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Multiple Group One winner Bonneval has been crowned New Zealand’s Horse of the Year for a second time ahead of her spring campaign in Australia.

The Cambridge-trained mare defended the title she won last year as a three-year-old when taking the premier prize at the New Zealand Thoroughbred Horse of the Year Awards presented in Auckland on Sunday.

She is the fifth successive Horse of the Year winner trained by Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman.

The record-breaking training partnership prepared the 2014 winner Dundeel followed by Mongolian Khan (2015/2016) and Bonneval.

Bonneval is the eighth horse to have earned the title more than once sicne they were introduced in 1971.

The other multiple winners have been Sunline (four times), Show Gate, Rough Habit, Xcellent, Seachange, Mufhasa and Mongolian Khan.

Bonneval was also voted the champion middle distance performer for the 2017-18 season while the Baker/Forsman partnership won Trainer of the Year.

She dominated the voting in the middle-distance category and received almost two thirds of the votes for Horse of the Year. She topped the Horse of the Year poll with 40 votes, 25 more than Avantage.

Kawi, NZ Oaks winner Savvy Coup and NZ Derby winner Vin De Dance were the others to attract votes.

Bonneval had only four starts in her four-year-old season but was the standout Kiwi performer at the Melbourne spring carnival when she won the G2 Feehan Stakes at Moonee Valley and then beat the multiple G1 winners Hartnell and Gailo Chop in the G1 Underwood Stakes at Caulfield.

She returned to work in the autumn but suffered a suspensory ligament injury after two trials runs.

The Makfi mare was the only New Zealand-trained horse to win a G1 race in Australia in the 2017-18 season and is scheduled to return to Melbourne this spring.

She was a $150,000 yearling buy for owners Terry Jarvis, Alastair Lawrence and John Rattray and has earned $1.68 million in stakes, from just 12 starts.

Kawi (sprinter/miler), Avantage (2YO), Savvy Coup (3YO), Charles Road (stayer) and Wise Men Say (jumper) were the winners of the other horse categories.

Premiership winner Sam Collett was voted NZ Jockey of the Year and Isaac Lupton was named NZ Jumps Jockey of the Year for the third time.