Cover image courtesy of Trish Dunell
An inductee into both the New Zealand and Australian Racing Hall of Fame, Sir Patrick Hogan was 83 years old and is survived by his wife Justine Lady Hogan, their daughters Erin and Nicola, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Hogan founded the world-renowned Cambridge Stud in 1976 and became a towering presence on the New Zealand thoroughbred landscape. He has left a lasting legacy through the likes of legendary father-son stallion double-act Sir Tristram (Ire) and Zabeel (NZ), and through breeding, selling and racing a long line of top-tier horses.
But he also brought a game-changing approach to marketing and selling thoroughbreds, while his mentorship put many of the industry’s other enormously respected studmasters and horsemen on a path towards success.
Sir Patrick Hogan and Sir Tristram (Ire) | Image courtesy of Race Images PN
One name that became inextricably linked with Hogan’s is Marcus Corban, whose four decades at Cambridge Stud culminated in the role of general manager.
“This is the end of an era and a very sad day,” Corban told TDN AusNZ. “He was like a father to me, and he was such a great mentor – not only for my own career, but also for the likes of Antony Thompson, Brent Taylor, Adam Sangster and many others.
“New Zealand was very fortunate to have him, and the way he did things had such an enormous impact on the industry in our part of the world.
“He was the first person to put staff in uniforms at the sales, he put out brochures, he flew trainers over from Australia – all of these things hadn’t really been done before, and he was probably 20 years ahead of almost everyone else in this country.
“He was a great thinker, he was passionate, he was so methodical with his matings and everything that he did.
“New Zealand was very fortunate to have him (Sir Patrick Hogan), and the way he did things had such an enormous impact on the industry in our part of the world. He was a great thinker, he was passionate, he was so methodical with his matings and everything that he did.” - Marcus Corban
“Even after we’d both moved on from Cambridge Stud, I kept in close contact with Sir Patrick and Lady Justine. I kept some horses on his property for clients, and I spent some time with him around Christmas.
“This is a huge loss for all of us, but especially for his family. Justine is the one I feel the most sorry for. She’s been with him every step of the way, through their time at Cambridge Stud and ever since. She’s been taking care of him in more recent times, and it’s an enormous loss for her.”
Widden Stud’s Antony Thompson had a stint at Cambridge Stud during the early stages of his career, and he spoke fondly on Friday about his memories of Sir Patrick Hogan as an employer and teacher.
“I was terribly sad to hear that he had passed,” he said. “He was obviously a real icon, not only of the New Zealand industry but of our industry as a whole.
Sir Patrick Hogan leads the final yearling by the great Zabeel (NZ) through the Karaka sales ring in 2015 | Image courtesy of New Zealand Bloodstock
“I was personally lucky enough to spend a bit of time working at Cambridge Stud when I was a young guy. It was one of my very first jobs in the industry, and it was a great learning experience.
“He was one of the best mentors you could wish to have, and a wonderful horseman to go with it. He had the ability to identify very good horses, and he was able to commercialise the successful ones in a way that no one else did at that stage. He was ahead of his time in many ways.
“But more than that, my memories of him are that he was a truly wonderful person and had a great sense of humour. I hugely enjoyed my time working there and spending time with him at Cambridge Stud, and I’ll always look back at that stage of my career very fondly. RIP, The Boss.”
“...my memories of him (Sir Patrick Hogan) are that he was a truly wonderful person and had a great sense of humour. I hugely enjoyed my time working there and spending time with him at Cambridge Stud.” - Antony Thompson
An extraordinary studmaster and breeder
Sir Patrick Hogan’s career as a studmaster and breeder was made up of hard work, a pioneering approach to marketing and a series of masterful decisions.
Born in Rotorua on October 23, 1939, he was the son of Sarah and Irish immigrant Tom Hogan. He grew up around a mixture of dairying and thoroughbred breeding, and as a teenager he paraded yearlings for his family’s Fencourt Stud.
In the 1970s he and Justine decided to go out on their own, selling their shares in Fencourt Stud to his brother and putting the proceeds towards their purchase of Cambridge Stud.
The first of Sir Patrick Hogan’s many masterstrokes was the selection of his foundation stallion, Sir Tristram. He was the winner of just two of his 17 starts, but Sir Patrick went against the advice of his bloodstock agent and brought the son of Derby and 2000 Guineas winner Sir Ivor (USA) across to the other side of the world.
Sir Ivor (USA) | Image courtesy of Wikipedia
The response was initially lukewarm at best, and Sir Tristram produced just 37 foals in his first season. But that initial crop would produce 19 winners from 27 runners, with nine black-type performers headed by six-time Group 1 winner Sovereign Red (NZ) and fellow Group 1 winner Tasman (NZ).
That was just the beginning. Sir Tristram would go on to sire 45 individual Group 1 winners, including a Golden Slipper with Marauding (NZ) in 1987 – making him the first New Zealand-based stallion in 30 years to sire a Slipper winner.
