We recently caught up with Andrew Stewart from Arion Pedigrees. Andrew has been in the industry his whole life and is so generous to the NZTBA with his time whether he is producing pedigrees for the annual stallion register, stallion parades, our members update, maiden focus and even loves to provide a fun fact every now and then!
Explain who Arion Pedigrees is and your role within the company?
Arion Pedigrees provides the pedigree information for all thoroughbred auctions held in Australia & New Zealand, the Hong Kong annual sale, the Northern Farm Broodmare Sale in Japan and Cape Racing Sales in South Africa. We also compile various stallion registers including the New Zealand & Australian versions, stud broodmare registers and supply data to most of the major thoroughbred organisations worldwide. My role is to oversee the cataloguing process, liaise with customers both of our cataloguing services and our world renowned website.
Explain what a typical day may look like for you.
Varied - from editing or proofing pedigrees, researching families for upcoming sales, loading data, talking to clients, at sales or on stud visits, keeping up to date with international news and following NZ and Australian racing.
What is your favourite part of your job?
The best part is when a finished catalogue gets sent for printing and the Arion editing team moves onto the next one – there is very little downtime as sales are being held worldwide right throughout the year - but I also love reading every pedigree that we produce and seeing how families evolve over time.
Tell us your history in the industry.
I was born into the industry, like so many who work in it. My father was an equine vet and both parents were very keen racegoers and owners. I started working in a racing stable at 13 and, other than 2 years trying my best but failing to sell PPE, have worked in the industry ever since.
It’s pretty easy to get up and go to work when your work is your passion and I think that’s what sustains many of us who work in this great industry. I was a member of the NZ Pattern Committee for many years and chair the committee who select the Breeder, Small Breeder and Broodmare of the Year.
Who are three people you would invite for dinner?
As they are all still little people I would invite my six grandchildren aged eight down to nine months. The chatter, for the five of them who can talk, would be non-stop, positive and innocent while my youngest grand-daughter would just smile and dribble and we would eat dinosaur shaped nuggets and fries with lots of tomato sauce.
What is something that many people wouldn't know about you?
I’m going to pick three – I’ve never sung karaoke but my karaoke song would either be Minutes to Memories by John Mellencamp or Wonderwall by Oasis.
I have my six grandchildren’s names tattooed on my inner arms preparing for the day that I’ll forget them and they have will point out to me which one they are.
I’m a huge baseball fan – I watch it every day I can, and with 162 regular season games there is plenty to watch - and my team the Toronto Blue Jays, and I’m not going to say it, but they are leading their division with only 25 games to go!!!
