‘Support those who support you’: Making stallions at Baramul Stud

Cover image courtesy of Baramul Stud

There are only five Group 1 races in Australia for 2-year-olds, so by definition they are difficult to win. Finding a colt who can win one is the ultimate goal for any commercial breeding operation, and for Baramul Stud, the sale ring Gods combined to gift them both a sale and a long-term piece of the action with Campione D’Italia (Snitzel).

“He got passed in at the sales and I told Henry Field I want $600,000. And he said, 'I’ll give you $500,000', and I said, 'get f(bleep)ed'. In the end I took it and luckily I kept 20% for myself,” breeder Gerry Harvey said at the races.

Campione D’Italia is owned by a large syndicate headed by Newgate Farm and China Horse Club. The G1 Sires’ Produce Stakes has been won by successful stallions such as Pride Of Dubai, Pierro, Manhattan Rain, and Sebring, and more recently by exciting young stallions Anamoe, King’s Legacy and Vinrock.

A few hiccups along the way

Campione D’Italia avoided the auctioneer’s gavel in the ring but sold soon after for $500,000. As a racehorse, he began the same way, running last in the Listed Lonhro Plate on debut. In a parallel to his sale ring moment, Campione D’Italia bounced back to win his second start; the G2 Skyline Stakes. He was a strong fourth in the G1 Golden Slipper, before winning the G1 Sires’ Produce Stakes at Randwick on Saturday. His four starts have netted his connections $965,000.

“It’s been well documented that he passed in as a yearling, but it was a huge surprise to us. He was one of the most popular colts in our draft that year. And there were so many good judges on him. He was just one of those horses that everyone was on him and then they weren't,” said Baramul Stud’s Luke McDonald.

“Unfortunately, they must have thought, ‘oh, the colt was so impressive, he might go for too much’, and then within seconds of the horse walking out of the ring, I had about four people trying to scavenge! They ran up to us and tried to purchase the horse. And Henry was the winning bidder because he was the quickest. He's very quick out of the gates, Henry Field, and he managed to secure the colt very, very quickly!"

“Again, it’s well documented that Gerry retained 20% and then he sold 10% to one of his long-term employees that has been working with both Katie (Page) and Gerry for a long time. It's a fantastic story because Antonia and Ed Miles, they've never owned a racehorse before, and they've been watching the Magic Millions for so many years, and they thought it was time to get into a horse.

“Antonia kept coming up to this one particular horse, which was (Campione D’Italia) and she kept patting him every day. And then when he passed in and Gerry retained a little share, she ran up to me and said, ‘Could I take a share in it?’ I said, ‘Of course you can. You can have 10% of Gerry's share’.”

“It's just fantastic and it’s a great group of owners. Obviously, China Horse Club, Henry Field, and the team do such a magnificent job at including everyone.”

It’s early days for Baramul Stud’s 2025 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale draft, but as well as Group 1 winner Campione D’Italia, the draft also boasts 2-year-old winner Jimmy’s Ready (Better Than Ready).

Loving the Military Rose connection

Campione D’Italia is the first stakes winner for Medaglia Valore (Medaglia D’Oro {USA}), who has produced two Group performers already in Flashing Steel (Not A Single Doubt) and Snitzel Miss (Snitzel). She is a daughter of G2 Reisling Stakes, R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic, and G3 Gold Coast Guineas winner Military Rose (General Nediym) and is a half-sister to the dam of Lovatsville’s new stallion Espionage. This family traces back to the great producer Summoned (Crowned Prince {USA}).

“Medaglia Valore is a blue-blooded mare. She's, without a doubt, our best mare at this current moment. Most of her foals have been pretty good. Snitzel Miss was a good 2-year-old, but she wasn't overly big, and she probably found her mark quite quickly,” said McDonald.

“She’s only young, a 2012 edition, and she's had an amazing success with her progeny already. Flashing Steel, he was another horse that was a $1 million purchase. He is a beautiful chestnut horse. Tony Fung Investments purchased him, and he was a magnificent looking animal.

“She's in foal now to Zoustar on a late cover. So we'll see what happens there.”

It’s a family that they love at Baramul Stud with McDonald pointing to Military Rose as a particular favourite on the property.

