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Waikato horses and men were to the fore at last night’s NZ Racing Hall Of Fame gala dinner at the Skycity Hamilton.

Four horses and six people were the latest inductees into the NZRHOF and all bar one have, or have had, immediate ties with Waikato.

Ethereal, the Caulfield - Melbourne Cups queen bred at Pencarrow Stud, raced by Peter and Philip Vela and trained by Sheila Laxon at Maungatautari, was one the equine inductees, while the other horses inducted include champion broodmare Eight Carat, Cambridge-born and bred international superstar So You Think.

Ethereal won four Group One events and was unbeatable beyond 2000 metres and her win in the Melbourne Cup created history for Laxon, who became the first female trainer to officially win the great race.

Eight Carat, who shares with Eulogy the title of New Zealand’s greatest broodmare of the 20th century, is the latest addition from Cambridge Stud to the Hall Of Fame, joining owner Sir Patrick Hogan and the stud’s champion sires Sir Tristram and Zabeel. She is the dam of five Group One winners and her Group One legacy has continued through sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters.

So You Think, a dual hemisphere champion, won 10 Group One races, including two Cox Plates and beat the best gallopers in Europe.

The other horse inducted was the Cox Plate – Victoria Derby winner Daryl's Joy, who was trained at Woodville by Syd Brown for Singapore businessman Robert Goh. Daryl’s Joy stunned Australian racegoers when beating the seemingly invincible Vain and later when sold to the United States he won five races in America.

Seton Otway, the doyen of Waikato breeding, was honoured for promoting the region into Australasia’s pre-eminent thoroughbred nursery when establishing Trelawney Stud in 1930 and importing the champion sire Foxbridge (2008 NZRHOF inductee), who won 11 consecutive New Zealand Sires’ premierships.

Ngaruawahia-born Laurie Laxon was also inducted for his achievements as a master trainer in two countries. After winning the 1988 Melbourne Cup with Empire Rose and the 1993 Hong Kong International Cup with Romanee Conti, he moved to Singapore in 2000 and in 2013 he became the first trainer to prepare 1000 winners in Singapore, a feat to rival his record of nine champion trainer titles.

Shane Dye, a former Matamata lad, became a dual Hall Of Famer, having been inducted into the Australian Hall Of Fame two years ago. After being champion NZ apprentice twice, Dye shifted to Australia and won two Sydney premierships and rode 90 Group Ones including the Melbourne Cup, Cox Plate and four successive Golden Slippers – all by the age of 33!

John Costello, the doyen of racing writers, began his career as a journalist in Matamata and was inducted for a legacy which covers the full spectrum of daily newspaper and magazine reporting, 11 editions of the New Zealand Racing Annual, two editions of Galloping Greats and his account of one of racing’s pioneers, The Linda Jones Story.

Costello, along with the late Pat Finnegan, also produced Tapestry Of Turf, a thorough history of New Zealand racing from 1840 through to its publication in 1987.

Completing the line-up of inductees is Garry Chittick, a former Wairarapa sheep farmer who moved north in 1994, bought Waikato Stud and developed it into an industry leader. Chittick is a five-times Breeder Of The Year and recipient of the Oustanding Contribution To Racing Award.

A thoroughbred mare whose achievements were outside racing was also acknowledged by the NZ Racing Hall Of Fame at this year’s gala dinner.

Bess, who was one of more than 10,000 New Zealand horses sent overseas during the First World War (1914-18) and she was one of just four, and the sole thoroughbred, to return home after battle.

Coinciding with the centenary of New Zealand’s participation in the First World War, the New Zealand Racing Hall Of Fame believed it is an opportune time to acknowledge a thoroughbred who represents all the horses whose lives were put on the line in the Great War.

Bess is buried at Flock House (Bulls), near where she died in 1934, and Powles erected a memorial which features two plaques in her honour.

The Phillip Leishman Media Award, established two years ago to improve the awareness in mainstream media of the New Zealand horse racing and breeding industries, was presented to Vanessa Veart-Smith, a TV presenter and Executive Producer of Country TV.