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Dick Karreman’s Slice of New Zealand Heaven
By Ray See
On a recent holiday to New Zealand I had the pleasure of visiting some of that country’s leading stud farms, but it was a stud owned by prominent Queensland owner Dick Karreman that stood out to me.
Driving into The Oaks Stud at Cambridge, down the half mile long driveway lined with 70-year-old oak trees, you get a sense of great tradition, but it is in the last four year’s since Karreman purchased the property, that he and General Manager Rick Williams have been building their own tradition.
The Oaks was actually a dairy farm, the highest producing one in New Zealand’s Waikato region for that matter, until around 20 years ago, when it was purchased by the former high-flying West Australian entrepreneur Laurie Connell with the idea of turning it into a thoroughbred stud.
Connell reportedly spent over $13 million in upgrading The Oaks, but with the stockmarket crash, Connell was forced to sell up the 500 acres he had initially bought that had consisted of two separate titles of 300 acres and 200 acres.
The two blocks were offered for sale by tender, with the 300 acre block again became a high producing dairy farm, while the main block of 200 acres was leased to Russell Warwick of Westbury Stud.
General Manager Rick Williams has called The Oaks home for around eight years now, having previously worked from Waikato Stud at Matamata as well as managing Lord and Lady Tavistock’s Bloomsbury Stud at Matamata, prior to accepting an offer from Terry Jarvis to manage The Oaks.
Jarvis had purchased the stud and stood the stallions Entrepreneur and Yachtie at the property as well as running around 42 broodmares.
Karreman, who immigrated to Queensland, from Holland, when he was 12, got into racing by chance around that same time.
At the age of 15, Karreman was living in a caravan and earning a living picking strawberries, before driving a bread van and later working for a company delivering goods to Woolworths. He bought his first truck when he was 19 and now has a fleet of 45 Mack body trucks operating from his quarry and transport business at Sheldon to the south-east of Brisbane.
It was through his truck and quarry business that Karreman met former New Zealand trainer Bevan Laming, at Laming’s Jacobs Well training complex.
After carting sand from Laming's property for some years, Karreman eventually was persuaded by Laming to buy a racehorse.
Laming paraded two yearlings in front of Karreman asking; “Which one do you like the best?”
“The bay one,” Karreman replied.
“Right, that's your horse,” Laming said.
“Then the bill arrived for $70,000,” Karreman said.
“I got the fright of my life. I said what sort of game is this!”
That $70,000 investment wasn’t long in starting to pay back Karreman, running second at the Sunshine Coast on debut in February 1999 and then winning at the Gold Coast at her next start.
I Am A Ripper had notched up four wins a second and a fourth from her six runs as a two-year-old, including the Listed Douglas Wadley Handicap at Eagle Farm.
Resuming as a three-year-old, the filly won the Group 2 Champagne Stakes at Moonee Valley and in the autumn of her three-year-old season she also had success in the Group 2 Angus Armanasco Stakes at Caulfield.
She was retired to stud at the end of that season, the winner of $570,000, not a bad first horse in anyone’s language, but sadly due to a chromosome problem, I Am A Ripper could not pass on that success at stud.
Karreman and Laming however became a successful combination and fate again had a hand in Karreman’s purchase of The Oaks Stud.
“Dick and Bevan had stayed here at the property when they had come over for the yearling sales,” Rick Williams recalled.
“Dick had asked me ‘do you think your man would ever sell the farm?’.”
“Not that long after, Terry Jarvis decided to sell the stud and move onto other things, so I let Dick know about it.”
“I friend of mine had let me know that Tradionally was on the market in America and Dick came over and bought into him, before he had even signed to buy the property,” Williams said.
Karreman himself recalls those visits to the sales and his stays at The Oaks, deciding on his first drive up that oak tree lined driveway that he wanted to buy the place.
“It is a magnificent property, you just can’t do it justice with words,” he said.
“The first time that I drove up the driveway, I said to the old goat (Bevan), that one day I would own this property. To which he replied ‘bull droppings’ or words to that effect.”
