Trelawney Stud

Trelawney Stud’s familiar green, red and gold stylised silks were regular visitors to winners’ stalls both at home and away during the spring carnivals and the historic Cambridge nursery’s colours have continued to shine this year. Brent and Cherry Taylor’s racing team have compiled a series of impressive black type results while sales graduates have again stepped up to the mark

Two Illicit, Cheaperthandivorce, Vamos Bebe and Zayydani all significantly boosted their credentials for future entry into the Taylor’s elite broodmare band while three-year-old gelding Pareanui Bay impressed against the best of his age group. Two Illicit was successful in the Captain Cook Stakes-G1, Cheaperthandivorce landed the Waikato Cup-G3 and the Thomson Handicap-G3 while Vamos Bebe unfortunately bled and was retired after she finished runner-up in the Hallmark Stud Handicap-Listed. 

Savabeel’s daughter Cheaperthandivorce is out of Trelawney’s New Zealand Oaks-G1 winner Boundless and was retained for obvious reasons while Two Illicit wasn’t considered a commercial sale proposition and the decision to keep her has paid off in spades. “She was an outstanding type and if we had put her through the sales we would have got bugger all for her,” Taylor said. 

“I said we may as well keep her and race her and treat her like a gelding until proven otherwise. She was a very nice horse, but we would have got nothing for her and we kept her to hopefully have a bit of fun so we are very fortunate. We do have the odd horse from time to time that we like and do keep if they’re not going to be commercially desirable.”

Zayydani is also now a valuable homebred mare while Vamos Bebe was a $200,000 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale purchase. By I Am Invincible, she is out of the Myer Classic-G1 winner Hurtle Myrtle, and as a sister to the dual Group 3 winner Holyfield is another tasty breeding proposition.

Pareanui Bay’s CV includes successes in the James & Annie Sarten Memorial-G2 and the Listed Trevor & Coralie Eagle Memorial-Listed. In Victoria, Zayydani triumphed in the Matriarch Stakes-G2 and in the Ballarat Cup-Listed.

“It’s been a super spell and long may it continue. We know that’s not usually the case, but we all hope it ticks on for a while longer,” Brent Taylor said. “We’re very grateful to all our staff at home and at the various racing stables that put in the effort that help get these big results.”

The Joan Egan-bred and raced Concert Hall, last season’s Zabeel Classic-G1 winner who has since added victories in the Cal Isuzu Stakes-G2 and the City of Auckland Cup-G3, was also born and raised at Trelawney, as was the Robert Anderson-bred Sandown Guineas-G2 winner Blue Army. Adding to the line up is Toorak Handicap-G1 and Golden Eagle winner I’m Thunderstruck  who was born and raised at Trelawney Stud for breeders Tony Forlong and Jennifer Jones. Further afield, Sky Field crowned his rise through Hong Kong’s sprinting ranks when he claimed top honours in December’s G1 Hong Kong Jockey Club Sprint.

This run of prestige results on the track have understandably buoyed Trelawney’s confidence ahead of the National Yearling Sale at Karaka. 

“That was great for the breeder Mike Ryan, who is based in Europe, and Segenhoe Stud, who foaled and reared him and sent him across to be sold,” Taylor said. “He was a very good-quartered horse, lovely length, strength and well-balanced. They sent the colt out to us to finish off for the sale.”

Sky Field was purchased out of Trelawney’s draft at Karaka in 2018 for $175,000 by the Kwan family. “He was a big chestnut with plenty of white and looked like a bit of a Pippi Longstocking and that may have put a few people off, but he was a good quality horse and I thought he was a lovely colt,” Taylor said.

This run of prestige results on the track have understandably buoyed Trelawney’s confidence ahead of the New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale at Karaka. The nursery will offer an excellent mix of colts and fillies by Australasia’s leading stallions from proven female families during the Book 1 Sale on March 7-9.

Group 1 winners and stallions Grunt and Ocean Park were both bred and sold by the farm and they are represented in its Book 1 draft. “Having bred both stallions, it’s nice to be able to breed to horses that you’ve known for a while and out of families you can associate with,” Brent Taylor said.

“It’s very satisfying and a few of the Grunts sold well at the Magic Millions and they were well-respected by the market and lined up and associated with the style of O’Reilly, which is not a bad thing. 

The Ocean Park colt, Lot 368, is out of the winning Encosta De Lago mare Lagonissi and she has produced a brace of multiple winners. The dam is a daughter of the two-time Group 1 winner Foxwood and the family of the Group 1-winning siblings Sovereign Red, Gurner’s Lane and Trichelle.

Trelawney will also offer sons of Savabeel (Lot 266), Tivaci (Lot 377), Charm Spirit (Lot 538). Fillies by Per Incanto (Lot48), Savabeel (Lot 98), Almanzor (Lot 224), Brazen Beau (Lot 243), Pierro (Lot 357), Savabeel (Lot 459) and Belardo (Lot 487) complete the line-up.

Covering 485 acres of highly fertile farmland just out of Cambridge, Trelawney Stud was established by Seton Otway in the 1930s before the farm was purchased by the Taylor family. The Otway era gave rise to an unprecedented and yet to be bettered record of seven Melbourne Cup-G1 winners, including the great Tulloch.

Trelawney bred 38 mares last season and while the majority were mated with proven sires, a sprinkling of newcomers were also used. “It’s all about risk assessment this whole business and reducing risk by utilising proven stallions. We do buy shares in stallions and support them, the likes of Hello Youmzain and Almanzor in recent times,” Taylor said.

“We’ve supported Belardo and Ribchester with Haunui and Tivaci, Sacred Falls, Ocean Park and Savabeel at Waikato Stud. If the stallions do become available we will buy shares and we will support unproven horses as well, but certainly in Australia we do tend to go down that proven route with the mares we have bred over there. We don’t have big numbers, but we are developing quite an elite line-up and some really nice young mares to come into the breeding barn in the future and some nice fillies in behind them.”