James Harron | Horse Racing Free Tips

Cannonball! Australian Sprinter Out To Make A Splash At Royal Ascot

Australian sprinter Cannonball (Aus) (Capitalist {Aus}) is being predicted to make an explosive impact at Royal Ascot by majority owner James Harron who insists the Peter and Paul Snowden-trained colt will post “a very big performance” if the ground is good or better in the G1 King's Stand S.

A general 10-1 chance to emulate last year's winner Nature Strip (Aus) and the brilliant Scenic Blast (Aus), Miss Andretti (Aus), Takeover Target (Aus) and Choisir (Aus) by winning the King's Stand for Australia, success for Cannonball would also reverberate as far as Northern Ireland.

Harron's adopted home may be Australia, where he has operated numerous successful colts partnerships for well over a decade now, but the Northern Irishman has long aspired to bring one good enough to one of the first big meetings that first enthralled him with the sport. In Cannonball, he is confident that he has found the right horse to make the long trip worthwhile.

He said, “I truly believe that we haven't seen the best of Cannonball yet and I am hoping and praying for a fast track at Ascot on the Tuesday. If we get that, you will see a very big performance.

James Harron | JH Bloodstock

“You'll see him in the mounting yard and be able to point him out as the big Aussie sprinter–he's a magnificent animal, big and strong. He really does command a lot of presence in the ring and is cut out for the job.”

Harron added, “It would be absolutely huge if he were to be successful. Hard to put it into words, I guess. It would certainly be one of my career highlights and it's just wonderful to be able to bring a lot of the owners over from Australia so, for them to be able to experience what Royal Ascot offers, and if he could be successful, it would be an experience that money couldn't buy.

“It would be amazing for all the team, amazing for Peter Snowden [joint-trainer] himself, who is flying over to Ascot along with his wife Lyn, and of course Brett Prebble [jockey] who has been doing so much work with us in Australia. It would be so satisfying to share that experience with everyone who works so hard and has been great supporters of ours.”

Victory would no doubt be made extra special by the fact that Cannonball is by Capitalist, the Golden Slipper-winning two-year-old and just about the most successful young stallion to have come through Harron's colts partnerships.

Cannonball will be Capitalist's first ever runner in Europe and, according to Harron, the three-year-old has a lot of the right qualities needed to win the King's Stand.

Harron said, “He's a very, very fast horse. Physically, he's developed extremely well as he's gone through his three-year-old year. He really thrives on good ground, has a high cruising speed and he can roll off fast sectionals. Five furlongs on good ground is right up his alley and it's those reasons that made us think that the King's Stand was the race that would be most suited to him.”

He added, “It's a huge effort to travel a horse to the royal meeting from Australia. There's a lot that goes into the organisation of it all and, from a logistical point of view and a staffing point of view, it's a huge effort. You have to give the trip a lot of consideration given the value of the horse you are travelling and because we've got such wonderful prize-money and other options that also need to be considered at home in Australia.

“It's something you take very seriously, not to mention the quality of the opposition in Europe, which is very much respected. Coming into the King's Stand, you have the brilliant mare Highfield Princess (Fr) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) and many more to be fearful of, so it's certainly a huge challenge. But the great Australian sprinters have paved the way for this sort of a trip and that gives us confidence that we can come to Royal Ascot and be competitive with Cannonball.”

One of the shrewdest operators on the international stage, Harron can also count Foxwedge (Aus) and King's Legacy (Aus) as graduates of his successful system of buying yearlings with the view of turning them into multi million dollar stallion prospects.

He is also one of the slot holders in The Everest, a race he has won twice–with Redzel (Aus) in 2017 and Giga Kick (Aus) last year–and manages a number of high profile owner portfolios and broodmare bands.

There are few better versed on the global bloodstock market than Harron, who bought Cannonball for AU$975,000 as a yearling from Newgate Stud at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale. He explained that, whilst he is shunning potentially lucrative pots in his homeland in favour of running at the royal meeting, the potential upside to the trip is creating a stallion with global appeal.