“There's an old quote, you never can have too much of a good thing. We like to keep those blue bloods. For example, the Military Rose family. We want to keep everything out of that family. It's such a magical family. It continues to breed fantastic racehorses on the track, like Campione D’Italia. The family is all speed. It's what the Australian market wants.

“You never can have too much of a good thing.”

Or maybe you can? Gerry Harvey has interests in Baramul Stud, Vinery Stud, and Westbury Stud in New Zealand, as well as Magic Millions, and a few others.

“Gerry is well known for playing at all levels, the top level, middle level, and bottom level, and we're just trying to reduce that bottom level, a little bit more, and if we can do that, we can continue to play with a lot of volume, but at the middle and top level where you can get a reward,” McDonald said.

A Country Championships reward

Saturday’s racing also saw Harvey’s colours salute in the $1 million Country Championships Final with a horse who could be described as fitting into the bottom level of the marketplace. Chidiac (Better Than Ready), winner of six of her 11 starts, has earnings that have reached the magical $1 million mark. She is a granddaughter of G2 Yallambee Classic winner Magically (Danehill {USA}) and is one of five winners for her dam, Bewitchment (Encosta De Lago) from six to race.

“It was pretty special to do it with some good friends of ours and Brett and Lauren Cavanough, along with Georgie, their daughter. It's a fantastic result for country racing, and it's a great initiative from New South Wales racing,” said McDonald.

“We ended up racing her the old-fashioned way! Chidiac was passed in for $25,000 at a Magic Millions sales. No one wanted her. Obviously, she hasn’t got a super commercial pedigree. She was out of a mare called Bewitchment, an Encosta De Lago mare that was fairly exposed. And by Better Than Ready, who does a wonderful job. He gets great results, but, of course, people are wanting the Snitzels, Zoustars, Vinnies are all that, and she just fell through the cracks at a Magic Millions sale.”

By exposed, McDonald means that Chidiac was Bewitchment’s seventh foal. Four of the six foals who came before Chidiac were winners with the best of them being Happy Halloween (Congrats {USA}) who won six times in Tasmania.

“We took her home and educated her up, and then went on to Brett Cavanough and Georgie, and they're doing a magnificent job because she’s not an easy mare to train. She ties up quite a bit. You have to give her a bit of love, and they've done that and they've got the rewards now. She’s a $1 million earner and, and only lightly raced, so she'll continue to earn that prizemoney.

“We'll try aim for some stakes races in the near future. I spoke to Brett and Georgie this morning and the Silk Stocking or the Dark Jewel could be on the horizon. Or even a slot race like The Archer.

“There's a lot of prizemoney to be earned with her and we're looking forward to see where she goes, but she's earned her chance to compete at that stakes level and we're looking forward to it.”

A stallion producing farm at Baramul

From the 1887 Caulfield Cup winner Oakleigh (Roodee), through to standing Star Kingdom (Ire) with many of his greats born at Baramul, like Todman, Noholme, and Biscay, Baramul Stud has a long history in the annuals of Australian Racing. One of the first stallions bred at Baramul Stud by Gerry Harvey is the New Zealand Champion Sire Savabeel, and the production line for promising young sires continues.

“We're very proud of what we produce. In the last three or four years, Gerry’s done a magnificent job at producing stallions. We’ve got Move To Strike and Espionage at Lovatsville, There’s Prost at Aquis in Queensland, Prince Farwaz is in Queensland,” McDonald said.

When asked about supporting these stallions with the large broodmare bands across Harvey’s different farms, McDonald laughed.

“You try to think with your head, not your heart. It's torture!

“It's hard to do that because everyone gets sentimental around a particular horse, and especially if you've had a lot to do with him.

“We’ve got Hawaii Five Oh standing at Vinery. He’s our pride and joy. We’ve supported him with 40 mares in each of his first two seasons, and so we should. We own 50% of him. He’s the only stallion standing at stud that has five stakes-winning dams in his first five generations.

“He was a fantastic racehorse. He should have won the Premier Stakes, and he could run a really quick last 600. We're extremely proud of him and he's such a good looking horse. I'm sure he's going to do a job in the sale ring and on the racetrack.

“We've got five weanlings by him in the (Magic Millions) National Sale. They are fantastic looking. We're extremely proud to present them at the sale and I think we'll get a result. They're just too good not to buy. They're just very good physicals, great bone, big strong hips on them, very athletic types, and that typical I Am Invincible look about them.

