Magnier snr once owned Manchester United, and his Irish stud farm Coolmore is one of the largest in the world.
Son Tom spent years working at Coolmore’s operations in Ireland and the United States before moving to Australia to lead the management of the company’s operation in the Southern Hemisphere.
He says being at the Karaka sales is one of his favourite times of the year.
But while he spent plenty at the sales, he wasn’t the man who bought the most expensive horse. That honour went to a New Zealander.
New Zealand rich-lister Glenn Ritchie, former Ritchies bus and coach transport magnate, had a couple of rose wines while breaking records. The 73-year-old from Temuka, South Canterbury, purchased the most expensive filly on Monday, paying $2.4m for a horse from Karaka stud Hanui Farm, the highest price paid for a filly in New Zealand history.
The yearling is sired by the legendary Savabeel, and her mother is star mare Symphonic. She is also the full sister of Orchestral, who won the $1m mile at Ellerslie on Saturday. It was a repeat performance by Orchestral, who also won the millions race at Ellerslie last year.
Ritchie, who is notoriously private, got into racehorses when his transport company was sold years ago. Reports at the time speculated the company would fetch around $500 million, based on similar deals.
Bloodstock agent Guy Mulcaster and leading Sydney trainer Chris Waller did the bidding for Ritchie, going up against competitive bids from overseas buyers.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Book 1 at the sales had reached more than $5m in sales, with 558 yearlings lots sold, with an average sale of nearly $165,000.
It wasn’t just racehorse sales that piqued the interest of Society Insider – polo pony sales did too.
Earlier this month we reported that Padmanabh Singh, the Maharaja of Jaipur, had been checking out polo horses in New Zealand. Now it appears he has tentatively bought three – two from Ainsley Polo in Pukekohe at an estimated $100k a pop. Ainsley Polo holds polo holidays at their Bombay Hills Club in Pukekohe, where they host myriad movers and shakers from around the world.
One horse sold by Ainsley Polo is said to be the No 1 performing polo pony on the Indian polo circuit. Named Winter, the polo pony has won best playing pony of India and has played in the Indian Polo Open numerous times, hence Singh’s successful shopping visit.
It is understood the third horse from Singh’s shopping list was also from a South Auckland stud farm.
Other well-known faces spotted at the Bloodstock sales were Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Racing Winston Peters, who opened the sales, and incoming Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour.
Seymour was accompanied by his partner, property expert Alexandra Vincent Martelli. Seymour was at last year’s sales and likes to see the bloodstock industry in full swing.
Former Prime Minister Sir John Key was spotted at the sales on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and wife Amanda didn’t attend the sales, but were spotted getting into the racing the night before at the Karaka Millions at Ellerslie.
Among the plethora of New Zealand multi-millionaire stud owners and horse buyers from around the country was rich-lister Mark Wyborn, founder of Wyborn Capital Properties and his wife Celia.
In years gone by, Wyborn has owned horses with fellow property titan Trevor Farmer and NZ Bloodstock owner Sir Peter Vela.
Urban Polo expands across the Tasman
Elsewhere in New Zealand’s lucrative equine industry, Society Insider can confirm that Urban Polo’s parent company, Urban Events, is expanding further across the Tasman. The company has purchased the rights to the famous Portsea Polo, Australia’s longest-running event and one synonymous with luxury and high society culture. It takes place annually on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula.
Since its inception in 2017, Urban Events managing director Simon Wilson’s goal for Urban Polo has been to take the faster-paced F3Polo formula to audiences around the globe.
Annual Urban Polo Events are held every year – Christchurch in February, Auckland in March, and Singapore in May.
In November, Urban Events signed a partnership with TEG Sport, the billion-dollar company behind entertainment and ticketing business Ticketek. Wilson says this marks a significant milestone in the evolution of F3Polo to a global audience.
“It was in Singapore at the F3Polo where the event caught the attention of TEG, who got in touch to get behind the sport,” Wilson tells Society Insider.
Wilson won’t disclose the amount Urban paid for Portsea, but says plans are already in action to transform it, as part of the global F3Polo circuit for Australia’s well-heeled for next summer. As well as Melbourne, Urban has Perth lined up for next season, with other cities to follow.
