About Us › the partners

There are a couple of wise old sayings about the business of partners.

The first says that you should never have a partnership where you can’t hold a board meeting in the shower at seven am. It has more than a grain of truth to it!

The second old saying is that you should always stick to the kind of partners you admire more than you envy.

Gerry Harvey, John Messara and Muzzafar Yaseen are all highly successful in business, racing and breeding. They share a passionate commitment to the Australian racehorse, and all four of the stallions we stand at Plaintree were individually bred and raced by them.

Most importantly, all three breeders made the decision to retain their own home-bred stallion in order to give him the very best chance at stud.

They know what it takes to believe in a horse. And so do we.

John Messara – Arrowfield

Breeders and owners of Sunday Knight

When they write about John Messara and the Australian thoroughbred industry in fifty years time, they will probably only need four words.

Danehill, Redoute’s Choice – and Visionary.

Some might like to call Messara the man with the Midas touch, the luckiest man alive. But lightning doesn’t strike twice unless you have already established a pretty good connection to the conductor. And if you’ve had the extraordinary honour of having selected and stood two of the greatest stallions ever seen in the Australian breeding industry, then he probably does have a special connection with the man upstairs.

There’s a sweet irony to this story, one that has been told many times in the breeding barns: how Messara selected Danehill, shuttled him to Australia and stood him for what many believe were his most successful years at stud, only to loose him to the Irish conglomerate Coolmore.

While it carved up a few fairly deep wounds along the way, Messara eventually rose again.

Messara finally started building the road back when he started collecting the best young sons by Danehill and standing them at stud.

Messara sensed there was a market over-reaction to shuttle stallions and started heading in another direction. He created a stallion roster with an emphasis on the colonial racetrack success with a strong international pedigree. The result of this move has been young colonial sons of Danehill like Redoute’s Choice, Danzero and Flying Spur. In 2006, Arrowfield will stand Charge Forward, Danzero, Falbrav (Ire), Flying Spur, Hussonet (USA), Not a Single Doubt, Redoute’s Choice and Snitzel. Six of their eight stallions at stud are Australian bred.

There was plenty of criticism when Arrowfield paid $10 million for a half share in Redoute’s Choice, but Messara now controls 50% – and full standing rights (the other 50% is owned by the stallions breeder, Mr Muzzafar Yaseen) – of one of the most valuable stallions in the world.

Messara grew up in Alexandria, Egypt where his family had a long history of racing horses. He migrated to Australia at the age of 11, where he was enrolled into Sydney’s Riverview College. He later graduated in commerce from the University of NSW, and went on to start his own stock broking company.

It was to prove a perfect background for the thoroughbred business, because it taught Messara to always do his sums and crunch his numbers. “I think the one thing I’ve done for Australian breeding is to make the whole focus more corporate,” he said. “The industry was previously dominated by pastoralists, but me, and others like me, have taken a more analytical approach. It’s aligned Australia with international bloodlines.”

Consequently, he is also the man credited with bringing the concept of analysis to the Australian thoroughbred industry: the analysis of pedigree, performance, and most importantly possibility.

Messara, by nature passionate, driven – some might say obsessive, remains unrelenting in his search to find the next big stallion.

So when he actually comes out and states that a horse has a stallion’s pedigree, you can be fairly confident about one thing. This is a man who really knows what he’s talking about – because the proof is out there.

Arrowfield – who bred Fashion’s Afield, the Australian Champion 2YO in 2004/05 – also stands the sires of the last three Golden Slipper winners – Dance Hero (Danzero) Stratum and Miss Finland (both by Redoute’s Choice).

Stallions that stood at Arrowfield also sired the last three Magic Millions winners – Dance Hero, Bradbury’s Luck (Redoute’s Choice) and Mirror Mirror (Dehere).

If this isn’t enough, they have also sired the winners of the last two Blue Diamonds – Undoubtedly and Nadeem (both by Redoute’s Choice) as well of two of the last three Sires Produce Stakes winners – Dance Hero (Danzero) and Fashion’s Afield (Redoute’s Choice).

At the 2006 Australian Easter Sales, Redoute’s Choice stamped himself as the anointed son of Danehill taking Leading Sire honours when he sold 35 yearlings for an aggregate of $24.8 million, averaged $710,000 and sold to a top price of $3 million.

Arrowfield also had the pleasure of edging out its old rival Coolmore to take the coveted title of Leading Vendor when they sold 33 yearlings for $13.6 million, an average of $413,939 and a top price of $2 million.

Danehill must surely be laughing in the pastures of heaven.

Gerry Harvey – Baramulstud

Breeder and major part owner of Conatus.

When you stand a stallion in partnership with Gerry Harvey, one of Australia’s most admired and successful businessmen, people have a way of asking questions.

First, they want to know if you can arrange an introduction for Cousin Freddie who’s just created the world’s only dishwasher with an inbuilt TV (the reply is standard: speak to Sharon, his PA of some 30 years).

Then there’s the next question: what’s he really like?

You tell them that Gerry Harvey is an ordinary bloke who comes across in private exactly the same way that he does in the media. He is humble, down to earth, plain speaking – and thoroughly decent. In fact, somebody once described him as an ordinary bloody billionaire.

He wears two hats, this man. The first is that of public entertainer, the charming genial clown that makes the public laugh and clamor for more. The other, the one more generally reserved for the boardroom, is that of the businessman.

And that’s exactly the moment when the expression in the eyes changes from clown to icy calculation.

The truth is, Gerry Harvey doesn’t give a damn what anybody thinks of him. When he was at the Magic Millions last January, he suddenly stopped and decided to use the lip of a blue plastic garbage bin as a temporary executive desk. He spread out his catalogue, pulled out a pencil and happily settled in to do his calculations, oblivious to the stares of the crowd. Horses are his passion and the sales ring is his office. And bugger what anyone else thinks.

