The greatest recognition of the New Zealand thoroughbred in 2010 probably came from an Irish chequebook.Coolmore Stud in November reportedly parted with $30 million for a controlling share in champion New Zealand-bred galloper So You Think - making his estimated total value $60 million - after a stellar Melbourne spring campaign.It's believed to be the highest amount paid for an Australasian thoroughbred, spent with a future racing and breeding campaign in mind for the Cambridge-bred four-year-o
The greatest recognition of the New Zealand thoroughbred in 2010 probably came from an Irish chequebook.
Coolmore Stud in November reportedly parted with $30 million for a controlling share in champion New Zealand-bred galloper So You Think - making his estimated total value $60 million - after a stellar Melbourne spring campaign.
It's believed to be the highest amount paid for an Australasian thoroughbred, spent with a future racing and breeding campaign in mind for the Cambridge-bred four-year-old stallion.
Already a star after winning the Cox Plate in 2009 as a three-year-old at his fifth start, the $110,000 yearling purchase reeled off five consecutive wins in Melbourne in spring, including a second Cox Plate, before running third to French raider Americain in the Melbourne Cup. He will race in Europe next year.
As So You Think's value was reaching stratospheric levels, stakes at all levels in New Zealand were on the way down as the recession bit.
The country's former flagship race, the Kelt Stakes, fell from $2 million two years ago to $250,000 this year when it was called the Kit Ormond Memorial Spring Classic.
The government funding match which saw some other races reach $1 million lapses at the end of this season. At the bottom end, stakes plummeted as low as $5000.
At year's end, racing clubs were hit by the news that a downturn in tote turnover meant that the board's distribution of funding for the season would be cut by between $5 million and $6 million.
Division continued over the One Racing concept, which aimed to consolidate administration of the thoroughbred, harness and greyhound codes with the New Zealand Racing Board.
Harness and greyhound racing opposed it, thinking it was a power grab by the thoroughbred code. Racing Minister John Carter shelved the concept in June.
Carter took a strong line against the industry's heavy reliance on poker machine money for stakemoney and sponsorship, saying this had to stop or legislation would be looked at.
After a survey undertaken by the racing board showed only 16 per cent of the population had a positive opinion about racing and betting, board chairman Michael Stiassny ordered racing clubs to undergo an independent audit, with the threat of betting licences being withheld if the audit results didn't stand up.
In May, the Avondale Jockey Club decided to suspend racing for a year because of financial problems.
Thoroughbred breeders lost access at home to the most exciting stallion since Zabeel - So You Think's sire, the Coolmore-owned shuttle stallion High Chaparral.
In addition to So You Think's triumphs, three more of his progeny from his first crop conceived at Windsor Park in Cambridge - Shoot Out, Descarado and Monaco Consul - produced the trifecta in the AJC Australian Derby in April.
Descarado and Monaco Consul, the 2009 Victoria Derby winner, then finished first and third in the Caulfield Cup, the week before So You Think's second Cox Plate.
High Chaparral's success inevitably saw Coolmore Stud decide to shuttle him to their own Australian stud, still close enough for New Zealanders who wanted - and could afford - his services.
In addition, those breeders selling his 2009 and 2010 foals are sure to do well at yearling sales next year and 2012.
Sandwiched between Descarado and Monaco Consul at Caulfield was Harris Tweed, one of the team providing a stellar spring to trainers Murray and Bjorn Baker.
Harris Tweed subsequently ran fifth in the Melbourne Cup, three days after Lion Tamer convincingly won the Victoria Derby.
At home the Bakers unearthed We Can Say It Now, who looked a potential superstar as she ran away with the Levin Turf Classic and the Captain Cook Stakes.
Those wins followed a very unlucky run in the One Thousand Guineas behind King's Rose, who franked the form with an easy victory in the Eulogy Stakes.
King's Rose's trainer Jason Bridgman took over at Te Akau racing stables this year after Mark Walker departed to head Te Akau's new Singapore stable.
Walker had just taken out his fifth trainers' premiership with a record 108 wins.
It was a top year for Awapuni trainer Jeff Lynds, who had two of the best horses in the country. Vosne Romanee earned Horse of the Year accolades when he won the New Zealand Stakes (2000m), his third Group One of the 2009-10 season.
But by the end of 2010 he'd been superseded by stablemate Wall Street, who won four Group One races in 2010 - the most important being the Emirates Classic (1600m) on the final day of the Flemington Cup carnival.
Lynds completed a great calendar year with six Group One wins when Booming won the $200,000 Zabeel Classic on Boxing Day.