by Brian de Lore
Published 16th August 2019
A single day in the world of racing and breeding can bring a changing industry landscape, and while discontentment at the contracting nature of the business isn’t hard to find, you will also find plenty of positivity and passion for the thoroughbred.
These pages have continually highlighted industry problems and the plans made to overcome them, but Thursday 15th of August was one day which re-emphasised to this writer the passion of people undeterred and determined to succeed in this thoroughbred game.
In an early morning visit to Cambridge Stud I was hosted by CEO Henry Plumptre who has has been at the helm of this famous nursery for the past year and a half. I have known Henry for over 30 years having worked with him in the eighties at Ra Ora Stud when Arrowfield Stud had a two-year involvement.
On a previous visit to the Stud as recently as April, excavators and diggers were in full cry and mud was plentiful. Fast forward to mid-August and the transformation is nothing less than remarkable, although the work is ongoing.
As most will be aware, the Sir Patrick Hogan, Sir Tristram and Zabeel established land-of-honour is now the property of the former Sistema proprietors Brendan and Jo Lindsay who are in the process of transforming this iconic piece of dirt into something one might be expectant from the ownership of Sheik Mohammad.
You have to admire what the Lindsays are doing to the Stud which is marginally against recent trends of downsizing. In the days of Sir Tristram and Zabeel in Sir Patrick’s and Lady Justine’s ownership, Cambridge Stud was always considered a showpiece property – but this is a different level – completely.
It’s state of the art, and no stone has been left unturned by its new owners in their endeavours to provide the thoroughbreds bred and reared on this hallowed land with every opportunity to continue its great history.
Of course, the one ingredient missing will be Sir Patrick’s luck of the Irish. No-one, even by Patrick’s own admission, has enjoyed more luck than he, especially when considering how Sir Tristram was purchased, escaped near death and then became the dynasty which continued with that champion’s best sire-son in Zabeel.
Following the demolition of almost all the Stud’s facilities, the completed new stallion block and three of the four yearling barns look magnificent – the front barn enclosing 24 boxes of four-metre x four-metre and the other three housing 18 boxes each – with the fourth underway to complete the square. A new office located on the site of the old car park is also impressive in keeping with the architectural theme of the yearling barns. It is annexed with car parking for 25 or 30 cars.
The stallion barn comprises of four boxes of 4.5 metres x 4.5 metres at each end (each with a camera and equilume lights) separated by a feed room, washing bays and a white-board room for the stallion grooms.
Henry explained: “The interiors of the barns are of German design and were imported in kit-set form in flatpacks while and steel-work and roofing was build in South Auckland. It’s been a painless way of putting things together – you give them the specifications and they ship the flat packs out.
“The building program that Brendan has been overseeing himself literally kicked off at the end of January so he’s done all that in about seven months. We’ve been helped by the weather this year which has been good but the builders who have had about 60 sub-contractors here have done a fantastic job.
“Brendan went to the Hunter Valley last year and looked at Darley and Arrowfield amongst others,” Henry continued, “to decide upon a design – but the most important thing was to have the prep-shed, the stallion barn and the covering barn all in close proximity to make the management of the mares easy.
“Currently we are building a staff canteen which we had at Darley. We think it’s important that the staff all meet once a day which for us will probably be breakfast – during the season we will probably have about 40 employed including the farm crew and gardeners
“The museum will be built in February next year after the yearlings are gone. I think there will also be some guest accommodation built on the farm at some stage but Brendan hasn’t quite decided where that’s going yet.
On the breeding-stock, Henry said: “We have 151 broodmares which is a level we reached in antipation of having five stallions this year, especially for the support of Almanzor and Roaring Lion – we bought something like a dozen mares overseas and this year have increased the total band by around 45 or 50. The intention is that we will always be selling hard off the bottom.
“This year we will also have 16 fillies in training in Sydney and Melbourne and one in Brisbane. The intention is to give those fillies to trainers to encourage them to come to Karaka – it’s a fairly blunt form of engagement, but we live only three hours from the best racing jurisdictions in the world, but it’s also essential for us to have a local presence in New Zealand.
“We have another 10 or a dozen in training in the Waikato – if New Zealand is inching its way out of a mess which they’ve had for 20 years it’s important to give local trainers some encouragement. Some of our trainers here punch well above their weight and are world-class and it’s important we support them.”
Almanzor is highly credentialed and being well-patronised, but Roaring Lion will no longer figure in the stud’s future plans after his near-miss with death over the past few weeks. The best that Cambridge Stud could hope for is a full recovery from his colic attack, and that will be safely returned to Shekh Fahad – but without ever having covered a mare.
But the procurement of both Almanzor and Roaring Lion and the new appointments at the stud is a signal to everyone that Brendan and Jo Lindsay are more than serious about the level of success to which they aspire, and it strongly suggests they are also there for the long-haul.
Cambridge Stud, when all appointments are complete, will have 78 yearling boxes and be able to accommodate eight stallions. Fellow breeders will be grateful the Lindsays have arrived to actively boost the industry to attract overseas yearling buyers in what are difficult and uncertain times for the New Zealand industry.
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From Cambridge Stud, it’s a 12-minute drive to the south of the Cambridge township to the Pukekura property of Ann Browne, widow of the late Kenny Browne – Hall of Fame inductee and twice the Racing Writers Personality of the Year.
In the male-dominated arena of hurdle and steeplechase racing, Ken deservedly received numerous awards, but everyone in racing knows that the Brownes success was the result of a team effort and Ann Browne in her time has had few peers as a highly-skilled horsewoman.
Ann has now retired from training but on Wednesday enjoyed success as an owner in the Open Steeplechase at Te Aroha with Raisafuasho trained by Team Rogerson.
The Ken and Ann Browne partnership rightly gained recognition as one of the most successful husband and wife winning stories in racing history. They trained together on the 300-hectare rolling hill country property at Pukekura that had been in Kenny Browne’s family since 1872, and dominated the jumping scene for many years with horses like Crown Star who won 17 races, all over the jumps (a record).
In 1992 they were jointly recognised when awarded ‘Outstanding Contribution to Racing.” Together they prepared the winners of nine Great Northern Steeples, four Grand National Steeples, two Grand National Hurdles, two Wellington Steeples and seven McGregor-Grant Steeples.
Officially they trained 669 winners although that figure should have read 813 due to Ann’s name not being registered for training in the early years of their marriage. The Browne family home is full of trophies, memorabilia and racing books which provide a stark reminder of all the success they achieved and ensure that Ann is never far from the memory of the late and great Kenny.
