If you can see a definitive pattern in the bloodlines of these bluebloods, feed the backs — but at least now we know where to start looking for the future, right?!
Away from the form lines, there isn’t a filly in the 2026 Magness Benrow Sires’ Stakes Three‑Year‑Old Final without a close‑up classic‑race connection in her pedigree.
Let’s take a look at the lineage links — with a little last‑start Northern Oaks context — in racebook order.
1. Secret Wish wiped herself out with under a lap to run last week and still finished within seven lengths of the winner. Her dam Secret Lotion is a sister to Secret Potion, the 2020 Nevele R Fillies champion.
2. All Of Me gave herself all favours in the Oaks and was a game third fresh up from her late‑summer setback. Like her dam Dream About Me, she is already a Sires’ Stakes Two‑Year‑Old Fillies champion.
3. Dolly Parton missed the Oaks and ran fourth in a support race last week. Big in the 70s and 80s, even bigger in Vegas these days, but her granddam Kate’s First was huge in the 90s. The Sires’ Stakes Two‑Year‑Old Fillies champion (1996) — and some.
4. Wat Next was one of several checked at a crucial time in the Oaks. The Harness Million winner last spring, her granddam Tricky Woman is a half‑sister to blueblood broodmare Scuse Me, who won the Northern Oaks and smashed the clock in the 1998 Taylor Mile.
5. Queen Lizzy had two lunges for the early lead last week and never flinched from the death to finish fourth. Her mum Princess Tiffany won both the NZ Oaks and the Caduceus Club Championship in the late twenty‑teens.
6. Smackdown was generally a handful in the Oaks — even for Peter Ferguson, who’s driven a few — but still stuck at it not far from the placings. Her mum Lady Fingers is a half‑sister to The Orange Agent, winner of the Northern Oaks and Nevele R Fillies Final, and some.
7. Cath is now an Oaks winner as of last week — and it was no mean feat going all the way in front. Her great‑granddam Going Royce was second in this race in 1991!.
8. Alecto was another knocked out of contention inside the final lap in the feature. Already a stakes winner of the Leonard Memorial, her dam Time And Tide is a half‑sister to Aardiebytheseaside, winner of the 2023 NZ Oaks.
9. Indulge Me should have featured in every post‑Oaks analysis after being completely wiped out in the last‑lap calamity and still somehow appearing in the photo for third — finally fifth. Her mum Sweet On Me was the 2016 Sires’ Stakes Two‑Year‑Old Filly champion.
10. Ripples raced in Sydney last Saturday, running third in their NSW Oaks. Her granddam Nearea Franco didn’t debut until she was four but still won the Harness Jewels Diamond and the Queen of Hearts — and some.
11. Time For Change gave herself the gun run and kept going bravely in the Group One last week. Her wider family includes champion pacers like Chokin and Changeover, while her granddam Chaangerr finished second in her Nevele R Fillies Final.
12. Fly High made second place in the support races last week. Her mother Flyover was placed in both the NZ Standardbred Breeders Stakes and the NZ Mares Championship behind Adore Me.
If you can see a definitive pattern in the bloodlines of these bluebloods, feed the backs — but at least now we know where to start looking for the future.
The $200,000 Magness Benrow Sires’ Stakes Series Final is one of five Group One features on the final night of the Northern Lights Carnival in Auckland.
Kyvalley Ray will try to upsize his stack of stakes trophies when he contests the Northern Trotting Derby, having already dined out on the Sires’ Stakes and Harness Million double‑double over our carnivals. His stable and owners would seriously consider returning for the New Zealand Trotting Derby next summer and breath some very rare air — a triple‑triple — if he can win again in Auckland.
A new crop of square‑gaiters struts its stuff in the IRT Young Guns Two‑Year‑Old Trotters Final, highlighted by the progeny of European trotting stallions such as Bold Eagle (sire of Kyvalley Ray) and Face Time Bourbon, tested by sons of New Zealand age‑group champion and backyard hero Royal Aspirations and daughter of What The Hill in there for good measure!
Meant To Be, who just missed the triple repeat feat last season, looks to secure his successful transition into the open trotting ranks when he takes on his talented stablemate Higher Power et al in the Rowe Cup.
And then there’s the rematch of potential versus warhorse in the NZ Messenger Stakes, where Got The Chocolates and The Lazarus Effect lock in another showdown with grand‑circuit giant Swayzee — this time over a battlefield extended to 2700 metres.
That will be some encore to finish the carnival.