He said, “Being from Ireland myself, Royal Ascot is something that will always be in the back of my head when I potentially have the right horse to travel across. We were always thinking that Cannonball's profile fitted the bill given his best distance is five to five-and-a-half furlongs. Now, he may get six furlongs strongly as he gets older and more seasoned but, right now, the King's Stand trip looks to be in his wheelhouse.

“The other thing with this horse, he's run three or four times on soft ground and he just doesn't like it whatsoever-he's very ineffective on it. We were aware of that coming into the autumn, when he got his ground when returning from a decent break to beat the older horses at Rosehill and then he backed that up a week later to run third–unlucky not to be second–in a Group 1.

“That gave us the confidence to pull the trigger on Royal Ascot. He's on the up and is improving. We got together with all the connections to discuss it and we just had the confidence that Cannonball was the right horse to have a go at Royal Ascot with.”

Harron added, “Royal Ascot is such a prestigious event. It's an incredible week's racing and, in terms of this colt, he's beautifully-bred and is by Capitalist, who is obviously very close to our hearts and is doing an amazing job as a stallion at home in Australia. This will be Capitalist's first ever European runner, not to mean Royal Ascot, and if Cannonball was to be successful, it would obviously be huge for his potential stud value. This is the world stage and all eyes will be on the King's Stand. It's a true test of speed, which of course is very desirable for people in Australia. We wanted to give him the opportunity and he certainly won't let us down. We will find out exactly where he fits in.”

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Henry Field Q&A: “The Winning Post Trumps All”

In a little over a decade, Henry Field has built Newgate into one of the leading stallion operations in Australia and a force to be reckoned with on the international thoroughbred playing field.

Foxwedge got the stallion arm of the operation up and running in 2012 and, since then, the roster has grown exponentially, with Capitalist and Extreme Choice some of the more recent additions to the farm.

In this week's Q&A, Field explained the key principals that helped him build Newgate into what it is today, discussed the thinking behind partnering up with Rathbarry Stud to buy State Of Rest and much more.

Brian Sheerin: You have achieved a lot at Newgate in a little over a decade. If you could take me back to the beginning; what were your key principals in getting Newgate off the ground?

Henry Field: We didn't specifically set out to try and make Newgate a big stallion operation, it just grew organically. When we started out in 2010, we had a leased farm of about 200 acres, a couple of mares and borrowed a bit of money to get up and running. Thankfully, through my good friend James Harron, who had a good client in the Bateman family, they boarded a few mares on the farm. The Bateman family also gave me the opportunity to syndicate Foxwedge (Aus), a good stallion who shuttled between Australia and Europe, and that's what really got us going on the stallion front. At the same time, I had built up a really good relationship with Gavin Murphy and Tom Ryan of SF Bloodstock and we decided to embark on a joint venture at that time and build Newgate with SF Bloodstock as a major partner. Matthew Sandblom, one of my oldest clients, is an educational entrepreneur in Australia, and he also came on board in the partnership with Newgate. Between us all, we built Newgate into what is something pretty cool.

In many ways, you ripped up the playbook. Do you take time to look back at what you have achieved or are you someone who concentrates only on the future?

Always looking to the future and always trying to get better. The key to our success has been our personnel and the team. Obviously our farm is headed by Jim Carey, who I was lucky enough to work with at Coolmore 20 years ago, and I think he's the best stud manager I've ever worked with. I couldn't believe it when he came on board to work with us and he has been a huge part of our success story. On the bloodstock and sales side of things, we have Bruce Slade and Tony Williams, who are very experienced guys. Between us all, we've got a strong team that allows me to grow the business. I obviously work very closely with my partners in growing the business and, having the likes of Jim, Bruce and Tony managing the day-to-day running of things, that allows me to use my time on growing Newgate. It's grown exponentially since we started out.

