Matings Mix: Sword Of State earns second date with Warwoven's dam

Cover image courtesy of Kia Ora Stud

The pastures of Kia Ora Stud produced a third individual 2026 Group 1 winner on Saturday when 3-year-old colt Warwoven (Sword Of State) pulled off a domineering victory in the G1 Golden Rose Stakes.

Now the winner of five starts from eight, including three highly valuable Group wins, Warwoven provides further evidence to the planning that the Kia Ora Stud team puts into their matings. In a piece of respectful foresight, his dam - Kiwi Group 2 winner Needle And Thread (Makfi {GB}) - had already crossed the Tasman to replicate the mating.

“It was a very easy mating for the mare, even before Saturday,” said Kia Ora’s General Manager Shane Wright. Needle And Thread, who missed to Farnan last year after producing a colt and a filly by the sire, had booked her New Zealand plane ticket and choosen her seat after her first foal struck in the G3 Pago Pago Stakes in the autumn.

Normally, you would send a mare to a proven sire to kick her off, but Kia Ora had reasons to be faithful in Sword Of State's abilities, having been part of the New Zealand Champion 2YO's racing ownership - as they are with Warwoven. That faith was repaid first in the sales ring, with a $380,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale result, and then again on the track.

“We are very good friends with Cambridge Stud,” Wright said. “We have shares in Sword Of State and they have shares in Farnan as well. It’s a relationship that we are more than happy to keep building on.”

A Group 1 winner - who likely heads on a G1 Caulfield Guineas path next - is perhaps the ultimate relationship builder between two breeding operations, and a mark of the value Kia Ora places into an outside stallion, particularly with what they have access to at home.

The best chance for Tropicus

The lion’s share of the stud’s bluechip broodmare band will have far less distance to travel than Needle And Thread. G1 Golden Slipper Stakes winner and successful young sire Farnan, who stands round the corner at Vinery Stud after the two farms merged their rosters this year, and Kia Ora’s homegrown G1 Oakleigh Plate winner Tropicus, who has entered stud this spring, are the main benefactors.

“With the consolidation of Kia Ora and Vinery Stud, Farnan and Tropicus are going to be unbelievably well supported,” said Wright - and the emphasis in particular will be on the latter as he covers his first book of mares this spring.

The homebred Group 1-winning son of Too Darn Hot (GB) will cover a number of the farm’s best performing and best producing mares, including More Than Real (USA) (More Than Ready {USA}), Ektifaa (More Than Ready {USA}), and Jennifer Eccles (NZ) (Rip Van Winkle {Ire}).

“It’s hard to find a better page in the studbook than what More Than Real has,” Wright said. “Obviously she’s the grandam of a Golden Slipper winner, her full sister produced a Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner and is the grandam of an Oaks winner. It’s such a solid pedigree and is always updating.”

Always A Runner (USA) (Gun Runner {USA}) became the latest top flight edition when winning the G1 Kentucky Oaks earlier this year, and with More Than Real’s daughters and granddaughters producing offspring by stallions like Extreme Choice, Too Darn Hot (GB), Zoustar, and Home Affairs, it can be expected that the pedigree’s progress is far from over.

G1 New Zealand Oaks winner Jennifer Eccles produced juvenile Group 2 performer Farnicle (Farnan) with her first foal, and her second, Fovea (Farnan), made a two and a half-length statement on debut at Kembla Grange earlier in September.

“This mare is doing so well in her early career,” said Wright. “She was probably a little bit of a left field purchase, being an Oaks winner by Rip Van Winkle. But she was the darling of New Zealand and she's just such a beautiful mare.

“She has done well with Farnan - Farnicle is a horse who we know has a lot of ability, and there's still high hopes for him. We haven’t seen him at his full potential. Her second foal, Fovea, took a little while to come to hand, but her maiden win was super, super impressive. She will likely go to stakes company next time out, or in the near future at least.

“Then the third foal is a very, very nice I Am Invincible filly who sold at Easter last year to Dean Hawthorne for Jonathan Munz, so the mare is well stacked up to succeed.”

Dean Hawthorne (BAFNZ) signed the docket to the tune of $850,000 at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale this year.

