The Master Breeder
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By Scott MacLean
Earlier this month thoroughbred racing lost a titan of the industry.
Patrick Hogan was neither a jockey nor trainer, but as a breeder left an unmistakable mark.
Born in Rotorua just weeks after the outbreak of war in 1939, Hogan completed his education at Hautapu Primary in Cambridge and then St Patrick’s College, Silverstream in Upper Hutt before entering the stud game. At just 25 he started Fencourt Stud on the family farm with his brother, with the operation going well until disaster struck and their prized stallion died suddenly. Scraping together what they had they entered into an agreement for a block of land of their own, and in 1976 the pair and their business partners travelled to Ireland to find a sire that matched the ambition.
There he found a recently retired five-year old stallion with the bloodlines he sought though with a relatively modest racing career in Ireland, England, and France plus having run 10th in the centenary Kentucky Derby two years prior. Hogan purchased the horse for the princely sum of $1300 and had him brought to New Zealand.
That horse’s name? Sir Tristram.
Establishing Cambridge Stud the following year Hogan initially charged a $200 stud fee for “Paddy” – as Sir Tristram was nicknamed – as they waited for how things would pan out. And as it transpired, they did in spectacular fashion. His first Group One (thoroughbred racing’s premier grade) winner came in 1980 when Tasman won the South Australian Derby, before Sovereign Red blitzed through the Melbourne spring with three more and then added the West Australian Derby as well. Further evidence came in 1982 when Gurner’s Lane became just the fifth horse to claim the Caulfield Cup/Melbourne Cup double and by 1984 he was Australasia’s leading sire, an accolade he would hold for every year for the rest of the decade bar 1988. By 1985 his offspring had claimed 19 Group Ones and that year would add ten more, with Tristarc winning four of those alone.
Sir Tristram would prove he could sire horses that could win at all distances when Marauding claimed the Golden Slipper – Australia’s richest race for two-year olds – over 1200m in 1987, and that was reinforced the following year when the much-loved and gigantic Empire Rose won the Melbourne Cup. Sir Tristram’s influence began to wain in the 90’s but he continued to add to his impressive totals with his stud fee rising to $200,000 before he was euthanized at 26 in 1997 after breaking his shoulder in his paddock. He was buried whole, standing up, in the front lawn of Cambridge Stud.
But even from beyond the grave he would still prove a winner with Irish Chance winning the Auckland Cup – a race that had eluded Sir Tristram in life – in 1999, with his 45th and final Group One winner coming the following November at Flemington as Brew took the Melbourne Cup.
Personal accolades came for Hogan as he was made a CBE in 1992 and knighted in the 2000 New Years list. The partnership with Sir Tristram had made Cambridge Stud the leading stud farm in Australasia.
But as remarkable as that was, the next chapter was equally impressive. In 1991 one of those Group One winning progenie, 1990 Australasian Guinea champion Zabeel, was retired to stand at Cambridge Stud. Remarkably, Zabeel matched his father’s accomplishments to the numbers, with a list of winners that reads like a 1990’s & 2000’s honour roll:
- Octagonal, winner of 10 Group One races from 1995-97 including the Cox Plate in 1995
- Might and Power, who claimed seven Group Ones across 1997 and 1998 including the Caulfield Cup/Melbourne Cup double in 1997 and the Cox Plate the following year
- Jezabeel, winner of the Auckland and Melbourne Cups in 1998
- Sky Heights, winner of the Caulfield Cup and three other Group Ones in 1999-2000
- Railings, the 2005 Caulfield Cup winner
- Vengeance of Rain, who raced in Hong Kong and won four Group One races there plus the 2007 Dubai Sheema Classic, the richest turf race in the world
- Efficient, winner of three Group One’s including the 2007 Melbourne Cup.
Octagonal and Might and Power are in the Australian Racing Hall of Fame, with Vengeance of Rain honoured in the Hong Kong equivalent.
Zabeel died in 2015, and like his father is buried in the front lawn of Cambridge Stud.
Sir Tristram and Zabeel – with their matching record of 45 Group Ones and three Melbourne Cups each – plus Might and Power are enshrined in the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame. Hogan is there as well.
Hogan’s contributions to racing go beyond being a studmaster. He owned several racehorses himself including the aforementioned Irish Chance, 2001 Wellington Cup winner Smiling Chance, and Katie Lee who was the first mare to do the New Zealand 1000 and 2000 Guineas double and unusually a horse he brought rather than bred.
He also served as chairman and vice-president of the NZ Thoroughbred Breeders Association, president of the Cambridge Jockey Club, and was a noted philanthropist to many causes.
Under his leadership Cambridge Stud bred over 150 Group One winners, a tally that included eight Melbourne Cups, five Caulfield Cups, four Cox Plates, and Marauding’s Golden Slipper, before Hogan sold up in 2017 and moved into semi-retirement.
Racing may be the Sport of Kings, but Hogan was the Kingmaker.
Rest in Peace Sir Patrick; your legacy is assured.
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