You obviously built your brand with speed horses in Australia but now seem to be diversifying the business with more stoutly-bred horses. State Of Rest (Ire) is a good recent example of that. That may have come as a surprise to a few people. Why is it that you felt he'd be a good fit for Newgate?

Australian speed sires have been the bread and butter of the Australian sires' table for decades. Most people would agree that what we do best in Australia is speed horses and we probably have the best speed horses in the world down here. It is a high quality product, the Australian speed stallions, and it has really got our product going in Newgate, with Extreme Choice (Aus), Capitalist (Aus) and Deep Field (Aus), who have been so dominant here and in Hong Kong and broader Asia. Russian Revolution (Aus), the champion first-season sire in Australia last season, is another example, so they are all very fast horses, but we had been talking about diversifying over the past number of years as we felt there was an opportunity to bring in a high-class middle-distance horse into the operation. They are hard to get and obviously Coolmore and Godolphin have a stranglehold on the majority of the high-class horses who are retired to stud in Europe each year. Conceptually, I think that horses who can perform well in Australian conditions, they are often the ones who make the best sires and the fact that State Of Rest was good enough to come down and win the Cox Plate, our premier weight-for-age race where he beat our champion three-year-old Anamoe (Aus) and our horse of the year Verry Elleegant (NZ), it showed that the horse had top-class mile-and-a-quarter talent. Not only that, the fact that he did it after landing a Grade 1 in Saratoga, it showed that he had the tenacity and toughness that comes with travelling all over the world and succeeding at the top level, which is very important for us here in Australia. When State Of Rest became available with Rathbarry Stud, we jumped at the opportunity to partner with them to buy him. He went on and confirmed himself an outstanding racehorse when winning Group 1s in France and at Royal Ascot. But we had taken a view that, if we are going to stand a middle-distance horse, it has to be the right one for Australian conditions, and we are confident that State Of Rest is the right fit.

So this had been on your mind before State Of Rest became available?

Yes, we had discussed it with the team and were actively trying to find a middle-distance horse with the right attributes, but obviously they are hard to find. As soon as State Of Rest won the Cox Plate, it became obvious that he was the play. Also, Nick Williams, who is a big owner in Australia and in Joseph O'Brien's yard, told me the massive opinion that Joseph had of the horse before the Cox Plate so that performance did not come as a major surprise and the wheels had been set in motion. What the horse did after the Cox Plate, in winning Group 1s in France and at Royal Ascot, confirmed that he was a great investment for us and our partners in the China Horse Club.

Does State Of Rest represent a new challenge in terms of marketing him in Australia as he is something different for Australian breeders?

I think he will be received extremely well. For a brand like ours, that really specialises in Australian speed, for us to go and buy a Cox Plate winner, I think people take note of that in a very positive way. This is not a decision that was taken lightly. It has been well thought out and I think people notice that and I think they will support the horse heavily. I am sure that State Of Rest will be booked out within weeks of announcing his fee for this year.

You have set the rock-solid foundations with your sprint stallions at Newgate but, along with State Of Rest joining the roster, it seems as though there is plenty to look forward to on the track with the more stoutly-bred Militarize (NZ) (Dundeel {NZ}) shaping up to be a smart runner.

The reality is that the Australian sires' championship is dominated every year by the fastest horses, for the most part.There are some exceptions to the rule and there are some very good shuttle stallions, no more successful than Danehill (Ire) and more recently More Than Ready, so there are examples of very potent shuttle sires. Then there are some very successful middle-distance stallions, the likes of Zabeel (NZ) and So You Think (NZ), along with a horse in Melbourne, Shamus Award (Aus), who started from a low base. We don't want to be long in these types of horses but when there's one we have belief and high conviction in, we're certainly happy to take them on board.

What does the future hold for Militarize? He looks like a smart prospect.

He's more of a seven-furlong to a mile style two-year-old. There are two Group 1 races in the Sydney Autumn Carnival, the Group 1 Sires Produce Stakes and the Group 1 Champagne Stakes. We've won both races before and they are the two races we could target with him. Hopefully that will set him up for being an important middle-distance three-year-old for us.