Sir Tristram also produced three Melbourne Cup winners and topped the Australian sires’ premiership six times, and his service fee soared from an introductory NZ$1500 all the way to a peak of NZ$200,000.
Sir Patrick Hogan also selected the perfect son to follow in Sir Tristram’s famous footsteps – the remarkable Zabeel, who himself won seven races including the G1 Australian Guineas.
Sir Patrick Hogan with Zabeel (NZ) | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
Zabeel would go on to surpass his mighty sire, producing 46 individual Group 1 winners including champions such as Octagonal (NZ), Might And Power (NZ), Cox Plate winner-turned-supersire Savabeel, and a Melbourne Cup quinella with Jezabeel (NZ) and Champagne (NZ).
Sir Patrick and Justine Lady Hogan also achieved phenomenal successes with their broodmare band, most notably with Eight Carat (GB) (Pieces Of Eight {Ire}) – one of only two mares in history to produce five individual Group 1-winning progeny.
Between them, Eight Carat’s star sons and daughters Octagonal, Marquise (NZ), Mouawad (NZ), Kaapstad (NZ) and Diamond Lover (Sticks And Stones) won a total of 28 black-type races.
Marquise and Diamond Lover also went on to become elite broodmares in their own right. Marquise’s daughter Shower Of Roses (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}) won the G1 Arrowfield Stud S. in Sydney, while Diamond Lover produced Group 1 winners Don Eduardo (NZ) and Tristalove (NZ) (Sir Tristram {Ire}).
The Hogans also celebrated numerous ownership successes with their distinctive two-tone green racing colours, including a G1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas and G1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas double by Katie Lee (Pins) in November of 2009 – a feat never achieved before or since.
Katie Lee, winner of the G1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas | Image courtesy of NZB
Overall, Sir Patrick and Justine Lady Hogan bred 40 Group 1 winners, who between them won just under 90 Group 1 races.
Their resident stallions amassed 50 Champion Sire awards, and a total of 115 individual Group 1 winners were produced by their stallions and broodmares. That includes eight Melbourne Cup winners, four Cox Plate winners, three Caulfield Cup winners and a Golden Slipper winner.
The industry-shaping Hogan era at Cambridge Stud drew to a close in 2017 when the iconic nursery was sold to fellow Kiwi couple Brendan and Jo Lindsay.
Watch: Sir Patrick Hogan
A sale-ring titan
Another hallmark of Sir Patrick Hogan’s career was his achievements at New Zealand yearling sales, where his marketing and hospitality strategies set a blueprint that all vendors would follow over the ensuing years.
He oversaw an incredible reign of 32 consecutive leading vendor titles at New Zealand’s National Yearling Sale between 1981 and 2012 – initially at Trentham, and later at Karaka.
He led New Zealand’s first million-dollar yearling through the ring at Karaka in 1989, selling a colt by Sir Tristram out of Surround (NZ) (Sovereign Edition {Ire}) for NZ$1.2 million.
A decade later he set an all-time New Zealand record that still stands, selling G1 Australian Derby winner and sire Don Eduardo for NZ$3.6 million in January of 2000.
Gallery: Image courtesy of Gavin Adams, Race Images Collection
That pair contributed to a total of 24 sale-topping yearlings consigned by Cambridge Stud at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale while Hogan was at the helm.
New Zealand Bloodstock principal Sir Peter Vela recognised Sir Patrick’s extraordinary contribution in putting the annual Karaka sale – and the New Zealand industry as a whole – on the thoroughbred map.
“In my lifetime there has been no greater influence in the New Zealand breeding industry than Patrick Hogan,” he said.
“This country was so fortunate to have someone like him. He was a great horseman – his knowledge, what stallions to develop and how to grow the industry – so from every point of view his passing is just so sad.
“His name and persona was, and always will be, synonymous with the New Zealand thoroughbred breeding industry and his massive contribution to putting this country on the world stage.”
“His (Sir Patrick Hogan's) name and persona was, and always will be, synonymous with the New Zealand thoroughbred breeding industry and his massive contribution to putting this country on the world stage.” - Sir Peter Vela
A long list of accolades
Sir Patrick Hogan was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2005, and into the New Zealand equivalent a year later. He has been joined in either one or both of those Halls of Fame by Sir Tristram, Zabeel, Eight Carat, Octagonal and Might And Power.
Sir Patrick and Justine Lady Hogan were named New Zealand’s Breeder of the Year five times, including three seasons in a row in the mid-1990s, while Eight Carat and Taiona (NZ) (Sovereign Edition {Ire}) won the New Zealand Broodmare of the Year Award five times between them.
Sir Patrick Hogan was honoured with New Zealand’s Outstanding Contribution to Racing Award in 1991, and he was appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to thoroughbred breeding, in the 2000 New Year Honours.
