Karaka The moment of truth

Karaka Yearling Sales time is the moment of truth when the quality of the Stud’s teams work is judged by the thoroughbred community in the fleeting moments of the sales ring.

It is a time of putting the final touches on the finished product; the yearling. A time of anxious anticipation and always a time of hoping for the feeling of ecstasy and fulfillment following a successful sale.

Even the best nerves of steel are tested in these brief but crucial days. For Waikato Stud they are the days of judgment; the days in which the benchmark for success is determined for the entire year; the days where 80 percent of your livelihood for the year will be in the hands of a relatively small group of agents, trainers and owners.

An inordinate amount of preparation precedes the anxious selling days. A team of sixty are assembled for 80 yearlings for sales ground parades in the final week including actual sale days. This well briefed and experienced yearling team is accommodated, catered for and presented in Waikato Stud uniform.

As well as parading yearlings to their best advantage to buyers, the yearling team does everything possible to put the final touches on each yearling’s preparation. Which includes keeping them calm, happy and as stress-free as humanly possible.

They fully empathise with the temperament of young horses which are being subjected to the commotion of sales ground noise and its activities for the first time. The team knows all too well, the smallest changes can make the most significant differences in their objective to relax and coax these valuable yearlings through the sales ground experience.

Operating in small and well-drilled teams, the Stud will run as many as eight parades simultaneously to accommodate buyers and prevent wait time for yearling inspections. They run the parades like clockwork using a system devised from trial and error over many years.

As the team show yearlings to discerning buyers; entertaining other potential clients occurs simultaneously as standard sales ground procedure. Pedigree updates and each yearling’s history are made available to buyers hunting down the next champion; and these are supplied with the offer of refreshments as well as an opportunity to sit and relax leading into those apprehensive moments when a Waikato Stud yearling enters the sales ring.

Before the arrival of horses and staff on the Karaka Sales grounds; preparation of the yearlings is a culmination of an average of 16 months of rearing foals into yearlings, which is preceded by breeding the mares to produce foals after 11 and a half months of gestation. The return on all that work and investment is realised for each yearling in a few fleeting seconds when the gavel falls in the Karaka sales ring.

Nothing is guaranteed; no sale of any single yearling is a surety and the rising of blood pressure for both management and the staff who have prepared them and lived with them for 16 months, is inevitable. The best bred and prepared yearlings are offered for sale to the entire Waikato Stud team’s expectations and dreams.

Stud boss Mark Chittick is philosophical about the outcome of each sale but is empathetic towards his team, who he knows have developed an emotional attachment to each yearling.

Always thinking of his loyal employees, Mark says, “If it’s a good result at the yearling sales, it’s tears all around and then from me, it’s beers all around.”

The yearling team develop a strong unity and hone their systems to present the young horses in the best possible light to buyers and in peak condition on sale day. They are led by Yearling Manager, Jaimee Gowler, who admits to sale day nerves but also relishes the responsibility of her role.

Jaimee says, “The yearling preparation becomes more intense when they are boxed from the first week of November. They come into the box in the morning and go out again in the afternoon. We want it to be as natural as possible, so we try and let them be a horse; we do some hand walking and parading and a lot of education.”

“As the Yearling Manager, I have a team of 18 staff and then at the sales we have a team of around 60 staff for 80 yearlings. We probably have a higher ratio per horse at the sales, but we cover every possibility; so as well as looking after the horses, we are also looking after the people who are looking after the horses.”

“It’s a nervous time at the sales. It’s the first time the yearlings have been off the farm, you see them sold in just seconds in the sale ring after a whole year of preparation and you do have a personal attachment to them because you have looked after them for so long.”

“The satisfaction is knowing that from conception, to the sales ring, we have put our whole team effort into every minute of these horse’s existence and although their future then passes to someone else’s hands, we will follow their progress and delight in their future racetrack success.”

“What we have learned at Waikato Stud after a lot of years; is that with the best systems in place and with the best people running them, you will achieve the best end result. Some things happen that are not always controllable, but on those occasions, you roll with it, adapt and do your very best.”

Time-tested systems coupled with unconditional teamwork is the key for Karaka Sales success –a significant aspect of Waikato Stud’s position as the leading vendor every year since 2014

Buyer, breeder and vendor together evaluate the sale, and below the ongoing responsibility of keeping the hardworking WS team both well fed and watered

Our Team Culture unifies its passion for horses

The desire to rise before dawn in all weather conditions and work with thoroughbred horses every day within a community of people isolated only by farm boundaries, requires remarkable people, motivated by a special leadership.

