(Photo Megan Liefting)
The undoubted feelgood story of last week’s New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sales Series was Haunui Farm’s first leading vendor title headed by their $2.4 million sister to Orchestral.
Going into the annual auction Haunui principal Mark Chitty knew he had a quality draft to offer, but any calculations as to where that might position the Karaka nursery on the vendors’ table was hardly front and centre of mind.
However when all was done and dusted at the end of three days of Book 1 selling, the statistics clearly stated that Haunui Farm held sway over previous market leaders Waikato Stud, Curraghmore and Cambridge Stud. Receipts totaling $6,740,000 for 24 lots at an average price of $280,833, led by a record filly price for Barneswood Farm’s Savabeel-Symphonic filly set the seal on the title coveted by National Sale vendors.
“Each year in the approach to Karaka you’re not actually setting out to get results like that,” Chitty told RaceForm earlier this week. “It’s more about doing the best for your clients and the horses themselves.
“Maybe we’ll never do it again, but it is a wonderful feeling to think we have topped the table at least once. There’s so much satisfaction attached to it, especially knowing we’ve repaid the faith that our clients have put in us.”
Immense history lies behind where Haunui Farm now finds itself. Chitty is a fourth-generation member of the family that first became involved in thoroughbred breeding when his great-grandfather Ernie Schofield bought a filly foaled in 1950 by champion stallion Foxbridge from Trelawney Stud founder Seton Otway.
Named Foxona, she established a line that is still producing winners from Haunui, among them the quality racemares Rondinella and Valpolicella, who were both represented with six-figure yearlings in the farm’s 2025 Karaka draft.
Haunui Farm had its beginnings more than six decades ago on rolling country in Whitford, to the south-east of the Auckland metropolis, initially under the ownership of Chitty’s grandparents Geoff and Peg (Schofield) Chitty. The first stallion to stand there in the early 1970s was the Irish-bred grey Karayar, whose progeny included the AJC and QTC Sires’ Produce Stakes winner Karaman, Caulfield Cup winner Silver Bounty and Great Northern Oaks winner Spring Tide.
Karayar was quickly followed by Ruling, who sired the New Zealand Derby-winning duo Kaiser and Ruling Lad, and the even more successful Sea Anchor, whose list was headed by the champion galloper Red Anchor and fellow classic winners Beachcraft, Round the World and Weston Lea.
By the early 1980s Haunui Farm was under the management of Geoff and Peg Chitty’s son Ron, who in turn handed over management to his son Mark, but not before the latter broadened his experience in other aligned fields.
“When I was growing up at Haunui our vet was Charlie Roberts, and whenever I could I would do the rounds with him, opening gates and taking in as much as possible,” Mark Chitty recalls. “That led to me deciding to go down the same career path and studying at Massey University for my veterinary science degree. When I returned to Auckland, I got a job working for Charlie and Andrew Grierson in their mainly equine practice.
“To begin with I took a keen interest in the performance side of the thoroughbred, but I swung the other way after Charlie sat me down to discuss where my career should be heading.
“He said to me ‘You know, when you’re dealing with racehorses, much of your work is fixing problems, but on the breeding side of things it’s more like you’re creating something’. Those wise words have stayed with me to this day.”
As it transpired, Chitty’s career was to take what at the time was a more significant turn when he and his wife Sara assumed the reins at Haunui from his parents. That didn’t mean discarding his veterinary ticket and he still plays an active role “at the bale”.
Major change took place some 15 years ago when plans were unveiled for an upgrade of the electricity supply to Auckland, and like other farming properties in the path of massive pylons carrying hydro-electric power from the central North Island, Haunui was earmarked for purchase by Transpower.
That left no option but to find an alternative location, which led to purchasing the former Twin Pines property “out west” at Karaka.
“It was a major undertaking, what with all the logistics, moving to a quite different soil-type from the Whitford hills to the Karaka, but we were up for it,” Chitty recalls. “Dad took the lead in setting up the new property for our needs while I managed the day-to-day business, and after taking ownership in late 2009 we were fully operational in time for the 2011 breeding season.”
Haunui’s business model already included shuttle stallions – early examples in partnership with fellow studs included Last Tycoon, Bigstone and Soviet Star – and towards the end of the first decade of this millennium, Iffraaj and Showcasing joined that list.
