KEY POINTS:
An impulse buy from New Zealand six months ago paid a huge dividend when Kibbutz stormed home to win the A$1.5 million ($1.82 million) Victoria Derby (2500m) at Flemington on Saturday.
Bred by Hastings racing identity Laurence Redshaw and formerly trained at Cambridge by Murray Baker, Kibbutz gave the New Zealand breeding industry another headliner this spring after Master O'Reilly (Caulfield Cup) and El Segundo (Cox Plate).
"There's nothing like a good old-fashioned Kiwi stayer," jubilant owner Terry Henderson said after Kibbutz beat Littorio by two lengths in the three-year-old classic.
Henderson, who bought 1995 Melbourne Cup winner Doriemus from New Zealand, purchased the rangy gelding by the sire Golan after he raced once for Baker and Redshaw for a third placing in the Champagne Stakes (1600m) at Ellerslie in April.
"Right time, right place, right advice from our agent Phil Cataldo in New Zealand who was fantastic," said Henderson, who stepped in after a potential Hong Kong buyer didn't front with the money.
"We're indebted to [trainer] David Hayes because he bought it sight unseen, and we're really pleased he did."
Kibbutz is out of Redshaw's unraced Kaapstad mare Misskap.
Hayes went in for half the purchase price, with Henderson and business partner, former Australian test cricketer Simon O'Donnell, taking the other half for a syndicate.
"Wow, I usually get paid to say something and I can't," said O'Donnell, now a television personality. "It's a great game and it brings you weak at the knees when things like this happen."
Kibbutz drifted to third favouritism and paid $5 with bookmakers, while the John Hawkes-trained Marching, the favourite, could manage third.
Marching and second favourite Villain raced fiercely while Kibbutz relaxed to seventh on the rail, tracking into the race at the top of the straight and hitting the front at the 200m for jockey Craig Williams.
An excited Hayes predicted Kibbutz could be a Melbourne Cup horse. "If it's not next year it might be the year after. He's raw, he's got great poise, he might be the one we're all looking for.
"You could see from the 800m it was his race for the keeping because he's got wonderful poise and great race manners and that's what won him the race."
The Lee Freedman-trained Stockade, a A$1.2m purchase for Cambridge breeder Sir Patrick Hogan, finished seventh.
There was no fairytale ending for the owner-trainer partnership of the Ingham family and John Hawkes, with Marching having to settle for third.
Hawkes has been training for the Inghams for 14 years but will finish up at Crown Lodge on November 16 to set up a training operation with his two sons, Wayne and Michael.
Marching was the last Group One runner for the formidable Ingham-Hawkes partnership with the equine influenza outbreak putting paid to the bulk of their spring carnival team.
But while punters thought the colt could give Hawkes a fitting sendoff, backing him in from $3.50 to start the $2.90 favourite, Marching tried hard but failed to run the 2500m journey right out.
Hawkes was gracious in defeat and said Kibbutz was simply too good on the day but he predicted his Sydney foreman Peter Snowden, who will take over as the Inghams' trainer, would have plenty of fun with the colt next autumn.
"He ran great, that's all that matters," Hawkes said.
"It's not as good as winning but he ran well.
"He didn't stay, the better stayer won.
"But he was brave and he will be a lovely Doncaster, Rosehill Guineas horse in the autumn for Peter, so he's got a bit to look forward to."
Hawkes has prepared 82 Group One winners for the Inghams' Woodlands Stud syndicate, including champion Octagonal and his son Lonhro.
But, he said, after so many years the time had come to hand over the reins to someone else.
"It's another direction, that's all. I just thought it was time to move on.
"I've got no regrets anyway."
- NZPA and AAP