Waikato Stud is the synergy of those people and that leadership. It’s about a group of highly skilled and highly motivated like-minded people with a strong passion for horses. They are unified and gain strength as a team from a leader who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way: the Waikato Stud way. That leadership style is Mark Chittick. A thoroughbred stud farm requires a superabundance of quality ingredients to make it operate at full potential. It evolves slowly over many years but when the stars finally align, a euphoric energy emanates from quality teamwork and the reward arrives by way of results at the annual yearling sales and continuing success on the racetrack.

This journal is a celebration of Waikato Stud’s history of more than 50 years and is a dedication to the team that have made it happen: especially the current team whose dedication and commitment has taken Waikato Stud to the top of this elite class as the leading thoroughbred stud of New Zealand successively for a string of years.

Climbing the mountain at Waikato Stud to reach the summit of New Zealand breeding comes ostensibly through empowerment and inclusiveness of the 40 strong team driven by leadership promoting full involvement of their work-days which regularly intertwines with social events.

Waikato Stud balances a philosophy of operating as a commercial enterprise within a highly competitive environment and retaining its personal feel as a family run business. Identifying the ingredients to retain that balance is recognition of its highly valued staff of whom the Chittick family consider their extended family.

To make it work; a synergy of total unity has developed between the holistic operating divisions of business, marketing, veterinary, stallions, foaling, broodmares, yearlings, maintenance, farrier, fencing, farm, cattle operation and chef. They are one for all and all for one.

Bloodstock Manager, Kerrie Cox, is still youthful but started with Waikato Stud at a very tender age and has never wanted to leave or be far from the action. Her commitment and appreciation of the Chittick family and the love of Waikato Stud as an allencompassing lifestyle is evident in her own personal account of her Waikato Stud experience.

“I was 15 years-old when I started at Waikato Stud and that was over 16 years ago”, remembers Kerrie.

“My father came here one day and saw Mark and asked if there was any school holiday work going. He started me with the yearling preparation and from then onwards I worked every weekend and every school holiday.”

“Mark is all about family, and that’s really important to me as well,” says Kerrie. “But by family I also mean the Waikato Stud family; he’s really pulled the staff together. We have this honesty and accountability thing happening while we are having a serious amount of fun. When I wake up in the morning I can’t wait to go to work.”

“Mark is always saying, ‘No dust and positive people make happy horses.’ I don’t think you can put enough emphasis on positivity when identifying the Stud’s values. The first thing that comes up in our discussions is the word positivity; for your peers, management, horses, clients and everything else.”

“Mark has an aura about him that makes him a great leader. I think everyone can tune in to him. With the staff, we have our systems that work really well and he is always looking for ways to evolve and move forward.”

Another highly valued 20-year long-term staff member is Sharon Meyer who oversees the broodmares.

She says, “It’s a special place and you feel you become part of it, and it becomes part of you. It’s a family vibe here at Waikato Stud and that’s why the people here stay for a long time.”

“Everyone here works together and assists with everyone else’s job and for me it feels like the Stud is my family and home.”

Mark Chittick created a work culture that also firmly resonated with former Newmarket vet, Dr Chris Phillips, who came to Waikato Stud and immediately felt a need to stay.

“I had worked in England for 10 years at both commercially-owned and privately-owned studs before I came to Waikato Stud. Here it is a lovely mixture of both and gave me the feel of a combination of those two farms.”

“Waikato Stud’s Garry and Mark built the broodmare band up by retaining families and creating the black type in many of those families through the home stallions; and keeping the families through sisters, half-sisters and granddaughters. That was a large part of the reason I was attracted to Waikato Stud.”

“As a vet I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed my job as much as I do here and that’s for numerous reasons. The management strategies here are so good as they have been developed over the decades by both Garry and Mark. My job is made so much easier because of this.”

“Mark is a great boss. He has shown huge trust in my ability. We work very well together and along with the Bloodstock Manager, Kerrie, with her knowledge and practical ability (she’s as good as any vet I have ever worked with) ensures our team ethos. Mark and I have always had a very strong working connection.”

