The long game: Inside Gerry Harvey’s unusual path to the racetrack

Cover image courtesy of Baramul Stud

At Baramul Stud, the plan is to sell horses. What happens to the ones that come home again is where the story gets interesting. The farm breeds around 180 foals a year and offers almost all of them through Magic Millions. Most are sold, but roughly 60 yearlings that fail to meet their reserve remain with Gerry Harvey and enter a markedly different system.

“We play the long game,” Baramul racing manager Luke McDonald told TTR.

“Racing is an enjoyment for Gerry and Katie. He likes to see his product race in his colours,”

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Commercial success drives the whole system

With the majority of horses they breed being sold, there is a strong focus on commercial pedigrees and a continual improvement of pedigrees at Baramul Stud. And the results are seen on the track.

“We get a lot of enjoyment watching what we produce as foals get sold and then race at top level. It’s not like we've missed out. Those results enhance our broodmare band,” McDonald said.

Baramul Stud has sold plenty of quality horses in recent years, with G1 Sires’ Produce Stakes winner Campione D’Italia (Snitzel) headlining last season. He was bought by China Horse Club, Newgate Farm and partners for $500,000 and Harvey retained a share in him to get the sale done.

“We sold Campione D’Italia at the sales last year and he got put in the Newgate system. Their system is a little bit more forward than ours and he got pushed into the earlier races. He won the Skyline. He went into a Golden Slipper and then won the Sires’ Produce and competed in the Champagne too. The horse went through an earlier system, and he got the reward at Group 1 level which is fantastic,” McDonald said.

“It's hard to get a good horse. We breed hundreds of horses every year and the ones we do happen to sell, typically are the ones that people want. You can get a super star from a cheap purchase, look at Sheza Alibi, but the ones that are fetching higher prices out of our draft are worth the money spent.

“Espionage, Move To Strike, Prost, Prince Fawad, they’ve all gone on to race at a high level. And those ones are being pushed along by their buyers to get to the Breeders’ Plate, the Gimcrack, the Golden Slipper.”

Exciting mare Savvy Hallie (Hellbent) was sold by Baramul Stud at the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale for $150,000 to Belmont Bloodstock (FBAA). She went through Riverstone Lodge’s Inglis Classic Yearling Sale and was bought by BK Racing and Breeding for $320,000.

Winner of Saturday’s G2 Sheraco Stakes, Savvy Hallie debuted as February 2-year-old, and placed in the G3 TL Baillieu Stakes and G2 Percy Sykes Stakes at her third and fourth start. Winner of the G2 Silver Shadow Stakes and G2 Light Fingers Stakes at three, she has joined the discussion around the G1 The Everest.

Punters looking for the next big thing should keep an eye on one of the yearlings Baramul Stud sold in 2026.

“I heard on the grapevine that the Vinny from Norwegian Bliss, who we sold to Waller and Vinery has started going exceptionally well. So that could be one to watch throughout the 2-year-old season.”

The unnamed 2-year-old colt by I Am Invincible was sold at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale to Waller Racing and Vinery Stud for $600,000. He is the first foal of Norwegian Bliss (NZ) (El Roca) who won seven times and placed in the G3 Kevin Heffernan Stakes. This is the family of Group 1 winners Shogun Lodge (Grand Lodge {USA}), Referral (Dr Grace {NZ}) and Singing The Blues (Bluebird {USA}).

Longevity over precocity

For the horses that Baramul Stud keeps, the system slows down and takes a bit more time than owners who are focused on precocity.

“Gerry is not a big believer in 2-year-old racing, he tends to give his horses every conceivable chance to grow and make sure they are strong and their bones are structurally sound, to hold their weight during a prep,” McDonald said.

“When you think about it, in human terms, a lot of pro athletes start young, but they don't get a lot of pressure until they turn 20. For our horses, we like to treat them similar, putting them in and out of work, making their bones hard and letting their minds switch on as they learn their trade.

“We like to see them pop up and start competing as late 2-year-olds and early 3-year-olds.

“We think that's where you get longevity out of your horses and the rewards for being a little bit more patient. It's costly but we are giving them the best possible chance of doing well with the processes we’ve got in place.”

It could also be argued that the individuals who are physically more mature and precocious are the ones who sell at the sales, while the ones who pass in are the ones who benefit from this longer, quieter system.

The process itself is quite involved with horses moving across several different properties and people at different stages. They start their basic education at Harvey’s Armidale farm Broombee.

“From Broombee, we will push them through to Mel O’Gorman or Luke Morgan. And they will essentially give them a bit of polish. A lot of them from the farm are very raw, even though they’ve had the education process of being ridden and teaching them wrong and what's right. Luke and Mel do the same process but in a racing environment where they'll be on an open track with horses around them,” McDonald said.

Each horse spends a lot of time in and out of work, being brought along gently with spells in between each set of 4-6 weeks of work. Eventually they come to Fernhill Estate, run by Tom McDermott.

“Tom is arguably one of the best riders in the world and he will teach them a lot of flat work. He puts a lot of time and effort into teaching them know how to carry themselves and strengthen through their back and hind quarters.

“Dressage is a magnificent tool to make horses stronger and learn how to carry themselves, which is very important. And then once they get into a racing prep, they’re very kind to the riders. Any rider can ride them. They carry themselves beautifully, they're strong. The dressage actually makes them more mature in the mind.

“From there, Richard Litt will take them through his barn at Warwick Farm and that's when we get a really good gauge on where they are mentally, physically, and whether they're handling a racing environment.

“If they don't cope with Warwick Farm, it means they need a longer time to think about things and let them just mature.”

The whole education process isn’t designed to find an early running 2-year-old, but that doesn’t mean the horses are sitting around in paddocks doing nothing. They are gently being built up and allowed to mature with the goal of longevity and once they get to Christmas of their juvenile season, they are ready to be assigned to a trainer.