The stallion partnerships are obviously very popular in Australia but what is it that you set out to buy when sourcing a yearling that you hope to stand at stud one day?

For me, first and foremost, they've got to be athletes. I'm far more focussed on buying runners and horses who are built mechanically-muscle tone, athleticism and class-how I like them. I probably work hardest to try and buy the racehorse first and am a big believer that horses can make their own pedigrees. It's a big bonus when these horses have a page behind them, and we'd never underestimate that, but I try to buy the best racehorse we can. The best stallion prospects are almost always the best racehorses.

It's almost becoming a buzz word in Europe, 'we need to be more like Australia,' but in reality, that's one of the few countries where spending a million dollars on a yearling can be justified given the prize-money on offer.

For sure. The reality is, it only makes sense if you are buying stallions and you won't last very long unless you are producing the goods and buying horses who end up on the roster as it's a very expensive game. We don't take for granted that one or two bad years could really put us in a bad spot. We've had a huge amount of success doing it and, alongside China Horse Club and our other partners, we've raced 12 colts who have gone on to be stallions in a seven-year period. We're probably averaging on purchasing 20 colts a year and, at the end of the day, results are what matter so we're lucky to have had success. With success, it gives longevity to the programme.

What would a day in the life of Henry Field look like? You are dealing with a lot of powerful people and there must be a lot of communication involved to keep everything moving in the right direction? If there's a lot of pressure involved, you seem to be dealing with it very well.

Obviously when the horses are winning, and we've been on a massive run with our two-year-olds this year, that makes it feel a lot easier. When they are losing, it can be a bit lonely. The one thing I would say is that we are massively selective when it comes to choosing our partners. Each and every one of them are outstanding and we're all close friends. We've a very strong social group and, even though we have some of the most successful business titans in Australia within the group, we've all got mutual respect for each other. I'll tell you what else is great, whether we have a good or a bad day, we all stay strong. We've been together for long enough that we can ride the ups and downs. We share the ambition to have success, which is imperative to keep the whole thing rolling, but we also have close relationships and friendships with the people who are involved in these partnerships. That's a wonderful thing.

You were in attendance at some of the biggest meetings in Britain last season courtesy of Artorius (Aus) and State Of Rest. What were your key takeouts from that trip?

For Australians, taking horses to Royal Ascot is probably the ultimate in racing. It was an honour to win the Prince Of Wales's Stakes with State Of Rest and come so close to winning the Platinum Jubilee Stakes with Artorius, who got held up before flashing home and just failing to get there. Bottom line, you need a hell of a good horse to take up there. There's no point in bringing a second-rater. We'll certainly be trying again this year and Artorius will go back for another crack at the Platinum Jubilee. Hopefully with an ounce of luck, he can be winning there this year.

Artorius could be earning a lot more money staying in Australia but international competition is what underpins meetings like Royal Ascot.

I've got great admiration for the Japanese, who you could make the same argument for. They could keep their best horses on home shores and run them for a lot more prize-money but they like to travel. We have an obligation to travel our horses. The quality of Australian racing at this point, especially up to a mile, has never been better. We have some very powerful genetics. There is a lot of wealth in the Australian bloodstock industry and that has created a situation, a bit like in Japan 20 years ago, where the Australians are going over and buying some of the best northern hemisphere mares in the world. I think we are breeding some great horses and almost have a responsibility to bring them all over the world and showcase how good our product is.

And I understand there is an exciting chapter about to be written with Extreme Choice?

We are breeding northern hemisphere mares to Extreme Choice, who is statistically the best stallion in Australia and running at 17 per cent stakes horses to runners. He's obviously had fertility problems but, from his first crop, he's had a Golden Slipper winner and many more top-class runners. He's a phenomenal stallion so we are breeding some mares on the northern hemisphere time to him and have set an ambitious goal for one of them to win a two-year-old race at Royal Ascot. We've set a long range plan with Extreme Choice and look forward to bringing some of his better two-year-olds to Royal Ascot to take on the best juveniles in Europe in a couple of years. That's certainly one of the biggest ambitions for our partnerships, to take on the best two-year-olds in Europe and show them that ours are the best in the world!