Gerry Harvey is Chairman of the retail chain Harvey Norman Holdings Limited, whose stores can be found across Australia, New Zealand, Slovenia, Ireland, Singapore and Malaysia.

Harvey – along with his mates John Singleton and Rob Ferguson – purchased the Magic Millions for $7 million in 1997: today the company is worth closer to $200 million, but Harvey has no intention of selling. “No way,” he says. “I’m having too much fun.”

The land and its people run strongly in his blood: he is the son of a NSW farmer and his mother came from Blackall in Western Queensland. He has owned Broombee near Armidale for the last 35 years and purchased Baramul in the Hunter Valley more recently.

Baramul – which was producing good horses back in the 1870s when it was simply known as Joe’s Paddock – became a stud farm in its own right in 1940. And in those 65 years comes the kind of history that any farm in the world would surely dream about.

The original Australian superstar sire Star Kingdom (Ire) came here in 1951, and he was quickly followed by legendary breed shapers like Todman, Biscay and Bletchingly. And so began the steady procession of extraordinary horses that have flowed out of this beautiful valley – the Valley of Champions.

The stud is now rapidly emerging back into the glory days it enjoyed from the 1950’s through to the late 1970’s.

Harvey’s expansion into the stud business continued in 2005, when – along with John Singleton and other partners – Harvey purchased a major share in Vinery Stud.

‘When all my foals are born after August 1st, I will probably have a thousand horses,” he recently told the Australian Financial Review. “I haven’t got a plan. I’ve grown so much in the last five years I have to decide if I want to grow more.”

In the meantime, his equine empire has entered a remarkable new phase. His farms have either bred or own such racehorses like Lotteria, Fashion’s Afield, Savabeel, Arlington Road, Nevis, Magically, Kakakakatie, Presenting – and the list continues to grow.

In 2005, over 200 of Harvey’s star-studded band of broodmares were bred to the best stallions in Australia and New Zealand including Redoute’s Choice, Encosta de Lago, Zabeel, More Than Ready, General Nediym, Mossman, Hussonet and Flying Spur. His finest result so far was the sale of the Red Ransom – Savannah Express colt at the 2006 Magic Millions Yearling Sales for $1.5million.

He also sent 30 outstanding young mares to Conatus in 2005, exactly one more than the 29 mares he sent to him in 2004.

And like so many other breeders who have bred to Conatus in his first crop, he is very excited by the results he has seen on the ground.

“His weanlings are just getting better and better every day,” he grins.

Muzzafar Yaseen – Teeley Assets

Breeder and owner of Platinum Scissors.

The amazing thing about the thoroughbred business is that you never know who will be the Chosen One, the next breeder or owner who will strike that elusive pay-dirt and rewrite the rules of the breeding business.

In one sense, we probably expect it to be one of the big stud breeders who have devoted their lives to finding the next great horse.

Then there is the wildcard, the outsider who happens to come into the industry and with an uncanny combination of instinct, good judgment and good luck, becomes the conduit who brings it all together – and starts another revolution in the breeding business.

Mr Muzzafar Yaseen is a Singaporean who has spent most of his business life involved in the clothing industry. His interests in racing and breeding simply began as an interest and a hobby away from the pressures of work.

But after he bred and raced a colt called Redoute’s Choice – who he later sold a 50% share to Arrowfield for $10 million – the hobby suddenly turned into a business and these days, Teeley Assets, owns nearly 70 horses.

Mr Yaseen is currently involved with 5 different stallions at stud and owns a further 36 mares, 13 race horses and 15 yearlings and weanlings. He likes to attend the Melbourne Spring Carnival and he is also a great supporter of the Australian Open Tennis.

Somebody once wrote that there is always one horse that makes a difference in our lives. In the case of Muzzafar Yaseen, the logical suggestion that it was Redoute’s Choice – super sire, sales sensation and world breeding phenomenon – is not the right answer.

The truth is you need to have the hen before you get the chicken. So first there was Shantha’s Choice, who turned out to be the ticket to every ride at the fair.

Mr Yaseen purchased the filly by Canny Lad for $220,000 at the William Inglis Sales in 1994 with the idea of owning a good race filly that he could eventually send to stud. Her race career was disappointing, to say the least, and after two starts and a single race win in Seymour, country Victoria, she was dispatched off to Arrowfield Stud.

Her first foal was none other than Redoute’s Choice, and then Platinum Scissors came along later. The fact that she later produced a couple of beautiful bay colts to Danehill probably didn’t surprise the breeding purists at all, because Shantha’s Choice is from Dancing Show, the granddaughter of Best In Show, matriarch of one of the most awesome families in the world.

The staggering success on the racetrack of Redoute’s Choice and Platinum Scissors catapulted Mr Yaseen into the heady stratosphere of racing at Group One level. Suddenly, the big bay brothers brought the big G1 wins rolling in – The VATC Blue Diamond Stakes, the VATC Caulfield Guineas, the C.F. Orr Stakes, the AJC Spring Champion Stakes – and the stud masters came knocking on his door.

None was more convincing or passionate than John Messara, who had already made up his mind that Redoute’s Choice would be the next Danehill, and Mr Yaseen duly sold a 50% interest for $10 million to Arrowfield Stud.

Strangely enough, the disappointments around Platinum Scissors and his fertility issues convinced Mr Yaseen to make a similar decision concerning the stallion’s future in early 2006.

“When we heard of Dr Pascoe’s reputation in fertility, Mr Yaseen and I both decided he was the best person to work with in Australia,” said Mr Yaseen’s racing manager Mrs Iris O’Farrell. “He is very committed and passionate about what he does, and we like to work with people like that”.