Dan Vegas puts the spotlight back on Totara Park

The bargain basement has for years been the genesis of many successful outcomes in the bloodstock world, and to that can be added last Saturday’s impressive debut winner Dan Vegas.
You have to go back all of 14 years to the annual New Zealand Bloodstock Weanling, Broodmare and Mixed Bloodstock Sale at Karaka, when Northland breeding enthusiasts Les Donaldson and his daughter and son-in-law Nicci and Dirk Oberholster were looking to bolster their Totara Park Stud broodmare band.
One of the mares they bought, Operavega, now figures as the granddam of Dan Vegas, but there’s a whole lot more to this story that deserves recounting.
The late Les Donaldson established Totara Park, north-east of Whangarei at Glenbervie, in the 1960s. Amongst the stallions he stood there was the Sovereign Path horse Bandmaster ll, who gained fame as the sire of champion colt Uncle Remus.
He was officially bred by Donaldson’s mother Grace, who raced him in partnership with fellow Northlander Kim Clotworthy. At the end a memorable 1977-78 season, the Colin Jillings-trained colt was voted New Zealand Horse of the Year, while Bandmaster won the sires’ premiership and his dam Tusitala took the Broodmare of the Year title.
“Back when we were standing stallions, Dirk and Dad would go to the Karaka broodmare sale each year hoping to pick up a bargain or two, hopefully for less than $1,000,” Nicci Oberholster recalls. “Dad had his hit-list of broodmare sires and at the 2010 sale two young mares that took their fancy were Operavega and Vegas Dancer, who were sisters by Stravinsky.”
Operavega was knocked down at $700 and Vegas Dancer at $1,200 – the latter not quite meeting the sub-four-figure standard but with the other purchase still averaging out at under $1,000.
As well as being by Stravinsky, their appeal included an older half-sister Vegas Showgirl, who co-breeder Graeme Rogerson had developed into one of the better fillies of her time with stakes wins at two and three years.
Subsequent events were to raise the family to a whole new level, thanks to the 2010 mating of Vegas Showgirl – by this stage owned in Australian – with the Darley stallion Street Cry. The dark bay filly born the following spring was to become famous as the outstanding galloper Winx, who won 37 of her 43 starts, the last 33 in succession and 25 of those Group Ones.
“It’s quite incredible that we bought into that family and then Winx came along,” says Oberholster. “Watching her win race after race was an incredible experience, as well as seeing the horses from the family we’ve bred ourselves do well.”
All told Vegas Showgirl became the dam of five winners, which also include the two-year-old stakes winner El Divino, while in the context of the Oberholsters’ branch of the line, there’s plenty more at play.
The star of the show at Totara Park is Miss Bluebell, an unraced Savabeel mare out of Operavega whose progeny record after the weekend now stands at three winners from her only three foals to race. The most recent of the trio, Dan Vegas, was preceded by another son of Per Incanto, Gringotts, and the Iffraaj filly Millefiori.
Miss Bluebell’s 2018 foal Millefiori was bought for $65,000 by Te Akau’s David Ellis from Book 2 of Karaka 2020, while Gringotts was knocked down for $100,000 at the same sale 12 months later. Millefiori is to date the winner of seven races as well as being stakes-placed this autumn in the CJC Great Easter Stakes.
Gringotts was bought as a yearling by Simon and Katrina Alexander’s Kasa Bloodstock and returned to Karaka for the 2021 Ready to Run Sale, where he failed to make his $450,000 reserve. He wasn’t seen in public again until the following spring, winning a trial impressively and subsequently sold to high-profile Australian owner Ozzie Kheir.
Now trained by Ciaron Maher, the four-year-old has won seven of his 13 starts, the last three in succession capped by his first stakes victory over 1600m in Brisbane last month.
“Gringotts was such a beautiful yearling,” Oberholster continued. “We had high hopes for him at Karaka but he hardly got a bid and ended up being sold outside the ring. $100,000 was still a profit, and good on the Alexanders for taking a punt on him.”
Choosing Per Incanto for Miss Bluebell wasn’t difficult given the Little Avondale stallion is a son of Winx’s sire Street Cry, and after breeding Gringotts on their own, the Oberholster’s were partners with Little Avondale in the second Per Incanto colt she produced in 2020, now known as Dan Vegas.
“We bred him in partnership with Sam and Catriona with the idea of selling him, but being a later foal and a tad on the small side then, he never actually made it to the sales.”
After an easy trial win in early May for trainers Ken Rae and Krystal Williams, the challenge was finding a suitable race and last week they threw the dice and lined Dan Vegas up in a 1400m open three-year-old race on his home track. The result was an all-the-way win in a final 600m sectional time of 35.39s, which is bound to have got the talent scouts interested.
“There have been a few nibbles but nothing serious at this stage,” Oberholster said. “We’ve talked to Sam (Williams) and they’re like us, pretty relaxed about things.”
Back in the stone-walled paddocks at Totara Park are four broodmares descended from those two bargain buys from Karaka in 2010, along with three weanlings.
“We’ve scaled things right back to just the four mares from our little family now,” Oberholster added. “Operavega died three or four years ago and Vegas Dancer had her last foal, a colt by Ace High, last spring.
“As well as the Ace High we’ve got two Proisirs, a beautiful filly from Miss Bluebell and a good type of colt from Miss Bluebell’s half-sister Miss Vegas.
“Another that we’re racing is Vegas Queen, a filly by Proisir from Miss Vegas who also had her first start on Saturday and finished sixth, so when you add it all up, we’ve got a bit going on.
“It’s been an interesting road and a long time between drinks. As we all know that’s often the way in this business, but right now we’re happy with the way things are playing out.”