Urban Events is also planning a match on New York’s Upper East Side in Manhattan. As well as the United States, Wilson says TEG will help fund further plans for the business in Asia as well as the Middle East.
Urban Events has a long list of rich-listers, investment and property high rollers and All Blacks as shareholders, who Wilson says were happy with the country’s global expansion plans at last month’s AGM.
Shareholders include good friends and property titans, Centuria Capital NZ CEO Mark Francis, Centuria Capital Australia joint CEO Jason Huljich, Cook Property Group founder Ben Cook and Paula and Simon Herbert of Empire Capital.
Rounding out the property movers and shakers are uber-wealthy luxury developer Kurt Gibbons, director of Gibbons Co; co-director of Scarborough Group, Ulrik Olsen; and polo-playing Sam Wyborn, son of rich-lister Mark.
Other shareholders are executive director at investment giant Forsyth Barr, Jonty Edgar, director at Shortland Capital John Courtney, and polo patron, Ross George, the executive chairman of leading private investor company Direct Capital. George is also the chairman of Urban Events.
New Zealand International Polo player and Urban Events executive director Sam Hopkinson is a shareholder and a director of the company alongside George and Wilson.
And then there are the big-name former All Black shareholders, Dan Carter, Ali Williams, Israel Dagg and his wife Daisy, all of whom have brought their influence and their networks to Urban Events.
Watch this space for the who’s who attending the upcoming Christchurch and Auckland Urban Polos and how things are being turned up a notch this season.
David Nyika’s romantic Mexican proposal
Kiwi boxing star David Nyika is celebrating his engagement after proposing to his girlfriend, former Love Island Australia star Lexy Thornberry, on holiday in Cancun, Mexico.
Two weeks after his brutal knockout defeat in his IBF world title challenge from cruiserweight Aussie champion Jai Opetaia on the Gold Coast, Nyika, 29, and Thornberry, 23, took a vacation together.
The pair spent time in Cancun, Mexico, where they enjoyed sightseeing the Mayan ruins of Chichén Itzá and all the many delights Mexican cuisine has to offer.
During one sunset in Cancun, Nyika dropped to one knee on the beach and proposed to Thornberry with a beautiful canary diamond solitaire ring. A delighted Thornberry said yes.
Society Insider revealed the pair were an item in 2022. At the time, Thornberry, who starred on Love Island Australia in 2021, explained to Society Insider she formed an immediate celebrity crush on Nyika when she saw him on TV when he was competing at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Within a year, her father Noel Thornberry became Nyika’s boxing trainer and he came to live and train at their farm in Gatton, Queensland. The boxing connection doesn’t end there – Thornberry is the granddaughter of Australian boxer Trevor “Iceman” Thornberry and the niece of world champion Ricky Thornberry.
The pair told Society Insider they bonded over their shared passion for fitness and nutrition and also related to each other’s experiences of being in the limelight.
“David has the type of positive energy that radiates. He’s a dreamer but he also puts in the work and effort to make it become a real thing,” Thornberry told Society Insider in 2022.
Nyika said Thornberry complements his life perfectly – she takes her health and fitness as seriously as he does, with her career focused on the fitness industry.
Australia has become Nyika’s second home and he has been welcomed into the Thornberry family with open arms.
“Lexy’s family has treated me like one of their own which makes me feel right at home,” Nyika has previously told Society Insider.
Thornberry has been to Nyika’s hometown Hamilton, met his family and has been his cheerleader ringside at many of his bouts.
The pair often complement each other’s fashion choices on fight nights; when Nyika picks a theme for a bout in the ring, you can be sure Thornberry will match her choice of outfit to support him. They have donned a jungle theme as Tarzan and Jane, and when Nyika donned a bronze gladiatorial look, Thornberry complemented him in a matching sequinned dress with her blonde hair done in an Ancient Roman style.
January has been eventful for Nyika. After he was knocked out by Opetaia, he had scans and tests to make sure there was no damage immediately after the fight, which indicated zero complications moving forward.
