When Greg and Ben trained Hope Habibti Pat (Father Patrick) recently won the New Zealand Trotting Derby, her fiftieth win as an owner, many of which were with her late husband Gaby.
“We just thought the distance would suit her because she is very heavy. With the sprint races she got excited and that was her downfall in some of those races. I couldn’t help but hug everyone because the victory was so nice. I don’t normally do things like that and I was really out of my comfort zone, but I was so excited,” said Julie.
Julie comes from a racing family, her father Bob Day successfully trained trotters.
“I was always there in the background and not really involved with the horses. I was a dancer so I didn’t want a horse touching my feet. My father loved the game and did it very well. He had Merrin, Ipiana and Western Approach. He bred and raced some very good horses,” she said.
Merrin won twelve races, including the 1970 Banks Peninsula Trotting Cup. He was second in the 1971 Dominion, won by Precocious, and third in the 1971 New Zealand Trotting Free for All, taken out by Tony Bear. Western Approach and Ipiana each won seven.
“When I was starring in Coppelia, it was the same night that Merrin was racing at Addington. My mother, a very gentle woman, told my father he had two choices. He could come see his daughter in her final, or go to the races. And she added, ‘I think you should choose the one I want you to choose.’ When the horse won, I was standing on stage and one of the dancers came up to me as we were dancing and told me that Merrin had won, so I knew about it long before my father.
The foundation mare of the day was Three Tens, who Bob once trained to win in Kaikoura.
Three Tens had moderate success at breeding, allowing Signor Gabreilli to win eight for Patrick O’Reilly Senior and be the first horse bred and raced by Julie and Gaby.
“My father loaned Three Tens to Gaby and breeding a horse that won the Two-Year-Old of the Year was a great thrill. We had never been involved in horse racing before and it just went from there.”
She added that when Signor Gabrielli won his first race at Addington by four and a half lengths in January 1984, Gaby opened his wallet.
“Everyone sitting in the stands and the bar, he (Gaby) was just shouting. He was so excited.”
Signor Gabrielli’s best win was the 1984 New Zealand Two-Year-Old Trotting Stakes, when he beat Wedgewood by a nose.
Gaby Maghzal came from the other side of the world to enjoy his racing. He was born in Beirut in Lebanon.
“He came to New Zealand as a podiatrist. In Christchurch we owned the Hanifins Clinic and he was the podiatrist there. He was from the Middle East and was a bit of a gambler and when he met my father, an amateur horse trainer, Gaby loved it. He connected with people who liked what he liked (laughter).”
The couple met in Wellington at a bar called the Western Park Tavern.
“He worked part-time as a cocktail bartender. He asked me out and we lived together from the day we met. We were together for almost 50 years.”
Julie says that Gaby loved nothing more than to make a good bet.
“They looked at my husband and asked him if he was trying, and he said yes and just tapped his wallet (laughter).”
Unfortunately, Gaby passed away in July 2019, but Julie has continued with the same passion he had for the horses.
Of her fifty-one winners, Paul Nairn has trained 21.
“Paul was very important in my life before.”
Blair Orange has ridden thirty of her winners, the first being Habibti Ivy at Oamaru in December 2014.
“It started when Gaby called Blair at the time he was moving from the Purdons to Ken Barrons. Gaby said he would put his horses with Ken as long as Blair would ride them. Blair has been very loyal and it has been a very good relationship. He looks after the horses and would never put a horse at risk to win the race and we all appreciate that. The horse comes first.”
At stud, one of Three Ten’s fillies left Ten Four Ten To One, who won six races for Dick Petrie. After she finished racing, Petrie bred one foal from her and from then on, Gaby and Julie Maghzal began breeding the mare; the beginning of the famous ‘Habibti’ line.
They bred Habibti who won sixteen races, Habibti Ivy the winner of nine and Habiti Inta who won eleven. All three were from Love You.
“Habibti means love you in Arabic and we put our mare on Love You four times. Habibi (different spelling) also means love you when you talk about a man or a boy. We just stuck with it and carried it with us all the time. Habibti Ivy is named after a granddaughter. I have another granddaughter called Sadie and there is another horse we bred called Habibti Sadie.”
Habibti Ivy’s most significant wins were in the Group One Anzac Cup, the G2 Two New Zealand Trotting Oaks, the G3 Four and Five Year Old Trotting Championship and the G3 Alabar DG Jones Trotting Cup. She was beaten by a neck by Temporale in the Rowe Cup.
“Gaby loved seeing Habibti Ivy win the Oaks and come second in the Rowe Cup. They were real highlights for us. To be fair to our family, if you win a race at Blenheim, Manawatu or Addington it’s the same.”
