win), daughter Blue Willow (Blue Point) who shows promise, and fittingly her final foal was a full brother to her masterpiece, Anamoe. This time she met the stallion at Darley Kelvinside, where he had been relocated / promoted, primarily due to the exploits of her famous son.
Named Anagram, the 2023 foaled little brother is yet to race.
What an amazing life and career the beautiful daughter of Redoute's Choice has enjoyed. Godolphin never lost faith in her and the reward when it came was truly a pot of gold!
There is so much more to look forward to with the superbly bred young horses coming online through her daughters, and Anamoe’s stud career cleared for lift off!
