Success by degrees: Kingsclere stars shine spotlight on Wellwood

Tertiary-educated Robert Wellwood admits the textbooks he begrudgingly pored over during his university days have been thrown out the window as co-trainer of a New Zealand stable that is recapturing past glories in Australia.

A Bachelor of Business graduate who majored in finance, Wellwood has found his true calling working in tandem with Roger James, a revered figure in New Zealand’s training ranks.

The resurgent Kingsclere Stables in which he shares ownership with James are only a short drive from where the 29-year-old studied at the University of Waikato.

In reality, they are a long way removed from the world of banking that Wellwood almost considered before finding the lure of racing was too hard to resist.

It’s a career direction that could have another high point when Orchestral tries to cap an outstanding season of racing when she runs as favourite to win the ATC Australian Oaks at Randwick on Saturday.

The dominant staying filly in her homeland after teaching the boys a galloping lesson with her New Zealand Derby romp, Orchestral delivered a third Australian Group 1 win for James and Wellwood since they became co-trainers when she won the Vinery Stud Stakes last month.

Orchestral’s Vinery victory marked another pivotal moment for a partnership that might not exist if James had not changed his mind about a potential Australian pathway into training for Wellwood.

“I was chatting away to Roger and told him I probably wanted to train when I left university because finance wasn’t my passion,” Wellwood said.

“It sort of went from there but he rang me about two weeks later and said ‘we’d better catch up for breakfast, I don’t know why the hell I told you to go to Australia. Why don’t you come and work with me’.”

That offer confirmed a meeting of kindred souls in more ways than one because James worked in finance before embarking on a training career that has yielded 35 Group 1 wins.

Racing’s school of hard knocks was about to put Wellwood on a steep learning curve that no university education could ever provide.

“We talk about everything. Obviously, Roger’s got 40 years of training racehorses and the knowledge that comes with that,” Wellwood said.

“I’ve probably got a few new little ideas and a few different things so I think it’s been a really good partnership.

“The fact that I’ve been able to offer a few things to someone who was winning Group 1s before I was born … I’ve certainly learnt a lot and I’d like to think that I’ve added to the business as well.

“Roger has got renewed enthusiasm for the game. He’s always worked very hard. Silent Achiever came along and she was a superstar but we’re back at the top level.”

Wellwood’s arrival at Kingsclere – first as a racing manager before assuming co-trainer duties six years ago – has no doubt reinvigorated James after the retirement of the brilliant mare Silent Achiever left a void in the stable.

“Between the two of us we do have some sort of business minds but the reality is the only way to make your training business good is by training very well and winning big races,” Wellwood said.

“That’s the reality of it. There’s not a lot of corners you can cut or money you can save. You’ve just got to train fast horses.

“It’s funny. You look through other businesses and you talk to other people who own big businesses and they talk about cutting costs here and finding this and that.

“Our reality is that you have to feed them well so you can’t cut costs there.

“There’s not a lot of corners you can cut or money you can save. You’ve just got to train fast horses.” – Robert Wellwood

“Staff, you need a lot of staff. There’s not a lot you can do apart from, as I say, get as good a team of horses as you can and win as many races as you can.

“That’s really the guts of it.”

Pinarello’s Queensland Derby win in 2022 was James’s first Australian Group 1 success since 2014 and Prowess followed suit in the 2023 Vinery Stud Stakes.

Orchestral has kept the sequence going and the stable is looking forward to having a Melbourne Cup runner in 2024 with OTI Racing’s stayer Mark Twain qualifying for the race.

Orchestral ready to put on a show for an Australian audience

New Zealand filly Orchestral will make her Australian debut in the Vinery Stud Stakes as one of the most spruiked horses to cross the Tasman for many years.

The StraightWarwick Barr

They are achievements Wellwood says make him proud, even if the stable’s financial books put the partnership at odds with its accountant.

“Every year when we have a meeting with our accountant he just goes beserk over the percentage of our wages to our turnover in comparison to all the other businesses that he does the accounts for,” Wellwood said.

“At the end of the day you have to do the horses well and that means having a lot of staff and hands on deck 365 days of the year.

“Without our staff – and that goes for any stable – we’d be lost.”

From the moment he abandoned any ambition of representing New Zealand in showjumping, Wellwood turned his attention to racing.

Straight out of school he found employment at Windsor Park Stud and worked for Lime Country Thoroughbreds.

During his time at university, Wellwood rode trackwork for leading trainer Tony Pike, drove trucks to the races and dabbled in some bid spotting at the sales.

It was all part of an objective to make something out of the thoroughbred industry.

“When I started following racing it gave me another option to still have horses in my life … something that I could perhaps make a business out of,” he said.

With horses like Orchestral and Prowess, Wellwood said he couldn’t have wished for a better introduction to operating a stable that will one day be his to run on his own.

“I own half of the business with Roger at the moment and he’ll retire at some stage, although I’m hoping it’s not too soon … don’t fix something that ain’t broke,” Wellwood said.

“That was always the plan and that was discussed when I first started with him but we’re certainly in no rush for that to happen.”

Renewed Australian Group 1 success, a potential Melbourne Cup runner, a New Zealand industry that is springing back to life and a couple of Easter fillies to come into the stable all add up to good times for Kingsclere.

And they will most likely ensure James, one of Australasian racing’s biggest names, is around for a while yet.