Sandy & Jan Yarndley Scott Yarndley

Sandy Yarndley is one of the most approachable and astute people you will find in the harness racing industry.

In the last 10 years he has built Yarndley Farms up to be one of the most recognisable brands in the industry.

All of this without a stallion on the property, and with minimal paid advertising and promotion.

On visiting Yarndley Farms it is obvious that it is a working farm.

It is not a showpiece property that promises much but delivers little.

The stables are neat and tidy with well-mown lawns, but you won’t see the ranks of flowerbeds that some other properties display.

However, if there is anything available that helps breed and raise better racehorses, you will find it here. This is apparent on sales day also. You won’t see the level of preening and polishing of some preparers.

Yarndley Farms is more interested in breeding quality stock and raising them well. This is what they concentrate on.

On sales day it’s not uncommon for several of their draft to be inspected by potential buyers at the same time. With this level of interest there just isn’t time to be concerned about ‘Best Presented’ ribbons. Once they get to the races looks don’t mean anything. It’s heart and sound bone that wins every time.

The land area of the main farm is 76 hectares.

This was dairy farmed until 1997 and is rolling with volcanic type soils.

Waikato winters can be a challenge, but with good pasture management and the right stock numbers it becomes stress-free for man and beast.

The rolling contour is perfect for building strong bone and muscle as the young stock exercise themselves in the roomy paddocks.

When I visited in early August they were in the middle of a cold but dry winter and all the stock were looking exceptional. It was not hard to imagine the yearlings blossoming as spring arrives.

The new run-off at Te Pahu 20 minutes west of Ohaupo will enable stock to be transferred off the main block at critical times. Mares are split into early and later foaling with the latter mares staying at Te Pahu for a little longer. Broodmares will return to the main farm well before foaling. Which leads me to the question of broodmares….

If I have $25,000 to spend on a broodmare what advice would you give me? “You would need to be very patient and wait for the right one. It’s questionable as to whether your budget is high enough.”

What about buying a well-bred filly?

“This can be a great way to go if you buy a Megaera or Hot Shoe Shuffle. There’s obviously a risk involved because you don’t know if you’ve got a good racehorse until it starts winning. However if you’ve bought into the right family they don’t have to win a race to become a good broodmare.”

What qualities do you look for in an unraced mare before determining her potential as a broodmare? “We look for a good family. And who owns the other members of the family.”

Virtually every mare you own goes back to Rosehaven (Black Globe/Brown Owl). You have tried other families but haven’t seemed to have had the same success. What is it that makes this family so prolific?

“Firstly I will add that every daughter of Rosehaven traces to a group one winner. They are a good all round breed and with good management they certainly get the job done”.

Is there another female line that you would be happy to add to your broodmare band?

“The family tracing to Orbell is really on the improve, with the likes of Bella’s Boy, Whanau etc. Also Nell’s Pride and her daughters are very commercial”.

thought it relevant to ask him some pertinent questions on stallions.

What about Christian Cullen this year at $8000?

“We have bookings to him this year. You just had to be impressed by his first crop. I’ll just add that it’s very important that all stallions are paid up for all major race series. If they aren’t it gets very expensive for owners further down the track.”

What about frozen semen stallions. How do you feel about them, bearing in mind you can’t physically inspect them?

“I use www.studrow.com to assess their performance and siring ability, (if they have foals of racing age). But you’re right; there is no easy way of learning their physical characteristics. But if they have won $2,000,000 there can’t be too much wrong.”

Talking of Artsplace would he have been as dominant here as he is in North America? “No, not necessarily.”

Are you saying then that you rate New Zealand based stallions as good as anything in North America?

“Yes, they are certainly as good as but not necessarily as commercial.”

We often hear the question, ‘Are you breeding to race or breeding to sell?’ Can you explain the difference for us in terms of stallion choice?

“If you are breeding to sell you need to think two years ahead as to what will be in fashion as far as stallions go. However if you are breeding to race you can choose from a wider base of stallions, perhaps a younger stallion.”

Equine Fertility Services are doing ground-breaking work on sperm sexing of semen. Would you use the technology?

“We won’t be rushing in to use it. Some years you have more fillies than you want and your draft doesn’t look as strong as other years. Then once the sales get underway everybody wants fillies. We will just leave it to nature.”

