Thorn Park completed an outstanding season at the weekend with a treble of winners in both New Zealand and Australia, to secure the coveted Grosvenor Award for New Zealand’s champion sire for 2010/11. With the success of his promising son Crown of Thorns at Te Rapa on Saturday, Thorn Park became the first stallion to break through the $3 million barrier in progeny earnings in New Zealand in a single season, wresting the record from his fellow Windsor Park Stud sire, eight times champion Volksraad, whose progeny last season won $2.88 million in prize money. The only stallion to sire three individual Gr.1 winners in Australasia this season, Thorn Park is one of the youngest premiership-winning stallions in recent times siring 12 stakes winners from just four crops of racing age.
Thorn Park’s 6 stakes winners in the latest season include headline acts Jimmy Choux, winner of the Derby and 2000 Guineas in New Zealand together with the Rosehill Guineas in Australia, brilliant galloper Veyron, winner of seven of his eight races this season including the 1600m Gr.1 Easter Handicap at Ellerslie, The Party Stand, whose six wins include the Gr.1 ARC New Zealand Stakes over 2000m and Centennial Park, narrowly beaten in the Gr.1 ATC Chipping Norton Stakes following his success in the Gr.2 Expressway Stakes at Rosehill in Sydney.
