In 2020 the prestigious Breeder of the Year Award will be renamed honouring New Zealand’s most influential breeders over the last 30 years, Sir Patrick and Justine Lady Hogan.
Previously both the Breeder of the Year Award and the Eight Carat Broodmare of the Year Award have been presented at the NZTR Horse of the Year Awards, but this year they will be among the awards presented at the NZTBA’s own National Breeding Awards hosted by the Waikato Branch at the Don Rowlands Centre, Lake Karapiro in Cambridge.
Held on Saturday evening, this event will be the highlight of the weekend planned by the Waikato Branch around their annual Stallion Parade on Saturday August 22nd and Sunday August 23rd.
Sir Patrick and Justine Lady Hogan are both delighted and humbled by the fact the award is named in their honour, and as a mark of the esteem in which this award is held the NZTBA has commissioned a beautiful bronze as a perpetual trophy.
It is fitting that the bronze will be crafted by Cambridge artist Nicola Lewis, (Nicola Jain Collections) whose father Rick Lewis crafted a much sort after limited-edition bronze of Sir Tristram in 1984. One of which was presented to Her Majesty the Queen when she visited Cambridge Stud in 1990.
In 2015 Nicola Lewis crafted a limited-edition bronze of Sir Tristram’s greatest son Zabeel, and Her Majesty has added one of these to her collection as well.
Based in Cambridge Lewis wasn’t always an artist. After a successful career in the corporate world she decided to follow her passion for art in 2011, when she joined her father in Ireland while he was Artist in Residence at the famous Ashford Castle in County Mayo.
With 50 years experience in painting and sculpting he was the perfect mentor for any apprentice artist. After spending time in Ireland with her father Lewis returned to New Zealand and has made a name for herself both as a sculptor and painter of birds and animals.
The award winner will hold the trophy for one year and will also be presented with a miniature bronze to keep for themselves.
The award will be presented to the New Zealand Breeder or Breeders whose breeding operation, in the season under review and anywhere in the world, most clearly reflects true breeding merit in quality of racing performance, and when measuring that performance takes into account the location and scope of the breeding operation and the success achieved in relation to that size.
Nominations for the award will be made by the various NZTBA branches and the Nominee must be a financial member of the NZTBA. A sub-committee of independent members will be established similar to the sub-committee that adjudicates on the Eight Carat Broodmare of the Year Award process, and this sub-committee will look at nominations received but not be bound by those only.
A final list of three to five nominees will be submitted to the NZTBA Council to select the eventual winner.
