Beirne’s mare a Tremendous Sensation

Christchurch businessman Graham Beirne has been one of the success stories of New Zealand breeding and racing since entering the sport in the late 1990’s.

Beirne, who trades as Small Car World Limited, has owned or bred the winners of around 500 races headed by the current top-ranking pacer Marketplace, Auckland Cup winner Kate’s First, multiple Group winner Anvil Vance and NZ Trotters Oaks victor Chevron Express, to name just a few.

“I love the sport. It’s been a big part of my life,” Beirne, a director of the family’s car importing and wholesaling business, said.

While basking in the glory of Marketplace’s achievements on home soil during the past 24 months, Graham is also upbeat about the performances of a homebred mare making her mark in Queensland.

That mare is the five-year-old Tremendous Sensation, a daughter of Betting Line, who has won eight of her 20 starts in her adopted country and, at one stage, put together a seven-race winning sequence including the Listed Queen of the Creek at Albion Park.

Winless at her first nine attempts this season, Tremendous Sensation bounced back into the winners’ circle in emphatic fashion at Albion Park last Saturday, storming home from near last to capture the Mares’ Open in a slick 1:51.8 rating over 1660 metres.

It was her 10th lifetime success and lifted her stake earnings to $119,512.

“I bred and raced her with Ken Barron. She had quite a bit of ability,” Graham said.

Tremendous Sensation won at her final New Zealand appearance in the Winter Series Final at Addington last June.

“I sold her to Brisbane after the race,” Beirne said.

“We figured she had another two or three wins in her but the cost of getting another two or three wasn’t economical. I own about 70 horses.”

Beirne purchased Tremendous Sensation’s dam A New Sensation (Christian Cullen) from prominent Auckland identity Rod Croon in 2017.

For Croon, the mare left three foals for two winners in My Generation, a winner at Menangle and Albion Park, and The Dude, a Melton winner.

Beirne also bred three foals from A New Sensation in Tremendous Sensation, Ideal Chevron (3 wins) and Sensitive Miki, who qualified but never raced, before gifting the mare to Brent McIntyre’s Macca Lodge in 2021.

Beirne said he currently owns around 15 broodmares, the majority of them trotters.