Friday, 2nd May 2025
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Pristine thoroughbred nursery Valachi Downs, in Matamata, has been sold to Lib and Katrina Petagna’s breeding business Elsdon Park, according to NZ Racing Desk. Kevin and Joanna Hickman quietly built the stud that now operates on more than 600 acres and covers all aspects of breeding and racing, including significant expansions in 2018 with the standing of stallions in a new purposely built station and the acquisition of a private training facility adjacent to the nearby Matamata racecourse. The transaction, which involves solely the stud operation, completes at the beginning of August to coincide with the new racing season. Valachi Downs will undertake a final dispersal of its bloodstock via a series of sales managed by New Zealand Bloodstock between mid-June and the end of July, with 20 quality weanlings supplemented as part of the National Weanling Sale at Karaka on June 17. For Wellington businessman and passionate racing and breeding enthusiast Lib Petagna, it was a case of opportunity knocking at the right time. “It’s a bit of preparation meets opportunity. I am in Blandford Lodge with Graham and Helen-Gaye Bax,” Petagna said. “With the number of horses I have collected over the years we were getting too small, so I have been looking for an opportunity to somehow expand… The Bax family is going to be buying me out of Blandford Lodge, which is a good outcome. It has been a very good partnership over the last eight years. My bloodstock portfolio will move over to Valachi come early August.” Racing fans will be familiar with Petagna’s apple green, dark blue sash and dark blue and yellow striped sleeves and cap silks, worn successfully by the likes of Group 1 winners Lucia Valentina, Tivaci, Sofia Rosa and Crown Prosecutor, to name but a few. Valachi Downs will be rebranded as Elsdon Park. While Valachi Downs is set up to house stallions, Petagna has no need to fill the boxes just yet, with a good spread of stallion shares. “I am a shareholder in Savabeel and I raced Tivaci and Alabama Express, so I have kept 10 percent of those stallions,” he said.
