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.
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," a jubilant owner Terry Henderson said after Kibbutz beat Littorio by two lengths yesterday in the 3-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 that 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 only 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. Hogan tasted success earlier in the day when Zacroona, a horse he bred from Zabeel out of the good racemare Singalong, won the Carbine Club Stakes (1600m) for 3-year-olds for Victorian trainer Rodney Douglas.
- NZPA