You touched on the sales; Newgate enjoyed a great start to the new year at Magic Millions.

We had 54 offered and sold 54 at Magic Millions. We were the leading vendor, once again, and also the leading buyer as we bought 18 colts for our syndicate. They will race in our partnership and hopefully we'll have a lot of success and one or two of those will end up being stallions at Newgate. It was a very busy sale but certainly one I came away from feeling quite satisfied that we did a lot of good business at.

Who would you say your biggest influence has been?

Doing the Godolphin Flying Start programme provided me with a huge head start. From there, I got a great position with Coolmore, where I was given a lot of responsibility and opportunity. To have gained experience with two of the preeminent global stallion operations set me up well for starting Newgate. But as individuals go, I started out in this industry with Gai Waterhouse and she hammered into me the importance of work ethic and integrity. There was no better school to learn the basics than in Gai's. I only spent a short time working with Tim Hyde in Ireland but I think he left one of the biggest impressions on me. He educated my eye and, a lot of the success we have had in buying horses in Australia down through the years, I would attribute that to Tim. It was such an honour to walk around the sales complex with Tim. There are no finer horsemen than him. He took me under his wing for about six months but it was a time I will never forget. I've learned a lot about horses from a lot of good people but he really taught me more than anyone else in this industry. The basis of every horse I buy now, it stems from what I learned from Tim. The other people who have been extremely important to my career have to be my business partners, Gavin Murphy and Tom Ryan of SF Bloodstock. They are two of the smartest guys in the game and they make me look very intelligent. It wouldn't matter what country a mare or stallion is in, they are the sharpest guys I've met at valuing horses and buying and selling. I would definitely say that the SF team have been a phenomenal help in driving the success of Newgate, along with my other partner Matthew Sandblom, a self-made businessman. It's very easy for me to say we've built this great business at Newgate but I can assure you that, without Gavin, Tom and Matthew, there'd be no Newgate today.

How would you define success at Newgate?

Success for us is a continuing focus on being the best we can be. I think in this business, all the marketing and sales that you do, none of that really matters. All that matters is the winning post. If I had to define success for Newgate in two words it would be the winning post. I must add that another lightbulb moment came about five years ago when I was lucky enough to visit Arthur Hancock's Kentucky Stone Farm. Tom Ryan took me out there and their way of raising horses is very organic and natural. It goes right back to how it was done decades back and, over the past five years at Newgate, there would be very few farms with a better record than ours at raising horses. I would credit that to our methodology of raising horses hard and tough. The value of bloodstock had sky-rocketed in the past decade or two and a lot of horses are being raised a bit soft as a result. Arthur raises his horses as naturally as possible and he gets big, strong and tough horses as a result. Certainly at Newgate, there can't be many farms that raise their horses in bigger paddocks and in bigger mobs than what we do. I am sure that has played a major role in our success. All facets of this business are important but the winning post trumps all. Whether that's for your stallions or the racehorses that you are breeding, winning races and winning good races is really all that matters.

What has been your best day in racing?

Being involved in the ownership of two Golden Slipper winners in Stay Inside and Capitalist. Winning Golden Slippers is the ultimate for us so, being involved in the ownership of two of them, that is something that was very special.

Newgate has exploded into a global brand and you've achieved a lot in 10 years but it seems like there is still a lot more to come. You are clearly quite hungry still.

I feel like we've built a great platform. We started off 10 years ago with a dream and now we've got great foundations built. Naturally, if you look at where we might be in another 10 years' time, we're starting from a far better position than when we set out in this business.

