Neil Werrett has taken over John Singleton’s stake in Vinery Australia. “When John Singleton and Gerry Harvey split their bloodstock interests in 2011, part of the discipline was that John wanted to step out of Vinery as well so Neil has stepped in and taken that 10% over,” Vinery General Manager Peter Orton explained. “It’s indicative of where we are that if anyone wants to step away we have a line of people wanting to step in.”
Based in Sydney, Werrett is best known as the senior part-owner of Black Caviar (Bel Esprit). “Neil was in Bel Mer with us, he’s good friends and raced a lot of horses with Steve McCann, one of the existing partners, so he’s well known to the farm, a good supporter of the farm, he’s got some nice mares, just a good guy who fits in with what are trying to achieve. We’re delighted to have someone like him involved.
“Singo is still close to the farm and supports the stallions.”
While the core or the Vinery business is breeding racehorses and standing stallions, the green and white livery is a familiar site on racecourses, Samaready’s (More Than Ready) runaway win in last Saturday’s Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) the most recent Group One winning example. “Gerry Harvey has a lot of horses obviously and does his own thing but the rest of the group are very keen to buy some fillies and race them in the Vinery colours and then bring them back to the farm.”
Orton confirms that the objective for Vinery is on expansion but with quality as the benchmark. “We’ve always tried to keep a balanced business going, if we’re going to stand stallions we don’t want to be a stallion station but we do want to involved in standing a range of stallions.”
Vinery in Australia is a separate operation to Vinery in North America. “As sister farms we work together very closely and it’s an enormous asset to have that international connection. Opportunities are coming along all the time and it’s a great security to have that there.”
Orton points out that the inclusion of Werrett into Vinery coincides with a period of success for the farm. “With stallions like More Than Ready, Testa Rossa and Mossman doing so well and exciting young horses like Onemorenomore and the Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown, whose first foals are on the ground, the future is looking particularly bright. Not to mention a filly like Samaready, the Vinery brand is in good shape.”
