Off the back of Burn To Shine's win in the Gr.3 War Decree Stakes at Riccarton Park on Saturday, we catch up with General Manager of The Oaks Stud, Rick Williams in this week's edition of Dunstan Horse Feeds Meet The Breeder.
Tell us the history of The Oaks Stud
It was West Australian businessman Roy Connell, who purchased the highest performing dairy farm in the Waikato and developed it in the mid-eighties. He might have only just finished building it when the share market crashed, but anyway he certainly started it and had a couple of West-Australian stallions here and at that time, it was about 400 acres.
After the share market crashed, it came on the market and was split up. 200 acres was purchased by Des Hawkins and the rest Snow Howell bought as a dairy farm. Then Russell Warwick leased it for a while as Westbury Stud and they had Gold Brose and a few stallions.
When I got involved with Terry Jarvis, I have been here 25 years in March, so a bit over 25 years ago he approached me to see if I would come. I had been involved with Waikato Stud and then when I first met Terry, I had been at Bloomsbury for three years. When I first started, it was nothing, I think Terry had a few race mares and we had the stallion ‘Yachtie’.
I had already met Dick Karreman and he had stayed with Jo (Rick’s wife) and I a couple of times and had suggested he would be interested in buying the property if Terry ever decided to sell. After four years Terry decided to put the 200 acres on the market, and Dick rang and negotiated and bought the place. At the time it included about six mares and Yachtie and since then it has grown to 500 acres after buying a couple of blocks of land over the road.
We now breed from about 50 mares, and have stood a few more stallions like Entrepreneur, Bachelor Duke, Traditionally, Spartacus and Keeninsky.
How did you get into thoroughbred breeding?
I am from a farming background and grew up in Taihape and when I was doing my degree at Massey University I got interested in punting and going to the races. When I had finished studying, my father bought a stallion called ‘Hoopla’, he was a Fair’s Fair horse and we stood on the farm in Taihape many years ago for about $600 as Dad had a couple of broodmares. With the farming crash in the 1980s there wasn’t enough money in farming, I remember selling ewes at the sales for 50c so I went up to Auckland and took a job with Thoroughbred Holdings it was in those days. I moved through that era working at Waikato Stud and then Bloomsbury and now at The Oaks Stud. I could write a book on some of the experiences I have had over the years.
Tell us a bit about the success The Oaks has had.
We have been successful but probably more remembered for our racing success than our sales ring success. I guess Seachange just after Dick took over put us on the map in terms of racehorses but since then we have won just about every major race in New Zealand. In 2012, we quinellaed the Oaks when Artistic beat Zurella breeding and owning them both and then we repeated in another classic in 2019 when Catalyst beat Harlech in the 2000 Guineas. There have been heaps of highs, racing is always a highlight at the end of the day.
Darci Brahma has been a stalwart of The Oaks over the years, he has been a great sire.
We have been Owner Of The Year about five or six times since I have been here, not in the last five years but from about 2005-2015 we received those titles. We have had a lot of group success since then, some sales success – nothing in the million dollars but 500, 600, 700k.
What else do you have in your bloodstock portfolio? (racehorses, stallion shares etc)
We own U S Navy Flag and are standing on behalf of a syndicate The Chosen One. We have a couple of shares in Hello Youmzain, Eminent, Ace High, and about five in Reliable Man – so we do take shares in our studs stallions.
Do you breed to trade or to race? If both, how do you determine what to keep and what to sell?
We are probably keeping more horses to race now because Dick wants to race a good horse, we keep all of our fillies. We have had tremendous success trading out of trials and I have tended to send less to the sales and keep more on – the risks are higher but obviously the rewards are a lot higher too. Doesn’t work for everyone obviously as cash flow is crucial but we can afford to wait – when you get it wrong, your horse is worth nothing but when you get it right, the rewards are worth waiting for. We sold Zurella and Risque for over millions of dollars as the offers were too good to refuse so at the end of the day, everything is for sale.
Do you seek advice on your breeding decisions or how do you come to make your breeding decisions?
Me solely, Dick never gets involved but I travel around the sales and talk to people that I respect and you’re always listening to what they are thinking about stallions progressing. I am big on studying stallion statistics and pedigree patterns.
What do you love about the thoroughbred breeding industry?
You go into each year with a lot of optimism whether it be the foals on the ground or the racing team. We have a significant racing team now and I enjoy that a lot.
You love the horses first of all but there are some great people in it as well. Everyone in this industry has experienced the highs and lows but they all tend to be very good people and have a good sense of humour as well, and they need it.
What advice would you give someone entering the industry as a breeder?
Get good proper advice.
Proudest moment as a breeder?
As The Oaks Stud, it would be getting the quinella of the Oaks that year and again in 2019 with the 2000 Guineas.
In terms of the breeding side of the whole thing, we managed to get two horses we bred across the line first and second, and in the Oaks we owned them both, in the Guineas we owned the winner. If you look at the statistical chance of that, I never have and I haven’t gone back in history to see if any breeder has done it before but they are actually Classic races not just any Group race, so that is my proudest moment. I don’t what Dick’s would be, probably Seachange winning the 2000 Guineas.
Finish this sentence: The best part of being a thoroughbred breeder is…
Getting up in the morning on one of the finest thoroughbred farms in the world in terms of beauty and quality of pasture. That’s it I think, first thing in the morning the anticipation of another day and living in a great part of the world.
