A rich history built on a Wilkes punt

There’s a letter, sent from 26 Charing Cross Road, London, in October 1955, which is carefully preserved on a stud farm in New South Wales.

Its appearance and tone - type-written in the standard Times Roman on now-yellowed paper, and in a language of its time - suggests it could be in a museum. Its content cries out that it most definitely should.

“Dear Sirs,” it begins. “With reference to your letter of the 4th inst., we note that Mr. Kelly does not wish to pay a high price for a horse, his limit being £5000 sterling."

“We know of a horse in France which might interest him, namely WILKES.”

The missive came from the British Bloodstock Agency, transacting the work of prominent thoroughbred agent George Blacklock. It was sent, via Inglis Bloodstock in Sydney, to John Kelly of Newhaven Park, Boorowa.

Wilkes had raced only three times. He’d won twice, but when being prepared for the French Derby he’d broken down. Still, Kelly liked what he heard from Blacklock, and took what was a bit of a gamble.

“Well,” says John’s son Richard, now 74, “most things to do with horses are a punt, aren’t they?”

Indeed, the whole farm had started from a bit of a punt. In fact an especially little one.

The horse who named it all

In 1896, a swagman named Jack Cassidy bought a ticket, for just one penny, in a nationwide Melbourne Cup sweep. When some 40,000 entrants were drawn down to the lucky 25 who had starters, he had a live ticket.

And when Newhaven, a 3-year-old colt, won the Cup, Cassidy pocketed (in a remarkable bit of symmetry) £5000. He bought a farm at Boorowa, just to east of Young, and the choice of a name was obvious.

Newhaven existed as a grazing estate until 1909, when it was bought by an earlier Richard Kelly, a descendant of Irish immigrants. When he died in a car crash in the early 1920s, the farm was managed by his brother until Richard’s son John was old enough to take the reins in the mid-1930s. Sheep and cattle were the mainstays, but in 1945 John Kelly imported a stallion, White Ensign, from England.

White Ensign performed moderately, as did Kelly’s two subsequent imported French stallions, Chateau Roussel and Damtar, but they did enough to allow Kelly to acquire another stallion, from Europe.

“That was the norm in those days,” says Richard II, who was in his early teens at the time. “Local stallions were on the nose.”

The great Star Kingdom had been imported from England a couple of years before, and would make an immediate impact. But so, too, would Wilkes.

Around the time Wilkes arrived, John Kelly bought a mare called Golden Chariot who, in 1951, had won Caulfield’s Thousand Guineas. He would put her to his new French sire in his first season. In time, a filly was born. She was named Wenona Girl. She’d become one of the greats of the Australian turf, winning no fewer than 15 races which would be classed as Group 1 today.

The great Wilkes and Vain

Wilkes was Australasia’s champion sire three times between 1962 and 1969. Though his great “rival” Star Kingdom won that crown five times from 1959-65, Wilkes remains in the top five for titles won since World War II. And, almost a decade after the birth of Wenona Girl, he sired another incredible champion, the flying Vain.

Not only was Vain one of the titans of Australian racing history, winning 12 of his 14 starts, he emulated his father to become Australia’s champion sire in 1983-84, his progeny including two who followed him to Golden Slipper glory in Inspired and Sir Dapper.

Aside from Bogan Road, who won his first two starts by a combined 22l before breaking down, Wilkes sired Vivarchi, at the age of 22. In 1976, Vivarchi became the stallion’s third Golden Slipper winner. John Kelly’s speculative purchase 20 years earlier had most certainly paid off.

“Wilkes was the loveliest horse you’d ever meet,” Richard Kelly recalls. “A 5-year-old child could have looked after him. He had the greatest nature you’ve ever seen.”

“Apart from being champion general sire, he was champion 2-year-old sire about four or five times.”

Wilkes had set Newhaven up. But of course, breeding is only ever about what’s around the corner.

After he died in 1976, Newhaven bubbled along, back in the (heavily populated) ranks of those studs searching for a sensation, for another decade. Change came, massively, in the mid-to-late 1980s.

In keeping with the financially ebullient atmosphere of the time, Newhaven listed on the stock exchange in 1986.

While 1987’s “Black Friday” crash brought misery to most of the 20-or-so listed thoroughbred breeding entities at that time, rather than just survive, Newhaven thrived, thanks to a double-whammy of exceptional sires.

Marauding and Zeditave

In the autumn of 1987, Richard Kelly had seen Brian Mayfield-Smith’s 2-year-old Marauding trial at Rosehill, resuming after a spring in which he placed second in the Silver Slipper. Though the colt was still a maiden, Kelly bought half of him from owner-breeder Robert Sangster.

Under his new ownership, Marauding won the Golden Slipper a few weeks later in powerful style. While he didn’t win again in four tries, he began his stud career in September of that year. A month later, “Black Friday” happened and countless ‘80s bubbles burst. Thankfully for Newhaven, they had the sire they’d been waiting for.

“It was an amazing time in a lot of ways,” said John Kelly, Richard’s son, who was a teenager at the time but is now the current manager of Newhaven.

“I’d be conservative to say horses lost 80 per cent of their value. The next four or five years were a battle, but we were fortunate to have Marauding.”

The son of Sir Tristram became one of his famous father’s best-performed sons at stud, his offspring Burst and Prowl emulating his Golden Slipper success in 1992 and 1998 respectively. Burst was in fact the best 2-year-old seen in years, taking the Triple Crown by adding the Sires' Produce and Champagne Stakes.

And as sales prices and stud fees for Marauding rose accordingly, in 1989 he was joined at Newhaven by another superb sire in Zeditave.

Trained by Angus Armanasco, the son of The Judge was an exceptional sprinter. He’d won 10 of his first 11 starts including two Group 1s (his blemish being a sixth from barrier 16 in the Golden Slipper) before Richard Kelly bought into him.

“He then went and lose his next two,” says John Kelly with a laugh.

Those two runs, in the spring of 1988, proved an aberration. In the autumn the flying 3-year-old won his last four starts, including the William Reid-Lightning-Futurity treble, before going to stud, where for many years he kept the Newhaven flag flying high.

He sired dual G1-winning sprinter Sports, and Newmarket H. winning-mare Ruffles. He also sired dual Group 1-winner Assertive Lass, who later helped build Zeditave’s strong reputation as a dam sire by throwing Reset (by Zabeel), who retired to stud unbeaten through five starts.

Zeditave still holds a warm place in John’s heart, nine years after his death on the farm in 2010 at the age of 25.

“He was the most wonderful horse,” he says. “He had the most beautiful personality, and was the smartest horse I’ve ever had anything to do with.”

An exciting future for the Kellys

More change was afoot for Newhaven around this time, including branching into hotels - including the famous Doncaster near Randwick – and delisting from the stock exchange to again be a private company.

After three years without a stallion, the highs of the Marauding-Zeditave era were followed by the disappointing Delago Deluxe (Encosta de Lago), imported from South Africa to stand in 2013.

But the stud again has high hopes through its newest acquisition, Xtravagant (NZ) (by Pentire). With a service fee of $16,500, Xtravagant’s first yearlings will go under the hammer in the new year.

“We’re really excited about him,” John Kelly says. “He was a super racehorse, the highest-rated New Zealand 3-year-old since Bonecrusher. He’s out of a Zabeel mare (Axiom), and we think he’s going to be terrific to mate to the Danehill line in Australia. There’s a lot of positives to him.”

With an exciting sire in the barn, and with another generation of Kellys waiting to continue the family line, for the stud farm originally bought by chance - a ticket in a Melbourne Cup sweep – the odds are looking good.