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Cressfield Stud’s long-time general manager, Wayne Bedggood, is your classic, good old fashioned horseman. He shuns the limelight, preferring to go about his business quietly and let his horses do the talking.
Earlier this month he had no choice but to take centre stage, even if it was only for a few minutes, and accept the trophy for the 2021 Hunter Thoroughbred Breeders Association President’s Award for Lifetime Achievement.
During his teens, Bedggood’s family moved south to Victoria and that’s where he eventually got a start working in the racing and breeding game. Upon leaving school he broke in horses and specialised in pre-training.
The hard work paid off and, by the age of 23, he was managing one of the state’s most famous properties of the era, Sir Donald Trescowthick’s Cornwall Park. After two seasons at Cornwall Park the prime opportunity came up to work in the breeding heartlands of the Hunter Valley.
It was always in the back of my mind that if I was going to move interstate, the Scone district was the place to be as far as thoroughbreds go.
And so the journey began, where he would help shape the future success of some of Australia’s most iconic thoroughbred nurseries. In March 1986 he began his first role at Middlebrook Park Stud, which was then owned by John Messara, and he was very quickly recognised as a talented horseman.
Following the purchase of the breeding interests of Robert Sangster and Jim Fleming, Messara purchased the Strowan property and neighbouring Arrowfield Wines vineyard at Jerrys Plains, and, aided by a small team, Bedggood was assigned to develop what was to become Arrowfield Stud and is, today, Coolmore Stud.
As stud manager at Arrowfield he was instrumental in the farm’s development as a world class thoroughbred breeding facility and oversaw the first and subsequent seasons of champion sire Danehill (Danzig). Bedggood vividly recalls when the Danehill deal famously soured during the mid-90s and Coolmore bought back the rights to him for $24 million.
When Arrowfield relocated to its current location in the Segenhoe Valley, Bedggood once again played a big part in not only developing that property’s state of the art facilities but also managing one of the largest and bestcredentialed broodmare bands in the country, as well as overseeing the launch of the phenomenal stud career of Redoute’s Choice (Danehill).
With a fierce reputation for setting up successful farms, it’s no surprise that when Bruce Neill was on the hunt for someone to turn a sheep property he purchased on the outskirts of Scone into a boutique broodmare farm, he called on Bedggood, who had been recommended to him by Evergreen Stud principal Tony Bott. Looking for a change at the time, he gladly accepted the challenge.
Last week, Bedggood celebrated 20 years at the helm of Cressfield Stud, a farm he’s deeply proud of.