Habibti’s biggest wins were the G1 New Zealand Trotting Derby, the G3 Zealand Trotting Stakes, the G3 Three New Zealand Trotting Oaks and the G3 Three Canterbury Park Trotting Cup, while Habibi Inta’s biggest success was the Dominion Handicap.
“It almost broke my heart. To see him come out and destroy them in the Dominion. I’ll never forget Blair Orange saluting his dear friend Mike Austin, who had passed away. They had always wanted to win this race.”
Habibi Inta also won the Four-Year-Old Ruby, the G3 Two-Year-Old Trotting Stakes, the G3 DG Jones Memorial Trotting Cup and the G3 South Bay Trotters Cup.
In March 2016, Habibi Inta won the Patrick O’Reilly Senior Memorial Two Year Old Mobile Trot in Methven. That was a special day for both the Maghzal and O’Reilly families.
“The whole family was there. I love those people.”
Habibi Inta is now available for stud at Grant Beckett’s Phoebe Standardbreds. Three of his offspring will be offered at the NZB Standardbred Yearling Sales in Christchurch in February.
“I would like to breed with Habibti Inta, but at the moment I don’t have any mares where I can put him.”
Gaby and Julie had two daughters Sasha and Nadine.
“Of my two daughters, Sasha loved racing from the day we started. She loves betting and loves breeding. Nadine loves it, but not to the same extent. Although I have now discovered that Nadine just loves it and she is with us every time. My grandchildren love it and call me to congratulate me, so it’s great.”
Although trotting remains Julie’s passion, the family has also had great success with pacers.
“I turned towards the trotters, but he was really into the pacers. If you look at the statistics, we’ve had a fantastic run for 40 years.”
Gaby, Sasha and Nadine played successfully against Anna Livia, who won nine races.
As a broodmare she left Ana Malak, who won four in New Zealand and another 15 in Australia, and Ana Afreet, who won 12 of her 18 starts in Australia.
Gaby and Julie also raced Malak Uswaad, who won nine races: six for David and Catherine Butt and three for Peter and Leonne Jones before being sold to America, where he won a further twelve races and earned $542,585.
Habibti Ivy is currently the only mare Julie is breeding from and since leaving Habibti Pat she has left behind two Propulsion fillies.
“They are both with Greg and Ben Hope. They get along very well. They have a lot of speed. I think in the next three weeks they will try to qualify Habibti Amar. She will be three in January.”
Habibti Ivy’s newest foal is a colt by Father Patrick.
“He’s a beautiful looking colt that has been beaten to the mother. I said if I bred a colt I could sell it. One look at it and I don’t know if I will.” Julie laughed.
Although she says she is not yet fully versed in selecting stallions, she is impressed by Father Patrick’s offspring.
“Now that I have the Father Patricks, I will go back to him because he delivers the goods and seems to suit my mare.”
Gael Murray looks after Julie’s horses and has entered a Habibi Inta filly out of her Sundon mare Successor at the NZB Standardbred Yearling Sales in Christchurch in February.
“Successor and Habibti Ivy share the same pasture. Gael does a great job taking care of my horses.”
The Maghzal’s involvement with Greg and Nina Hope was through Ana Afreet. He qualified but never raced in New Zealand and went on to win 34 races and more than $400,000.
“He was sold and I liked the idea of ​​training the horses on the beach. So I asked Greg if he wanted to take her (Habibti Pat) and he did.”
Outside of her own race, Julie is owned by Macho Man (Muscle mass) who won in Addington on Friday evening for Kevin Townley.
Gaby rode a few horses with Kevin and his late father Doody in the 1990s, including Signor Vance, Clovelly Fleur and Silver Lopez.
“It’s a big part of my life and my family’s life. It’s a joy. I probably have about 200 of Ajay’s (photographer Ajay Berry) horse pictures in the garage, but the newest one I have at home with a couple of cups.”
Footnote:
Other members of the Three Tens family have recently come to the fore.
Habibti Sadie is the mother of Tactical Bid who won four of his eleven starts. Habibti Sadie is also the dam of Magic Dash, the winner of seven, four for Regan Todd and three for Michelle Wallis and Bernie Hackett.
Habibti Pat’s full sister The Ivy League won three races for Paul Nairn and is now bred by John and Katrina Price. She recently produced her first foal, a colt by Tactical Approach.
Bred and owned by Michelle Caig, Penelope Lane comes from a different branch of the family. She comes from Batal, a Game Pride daughter from Three Tens.
Batal won two races for Steve O’Brien and at stud she left Exotic Charm, the dam of City Lane who is the dam of Penelope Lane, the winner of four of her twelve starts.
Through Bruce Stewartfor Harnesslink
#love #Habibti #run