Sharp ‘N’ Smart retires sound after three Group 1 wins

Three-time Group 1 winner Sharp ‘N’ Smart has been retired sound with seven wins from 35 starts and $3.44 million in prize money, ending a career highlighted by his 2023 New Zealand Horse of the Year title.

Debbie Rogerson, who trained the seven-year-old in partnership with Graeme Rogerson, told NZ Racing News his heart was no longer in racing.

Sharp ‘N’ Smart won five of his eight starts as a three-year-old in 2022–23, earning more than $3 million during a season that included six Group 1 appearances on both sides of the Tasman.

His Group 1 victories came in the Spring Champion Stakes at Randwick, the Herbie Dyke Stakes against older horses at weight-for-age and the New Zealand Derby at Te Rapa, where he delivered Graeme Rogerson’s first win in the race.

He also finished second in the Victoria Derby seven days after his Sydney success, second in the Thorndon Mile and fourth in the Australian Derby. He was voted Horse of the Year ahead of Imperatriz, with 24 votes to 22.

Illness ended his spring campaign in 2023, and he went winless through his four- and five-year-old seasons before returning to winning form in the Group 3 Waikato Cup in December 2025, carrying 59kg.

The Redwood gelding will live at part-owner and breeder Gerry Harvey’s Westbury Stud in Karaka, which sold him to Rogerson Bloodstock for $55,000 as a yearling in 2021.