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De Burgh Equine And James Harron Join Forces For 1.25m Times Square

Just a handful of lots after the €1.7-million Burgarita (GB), Times Square (Fr) (Zarak {Fr}) (lot 180) joined the seven-figure club at €1,250,000. The Christophe Ferland-consigned filly was bought by De Burgh Equine and James Harron. A winner of the Listed Prix de Saint-Cyr, the 3-year-old has been Group 1-placed as a juvenile and in the G1 French 1000 Guineas this term. She is also a half-sister to G3 Prix Thomas Bryon third Times Boulevard (Fr) (Shalaa {Ire}).

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James Harron Q&A: ‘Foxwedge Really Got Things Going For Me’

James Harron is one of the most respected operators of his craft internationally. Based in Australia, the native of Northern Ireland credits Gai Waterhouse, agent George Smith and Winx (Aus)'s breeder John Camilleri of Fairway Thoroughbreds as being some of the key influences in his career.

Foxwedge (Aus) is the horse who got the ball rolling for Harron Down Under. He sourced the high-class sprinter-turned-stallion as a yearling and, from there, refined the art of making stallions on a commercial level through colt partnerships.

It's a little under 10 years ago when Harron secured the backing of a team of investors who purchase 10 to 15 yearlings every year with a view to blooding them into stallion prospects through success on the racetrack. 'TDN Rising Star' and subsequent G1 Golden Slipper hero Capitalist (Aus) and King's Legacy (Aus) are graduates of this hugely successful system.

Portfolio management and filly partnerships are also listed among the services he manages under the banner of James Harron Bloodstock and, as one of the slot holders in The Everest, he has won the race with Redzel (Aus) in 2017 and again this year with Giga Kick (Aus).

Harron also manages a number broodmare bands, including Morningside Stud, who he purchased a mare on behalf of at Fasig-Tipton last week. He then sat down with Brian Sheerin at Keeneland to discuss his career in bloodstock and the benefits that come with being based in Australia for this week's Q&A.

Brian Sheerin: Tell us a bit about your background.

James Harron: I've worked with horses most of my life. I spent my school holidays down in Coolmore in Tipperary, rode out for a few different National Hunt trainers and eventually I went to Enniskillen College. From there, I went to Paul Shanahan and then went to Australia for a three-month stint doing the yearling sales for Coolmore at Inglis. After that, I went to Gai Waterhouse for a week's work experience and that turned into a year. That was the start of me in Australia as I just fell in love with the place.

I also spent some time with Coolmore Australia and in a sales role with Hubie de Burgh. We travelled to a lot of different countries, including extensively in Australia, so that allowed me to pick up a really good client in the Batemans who allowed me to buy them some yearlings. We struck it off with a good colt in Foxwedge and one of their foundation mares in Satin Shoes (Aus) (Flying Spur {Aus}. That really gave me a launching pad so I went out on my own. I'm coming up on 11 years trading on my own but it feels like 40 years!

BS: What are the main advantages to trading in Australia?

JH: It's a very exciting marketplace but it was very different 10 years ago or 12 years ago. There is a huge level of interest among the general public and racing is a part of their culture. I just felt that it was very much an untapped market and agents weren't really a big thing when I came here whereas in Europe there were so many. In Australia, the trainers were buying all of their own horses or else their owners were, so the opportunity looked good. I just enjoy the atmosphere in Australia and the way that they do business. They are very amenable to giving a young person a start. It's part of their psyche, they want to give young people an opportunity. It has come together well and we have evolved as a business in terms of where we are focussing on. One of the biggest things that I am proud of is that we have pretty much got the exact same clients with us now as we did in the beginning. That means a lot. On top of that, our key staff Anna Ryan and Stephen Heath, have been with us from the start.

BS: You are recognised as one of the best judges of a yearling in the business. How did you get to where you are now?