“For a stallion like Tropicus to get a mare like that in his first year just shows the high regard we have him in,” Wright said.”If you look through his book, it's mares like that one after another.”

Dual South African Group winner Ektifaa is another example. The dam of stakes-performed Ikasara (I Am Invincible) is out of a half-sister to four stakes winners including New Zealand champion Calveen (NZ) (Canny Lad). Five of her sisters have produced stakes winners to date.

“She's an absolute queen of a mare physically,” said Wright. “She was bred by John Camilleri from one of his better families, and she has made a fantastic start. She can produce a good winner and I think she's very close to getting one of those top headline horses. She has a beautiful Extreme Choice filly heading to the sales next year. That’s indicative of the quality we are sending him.”

Consistency rewarded

Se Sauver (Bel Esprit), dam of dual Group winner Pembrey (Prague), and Modern Wonder (Snitzel), whose 2-year-old Fiji (I Am Invincible) won his heat at the first juvenile trials at Kensington a week ago, will also head to Tropicus.

“The I Am Invincible colt we sold at Magic Millions to Newgate and China Horse Club was very impressive in his trial,” Wright said. “The mare is a stakes-winning full sister to Away Game, and she has three runners for three winners so far.”

Modern Wonder’s son Innervisions (I Am Invincible) also placed in the Listed Blue Diamond Preview (colts & geldings) in his juvenile year. She sends a filly by Anamoe to the sales in 2027.

“Pembrey has been Se Sauver’s standout this year, winning the Magic Night and the Silver Shadow,” Wright said. “She looks like a proper filly and we still have very big aims for her this prep.”

But Se Sauver is no one-hit wonder. All nine of her foals are multiple winners and her 5-year-old Amplify (Microphone) picked up a third stakes placing on Saturday when narrowly second in the G3 Colin Stephen Quality at Rosehill.

“Amplify looks like she will win a stake as well, it's been very close in her last couple of starts,” Wright said. “The mare herself got out over a trip, winning the Edward Manifold, and she's a half to a Derby winner, so you can see why Amplify gets the distances she does. We feel there is Pembrey to stretch out further as she matures as well.”

Having produced two metropolitan winners by Tropicus’s damsire Exceed And Excel and a stakes performer by an Exceed And Excel son, it lends credence to a match with Tropicus.

“He will put that brilliant speed into the family, and he is just such a good-looking stallion as well,” Wright said. “He looks like he will be able to really upgrade any type of mare.”

Accessing the Farnan factor

For the newest members of the Kia Ora broodmare band, Farnan looms as the logical local option to start their careers off with.

The stud was active at both major broodmare sales this year, and they came home with seven new editions from the Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale. Two of the most exciting race fillies amongst their purchases are G2 Angus Armanasco Stakes winner Sassy Boom (Spirit Of Boom) and Listed Morphettville Guineas winner Gala Queen (Deep Field) - both bound for a date with Farnan.

“Sassy Boom is by Spirit Of Boom, who is a very good sire of 2-year-olds, a very desirable trait for a broodmare,” Wright said. “This mare is just an absolutely beautiful mare. Group 2 winners are very hard to come by in the sales ring and we thought we picked up her for a very reasonable price.”

The farm outlaid $575,000 for now 6-year-old Sassy Boom, who was offered by Widden Stud.

“We think she would be a very good match for Farnan physically as well, and he could really help set up her breeding career.”

Gala Queen was a $470,000 purchase from Yarraman Park Stud, who also were the vendors of Radiant Remi (Spirit Of Boom), a four-time winning daughter of Amelia’s Dream (Redoute’s Choice) in foal to Home Affairs. Kia Ora purchased the latter for $380,000.

“I personally think she is probably the best looking mare we bought this year,” Wright said of Gala Queen, whose seven-figure earning half-sister Semana (Winning Rupert) placed second in the G1 Coolmore Classic and the G1 Tattersall's Tiara. “She's just beautiful. I think the name ‘Queen’ says it all with her.

“We quite like Deep Field mares, I feel that there is very good blood going through the pedigree from Northern Meteor. This mare herself has a fabulous pedigree, being a half-sister to Semana and also to a very nice Farnan in Knightsbridge. He showed some class as a 2-year-old, but no doubt will come back as a better 3-year-old.

