Photo: Supplied
Wentwood Grange Yearling Manager Brad Molander was recognised for his contribution to the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeding industry at the Entain Industry Excellence Awards on Sunday night when he was bestowed the Dedication to Breeding Excellence Award.
It comes two years after Molander was awarded the Mary Lynne Ryan Young Achiever at the National Breeding Awards, and he was delighted to be recognised by the wider industry on Sunday.
“It was awesome to get the award and be recognised,” Molander said. “The Hawkins family, who own Wentwood Grange, were there as well as a few friends, and I got a lot of messages of congratulations from family.
“I do a bit with the standardbreds as well with harness racing, so to mix those two codes and to have a great night like that was really fun.”
Molander has become an integral part of the Wentwood Grange team, leading their yearling sale preparation for the best part of a decade, and he enjoys being a part of the Waikato farm’s framework.
“I have been yearling manager at Wentwood for eight seasons,” he said. “I love getting the babies ready from when we start handling them when they come off the mare.
“We do a good bit of everything at Wentwood, we do the mares, foals, spellers, racehorses and yearlings, we are all one big team. I love it.”
Molander also has plenty of skin in the game himself, having started breeding on his own account in the last few years, and he has struck immediate success.
“In partnership with my mate John Atkinson, who is our farrier, I have got an Iffraaj mare called Missouri that we bought for $600 (off gavelhouse.com),” Molander said.
“We bred her to Embellish, who was only a $4,000 stallion at the time, and we sold her first foal (In The Air) for $27,500 at the weanling sales a couple of years ago.
“He won as an early two-year-old at Tauherenikau and ran in the Karaka Millions, which was awesome. To do that with the first foal we bred and first foal out of the mare was great. He only followed them around in the Karaka Millions field, but it was amazing to be there with a runner in the race.
“The second foal, the colt by Embellish, we took him to Book 2 at the beginning of this year and he made $100,000. Ross McCarroll bought him and he is at the farm right now. I have kept a share in him with Ross and the rest of the new owners. He has been broken in and the reports from the breakers were good.
“We skipped a year with the mare to give her a year off and now she is in-foal to Shamexpress and she is due late-August.”
While pleased to receive his award on Sunday, Molander said he got a bigger kick out of enjoying the night with his partner, Cambridge Raceway chief executive David Branch, who was also a finalist in the Administration and Innovation Excellence category.
“The highlight for me was being a finalist on an evening like that with Dave, that was really special,” he said.
As part of his award, Molander received a $10,000 cash prize, which he said would likely be reinvested into the industry.
“Thank you to Entain,” he said. “I haven’t thought about what I will use the money towards, but it will probably end up going back into the industry.”