“Where else would you want to grow horses, we have to keep a watch on their diets because they do so well.”
Karreman’s prediction to Laming became a reality in August 2002 when he took over the ownership of The Oaks from Terry Jarvis.
“We bought another 150 acres adjoining the property two years back and on Christmas Eve we signed to buy another adjoining 190 acres, which will become part of The Oaks on the first of June this year,” Williams said.
“If the dairy farmer that has the other adjoining 300 acres ever decides to sell, we will probably be the first to show interest in that as well.”
The reason for the expansion of The Oaks, is two-fold, to house the increasing number of broodmares that have been purchased by the stud and also make sure that there is plenty of room for longterm boarders to call The Oaks home and then be sent to one of the stud’s stallions.
While the land at The Oaks is naturally rich, Karreman and Williams are making sure it stays that way, not with artificial fertilisers, but by recycling a very common product on any horse stud.
The stud has probably the only ‘poo picking up machine’ in the southern hemisphere, a small vehicle with a large vacuum hose that picks up the horse droppings, which are then processed in the stud’s on site worm farm and being returned to the ground as liquid worm castings.
This is just part of the planning that has gone into making sure that The Oaks is not only a success for Karreman and Williams, but for all those that support it.
The stud stands three well credentialed stallions including Traditionally, the only Group 1 winning son of Mr Prospector standing at stud in New Zealand, having won the Group 1 Oaklawn Handicap, Spartacus a dual Group 1 winning son of Danehill as a two-year-old that won the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes (1200m) at The Curragh and the Group 1 Gran Criterium (8 furlongs), Italy’s premier Group 1 event for 2YO’s.
The third stallion at The Oaks is Bachelor Duke, a son of Mr Prospector stallion Miswaki and the Seattle Slew mare Gossamer that won the Group 1 Irish Two Thousand Guineas beating Azamour and Grey Swallow.
Importantly for the team at The Oaks and those that support the young stallions, the stud owns a 50% share in all three, which means that they retain the Southern Hemisphere rights for the stallions, rather than just leasing them off bigger studs that could decide to stand them elsewhere if they are successful at stud.
“We have invested heavily in high quality stallions and have to do that so broodmare owners have continuity,” Karreman said.
“Unlike other stallions that have stood in New Zealand like Cape Cross and Stravinsky that have been moved to other studs when they became successful, we own 50% of our stallions which means they will continue to spend their southern hemisphere days at The Oaks.”
Not that Karreman is relying totally on the three imported stallions; he is a 10% shareholder in champion New Zealand three-year-old Darci Brahma, the winner of seven of his first nine starts, including the Group 1 TJ Smith at last year’s Brisbane Winter Carnival and the Group 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas in November, which had followed two Group 2 wins in between those races.
As the first stud that bought into the Danehill-Grand Echezeaux colt when he was sold for $NZ 1.1 Million as a yearling, The Oaks did the deal to have the future stud rights to him, as well as having first option should any of the colt’s other shareholders want to sell their share.
On the racing scene runners connected with The Oaks Stud in New Zealand have also had a lot of recent success.
Apart from Darci Brahma, which is trained by Mark Walker, Karreman also races Keeninsky (by Stravinsky), another future stallion prospect for The Oaks, which won the Group 1 Manawatu Sires Produce as a two-year-old and the Group 1 Telegraph Handicap at three, as well as running second in the Group 1 Captain Cook Stakes.
Seachange (by Cape Cross) a filly that Rick Williams didn’t even send to the yearling sales due to her bad legs remains unbeaten after five starts for trainer Ralph Manning, all with former Queensland apprentice Gavin McKeon in the saddle.
Winning the Group 1 One Thousand Guineas at her fourth start at Riccarton last November, Seachange resumed with an emphatic five and a quarter length annihilation of the opposition in a Three-Year-Old Handicap over 1400m at Woodville on January 9, leaving boom gelding Wahid in her wake.
