Waikato NZTBA branch members Lloyd and Heather Monehan are celebrating the success of breeding their first stakes winner, thanks to the deeds of Won Won Too.

The three-year-old gelding was an impressive winner of the Listed Ladbrokes Galilee Series Final at Caulfield recently, and became the 16th individual stakes winner for his sire Cambridge Stud based Tavistock.

“We are very proud of him and what he has done for us,” said a delighted Monehan, “we raced his mother Celtic Dream out of the South Island where she won six races, and then we lost the first foal, so this is special.”

Monehan is a long time employee of Cambridge Stud, and it is through this association that Won Won Too came about. He has been on the staff there for just over 15 years and it was during his first season there that Sir Patrick Hogan gave him a nomination to Casual Lies which produced Celtic Dream the dam of Won Won Too.

Won Won Too is trained by David and Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig at Lindsay Park and was purchased from the 2016 Ready To Run sale by Edward Wong for $200,000 from the Riversley Park draft. He was in fact lot number 112. He was recording his second win from seven starts when he took out the 2400m Galilee Series Final.

Won Won Too is the second foal from Celtic Dream, who has since produced a two-year-old filly by Tavistock which has been retained by the Monehans, a yearling colt by Burgundy which sold to Mick Kent at Karaka last summer for $65,000, a weanling colt by Burgundy and she is foal again to that sire.

Celtic Dream is the third foal of the Oakridge mare Glocca Morra, a daughter of Song Queen a granddaughter of the Campins’ fine mare Mary Poppins. The matriarch of the family that has produced dozens of stakes winners including Top Of The Pops, Take A Walk, Veloso, Domino, Super Natural, Westminster, Petersburg and many more.

“We got Glocca Morra when we were living near Waiuku, and I was working nights at the Steel Mill.

“My wife Heather went to the sales to buy a mare she had picked out named Song Queen, as she was by Vice regal and her grandam was Top Of The Pops I thought she would never be able to afford her but she bought her with an Oak Ridge foal at foot for $600. That foal was Glocca Morra.

“After work in the morning I would go and help Graham Cox who was training a smart mare called Rijeka at the time, she won a Gr.2 Waikato Cup, and we pottered around with a few including Glocca Morra.

“She won a race and then went to stud, and we moved to Cambridge. Her first foal Finian’s Rainbow won five and Hei Hei Posh won four in Hong Kong. Her last foal a filly by Keeper is part of my retirement plan. That and the two-year-old sister to Won Won Too, which Mark Forbes has just broken in, and will race next year.

“We have a small property next to Brighthill Farm and all my mares go there to foal, be weaned and the youngsters for all their handling and prep work.”

It was while Won Won Too was undergoing a yearling preparation at Brighthill Farm that she came to the attention of Riversley Park’s proprietor Sam Beatson. He purchased the colt out of the paddock as a pin hook for the Ready To Run Sales, but he very nearly missed out.

Beatson picks up the story.

“I went and saw him while he was being prepped for the yearling sales at Brighthill, and I really liked him he was a lovely horse, lovely type a really good walking horse and by Tavistock. So I agreed to buy him and Lloyd sent me an invoice.

“I paid with internet banking then another invoice popped up in my email inbox from Lloyd asking me to put the money in a different bank account in Australia, so I rang him and asked him what the story was, and he had no clue about the second invoice.

“Fortunately I had already processed the original payment to his account otherwise I may have missed out on the horse, and some hacker would have had my funds.”

“It all worked out well in the end though,” added Monehan,”if I hadn’t sold to Sam then the horse may not have gone to such a great stable like the Hayes/Dabernig stable, the buyers at the Ready To Run sales know which trainers to target. Now the Burgundy yearling has gone to another good Victorian trainer in Mick Kent which we are really pleased about as well.”

Monehan is hoping to see both Won Won Too and the Burgundy youngster when he ventures to Victoria to see his grand children who are based there.

“It’s all part of the retirement plan, and that is looming up quick. I stayed on the farm while Sir Patrick was here. I’ve done horse work, maintenance work, and all sorts of other things on the farm. I was a Mr Fixit and if I couldn’t fix it I would find the right person to do so.

“I am past my used by date, way past retirement age, I will be 70 next month, so it’s time I acted my age,  and started enjoying my horses and grandkids,” he concluded.