Anne and Tony Parker have been breeding Standardbred horses for more than 45 years, producing outstanding winners such as Auckland Reactor (seven Group One wins, $1.8m stakes, 32 wins with first 17 in a row, NZ Horse of the Year twice, the most popular sire in Australasia for 2013), Sharp and Telford ($498k stakes, Auckland Cup, Australian Derby, Victorian Derby, Kaikoura Cup), Chase Auckland ($740k stakes, 2700m and 1950m NZ record holder, 14 wins including multiple group races) and Miss Whiplash ($141k, 13 wins and 2nd in the Rowe Cup).
Anne and Tony love to breed standardbreds that win, yet the breeding, rather than the racing side of the business is their passion. They breed pacers and trotters so that others may have the pleasure of owning and racing good horses. They usually only race those horses that don’t sell at the yearling sales each year. An irony is that many of the horses that don’t sell at sale, such as Yagunnakissmeornot and Auckland Reactor, have gone on to provide proof of the Parkers breeding capabilities.
The Parkers have an excellent record of breeding great trotters but they have also bred some outstanding pacers. These horses include Russley Rascal 1:52 ($833,209) and Devil Dodger 1:50.8 ($647,216) to name just two. And Devil Dodger raced until he was 12 years old!
Tardina has had many successes on the track with their homebred horses such as Yagunnakissmeornot, Shady Sadie, Opoutama, Hug the Wind and Royal Willie.
Their breeding operation is based at Mangatawhiri, less than an hour’s drive south of New Zealand’s biggest city, Auckland, in the North Island. The rolling, fertile property, blessed with a benign climate, is under continual pasture management to allow for progressive epigenetics, in which Tony Parker’s veterinarian skills come into play. All Tardina horses benefit from good quality pasture combined with specialised feeding, which helps to produce a superior animal.