Now back in Australia, Society Insider understands Nyika is feeling great, and along with his new wife-to-be, ready to get back to chasing his dreams in the ring.
Kiwi sports stars a perfect match
Another Kiwi sporting couple have been spotted out and about this month. Olympic sprinter Zoe Hobbs and her long-term boyfriend, Kiwi sailor Stewart Dodson were seen enjoying some downtime at the ASB Classic, and Hobbs was spotted supporting Dodson as he took to the Waitematā for SailGP.
In 2022, Society Insider celebrated Hobbs – New Zealand’s fastest-ever female 100m sprinter – as one of our Rising Stars of Matariki.
Last year Hobbs, 27, was the first Māori woman to represent New Zealand in sprinting at the Paris Olympics and the first New Zealand woman in more than 50 years to qualify for the 100m event.
Dodson, 29, comes from a renowned sailing family and has been part of the global elite sailing world for more than 10 years.
He joined the Spanish team as a grinder for season four of Sail GP during the 2023/24 season. Dodson’s extensive sailing experience saw him play a pivotal role in helping the Spanish team claim the season’s championship in the grand final in San Francisco, California last July.
For SailGP’s fifth season, Dodson moved from Spain to take on the role of grinder for team Switzerland.
His team won one race during the Auckland leg of SailGP, and is currently sitting in seventh place in the competition.
Hobbs’ and Dodson’s sporting careers see them travelling different parts of the globe in their own pursuits. Dodson was in Paris to cheer his partner on at the Olympics, where Hobbs competed in the semifinals.
After the Olympics and before SailGP’s fifth season started in Dubai in November, the couple enjoyed some vacation time. They joined friends in Croatia, including newly married fashion designer Caitlin Crisp and her husband, development manager Andrew Vincent. Hobbs and Dodson are understood to have also enjoyed some downtime in Italy and Turkey.
Hobbs has recently been at track meets in Canberra and it looks like she won’t be able to cheer on Dodson when SailGP moves to Sydney next weekend for the third round of the fifth season.
Hobbs has races of her own in February, including the New Balance Grand Prix in Boston and the Millrose Games in New York.
Will the new US Ambassador upgrade Lower Hutt residence?
Society Insider hopes the residence of the United States Ambassador in Lower Hutt is in shipshape condition and cockroach-free for the incoming Ambassador, Jared Novelly.
Novelly, the chairman of Crest Sports and Entertainment and Crest Management, was announced as US President Donald Trump’s new Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa with a post on his Truth Social last weekend.
Novelly is a member of the wealthy Apex Oil family from St Louis in Missouri, with a family fortune reportedly worth more than $4 billion. Crest, an American-Australian investment company formed in 2022, owns Australian NBL basketball team the Illawarra Hawks, based in Wollongong, New South Wales.
In 2022, Novelly reportedly took court action against the landlord of the $15,000 per week three-storey The Hyde Penthouse Sydney he was renting, for not being up to standard.
Novelly said he found a cockroach-infested kitchen, bags of dirty underwear and clothes in the bedroom, spilt ointments, and that his landlord was still in residence.
While his Sydney apartment had a 15m swimming pool, formal and informal living rooms, four bedrooms, study, scullery, media room and an internal lift, the old-fashioned cream weatherboard US residence in Lower Hutt may seem modest.
The guarded US residence on Ludlam St sits in the neighbourhood of other ambassadorial residences on the surrounding Woburn St.
President Trump’s first term ambassadorial appointee, former US Senator and rock’n’roll-loving Scott Brown brought rock memorabilia to decorate parts of the residence. Away from work, he spent his leisure time in New Zealand competing in Iron Man, sheep shearing and playing the electric guitar at celebrations at Independence Day celebrations.
Novelly might bring changes of his own to his new Wellington residence. At the Sydney Hyde Penthouse, he reportedly had a list of high-end upgrades, such as a home theatre fit-out, an electronically controlled television mounted on the wall of the master suite and two self-cleaning toilets worth more than $20,000 each.
Novelly will be great for the professional basketball scene in New Zealand. He is sure to be at games when his Illawarra Hawks play the New Zealand Breakers.