JH: I was fortunate to be around the right people and was always listening and learning. Where things really clicked into place for me was when I was working with Gai Waterhouse. She had an agent, George Smith, who has had an incredible record over the years. He was fantastic to learn from. We would go around doing all of the pre inspections for Gai and he would write all of his notes by hand. I would then type up all of his notes into the computer system so that we had it all set up for Gai. We would sit there in the evenings having a few beers and he'd ask me, 'what's my rating on this or that,' and it really sunk in. He was amazing with his time and that was the time when things started coming together for me and dots began to get connected. You never stop learning and listening from the trainers to get feedback on all of the horses and try to refine it. The minute you think you are getting better at this job, you have a bad year–that's the game.

BS: It's one thing to have practical knowledge and another to make the shrewd business moves, which you have clearly done. Who was it that influenced you on that side of things?

JH: I have always enjoyed the business side of things. I have some great people around me, including clients of the agency, who are great people to learn from and I am able to bounce different things off them. Without singling too many people out, but John Camilleri has been a fantastic friend and mentor. It's a matter of identifying where you want to be in this industry and acknowledging what your strengths are within it. Most importantly, you need to know what people want out of your business and that was the biggest thing we wanted to identify. We tried to make it sensible for people to race horses and to give them an opportunity not to be just paying out bills but to put some form of a structure in place so that people could race horses in a somewhat commercially viable way.

BS: And what are the services that you provide and how have you developed your business in Australia?

JH: From an early stage, we wanted to work with the trainers and manage the horses on behalf of the owners throughout the whole process. We identified who we believed to be the best breakers, pre-trainers, spelling farms and we also have our own vet, Johnny Walker, who does all of our own inspections on a fortnightly basis and reports back to us as an independent. We are managing a tiny percentage of the horses a trainer would have in their stable so we can give it that little bit more attention and focus. We also work on the programming and have a form expert, Mark Shean, who works closely with us and he helps us with our placement in New South Wales. We have Deane Lester in Victoria as well. They are integral parts of the team. We just try our best to dot the is and cross the ts and get as much good data together [as possible]. The people who we work with, they really welcome the feedback and we work together to make plans and it's enjoyable. The owners are part of the whole process and fully understand where they are going. Plans don't always work out but it's nice to have some system in place.

BS: But when it does work out, especially when you make stallions like Capitalist and King's Legacy, that must give you huge pleasure.

JH: We were fortunate to have Foxwedge (Aus) early on. He won the G1 William Reid S. and was by Fastnet Rock (Aus). He became a high profile commodity and was sold to Henry Field and stood at Newgate Farm. That was their first ever stallion. From there, we bought more colts and found Australian Guineas winner Wandjina (Aus). I always had the idea of putting together a group of people to pool their resources together and try to buy more horses and give ourselves more opportunity to produce these colts to go to stud. What was really astonishing to me was how competitive it is to buy these stallions.

We felt like we wanted to be selling into that market more and more. A lot of our people are breeders so the idea would be to pick up a number of colts to race and try and get them to a high level. Then you can sell down equity to stud farms and also keep equity so they are a part of that process. Within that partnership group, Capitalist came along and it has been a wonderful story. They have continued to support him and he is a success on the track and in the sales ring. That's really the model.

We try to pick up between 10 and 15 colts per year and then produce a stallion prospect. The ones who aren't getting to that level can be traded to Hong Kong, which we have done every year and that has become quite helpful. We've had some nice horses go to race there. We have a very healthy domestic market with provincial and country racing and the ones who don't make stallions or don't have high enough ratings to be sold to Hong Kong can go on and have fruitful careers in Australia. It's pretty much about having a system that can identify the big horse who can make the step up.

BS: Physically, what are the main things you are looking for in a yearling?

JH: The big question we try to ask ourselves before we bid on a horse is, if he is successful on the track, would we want to send our best mares to that horse. That sounds a bit obvious but you need to know if he is by the right sire, has he got the right physique or is he from a good enough family. Sometimes you can become sidetracked by a really nice type who isn't by the right sire or doesn't have a good family and it's important to have a product that, if it is successful, we can fully get behind. You can see that by the stallions we have produced, the owners really get behind them and they get commercial books. King's Legacy for example, he covered the highest number of any first-season sire in his first year at stud. From a physical point of view, we are very much looking for a precocious type of horse. We look for one who can run as a 2-year-old and do everything that makes an Australian sire in terms of precocity, strength and robustness.

