He has recently formed an association with Nick and Anne-Marie King's Waikato
breeding operation Brighthill Farm through their freshman stallion Preferment."Mr Zhang has bought 10 of the 50 shares in Preferment and he will be sending 20 mares to him for at least the next three years," Nick King said.
"Ten dry mares are arriving from Australia this week and he will be adding another 10 sourced from New Zealand."
Zhang said he had followed the regally-bred son of Zabeel throughout a racing career that netted Group One wins in the VRC Derby, Turnbull Stakes, Australian Cup and The BMW.
He now welcomed the opportunity to work with New Zealand breeders to support Preferment at stud.
"He owns an awful lot of bloodstock all around the world and this is his first investment in New Zealand," King said. "It's a great endorsement of our industry and we're delighted to have him on board.
"It's giving Preferment a great book of mares and that's what syndication is
all about. The reasons why these things happen is the quality of our horses and
our environment. "He will be making his first visit to Brighthill toward the end of this month."
Zhang's Australian presence has steadily grown through his development in Victoria of Yulong Park, a 175-acre property south east of Melbourne and home to a quality broodmare band.
The Chinese billionaire also owns the impressive Yulong Racecourse in Shanxi and is keen to foster the development of horse racing in his homeland.
Also a significant buyer at European sales, his racing team is split between Mick Price, Darren Weir, Peter and Paul Snowden and Bjorn Baker in Australia.
Zhang has previously attended the Karaka Sales and earlier this year purchased a Tavistock half-brother to Killarney Kid for $425,000 through Alex Teng of Horse Feng Bloodstock, who was also instrumental in the stallion investment.
"It is very exciting to see Yulong invest in Preferment," Teng said. "Yulong is the biggest player in Chinese breeding and racing and it is great to have them involved in the New Zealand breeding industry." – NZ Racing Desk.
