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Highview Stud’s owner Brent Gillovic speaks to The Impact about their stallion Wrote and the art and science behind their fantastic result at this year’s Karaka Yearling Sale.
Located in the picturesque town of Hamilton. Highview has been home to numerous champions. Brent Gillovic along with his wife Louise is at the forefront of the incredible staff here that produces winners after winners repeatedly. The good folks at the Highview have definitely earned their stripes. This stable has produced some incredible winners like Wealth Princess.
Every year there is a noticeable buzz around the Highview name at the Karaka Yearling sales because they are known for the exquisite drafts and rest assured, everyone wants a piece of that pie.
Q: You had a fantastic result from the progeny of Wrote. Please tell us more about Wrote and what made his progeny so successful?
A: Wrote is a son of High Chaparral who has really been quite outstanding as a sire in this part of the world. He looks like he could well prove to be a sire of sires as well.
Wrote himself won the 2YO Breeders Cup Turf off the back of some pretty decent UK form and he himself is as good a type as you would hope to see. Very much in the mould of his father, he has passed on that athletism and quality to his progeny and as you are aware type plays a huge part in yearling selection and subsequently values particularly in the lesser Sales. He has also passed on his laid back temperament to his progeny and reports back from the breakers have been complimentary.
Further his pedigree is fantastic tracing back to Sadler's Wells and Nureyev and of course, he is inbred to "blue hen," mare Special.
Q: What does the Highview brand offer its clients? Is it finely bred horses or finely grown horses or a combination of the two? Please tell us more.
A: Highview was established in 1985 and won the coveted NZ Breeder Of The year Award back in 1992 when homebred Let's Elope and Richfield Lady dominated the Melbourne Spring Carnival of 1991. Since then the farm has consistently churned out Group horse’s year in year out. The farm is located in the Waikato and comprises 300 acres of gently rolling land with large paddocks where our babies develop, growing good bone and muscle. Quite frankly you could breed good racehorses anywhere in the Waikato. It would be hard to fail such is the quality of the land.
It is probably fair to say our broodmare band is of lower Book 1/Book 2 quality but the mares are pretty much from really good families. Pedigree always comes through in the end and we are targeting those better families and avoiding bad sires in the dam lines.
Q: Could you please tell us about the most exciting weanlings you have on the ground that would be the cream of your Karaka sale draft in 2021?
A: In 1987 we imported a stakes-winning Topsider mare from the U.S named Plans Awry. She has proven to be a great mare and it is a very commercial family. The latest star from the family being Champion 2YO and now sire Invader. We have three weanlings out of mares from this family all by Wrote heading to Karaka in 2021.
We have a lovely filly by Wrote from the Eight Carat family and a number of others from good solid families. They will sell well again next year as they are once again very good types and hopefully a couple of his rising 2yo's are showing a bit on the track.
Q: How did you get involved in the breeding and racing industry?
A: I was basically brought up in a racing stable. My grandfather Alec Cook was pretty legendary in his day. I learnt to ride at an early age and rode show jumpers into my early 20's. I rode trackwork as well right through that time as well. I had no real exposure to the breeding industry save for a few visits as a kid with my grandfather to the likes of Pirongia and Trelawney studs. I did a season with Sir Patrick Hogan at Cambridge Stud in 1984 and set up Highview the following year with some investors. We specialised in tax-driven breeding partnerships in those days and were, in fact, the pioneers of them in both NZ and Australia. They were immensely popular until the financial fallout from the stock market crash in October 87.
Following on from those days we reverted to a more traditional style stud farm. I have an A-class Trainers licence so we established a training arm selling trial winners predominantly to Asian markets which have been quite lucrative and basically helped keep the farm afloat.
Q: What makes your breeding program exciting? And what are your plans for growth over the next twenty years?
A: Well who knows what the future holds in these strange times. In so far as stallions go, I think Wrote is my last "throw at the stumps." The NZ industry is in complete disarray pretty much due in the main to an ineptly managed TAB over the last 10 years or so which has resulted in pitiful stake monies. It now has the distinction of being the only TAB in the world to go broke, a feat I would have thought impossible! The Government bailed our TAB out last week but some significant changes must be made quickly to rectify the errors of the past. I am sceptical of that happening as it probably should, but here's hoping. Obviously, we need a strong local racing industry for the breeding industry to prosper and this may take some time now to get back to the days of years gone by.
I am at an age where I had intended to scale back some but I am in no doubt now that I will be working harder than ever going forward. A new stallion doubtful, as you would want to see some huge improvements in our local breeding and racing industry to warrant that capital injection. However, you should, "never say never!"
Q: Since you mentioned the lucrative Asian racing market I had to ask whether you have ever considered the Middle East?
A: A New Zealand trainer, Graeme Rogerson set a Satellite stable up there in Dubai in the '90s with Sheik Mohammed's blessing. Naturally, Sheikh Mohammed has a huge operation in Australia under his Godolphin brand so he is pretty au fait with racing 'down under."
NZ would love to be in a position to attract investment from that part of the world and I can assure you it would be much welcomed.