In 2023, Crest made a major investment in the East Asian Super League.
Novelly sees the momentum the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games will bring to sports in Australia, will be a great way for Crest’s growth of the game of basketball in Australia and Asia Pacific.
Trump has said Novelly will fight hard to protect US interests in the Indo-Pacific, for which New Zealand is a great place for him to be based.
His appointment needs to be confirmed by the US Senate. If confirmed to the post, Novelly will replace former NZ-based US Ambassador Tom Udall, who returned to America earlier this month after the change in administration.
Party people of the week
Karaka Millions
On Saturday evening, Auckland society lapped up the million-dollar racing action at the TAB Karaka Millions at Ellerslie.
Among the politicians were Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his wife Amanda, Minister of Racing Winston Peters, and Mayor of Tauranga Mahé Drysdale, the former Olympic rowing champion, with his wife, former professional rower, Juliette.
Former All Black and Rugby World Cup-winning captain Sean Fitzpatrick was there with his wife Bronwyn. Current All Black Damian McKenzie was with his girlfriend Georgia O’Sullivan and her parents, racing royalty Lance and Bridgette. Her sister, Ellerslie Ambassador Caitlin, was there with her fiance, former professional footballer Tom Doyle.
Also seen on course were Henrietta Russell, Dowager Duchess of Bedford, and Luke Kemeys, of Boys Get Paid, New Zealand’s biggest-ever Punters Club.
Other keen racing fans included Australian stud owners of Heartland Horse Farm, Daniel and Debbie Dickson; Nelson horse enthusiast Jonny Hendriksen and daughter, equestrian Lily. Rich-lister Hendriksen is the founder & CEO of world-class digital creative business Shuttlerock and last year was awarded EY Entrepreneur of the Year for New Zealand.
A-List chef Josh Emett and his wife Helen attended, with good friends Entain’s Pip Eriksen and her husband William, of The Neat Meat Company brothers.
Real estate agent and Ellerslie Ambassador Ryan Teece was there with his husband The Hits’ Matty McLean, and ZM’s Bree Tomasel and Clint Roberts.
Duco Events founder and managing director David Higgins and Duco Events CEO Craig Cotton took West Indies’ cricket legend Chris Gayle to watch the trackside action.
New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing head of communications and content Andrew Gourdie mixed work with mingling with his girlfriend, broadcaster Rebecca Wright.
Auckland Polo Club private lunch
Last Thursday afternoon, the Auckland Polo Club in Clevedon hosted guests for lunch and to watch a private game of polo.
VIP guests were choppered in or chauffeur-driven by Land Rover Defenders. They got up close with the polo ponies and the star players including Will Harper and Indi Bennetto, followed by an insightful lunch learning about the game.
Executive director of the New Zealand Polo Open, Lucy Ainsley, interviewed a number of the game’s big names over lunch including Cody Forsyth, New Zealand’s highest-ranked polo player. He told tales of his playing days, including playing with King Charles and the Sultan of Brunei, as well as being on the cover of the first issue of GQ UK in 1989, alongside Pakistan cricket legend Imran Khan.
Visiting international polo star UK player Jimbo Fewster also spoke, as did New Zealand polo legend and ambassador for Auckland Polo, Ross George.
Guests included society chef Hercules Noble, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Jenny Mukerji and Mechaela Yap and Savor Group’s Ben Boyne.
Others in attendance included influencers Holly Estelle and Zeenat Wilkinson, fashion stylist Sarah Stuart, Remix Magazine managing editor Tessa Patrick, Fashion Quarterly editor-in-chief and publisher Sarah Murray, fashion ambassador for Auckland Polo Carena West and designers Caitlin Crisp and Layla Kaisi.
The New Zealand Polo Open takes place at the Auckland Polo Club in Clevedon on Sunday, February 16.
Ricardo Simich has been with the Herald since 2008 where he contributed to The Business Insider. In 2012 he took over Spy at the Herald on Sunday, which has since evolved into Society Insider. The weekly column gives a glimpse into the worlds of the rich and famous.