Support those who support him

Young trainers; pay attention. Gerry Harvey’s philosophy when it comes to assigning horses to trainers is that he’ll support the trainers who buy from him.

“The trainers that we select, they'll be the ones that have bought off us in the last two years,” McDonald said. If you want to get noticed and train for Harvey, you need to be inspecting all the Baramul Stud offerings at the sales.

“Trainers like Jason Warren, Chris Waller, Greg Eurell, Lloyd Kennewell, Mick Price, all those calibre of trainers will be allocated two or three horses each. We think with our system, we get longevity out of their legs and it fulfils Gerry’s purpose.”

The purpose is simple: own racehorses who have long careers and provide Harvey with plenty of fun on track.

“The Australian industry is so focussed on precocity and speed and early returns, which I get. It's an expensive game and owners want to have a return quickly and the 2-year-old races do make you super commercial.

“But we play the long game.”

Homebred filly Libertini (I Am Invincible) debuted in the G3 Kindergarten Stakes in April, running second to Bivouac, before winning the Listed Woodlands Stakes in May.

“Libertini, she was an early comer and she won the Woodlands Stakes and that’s as early as our system will produce them. She went on at three and four and was a very good horse for us. But those good ones always put their hand up early. They always show speed.”

Libertini raced until her 5-year-old season, winning five times including the G2 Premiere Stakes and was multiple times Group 1-placed.

The Extreme Choice experiment

Four horses among Baramul Stud’s current 3-year-old crop stand out for McDonald. They are part of what he deems their ‘Extreme Choice’ experiment.

“Extreme Choice shoots a very high stakes winners to runners percentage, and we thought to ourselves, well, we can't get into him during the season, why not out of season? We hand selected eight or 10 mares and four of them got in foal, which was a good percentage for Extreme Choice. The downside is we had to serve them from late December to March,” McDonald said.

“We took them to the June National Yearling Sale, and we ended up selling Omolong for a large amount of money. We retained 10% and he’s going to the Heritage Stakes in a couple of weeks.”

Omolong (Extreme Choice) topped the Magic Millions National Yearling Sale in 2025 at $850,000 when sold by Baramul Stud to Yulong Investments. Born on December 19, he was unbeaten at two last season in two starts.

“He’s got an enormous amount of talent, but I saw him at the trials last Friday and he was standing in the tie-ups and I thought to myself, wow, he's so behind these other horses that were born earlier.

“He's six months away from being a fully furnished product, his wither was quite flat and his bum was still high, which indicates to me he's still growing. He's still thickening up and his chest hasn't widened yet. He's got a fantastic mind on him, and that's his best attribute as he's a professional athlete.

“He just he needs to catch up physically. I wouldn't be surprised if you see this 3-year-old come out and do something in the Heritage or Danehill or even the Coolmore but later when we see him as a 3-year-old or 4-year-old he’ll be a very, very good horse.”

Two of the other three were bought back by Harvey and have been named.

“Faldo is with John O’Shea and Tom Charlton, and was born late February and I really wanted to send her to England, but Gerry had no interest in doing that. She went through our system, same system, broken in a little bit later but she started to put her hand up earlier than I expected. She’s had a few gallops from Zac Lloyd on board, and Zac called me one morning, and said we might have a live one here,” McDonald said.

Faldo (Extreme Choice) was bought by Springwood for $240,000 and is out of More Than Ready (USA) mare Queen Magdalene whose three winners include stakes-placed All Sassed Up (Shalaa {Ire}).

“She’s a nice moving horse, sharp. She's quite neat, but she's got a fantastic attitude on her and she moves quite beautifully. She’s one to watch for.”

Paddleboard (Extreme Choice) was bought by Springwood for $140,000, and is out of winning mare Down The River (Medaglia D’Oro {USA}) whose first two foals are winners.

“Paddleboard has got a bit of ability. She's a late December foal. She’s with Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou and she’s come second and fifth in her trials against some pretty good opposition. She's now being tipped out, she'll have four weeks in the paddock.”

David Newling bought the fourth Extreme Choice from that experiment, paying $180,000 for the February-born filly who is currently unnamed. Her dam, Listed winner Telepathic (NZ) (Mossman) is from New Zealand’s Eight Carat family.

Extensive ownership celebrated

Gerry Harvey, who owns New Zealand’s Westbury Stud, won the 2025/26 New Zealand Owners’ Premiership for the most wins in the season for an owner. Harvey owned horses won 64 races in New Zealand last season. In what could be seen as an omen for this season, Harvey’s partner in Omolong, Yulong Investments, won the Owner Of The Year Award thanks to Group 1 winners Well Written (Written Tycoon) and Ohope Wins (NZ) (Ocean Park {NZ}).

“Russell Warwick runs that operation, and he does such a marvellous job. Again, our system there is much slower and we educate the horses, but we won't see them, especially with that breed until later. We’ve got Reliable Man, El Roca, Tarzino, Swiss Ace and Redwood, and those horses all take time,” McDonald said.

“If they show a lot of ability, they'll come over here and race. And if they're just nice bread and butter horses, they'll stay there and race. It’s a massive achievement to win that many races in one single season for one individual owner.

“We've got plenty of horses over there at the moment, we're trying to consolidate a little bit and reduce to get those numbers under control. Reduction is an exercise that we've been focussing on a lot. Russell and I will achieve it in the next few years to get the numbers and quality to a place we’re happy with.”

With so many horses spread across many properties and with different people, there’s always something going on at Baramul Stud. And whether it’s a horse they’ve sold or one they kept because they weren’t deemed exciting by the market, racetrack success continues to come for the historic Hunter Valley land.