Jaimee Gowler loves her job as Waikato Stud’s Yearling Manager and makes no secret of her emotional attachment to Waikato Stud.

“A massive part of being at Waikato Stud is that you are part of a family, a community. Everyone supports each other no matter what area of the Stud you work in and everyone is happy to catch-up after work to talk about it, so you find out what’s needed and how everyone is feeling”, recounted Jaimee.

“We have breakfast together as a team and enjoy each other’s company socially. That shows when people see us at the sales and comment about how much fun we are having. It’s hard work, but we always get stuck into it and enjoy it as a team and do the job to the best of our ability.”

“To do the job well and enjoy it gives you a massive feeling. The thing for me is that feeling, and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t so enjoyable. I’ve now been at Waikato Stud for six years in total and I’ve worked in a lot of different areas and that’s another cool thing.”

“Communication with Mark is great because I can talk to him at any time about anything. If something happens, he’s realistic and always finds a solution, and there is never a drama.”

Mark Chittick prefers to give the credit to the staff and is immensely proud of them, along with the results he has achieved since buying Waikato Stud from his father, Garry, in 2012. He has imprinted his own leadership style on the Stud which focuses on honesty, empowering staff, inspiration, openness, innovation, confidence and opportunities for them to share an involvement in the business.

That recipe for the running of Waikato Stud has seen it grow to today’s highest level of excellence and achievement in its more than 50-year history. The foundations for success were cast in stone by the selection of its location in 1967, afterwards by father Garry’s inspirational selection of mares and stallions and today Mark’s continuance of judicious selection and his unique attributes in molding his staff into such a strong unit.

Deflecting the credit from himself; Mark says:

“Look after your staff and they reward you tenfold. If they feel respected and valued, then they repay you with loyalty and a high work ethic. We trust our staff and they trust us; and we know they give their very best.”

“Another thing that binds us is gathering together as a team to watch Waikato Stud owned or bred horses run in big races. When we win, that usually turns into a celebration which only adds to bonding and team unity. We always say success is best shared.”

“Our team are the ones that have been at the breeding shed when the mare conceived, foaled the mare down and handled the foal right through to yearling sales time: so understandably when the yearling is sold it can bring them to tears.”

“When you live and breathe horses as we do, there is a continual learning process going on, and particularly with foals; that’s one of the incredible things for me about this business. It begins here from the day they are born and while it’s harder to implement on a big farm like Waikato Stud, we have developed a system to do it and it has made such a big difference.”

“A good rapport between the horse and its handler, especially at a young age, will totally enhance the rest of that horse’s life. I firmly believe there are very positive benefits to it. It’s all about positivity and a happy horse with a great energy around them.”

“The feedback we receive from trainers is so positive, saying our horses are willing to work with you, rather than against you, whether it be going into a barrier, being loaded on a plane, or doing something new and different.”

“I remember it was 18 or 19 years ago when Sharon first said that she’d like to handle the foals earlier and when we did it, it was ground-breaking. The longer you leave it, the harder it is on the foals and the staff. Another good learning curve was putting the little rugs on the foals both for handling and for the indifferent early spring weather.”

“We’d take rugs off in the morning and put them on at night and the foal was being handled and getting a pat. Even when the weather warmed up, we kept doing it with rugs we had made without a lining and all the later foals that had proved more difficult in previous years were as good as gold.”

“During the breeding season when busy, we put on breakfast for the staff every day and have a meeting each Friday. In the off-season, we still have a breakfast Friday meeting. Our staff are family: We’d do anything for these guys because I know they will respect it and appreciate the care.”

“With the stallions, it’s important to have the right people handling them. In the spring, the stallion groom is in the trenches with the horses every day; it involves trust between both the groom and the stallion.”

“Over time, we have developed incredible systems here that work and when you have people like Sharon and Kerrie who have been here for 15 or 20 years; they have helped developed those systems.”

Mark’s leadership is synonymous with successfully run corporates in big business. It invites a staff inclusiveness, empowers them, invites group decisionmaking and welcomes self-determination. Mark’s style is not so much about leading them; but more about taking everyone on a magical journey together.

The smile always balances the serious aspect of doing the job well. WS has assembled a dedicated team who share a resolute passion for horses

Patience and care and an appreciation of the strong herd instinct of the thoroughbred are vital components in the effectiveness of the WS breeding function