“She was way underdone for that and blew like a chimney, so there is a lot of improvement in her,” an excited Karreman said from his Brisbane office.
Rick Williams has confirmed that Seachange will target the upcoming fillies feature events, starting with the Group 3 Desert Gold Stakes (1600m) at Wellington on January 28, followed by the Group 2 Cambridge Stud Sir Tristram Fillies Classic (2000m) at Te Rapa on February 11th.
Seachange is then likely to press on to attempt to add the other “jewel in the crown” event for three-year-old fillies, the Group 1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) also in Wellington on March 18th.
Karreman also owns probably the best two-year-old filly in New Zealand this season, Chant, fittingly the first runner by The Oaks stallion Traditionally.
After running second in her first two starts, the Robert Priscott trained Chant came out and won the Listed Fairview Ford Stakes (1000m) at Te Rapa on December 10, before going on to win the Group 3 Eclipse Stakes (1200m) at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day.
“I really liked her chances again today, especially with the extra 200m and I can’t believe the media were saying it was only the wet track at Te Rapa that saw her win last start,” Priscott told reporters after the Eclipse win.
“Some of them were coming up with all sorts of reasons why she couldn’t beat these horses, most of which she beat last time.”
Chant is now likely to follow in the footsteps of Keeninsky and head towards the Group 1 Manawatu Sires Produce Stakes this autumn.
Ironically Chant had been sent to the sales to be sold, with just a $30,000 reserve on her but failed to attract a bid.
“She was a bit up behind and down in the wither, but there was nothing wrong with her confirmation,” Williams said.
“Someone probably could have taken her home if they had offered us $20,000.”
Traditionally had a much better start with his current yearling crop, with three colts offered at the Magic Millions yearling sale for $170,000, $140,000 and $130,000.
The top priced of the three, was a colt out of Lunchtime Blues, the winner of a Gold Coast Maiden in 1999, when trained by Bevan Laming for Karreman.
Another current two-year-old that failed to sell as a yearling is the Octagonal filly Sweet Spirit, which won her third start at Taupo on New Year’s Eve, which followed thirds at her first two starts.
“Like Chant, there was nothing wrong with this filly either, just no one wanted to buy her,” Williams said.
With his current racing team in New Zealand, the Brisbane based owner/ New Zealand stud owner looks well on the way to winning leading owner honours in New Zealand this season.
Since Rick Williams first took on his position at The Oaks with former owner Terry Jarvis, he has steadily been upgrading the broodmare band and along the way has bought some very well related mares.
One such mare is the now 11-year-old daughter of Last Tycoon, named Miss Trump, which just happens to be a half sister to champion galloper Lonhro and the triple Group 1 winner Niello.
“Miss Trump had been in work in Sydney but was injured and I bought her for $60,000 just after Lonhro had won his first race,” Williams recalled.
That $60,000 would just be a minor fraction of what the mare would now be worth, with Lonhro having gone on to win 26 of his 35 starts, along with five placings and three fourths and prizemoney of nearly $5.8 million.
25 of Lonhro’s wins came in Black-Type races, including 11 at Group 1 level.
Miss Trump was one of the 42 mares that Karreman took ownership of when he purchased The Oaks, but in that time, he and Williams have been spending up, with the stud now being home to 120 broodmares, nearly three times as many as when the stud was purchased less than four years ago.
Miss Trump’s yearling daughter by Octagonal will become a future broodmare at The Oaks, being far too valuable as a future broodmare to sell to someone else at the sales.
Being a three-quarter sister to both Lonhro and Niello, she could well be another horse to achieve Black Type success in Karreman’s colours before the breeding barn beckons though.
The Octagonal-Miss Trump filly shares a paddock with the yearling half-sister to the unbeaten Seachange (By Keeper) and even though she is three months older, her presence in the paddock shows that she is something special.
With the planning and management strategy that has gone into the running of The Oaks, the property and owner, Queenslander Dick Karreman are sure to have their names in the headlines for many years to come, both in the sales ring and on the racetrack.
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