Iffraaj in particular was to prove a real success with a string of major winners in both hemispheres, including his English-born son Wootton Bassett who now shuttles to Coolmore Australia, and current local sprint star Grail Seeker.
Iffraaj’s multiple European Group One-winning son Ribchester is the latest – and only –stallion to stand at Haunui, which underscores the evolution of this and other farms that in the recent past have undergone.
“The days of farms like Haunui standing stallions as our core business are over,” says Chitty. “That game has changed a lot, and for us it’s more about catering to a clientele wanting us to provide everything they need for their mares and progeny.
“We also do a lot of contract foaling for other farms – last spring we foaled 225 mares and something like 100 of those had returned home within 48 hours. It makes good sense for us to have the full range of facilities and personnel that you need for that work, especially when those skill levels are becoming more and more scarce, so it’s a service we’re happy to provide.”
Another is full care of mares on behalf of clients, going back to renowned breeder Annie Sarten, who with her husband James developed the hugely successful “Belle” family. Having sold their Papakura farm in 1984 following her husband’s death and handing over management of the broodmare band, she joined forces with Haunui to top the 1986 National Yearling Sale at Trentham with a colt by Sir Tristram from Kashmir Belle at $750,000.
The Sarten legacy – and the partnership with Haunui Farm – has stood the test of time, with James and Annie’s daughter Marie Leicester continuing to breed from the illustrious line most famous of recent times for the Hall of Fame racemare Melody Belle.
“We’ve had a wonderful relationship with the Sarten family for many years and Marie is now one of many who utilise our full range of services,” says Chitty. “Sarah and Chris Green and their partner in Barneswood Farm, Ger Beemsterboer, are others who have enjoyed so much success with their racing team as well as breeding for the commercial market.
“Seeing Orchestral go on and do great things after we sold her at Karaka has been fantastic and the timing could hardly have been better when she returned to form on Karaka Millions night. We knew her sister would be popular with so much interest in her from the big players, but there was no way you could have predicted what she eventually sold for.”
Chitty’s veterinary skills continue to play a part in daily activities at Haunui, and have specific relevance to more than one of last week’s Karaka outcomes.
“The only reason Sarah (Green) was prepared to sell the Symphonic filly was that the mare had produced another filly last spring, but back in the 2023 breeding season we were sweating on her getting back in foal.
“She missed with her first two coverings to Savabeel, so I decided to resort to some of the tricks Charlie (Roberts) had taught me. To everyone’s relief they worked, the mare conceived and she’s now got the filly at foot that was the green light to her older sister going to Karaka.
“There was also a lot of satisfaction in the result we got for the Proisir filly out of Colerne, who was sent across from Australia after failing to get in foal three years running. Once again the old tricks came to the fore and the filly she produced sold for $360,000.”
Chitty readily admits there’s another side to commercial breeding, one that involves increasing expenses with no guarantee of a favourable balance sheet.
“The days of the farmer-breeder are pretty much gone and it’s now up to operations like ours to provide the means, but that comes at a cost, there’s no getting away from that fact.
“There’s nothing worse than preparing a yearling and selling it at a loss or to end up still owning it when it could have stayed in the paddock costing nowhere near as much.
“I don’t think there’s any quick fix, and when you look at Book 2 at Karaka and horses selling at a loss without even factoring in the service fee, as an industry we have to find a way to maintain the foal crop and know you’re not going to come out of it without losing money, otherwise it’s simply not sustainable.”
As the former chairman of the Counties Racing Club and now deputy chair of Auckland Thoroughbred Racing since the amalgamation of the Counties and Auckland clubs, Chitty has had a front-row seat in the significant racing industry evolution that has taken place in recent years.
“It was a bold move but we had to do something, we couldn’t keep doing what we were doing – you know how that ends up. Installing the StrathAyr track at Ellerslie was a massive investment and not without its challenges, but I think it’s fair to say it’s now proving its worth.
“Entain arrived at just the right time and now the industry has to keep moving forward with bold decision-making.”
Closer to home Chitty values what it means to be a member of a family steeped in the world of the thoroughbred and one that he is now making a worthy contribution to.
“I think back to people like Charlie (Roberts) and Sir Patrick (Hogan), being taken under their wing and learning so much from them about the industry, plus everyone we know who’s genuinely pleased with what happened at Karaka – that means a lot.
“It’s great that my parents are still very much involved in what is a family thing, and Sara and I are so lucky that our kids have what you could describe as a degree of interest in what we’re doing.”