“I think people will gravitate to them.”

Hawaii Five Oh, winner of G3 Hawkesbury Guineas and G3 Fred Best Classic, was third in the G1 Stradbroke Handicap, and second in the G2 Premiere Stakes to Think It Over (So You Think {NZ}) who won The Everest at his next start.

He’s a son of Harvey’s wonderful race mare Aloha (Encosta De Lago) who also produced Hawaii Five Oh’s Group 2-winning full brother Libertini (I Am Invincible). Aloha won eight races, led by the G1 Coolmore Classic.

Baramul Stud will present a draft of weanlings and yearlings at the upcoming Magic Millions National Sale.

“We've got 35 yearlings going there and we've got 22 in the weanling sales. We've carefully selected some weanlings to take to the National Sale and we're pretty excited about them because there's some real diamonds in the rough and some really well bred horses. We've got Zoustars, we've got Snitzels, Hellbent and Ole Kirks, all entered in that sale.

“Hopefully the market is competitive and strong. With the yearlings, these are the horses that generally need a bit of time, and we target the sale for those horses, and hopefully that we can get them up there in good order and sell them.”

Known for big numbers, there is a strategy too

The concept of keeping a share in a horse to help get it sold is commonplace for breeders, and Harvey is no different with Campione D’Italia. The difference with Harvey is the scale of his racing operation.

“We've got about 125 in work at this moment but it can get up to 150. We typically keep 80 horses that we own 100% of, and the rest are in shares, usually 5 or 10%,” said McDonald. The horses are spread across a big range of trainers, as evidenced by Saturday’s winners being trained by Chris Waller and Scone’s Brett and Georgie Cavanough.

“It’s one of Gerry’s great concepts. He supports the trainers that support him and that's always been his motto. And I believe in it because it does reward the people that want to support you.

“It's a good initiative from Gerry's behalf because he could easily streamline his training enterprise and have one trainer and get good information from that one particular trainer. But he obviously owns Magic Millions and with that, he likes to support most of those trainers and it does incentivise them to come to Magics and support Gerry in the sales ring.

“We've got the horses spread around 50 trainers and that fluctuates a lot too. We've got our favourites in the country who support us year in and year out in the sales ring. Brett Cavanough, Joe Cleary, they always butter up at the sales and buy one, two, three, four horses out of ring. Then the Sydney trainers, every year we have Matt Smith, Gary Portelli, Chris Waller, and all those calibre of trainers who continue to support us.”

With so many horses on the books, it’s a constantly changing enterprise as horses get traded out while others are being educated and added to the stable returns.

“We try to review these horses every month and identify the ones that we need to move on who aren’t fitting our operations,” said McDonald.

“We are utilising the Magic Millions digital platform a great deal. I think we've got the sale topper at the moment with Straand Beauty, who went through the online sale a couple weeks ago and made $75,000. Liam Ruddy bought Straand Beauty and he’s already raced him. He came second in the feature race at Muswellbrook by a nostril, and if he had won that, he nearly was out on the first run. It was quite rewarding for him to put his neck on the line for a second-hand racehorse and nearly get a result in his first start.”

Sold as a last start Warwick Farm winner Straand Beauty (Exceed And Excel), was the winner of three races and over $160,000 in prizemoney for trainers John O'Shea and Tom Charlton. In his new environment, he’s had the one start for second in a race worth $75,000. A key part of the process is selling horses when they still have upside for the buyers.

“We'll be continuing to use (Magic Millions Digital) in the future. I've got three or four horses that I'll be putting in the next online sale.

“You don't want to squeeze the lemon and Straand Beauty is a perfect example of that. There’s plenty of racing left him. It’s more that as a 4-year-old gelding, he wasn't going to be long term for us (as a breeding farm), so we wanted to move him on while there's a few more miles in his legs and for the next owner to enjoy.”

Straand Beauty is a full brother to G3 Canonbury Stakes winner Mclaren and a half to stakes-performed Cao Cao (Fastnet Rock), out of Serenada (Encosta De Lago), a winning half-sister to the Group winners First Command (Commands) and Oneworld (Danehill Dancer {Ire}).

“At Baramul, we’ve got a great team there and, and we're getting some nice results, and it's keeping the morale up at the farm. A horse like Campione D’Italia picks everyone up and carries us. It's a really hard game and you've got to have these ups to offset the downs.”