Where Are They Now: Nearea Franco – The Last Mare to Conquer Kaikoura

When the Kaikoura Cup field lines up at South Bay on Monday, it won’t just mark the 100th running of one of New Zealand harness racing’s most beloved lead-up races. It will also quietly celebrate the enduring class of the last mare to win it — Nearea Franco — whose 2009 victory remains the benchmark for toughness, speed, and spirit among pacing mares who dared to take on the boys.

For trainer Steven McCrae and the late Wayne Francis’s Spreydon Lodge, Nearea Franco embodied everything the Franco prefix stood for: durability, athleticism, and a depth of bloodline that continues to shape New Zealand’s modern studbook.

Bred by Spreydon Lodge, Nearea Franco was the fourth foal out of the imported mare No Paba (Abercrombie – Sunburn), a half-sister to world champion and $2.5-million earner Beach Towel, later an inductee into the North American Immortals Hall of Fame in 2009. No Paba was imported to New Zealand by Wayne Francis in 1998 and produced fifteen live foals, seven individual winners, and a dynasty of mares whose influence is only deepening with time.

“Nearea Franco was probably the first one I remember out of No Paba,” McCrae recalls. “Maybe it’s just because she turned out to be the best, but she was certainly one of the first of those fillies we had by Badlands Hanover. She was always a big mare — we just gave her time.”

That patience would prove decisive. Nearea Franco didn’t make her debut until her four-year-old season, but when she did, she made an immediate statement. She won seven of her first nine starts, culminating in a stunning 1:54.4 demolition job in the 2008 NZ Harness Jewels 4YO Diamond at Cambridge Raceway. It was a four-and-a-half-length masterclass that announced her arrival as the dominant mare of her generation.

McCrae laughs when recalling those early days. “Craig Thornley used to shoe her for us — he was our blacksmith as well. He’d always say, ‘Geez, I hope this thing’s no bloody good,’ because she was terrible to shoe behind. She could hardly pick her back feet up; he’d have to wedge himself underneath her. But she turned out to be worth putting up with later in life.”

Behind the humour lay a truth that shaped her whole career: she wasn’t the soundest horse. McCrae says they battled to keep her right throughout her racing life. Yet when she was sound, she was exceptional.

“There weren’t many mares who could race those good open-class horses like she did,” he says. “She won the Kaikoura Cup, ran second in the Free-For-All to Monkey King — that field was unbelievable — and she even beat Monkey King one night at Forbury when he was pretty much unbeatable.”

Indeed, that 2009 Kaikoura Cup victory remains one of the great modern performances by a mare in open company. She’d been runner-up the year before, then returned to conquer the South Bay circuit in style. Incredibly, no mare has managed to repeat the feat in the fifteen years since.

“She never really loved Kaikoura,” McCrae admits. “The last bend used to trip her up a bit, but she’d been racing super leading into it. She’d run second or third to Monkey King in the Kaikoura Classic, so that’s why she started favourite. We were hoping she’d begin quick enough to get the front, and she did. It probably wasn’t as easy a win as we’d expected the way she’d been racing, but a win’s a win.”

The Kaikoura triumph was followed by a gallant run in the NZ Free-For-All at Addington, where she finished second to Monkey King and beat home a who’s-who of modern pacers — Changeover, Mr Feelgood and Auckland Reactor.

For McCrae, though, the day that lingers most is the 2008 Harness Jewels. “That day was pretty cool. We got the quinella, which made it even better. I hadn’t been training that long, and it was my first step into the big time. Back then the Jewels at Cambridge had a real buzz, big crowds, a great atmosphere. To win it the way she did — that was special.”

Over four seasons, Nearea Franco raced just 34 times for 11 wins, nine placings, and $441,000 in stakes — figures that would have been even higher had she been easier to keep sound. She was crowned both the 2008 NZ 4YO Mare Pacer of the Year and the 2009 Aged Mare Pacer of the Year, fitting honours for a mare who never shirked her duties and faced elite opposition week after week.

As a broodmare, Nearea Franco produced a remarkable line of twelve foals for Spreydon Lodge. Her first, the Nike Franco filly, proved every bit her mother’s daughter — a multiple Group winner in Australia and the USA, clocking 1:48 and earning more than $900,000. On retirement she joined Alabar’s broodmare band, where her first foal Bay of Biscay (by Somebeachsomewhere) has already etched his mark with 12 wins from 25 starts, two at Group 1 level and over $1.8 million in stakes. This connection underlines the deep Spreydon Lodge lineage and the global potential of the family.

“It’s a bit of a funny story,” McCrae recalls. “Nike Franco was an embryo transfer late in Nearea’s career. She got beaten first up but went very good doing it. We thought, well, if the first one’s this good, imagine what the rest will be like when we start sending her to the top stallions. We sold Nike Franco for good money at the time, thinking there’d be plenty more like her coming through… turns out, no — they weren’t quite the same.”

While Nearea Franco never quite replicated that first strike, her daughters have kept the flame alive. Nike Franco herself has produced Bay of Biscay, a Group 1 performer who looks poised to extend the family’s success in Australasia. Meanwhile, Naiya Franco has already produced the Group 1 winner Ripples (Bettor’s Delight), proving that Nearea Franco’s influence is far from finished.

Among the younger stock, Shan Noble (Bettor’s Delight) stands out with seven wins and over $165,000 in stakes, while mares like Nova Franco and Nirvana Franco continue to breed on. McCrae still holds hopes that one of her daughters might emerge as a producer in the same league.

“I always thought Nyree Franco might be the one,” he says. “She was a beautiful type, maybe the best of them. She was lightly raced, had a few issues, but she’s left a couple who are shaping up OK. Nothing super exciting yet, but you live in hope.”

That mix of pragmatism and pride sums up the McCrae-Spreydon partnership that defined Nearea Franco’s career. Even in recalling her final chapter, McCrae’s tone is affectionate.

“She did a great job — never missed. I don’t think she failed to get in foal once. Then this year they rang me and said, ‘You might want to come and say goodbye, she’s struggling a bit.’ Me and Craig took a box of beer thinking we’d get all emotional, but when we saw her we just thought, bugger it — she’s been too good to us. We picked her up and took her to a mate’s place where she’s being looked after. She looks a million dollars in the paddock with a young horse for company. She’s happy.”

Now, as the 100th Kaikoura Cup looms, that image of Nearea Franco — content and well-loved in retirement — feels like a fitting mirror of her racing days: tough, uncomplicated, and quietly outstanding.

In an era when mares rarely stepped out of their grade, Nearea Franco didn’t just compete — she excelled. Her record, and the calibre of horses she beat, stack up against any of the past two decades. And while Monday’s centenary running will produce a new name for the honour roll, it will take something truly special to displace the mare who last carried the mantle for her sex.

Fifteen years on, Nearea Franco remains more than just the last mare to win the Kaikoura Cup. She’s a bridge between eras — from Wayne Francis’s vision at Spreydon Lodge to the modern pedigrees shaping today’s elite pacers. And as her daughters and grand-progeny continue to make their mark, the No Paba family that once arrived quietly from North America stands as one of the great enduring bloodlines in New Zealand harness breeding.

This Monday, as the flags flutter over South Bay and the Cup turns 100, it’s worth remembering the big mare with the awkward shoeing habits and the giant stride — Nearea Franco, the mare who took on the best, beat them, and left a legacy that keeps on winning.

Nearea Franco winning the 2009 Kaikoura Cup