Photo: Supplied
This week in Dunstan Horsefeeds Meet the Breeder, we catch up with Queensland breeder Stewart Hume, whose interest in the thoroughbred started in country Queensland and whose love for the middle-distance staying type of horse has given him many highlights throughout his journey in thoroughbred breeding.
Tell us the story of Lekvarte?
Yea so that was exciting on the weekend (winning the Gr.3 Mostyncopper Aspiration Quality). I bought the mare ‘Plumm’ off the track, she hadn’t won a race, but she had been placed in the Gr.3 Adrian Knox as a 3yo and she sustained an injury at that point, so whilst I got her off the track as a maiden, she definitely showed ability over 2000m and was probably heading onto the Oaks after that. She is a big Encosta De Lago mare, a really nice mare with good size, strength and bone and when I was planning her matings I was thinking of something that could stay, a middle-distance stallion and I have a share in Reliable Man, and it just seemed like a good mating. Encosta De Lago is a good outcross broodmare sire so I thought after Reliable Man I thought she would probably suit stallions in New Zealand to try and breed like with like in terms of middle-distance, so she stayed there (in New Zealand) for a couple of years.
Lekvarte was a beautiful foal. From the word go, Russell Warwick at Westbury Stud liked Lekvarte so I guess commercially she was also going to be sold as yearling because she was such a nice foal, and she was sold through Westbury Stud’s Karaka 2020 Book 1 draft.
I actually sold Plumm last year as she was quite a tricky mare at times, and I was hoping Lekvarte would have done something a little earlier. I put her in foal to Bivouac and sold her. Mick Talty always told me if you're thinking about moving on a mare, don’t wait until she is right at the end of her breeding career, it is always good to leave something in the kitty for the next person to potentially do well out of her. So, if Lekvarte was to come out and do something, it was a bonus for the new owners.
Photo: Supplied
What made you interested in breeding horses and how did you get into it?
Absolutely no background in horses or breeding. I studied in Pharmacy at University in Brisbane and post-that I went straight out to country Queensland (Charleville and Roma) to work. I was a long way from home and a long way from Brisbane a long with many others who were teachers or in the health sector, so we made our own fun and that was heading along to the country races – so it really started as a young adult heading along to the country races and really enjoying it as a social event.
At that time Sunline was at the peak of her powers, and after one of her Cox Plate wins where she lead start to finish, I remember vividly thinking ‘oh my goodness’ and really appreciating the horse as an athlete. So it went from socialising at the races to suddenly ‘hang on a sec’ this is something special, I wonder what the breeding is and how did it happen. So I really got into the breeding side from the social aspect of racing; and from seeing horses like Sunline, and also Redoute’s Choice battling with Testa Rossa.
It was the racing side as a young adult that I started to appreciate the horse and then the idea of selective breeding, planning and maybe breeding a racehorse that is what ultimately got me going. No history as a child but country racing definitely got me into it.
How many mares do you breed from?
Around a dozen I got in foal last year – a bit of a mix between Australia and New Zealand. I always tend to keep a couple in New Zealand as I love breeding middle-staying distance type of horses. A dozen is probably a little bit higher than I want to at the moment, I have a few young mares from family’s that really interest me so I am at the stage where I might move on a couple of my older mares.
What else do you have in your bloodstock portfolio (youngstock, racehorses etc)
I still have a share in Reliable Man and also Vadamos, obviously the foals that are coming through each year. I do race a few fillies at a time as I tend to keep and race a filly from a proven-aging mare that I have. The racing is obviously exciting, so I also have a share in a couple of colts that I bred.
I like to keep a small share in some of the early foals of my young mares just so I know early days what is happening and how they are going through the communication updates.
What do you love about the NZ thoroughbred breeding industry and why do you support it so much?
You have just got the right stallions! If you are wanting to breed a middle-distance horse or you’ve got mares that are middle-distance families, New Zealand has just got the right stallions; and you have got the right broodmare population to support those stallions. Clearly New Zealand, and John Foote (Bloodstock Agent) told me from very early days said New Zealand has the perfect climate, the perfect country, the perfect land and the horsemen and women there are amazing so it is just the perfect scenario to breed a thoroughbred. It is not hard for us to send mares across to New Zealand, it does cost of course but once you get them there and they are looked after by the best horse-people, and you see the country and the farms themselves, it is amazing so I think history speaks for itself.
