The final resting place for Zed near the front gate of Grangewilliam will provide a permanent reminder of the stallion’s achievements at stud and arguably a nod to a bygone era of New Zealand breeding.
Kiwi studmaster Mark Corcoran spent the 24 hours after the death of 22-year-old Zed - the sire of 2021 Melbourne Cup winner Verry Elleegant - contemplating how best to ensure the sire’s legacy and his link to Australasia’s most famous horse race isn’t forgotten.
In the end, there was only one fitting option, so on Monday he buried Zed next to Opulence, a mare he had been mated to eight times during her 12 years at stud.
One of those matings, Opulence’s third living foal, produced champion mare Verry Elleegant, New Zealand’s fifth locally bred and most recent Melbourne Cup winner this century who did earlier this year.
Zed was humanely euthanised due to a bout of colic at the weekend. Opulence had died two years earlier. Now the pair posthumously stand side by side near Grangewilliam’s float entrance, located near Wanganui, six hours’ drive south of Auckland.
A small tree will be planted and a plaque will be placed at the site to commemorate the pair and their place in Australasian racing history through the deeds of Verry Elleegant, an 11-time Group 1 winner who died earlier this year, the best of Zed’s 17 individual stakes winners and a host of hardy stayers and jumpers such as Zed Em and Affluential.
“It is not every day you get a Melbourne Cup winner and we’ve been fortunate enough on this farm in my lifetime to have two,” Corcoran told The Straight.
“I was a first year university student when Doriemus won the Melbourne Cup (in 1995) and that was pretty exciting.
“I thought it’d be pretty cool to do it again, so it was great to see it happen with Verry Elleegant. We had the sire and the dam both on the farm from both Doriemus and Verry Elleegant.
Corcoran and his family had to say a sudden goodbye to their bread and butter sire, a horse who attracted a “real fan base of owner-trainer type people”, having been resurrected as a thoroughbred stallion after being reclaimed from the South Island where he was covering Clydesdale mares.
While Corcoran has fond memories of Zed’s past, the stallion can still make his mark through his 50 unraced two-year-olds, 31 yearlings and 46 mares due to foal this season.
There will be a smattering of Zeds among the 2025 NZB Karaka sale next January including a handful of Grangewilliam-bred stock inspected by the sales company’s bloodstock team only last week.
“He leaves horses that are just a great example of a New Zealand-bred horse. They are sound, tough and durable and talented as well. He’s really carved out a niche for quite a long time now, particularly while he’s been at Grangewilliam,” NZB bloodstock sales manager Kane Jones said.
“He’s always had a number of handy horses around, but he’s also left a champion in Verry Elleegant.
“She scaled some amazing heights and, of course, won a Melbourne Cup. There are not many horses who can lay claim to that.”
Among the crop of two-year-olds is a three-quarter brother to Verry Elleegant, who will be offered as Lot 81 at the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale in November. He was bred by Corcoran in conjunction with Denise Ward, the owner of the colt’s dam Moonofklairessa.
The colt’s year older brother, the unraced three-year-old Rightzedfred, was bought by trainer Chris Waller and bloodstock agent Guy Mulcaster at the 2023 Karaka Yearling Sale.
Bren O’Brien
His sibling would have been sold through the same sales ring earlier this year, too, had it not been for an untimely illness, forcing his withdrawal from the sale and a change of plans.
“He broke in really well by all accounts. I haven’t heard much for a while, but by the early reports, they were very happy with how he was going. No news is good news in this game,” Corcoran said.
“He is a really nice horse. He won’t be missed at the sale.”
He might just be another Kiwi-bred Derby winner - and who could rule out a Melbourne Cup?
“There’s not too many of those types being bred in New Zealand now, those staying types. Who knows how long before we get another New Zealand-bred Melbourne Cup winner, but Zed’s certainly done the job for us,” Corcoran said.
“We will have a nice little tree and a plaque there to remember him. Breeders will drive in and see that and think, ‘oh crikey, a Melbourne Cup horse was bred here. That’s cool’.”
