In the spring of 2016, the birth of a strong filly by Sacred Falls from the lightly raced mare Fabulist was unremarkable considering the amount of new thoroughbred life that arrives every year at one of the Southern Hemisphere’s most famous studs.

And again, nearly 12 months to the day, Fabulist produced a younger brother to that filly born the previous year. However, four years on, this brother and sister that arrived in the lush paddocks of Waikato Stud, could now be set to have the New Zealand breeding and racing industry front and centre across the world.

The filly, born in 2016, was sold for $100,000 at the 2018 Inglis classic sale to Sydney businessman, Damion Flower. However, Flower’s racing dynasty soon collapsed after he was jailed for alleged drug trafficking through Mascot Airport. Subsequently a group of young racing enthusiasts purchased the Sacred Falls filly that was named Icebath.

It was soon evident that Icebath was a horse of the future and ploughed through the heavy going to win at Randwick early last year. Celebrations of the success continued at a pub TAB in Bondi at which one of the owners noticed the breeding of a horse in the following race at Sha Tin in Hong Kong.

They, like most racing enthusiasts in Hong Kong, were blown away by the compelling win of Courier Wonder, the younger brother of Icebath. Courier Wonder had never raced in New Zealand but was successful in a barrier trial at Cranbourne, in country Victoria, and was quickly sold to John Size, Hong Kong’s leading trainer, without ever starting in Australasia.

Now, in 2021, Icebath, who was beaten narrowly in the group one Doncaster Handicap earlier this year, is now on the path of the Epsom Handicap and Cox Plate double, all races that are well within her grasp and as a recent barrier trial at Hawksbury showed, Icebath had strengthened into a powerful unit capable of taking on the best.

Meanwhile, younger brother, Courier Wonder, has put together five successes in Hong Kong, one of the toughest racing jurisdictions in the world. Having remarkably already achieved success at group level, Courier Wonder is now being set for the one of the most important sprint races on the Hong Kong program later this year.

However, some substantial wagers from China and Hong Kong on Courier Wonder to take out the world’s richest sprint race, The Everest, are significant pointers that the young sprinter, who has already recorded extraordinary times in Hong Kong, could well be a competitor in The Everest at Randwick later in the year.

So, from those two unremarkable births some years ago, could now morph into seeing that the New Zealand breeding industry have realistic hopes of winning the Cox Plate and Everest double by a sister and brother combination.