NZSBA Breeders’ Profile: Hamish Scott

Few men in a relationship (and the women will agree) will argue the adage, ‘happy wife, happy life’. Hamish Scott realised this upon purchasing his first harness racing broodmare and duly consulted his dear partner Kim before making the purchase in a hilarious anecdote that plays out below. The rest as they say is history.

 

His band of ‘Kiwi’ progeny took our racetracks by storm and few will forget the deeds of Kiwi Ingenuity before she was suddenly retired to the broodmare barn. More recently, Kiwi Legend (since sold) which ran second to Beaudine Boaz in the Gold Nugget on Interdom final day was spanking his NZ opposititon before heading to Australia. We caught up with Hamish for our fifth installment of ‘Breeders’ Profiles’.

 

 

Whilst at Otago University I went with some friends to Forbury Park – I think that was my first harness racing meeting. Before that I used to go to the Riverton Races at Easter with my Mum and Dad. I ended up working for Ernst & Young in Invercargill for a few years and was in a Syndicate at work organised by Mark O’Connor (who has gone on to grander things!). Kim got involved by default – but she is very understanding!

 

 

Our first broodmare was the first filly we purchased. We purchased Kiwi Express off Allan and Sarah Donaldson around 1998 as a yearling. When I say we, I actually mean “I” as I purchased Kiwi Express without mentioning it to Kim, I then told Kim during her lunch when she was a House Surgeon at Christchurch Hospital (we had shifted to Christchurch by then) knowing that she would be too busy to care – which worked a treat as she basically forgot about it until Kiwi Express was due to qualify!

 

She won 2 of her 5 starts but had some injury issues so was retired to stud in 2002. She was the first Horse we bred. It is fair to say she has been very good to us. All of the Horses we breed that originate from Kiwi Express have ‘Kiwi’ in the name. The Kiwi name really “belongs” to the Donaldson Family, but we have used it as it is really their family.

 

 

The first race winner we bred was from Kiwi Express called Kiwis Can Fly. She won her second race, and then three of her next five, retiring with 4 wins and a 2nd from 7 starts.

 

 

We quite like the “thrill of the chase” in breeding horses. In most years we have purchased from the sales, but get a far bigger thrill from winning a race with one we bred – whether we still own it or not. Kim also enjoys naming foals.

 

We race, breed, buy at the sales and have purchased the occasional going horse. From experience the biggest risk is the breeding bit. The compensating factor is that breeding a winner is the most satisfying bit.

 

 

My favourite Horse is Kiwi Express. She started it all for us. The best one we have bred is Kiwi Ingenuity, although the Kiwi fillies have all been quite good to us, including Kiwis Can Fly (4 wins from 7 starts and the dam of Kiwi Legend), A Good Kiwi Chick (4 wins from 9 starts) and Givematasteofkiwi (1 win from 3 starts to date). We have a number of progeny now starting to come through from this line and look forward to them racing in the future.

 

 

My favourite Stallion of all time is Christian Cullen – mainly because he was the sire of Kiwi

Ingenuity. He was such a super Race Horse and showed that NZ bred Horses are also stud propositions.

 

 

I think we have ended up breeding 12 of our 15 broodmares, including Kiwi Ingenuity, Kiwis Can Fly, A Good Kiwi Chick, Front Cover Lover, Front Up (a full sister to Bettor Cover Lover), Bella Arden, Harem Franco,Laurent (a half-sister to Lancome) and a few others. We have a few others that we will race with a view to entering the broodmare band at some stage. We have around 28 horses all up, plus a share in another six.

 

 

What would I like see change? I would like to see more of our money stay in New Zealand instead of heading off to America to fund their industry. That is money that is no longer in our industry. This is easier said than done – but it is achievable. I do have some ideas, but there is probably no room in this forum to expand on these without causing insomnia!

 

Also, although we prefer to breed horses ourselves, I do believe that there should be a greater focus on establishing breeding partnerships/syndicates with a view to making breeding more accessible and affordable to more people. 

 

 

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