When South Island breeders Grant and Philippa McKenzie decided on a short trip to Melbourne, they never dreamt they would end up on the dais at Flemington.

“We decided to head across to Melbourne to see Rod Stewart and Black Caviar,” Grant McKenzie said.  “So I rang Mark Chittick at Waikato Stud to see if he knew how we might go about getting some tickets for Flemington.

“Mark is a good friend and, besides organising tickets, he also asked us to represent Waikato Stud as the owners of Shopaholic in the G3 Vanity Stakes.”

Shopaholic (3f Pins – Splashing Out by O’Reilly) is trained by Danny O’Brien and she downed odds-on favourite Mosheen in the final bound.  “To be honest, we felt very privileged to simply be in the parade ring before the race, let alone in the winner’s circle.  It was a bit of a dream really.”

The McKenzies were overdue in the Vanity having been placed in the race with Do Ra Mi (Savabeel) last year and with Be Delicious (Danasinga) five years earlier.

Shopaholic won a Matamata maiden last year before the Chitticks sent her to Melbourne where she won at Sandown and Caulfield before stepping up to G3 company in the Vanity.  

The Waikato homebred is by champion sire Pins and her dam Splashing Out won a G3 at Caulfield and was also runner-up to Gold Edition in the 2006 G1 Ascot Vale Stakes at Flemington.

Shopaholic’s sister made $160,000 to the bid of Hong Kong trainer Ricky Yiu at the NZB Karaka yearling sale earlier this month.