Billionaire businessman Gerry Harvey suggests that his former partners in Vinery Stud are entitled to feel seller’s remorse.
Retail king and Magic Millions owner Harvey believes the Hunter Valley nursery is on the cusp of re-establishing itself as one of the nation’s premier stallion farms, a stud that was largely underpinned for the best part of two decades by the late, great shuttler More Than Ready, on the back of Vinery’s emerging sires Ole Kirk and Exceedance.
As the progeny of Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Exceedance and, as of last Saturday, Golden Rose and Caulfield Guineas winner Ole Kirk have begun to make an impression, in the background, Vinery has undergone significant structural change.
Early last year, a merger between Vinery and rival stallion farm Kia Ora took place, leading to its owner, Malaysian billionaire Ananda Krishnan, acquiring equity in the neighbouring property and thoroughbred business.
Krishnan, whose Kia Ora Stud stands Golden Slipper-winning colt Farnan alongside Captivant and Prague, became the seventh partner in Vinery as a result of the merger.
He joined Harvey, current Star Casino boss Steve McCann, investor David Paradice, property tycoon Neil Werrett, Quicksilver founder Alan Green and hedge fund manager Greg Perry in the ownership of the stud.
However, in the 18 months since the merger, Paradice, Green, Perry and, most recently, Werrett have all sold out of Vinery, leaving Harvey, McCann and Krishnan as the three owners of the renowned stud.
Krishnan is the largest shareholder of the trio followed by Harvey and McCann, a former chief executive of Leadlease and Crown Resorts who was appointed CEO of Star Entertainment in June. McCann is also chairman of Kia Ora Stud.
Harvey confirmed to The Straight that the number of partners in Vinery had been reduced to three.
“I always owned a third and I was going to go back down to 10 per cent, but then Ananda didn't want to necessarily take too much (equity),” Harvey said this week.
“So, then Steve stayed in, but the others all decided they wanted to get out. I think they'd all be very happy to get back in again now.
“If you get two stallions firing on a farm, you've got a very, very good farm.”
Harvey was referring to Vinery’s Ole Kirk - the first-crop sire of Group 3 Breeders’ Plate-winning colt King Kirk and Gimcrack Stakes second-placed filly O’ Ole - and second-crop stallion Exceedance who also had his three-year-old son Swiftfalcon take out the Listed Dulcify on the same Randwick card.
As the octogenarian puts it: “It's the best weekend Vinery's had for a very long time.”
Exceedance, also the sire of dual Group 3-winning two-year-olds Dublin Down and Flyer, and Ole Kirk are the key pillars of Vinery’s new-look seven-horse stallion roster which also features All Too Hard, Star Turn, Headwater, Casino Prince and the Harvey bred-and-raced Group 2-winning first season sire Hawaii Five Oh.
Harvey again refers to the run of good luck Vinery appears to be having.
“You'll have a bloke that gets two or three real good horses in a row, and then the other bloke's gone five years and got nothing, and then it turns around and he goes five years with nothing. If you stick at it, sooner or later your turn comes around,” he says.
“I know I've had some seasons where I've got nothing running, another I've got two or three Group horses.
“Last year, I had Hawaii Five Oh and Alligator Blood and a couple of others, but I haven't got what you'd call a standout horse at the moment.”
Perhaps that’s unfair on the Harvey-bred and co-owned three-year-old colt First Settler, who confirmed his Coolmore credentials with his victory in the Group 2 Danehill Stakes at Flemington last Saturday carrying the silks of Yulong’s Zhang Yuesheng.
Partners on the track, had it gone differently for Harvey and Zhang, First Settler and Ole Kirk’s sire Written Tycoon would have spent the last remaining years of his stud career at Vinery rather than at the Yulong empire in Victoria.
Written Tycoon, aged 22 this season and last year’s champion two-year-old sire, is serving a private book of mares, almost exclusively those owned by Zhang, after being purchased by Yulong in 2021.
“I was looking at paying $20 million for him to put him at Vinery,” Harvey revealed.
“Then my mate, the coal baron, went to $21 or $22 million, I can't remember. But whatever I went to, he was going to go higher.”
Malcolm Knox, Aushorse Magazine
Harvey has owned a share in Vinery since 2005, entering the fray alongside his great friend and fellow businessman John Singleton after purchasing an interest in the Australian arm of American Dr Tom Simon’s thoroughbred business.
American George Hoffmeister bought the original Segenhoe Stud in 1998 and rebranded it as Vinery to coexist with his US thoroughbred stud until he sold both farms lock, stock and barrel to Simon in the late 1990s.
“You'll have a bloke that gets two or three real good horses in a row, and then the other bloke's gone five years and got nothing, and then it turns around and he goes five years with nothing. If you stick at it, sooner or later your turn comes around” - Gerry Harvey on Vinery's change of fortune
After Harvey and Singleton bought shares in Vinery Australia, and Simon diluted his equity before eventually selling out completely, the trio welcomed fellow businessmen Green, McCann, Paradice and Perry into the Vinery consortium.
Werrett purchased Singleton’s share in Vinery Stud 2012.
Harvey doesn’t expect much to change at Vinery, which general manager Peter Orton has led for 25 years, although with the wind in its sails, the stud’s presence may be felt in the sales ring and the stallion market more than in recent years.
“The thing is, when you get two stallions that are going really strong at one stud, it does encourage you to have a bit more of a go,” he says.
“So, you're going to maybe buy a few more mares or you're going to try on another couple of stallions because you've got the wherewithal now that you're up and running. It makes you a bit more courageous.
“From Vinery's point of view, it's a happier situation than it's been for a long time, because we had More Than Ready for all those years, but we never had anything else that we could skite about.”