Do you breed to trade or breed to race? How do you make your decisions on what to keep and what to sell?
The business model is to sell as yearlings, I try to breed to sell commercially as yearlings. Occasionally, as previously mentioned, if I get a filly from one of my proven-aging mares I like to keep the family if there have been other fillies I have sold previously. I have a very long-term view with the families and with the mares I breed from but generally if I get a good yearling, I am there to sell to keep the business ticking over.
Sometimes I can be really stubborn when I am trying to breed a middle-distance horse and I get a nice filly that people say she may not be a commercial yearling, she is not big and not precocious, so I say well I am trying to breed a 3yo that can run over 2400m of course they are going to need time; so there has been times when I have raced my fillies that I have put reserves on because I have faith in what I am doing and what I have produced is exactly what I have tried to produce and that is a middle-distance 3yo. Horses like Hectopascal (Pins) and Poppiholla (Pentire), I put realistic reserves on them but I ended up keeping them to race and it has worked out for me; but generally I breed to sell.
If I do end up keeping a filly it is because I have faith in it, there is nothing wrong with it, it is correct and if I give it to the right trainer that is willing to be patient then that can improve the family as well.
Do you seek advice on your breeding decisions?
100% - it is so important. I got really fortunate that I contacted John Foote over 20 years ago out of the blue. I was in my mid-20s and didn’t know anyone in the industry and got lucky by finding that he was a Queensland Bloodstock Agent, I am so fortunate that I got in touch with him. John has become a really good friend, he guides me through everything. I generally don’t buy mares without him being involved or when I am doing my matings I spend time with him, he has been a huge influence and has moulded my way of thinking about families and breeding, and he has introduced me to some amazing people so I definitely wouldn’t do it without the advice.
Mick Talty formerly of Edinglassie Stud in the Hunter he has given me a lot of good advice too.
Within in New Zealand, Russell Warwick at Westbury and Andrew Seabrook at NZB I have an enormous amount of respect for both those guys, they have been so giving with advice with different things whether it is breeding or commercial aspects so yes advice is invaluable, it is a must do!
What advice would you give to someone entering the industry as a breeder?
Obviously seek advice from certain people but patience is the number one thing. As you know, it takes an enormous amount of time, money and effort to get the right mares to build up a broodmare band and to mate them appropriately. It is not exciting all the time and breeding commercially is super hard! I have been doing it for almost 22-23 years and it really is hard to be a commercial breeder so try to have a long-term view of your broodmares and what you are doing, you are trying to produce a runner at the end of the day. Breeding commercially is fine and you might get a winner or two particularly early in a mares career but at the end of the day you have got to breed a good racehorse for that mare to fire and the family to improve. So advice and patience are the number one things!
Proudest moment as a breeder?
Obviously Lekvarte in her last couple of starts gaining black-type has been a huge thrill. Breeding Greysful Glamour who was a multiple group-winner. The most exciting moment with her was that she almost held onto win the Gr.1 VRC Oaks where she got beaten by a head. She was my first main stakes-winner but the fact she almost won the Oaks, that was a pretty proud moment.
Something maybe not at that scale, was I had two horses, Hectopascal and Poppiholla, both bred in New Zealand by me, I put realistic reserves on them and retained them for the reasons previously mentioned, I brought them over to Australia they both won on the same day at Ballarat and I just happened to be down in Victoria and be on-course to see them both win.
Poppiholla went on to be placed in the Adelaide Cup not long after that and Hectopascal was a good racehorse, but they are both now back in New Zealand breeding and are part of my broodmare band so that is a proud accomplishment without it necessarily being group one victories. It’s been a long-term full circle.
Finish this sentence…the best part about being a thoroughbred breeder is….
The satisfaction of producing a really good racehorse. The process can take several years when you think about sourcing a mare, spending weeks or months deciding on a mating, waiting a further 12 months to get a foal and hopefully the foal looks exactly like you thought it would when you matched the stallion and mare up, then you hope they get into a good stable or placing them into a good stable, then you wait another two or three years before they might hit the racetrack. So that’s the best part, the satisfaction you get from maybe planning something three or four years out and at the end of the day producing a good racehorse. There is a lot luck but you can’t really call it a fluke when you are thinking three to four years of a lot of decisions to get a racehorse at the end – there is a lot of satisfaction in that.