BS: Would you attribute Foxwedge for launching your career?

JH: He really got it going for me and came at a pivotal point, for sure. We used that as a springboard and there have been other pivotal moments along the way but he certainly was the first. Getting Capitalist in the first year of the colt partnership was also very important. They all mean something but those two were pivotal.

BS: And is there a particular moment that means the most to you? Was it a race or perhaps a particular deal that stands out?

JH: I was probably at a stage in life when I could really appreciate how significant Capitalist was when he came along. Winning a Golden Slipper, I mean it's the race you dream about and it's all you think about when you are looking at yearlings. When I'm looking at horses at the sales, I try to envisage a horse walking around the paddock ahead of the Golden Slipper.

BS: It must be quite rewarding to be seeing him do so well as a stallion.

JH: It is and all the owners follow his progeny no matter where they are running. It doesn't matter how big or small the race is, they are always cheering them home. We look forward to seeing the progeny of horses we have been attached to and try to pick some of them up and try to get them to the same level of their sires. It's a great part of the journey. It's a long and slow burn but, once it starts rolling, it's fantastic.

BS: And what are you doing here in Keeneland this week?

JH: We haven't been over here in Keeneland for a long time and only picked up a few here and there over the past few years through various different agents. The opportunity arose to come over this year and we've picked up a few mares. We got two mares at Fasig-Tipton; one will have a foal here and the other is empty. After that, they will travel to England and be covered by Frankel (GB) before coming home to Australia. We have broodmare partnerships, which is what the mare we bought in foal is for, and that consists of a handful of people from our colt syndicates as well. They can use their equity and play around with it that way. The other filly was bought on behalf of Morningside Stud. They have a beautiful band of broodmares.

BS: Do you see yourself doing more business internationally?

JH: To be honest, our big focus is Australia and we want it to remain that way. We are fortunate to have good relationships with different people around the world who we can work through and combine with if we need to. I do love the American broodmares for Australia and I think this is potentially going to be a sale that I will keep coming back to. It will be more sporadic than it being planned attending sales internationally. It will be more for when the opportunity arises. We have an amazing industry in Australia and it's a very exciting place to be.

BS: What makes Australia such a vibrant place to be based and what could we take out of the industry over there with a view towards European racing?

JH: There is a real mainstream interest in racing in Australia and it permeates through to every level. From the pubs with the TAB machines where they have the racing on, people have grown up with that and their parents or family members have taken a part-share in a horse. The culture is there. The fundamentals have been put in place with the rebate and gambling wagers coming back into prize-money. The administrators are very passionate and push hard. They have made some incredible additions to the racing calendar, most notably The Everest. The amount of people who told me that this year's Everest was their best day on a racetrack, I couldn't believe it. I was talking to some owners who have had 20 Group 1 winners but they said that The Everest was one of the most meaningful days that they have had racing. From the minute you walked in, the atmosphere and the amount of young people there, everything just came together. What that has done is brought in a new and younger demographic. They view The Everest as a cool new race and you just bump into every type, the butcher or the hairdresser, and all they want to talk about is The Everest.

BS: Is it just the prize-money that has captured the imagination for the race or is it the trading and the slots that goes with it?

JH: I think it's multi-faceted. The prize-money has pricked everybody's ears. That is probably the most significant part because I am not sure if many people under the age of 35 would understand exactly how the slots for the race works. I have to say, the media did a great job and they were calling you about it every day to see what was happening. There was just this share of information which goes on for 10 months and that helps to promote it.

BS: Especially when you leave it late.

JH: Yeah, I know! For different people with different interests, there are many attractions to the race and it's multi-faceted. People in the industry love the dealing side of the race while the young people love the day itself. There is no other day like it. It was just unbelievable.

The post James Harron Q&A: ‘Foxwedge Really Got Things Going For Me’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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