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Multiple Group 1 winning daughter of Zed will be on the list of 2023 inductees 

Multiple Group 1 winner and champion mare Verry Elleegant (Zed) will be added to the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame this year, with the Hall of Fame dinner to be held in Hamilton on May 7. 

Bred by Don Goodwin out of is Danehill (Danzig) mare Opulence, Verry Elleegant won 16 races in total, 11 of those coming at Group 1 level with her prize money totalling just shy of $15 million. 

"Even though she was very immature and didn't know what she was doing, we knew before she raced that she had something," Goodwin said. "She could knock out 600 metres in 36 seconds without even trying."

Originally trained in New Zealand by Nicholas Bishara, when she won twice in three starts, the daughter of Zed (Zabeel) was then transferred to Australia and the stable of Darren Weir. Her first stakes victory came int he Group 3 Ethereal Stakes (2000m) in October 2018. Transferred to Chris Waller, Verry Elleegant's first Group 1 victory came in March 2019 when she captured the Vinery Stud Stakes (2000m). Two weeks later she pulled almost two lengths clear of rivals in the Australian Oaks (2400m). 

At four she added the Tancred Stakes (2400m) and the following year as a five-year-old she won the Winx Stakes (1400m), the Turnbull (2000m), the Caulfield Cup (2400m), the Chipping Norton (1600m) and the Ranvet (2000m). At six her Group 1 victories came in the George Main (1600m), the Melbourne Cup (3200m) and she regained her Chipping Norton crown at Randwick last February. 

Goodwin sold his interest in Verry Elleegant following the mid-2022 decision to race her in Europe, but he still owns two full siblings. A yearling brother will be offered in the Lime Country Thoroughbreds draft at the upcoming Sydney Easter Yearling Sale, and he intends on retaining a weanling sister, who was fostered onto another mare when Opulence sadly died soon after foaling last spring.

"That is a day I will always remember, on the one hand the thrill of getting the filly I had been hoping for after a run of colts, and then hours later getting the call to say we had lost the mare," Goodwin said.

"It's going to be interesting to see what the buyers in Sydney think of the colt, and the filly is also a decent type, much like her big sister.

"Verry Elleegant made a lot of difference to a lot of lives, and she certainly changed my life and my family's. There were so many thrills – 11 Group Ones, the Winx Stakes at 1400 metres and the Melbourne Cup at 3200m – how many horses have done that?

"But her Melbourne Cup carrying 57 kilos and winning so easily in one of the fastest times ever – that sure takes some beating. Now we're just thrilled that she has been paid the ultimate compliment to be inducted to the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame.

"It's a bit like dreaming that one day you might win the Melbourne Cup, even when she had done that we didn't dare dream that she would also get in the Hall of Fame."