In the 80’s you prospered utilising Vance Hanover. In the 90’s it was Holmes Hanover, In the Pocket and Falcon Seelster. Is there one stallion you really think can keep you ahead of the opposition now that were into the 00’s.

“The quality of stallions has lifted considerably due to shuttle and frozen semen stallions. They are far more even now so I don’t think there will be a standout.”

The racehorses that have foaled at Yarndley Farms have included Il Vicolo, Hot Shoe Shuffle, Nketia, Megaera, Agios Nikolaos, Ciccio Star and Coburg to name a few. Yarndleys are tremendously proud of this record.

“We realised some time back that it was important to sell all of our yearlings rather than retain the ones we liked the look of. Buyers appreciate that we are not in the business of racing horses, and Jan and I will only ever retain fillies as future broodmares. We race these lightly to show what they can do on the track.”

Which brings us to the racehorses…

What are the best colt and filly you have bred?

“That’s easy. Il Vicolo won $1,580,000, he was exceptional. The best filly is Megaera who won $250,000. Jan and I bred these two. Some of the syndicate horses have been tops too, with Hot Shoe Shuffle being the most recent success story”

l Hot Shoe Shuffle’s run to finish second in the Derby (splitting the two Il Vicolo colts) must have been a proud moment for you? “Yes, it was a great result.”

l And to run second in the Derby. You have to go back to Hilarious Guest in 1982 to see a better result for a filly. “Yes, I think that’s correct.”

l We have established that Il Vicolo was the best buy from your sales drafts. Which yearling has brought you the highest price?

“In 1984 we sold a stunning Smooth Fella/Black Watch colt for $120,000 named McCoy. He was a real standout at a time when Smooth Fella was on a high. He won one race.”

l In the last week of July, I counted 150 ex-New Zealand horses down to race in North America. How do you feel about the number of horses sold to North America each year?

“It is good that there is a market for our horses. However it does leave real gaps in the middle class of horse which causes problems when race secretaries are drawing up fields.”

Anybody who raises animals will tell you that far and away the most important thing is good feeding. At Yarndley Farms all stock get good quality rye and clover pastures with additional hay or haylage at critical times in the season. Mares receive NRM Mare Balancer Nuts, which are crucial in providing the vitamins and minerals needed for the last three months of pregnancy.

Sandy and his son Scott went to Sydney at the end of August to attend the Kentucky Equine Research seminar on Growth and Development of Horses.

This was three full days of lectures with topics ranging from bone disease to pasture counts and is an example of just how scientific the industry is becoming.

A new initiative last season at Yarndley Farms was the weighing of all young stock from weaning through to sales time.

Whilst in the past visual examination and weigh tapes have been used, the new system ‘gro.trac’ available from NRM allows weights obtained from standard platform scales to be analysed by way of a computer programme.

Results are graphed and compared with growth weight standards.

This is the first time that the programme has been used with standardbreds in New Zealand and so the growth rates have been compared to thoroughbred growth standards.

Next season the Yarndleys will be able to use the standardbred growth averages that they have helped to create.

Another recent development at Yarndley’s is the horse walker.

At this time of year it is kept busy with racehorses from Mike Berger and other trainers being jogged back to fitness. It is a great labour saver and the horses thrive on it. V For, the good Christian Cullen gelding trained by Berger had just finished his jogging up period when I was there and was off to Cambridge for the next phase in his training.

The Yarndley yearlings spend time on the walker as part of their preparation for the sales, building up to 15 minutes of smart walking a day.

The level of customer service at Yarndley Farms is second to none.

Last year we welcomed our first foal from our first mare and as the day arrived we were a mixture of excitement and trepidation. This came to a head with a 3am phone call which my wife received “You’d better get round here” and click the caller was gone. We did wonder what events would have been set in motion if Sandy had dialled the wrong number.

Our healthy foal arrived at 3.15am and both Sandy and Scott were there to look after things. To then be invited in for coffee at 4am and see the foal standing at 5 am as we left was really something special.

Written for the ‘Weekly’ - by Jeff Elton

It is interesting to note that Yarndley Farms have no financial interest in any stallion. This means that Sandy is able to be an impartial authority on the choice of stallions. Considering that last year they foaled 95 mares and inseminated 120.