“It really seemed like a perfect match for her to go to Farnan - and she really is the most beautiful mare.”

The Redoute’s throughline

The farm also purchased O’Invincible (Snitzel), a winning daughter of G1 Winterbottom Stakes and G1 Moir Stakes winner Viddora (I Am Invincible), for $200,000 from Attunga Stud. O’Invincible is also a half-sister to G3 Up And Coming Stakes winner Grand Prairie (Written Tycoon), who is now trained in Hong Kong under the name Leading Advantage.

“Her mother was a very, very talented racemare, and bringing together I Am Invincible blood with Snitzel has been very successful,” Wright said. “We think that it makes her a ready-made broodmare on paper. She's perfectly made for Farnan physically - she is just a very nice mare with a very nice pedigree behind her that we bought with Farnan in mind.”

The cross exploits a double up of Redoute’s Choice that has already produced G1 William Reid Stakes winner Schwarz and last season’s G1 Champagne Stakes winner Fireball (Snitzel) amongst 23 stakes winners. Farnan’s G3 Adrian Knox Stakes winner and G1 Australian Oaks runner-up Profoundly is bred on the cross, as stakes performers Magill and Farcited.

Another mare bound for Farnan is $425,000 Heaven Forbid (USA) (Violence {USA}), offered by Baystone Farm, who was offered in foal to Toronado (Ire). A winning half-sister to Graded stakes winner Heavenly Curlin (USA) (Curlin {USA}), Heaven Forbid brings an international flavour to one of Australia’s strongest families with her second dam being Shantha’s Choice (Canny Lad) - of course, best known for her son Redoute’s Choice.

“She is another one for Farnan this year,” Wright said. “A lot of the Kia Ora broodmare band has gone to Farnan over the last few years and we have had some very good results from those matings. A lot of the very good producers now move on to Tropicus, and we were looking for fresh blood for Farnan. A mare like her is a great addition.”

Violence (USA), a son of Medaglia D'Oro (USA) who resides at Hill ‘N’ Dale Farms, has started his broodmare sire career with a healthy strike rate of 10% stakes horses to runners, led by dual Grade I-winning stallion Raging Torrent (USA).

Tactical outside choices

From just under 120 resident mares at Kia Ora, only about 20 will patronise outside stallions and the majority of those will be ones that Kia Ora also raced. Some will visit All Too Hard and Prost, a half-sister to recent Group 1-winning graduate My Gladiola (I Am Invincible) will patronise Return To Conquer.

Some will repeat the simple formula of what has worked before. The dam of G3 Breeders’ Plate runner-up I’m Ya Huckleberry (Home Affairs), Group-performed Key (Exceed And Excel) goes back to Home Affairs this year.

The granddaughter of New Zealand multiple champion Princess Coup (Encosta De Lago) delivered a colt by I Am Invincible last month - a full brother to her filly who sold for $1.2 million to Knine Inc and Rising Sun Syndicate at this year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

“I’m Ya Huckleberry is a colt with just so much upside to come,” Wright said. “He had a small setback last seaon, but we still think he's a very good colt in the making going forward.”

Of those going further afield, the stallions have to occupy a very specific echelon.

Ravi (Redoute’s Choice), the Group-winning dam of dual Group 3 winner Inkaruna (I Am Invincible), and multiple Graded winner and Group 1 performer Bubble Rock (USA) (More Than Ready {USA}) will visit Champion Sire Zoustar. G2 Sandown Guineas winner Serasana (Snitzel) delivered a Zoustar colt as her maiden foal this year, and instead visits multiple Champion Sire I Am Invincible alongside blueblood Group winner Written Beauty (Written Tycoon).

Group 3 winner and $1.8 million broodmare purchase Mumbai Muse (Zoustar), who recently delivered her first foal - a filly by I Am Invincible - will patronise a stallion who is a champion in every way without the formal title.

“Mumbai Muse will go to Extreme Choice,” Wright said. “She gets a crack at him this year.”

Table: 2026 mating plans for some of Kia Ora Stud's broodmares