A lucky hobby: Sir Peter Vela

Want to succeed in racing and breeding in Australasia, even with a Melbourne Cup or four in the mix? Seems you could do worse than throw in these unlikely ingredients: fishing, trees, and Croatia.

Tony Santic’s parents fled the island of Lastovo with their little boy in the 1950s. They landed in Australia, where his father gained work cutting railway sleepers from gum trees in Port Lincoln, before the couple returned to what they’d done back home – fishing. Tony grew up, became a tuna baron, branched into thoroughbred owning and breeding, and one of the first he raced was Makybe Diva (GB) (Desert King {Ire}), the only triple Melbourne Cup winner.

In the 1920s, Filip Vela took off in search of a better life from Podgora, on the coast of the Croatian mainland 50 kilometres from Lastovo. The cheapest fare was to New Zealand, so that’s where he ended up, working as a “gum digger”, a job involving drawing the resin from trees.

Marrying a local, he got into fishing, but not horses. Yet his sons Peter and Phillip would become deeply involved in both.

Fast forward several decades and the man who became Sir Peter Vela is one of Australasia’s biggest names, in both fishing, and racing and breeding.

And just for a little more symmetry with Santic – with whom he almost inevitably became friends – his biggest high has come on the first Tuesday of November. There was no three-peat, but the rare grandeur of a Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double, through the mighty staying mare he and Phillip bred and raced, Ethereal (NZ) (Rhythm {USA}).

Sir Peter, 70, sits at the centre of the high table of the New Zealand thoroughbred industry. He’s not just the owner of Pencarrow Stud, but he and Phillip became so successful that in 1997 they took over what became the world-renowned New Zealand Bloodstock.

Also known as the breeder of the outstanding Darci Brahma (NZ) (Danehill {USA}), Sir Peter has had a lifetime of creating quality thoroughbreds - from a long list of fine broodmares - in the heart of New Zealand’s famously limestone-rich horse country in the Waikato district.

And he can just about pinpoint the moment his life’s direction was cast, thanks to a non-blood “uncle” called Tony Marinovic, who was from the same Croatian town as his father.

“He had horses and Phillip and I would visit him a lot,” Sir Peter says. “He won the Auckland Cup as an owner in 1955 with a horse called Tesla. I was only six or seven but there was a great celebration, and I remember it was tremendously exciting.”

Sir Peter’s first real involvement came when, studying economics and political science in Hamilton, he worked two days a week as a barrier attendant.

“I’m not sure if it was to fund my university studies or my interest in racing,” he says with a laugh.

After graduating in 1972, Peter set up Vela Fishing with his brother, and the pair were soon well established in a business that brought a financial springboard into the turf.

They dabbled in shares of the odd racehorse, but in the late ‘70s it was time, as Sir Peter puts it, to “take more of an objective view”, and start breeding.

Pencarrow Stud

The brothers bought 10 acres in 1979 and named it Pencarrow Stud. They’d later buy the 100-acre dairy farm next door, and then more, helping build the 500-acre estate Pencarrow is today.

What helped early on was that, also like Santic, success came quickly. That New Zealand breeding titan, Sir Tristram (Ire) (Sir Ivor {USA}), was heavily involved.

One of the first horses bred by the Velas was Sir Tristram filly Noble Heights (NZ), winner of the G1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas in 1981 among other races, and a NZ Filly of the Year title.

Soon afterwards, the Velas tapped into a very rich line indeed.

In 1982, they paid $NZ65,000 for Richebourg, a 1980 filly by the very good Kiwi sire Vice Regal, out of a Wilkes (Fr) mare in Mary Mead (NZ). Richebourg showed ability, winning a Group 3 race in Melbourne among others. But she would outstrip those deeds at stud, becoming the Blue Hen of Pencarrow.

Richebourg produced six winners. One was her first foal, Sir Rhine (NZ), by Sir Tristram, who was fourth in a G1 WATC Derby. Much better was to come.

Much later, the Velas sent Richebourg to Sir Tristram’s son and heir among great NZ sires - Zabeel (NZ). The result, in 1996, was Grand Echezeaux (NZ), who won the G1 SAJC Australasian Oaks. She later earned more fame through her first foal Darci Brahma. Sold at the 2004 Karaka Premier Sale by Pencarrow for NZ$1.1 million, he won five Group 1s in Australia and NZ from 2005-2007, before his own successful stud career.

But in between Sir Rhine and Grand Echezeaux an even sweeter chapter unfolded for Richebourg. Her 1988 Sir Tristram filly Romanee Conti (NZ) carried the Velas’ renowned blue and white hoops and grey sleeves to six stakes victories. Prepared by the famed Laurie Laxon, Romanee Conti won Randwick’s Queen of the Turf S. in 1992, before it was a Group 1. She also took the sixth Hong Kong International Cup, when it too was only a Group 3, in an adventure symbolising the Velas’ “bull by the horns” approach.

“Why did we go to Hong Kong back then? Because we and Laurie thought she’d be competitive,” Sir Peter says. “Laurie was a progressive thinker like that. I think we were a good fit in that way.”

Ethereal

Even greater glory was ahead. Romanee Conti’s third foal was Ethereal. Trained by Shiela Laxon, she claimed the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double in 2001 (just two years before Santic enjoyed his first Melbourne Cup with Makybe Diva).

“She was a great mare, absolutely outstanding,” Sir Peter recalls. “In fact, I think she’s a bit overlooked really.

Gallery: Ethereal (NZ) recently photographed at Pencarrow Stud

“Ethereal also won a BMW, and a Queensland Oaks, and almost five million dollars. She had to play second fiddle to Sunline, and then Makybe Diva came along. But Ethereal put a magnificent record together. No horse has won the Cups double since, and that was 18 years ago.”

Many other successes have flowed under the Vela name, such as Riverina Charm (NZ) (Sir Tristram {Ire}), a four-time Group 1 winner in the 80s and 90s.

And Sir Peter (brother Phillip passed away in 2015) imported European stallion Eminent (Ire), whose two southern starts yielded a second to Avilius (GB) in this year’s G1 Ranvet S. Still owned by Sir Peter, Eminent now stands at Waikato’s Brighthill Farm, as part of the first wave of offspring of the mighty Frankel (GB) to go to stud.

Pencarrow has had some 65 mares covered this season, with around 18 going to Eminent “for a bit of sport”, Sir Peter says.

Asked why he’s never stood a stallion himself, the gargantuan breeder makes an unintentional joke: “It’s because we’ve always been hobbyists.

“Fishing’s our main business, and breeding’s the hobby, and though it did become a large one, we’ve always stuck to just having a nice band of broodmares.”

New Zealand Bloodstock

In 1997 the Velas entered another league altogether when Sir Patrick Hogan, of Cambridge Stud and Sir Tristram fame, convinced them to buy the struggling Wrightson Bloodstock. They renamed it New Zealand Bloodstock and turned it into one of the most highly regarded auction houses worldwide.

As a giant of the sport in New Zealand, Sir Peter is acutely aware of its challenges. Its modern downturn has been disarming, given it’s one of the country’s most famous industries, but Sir Peter sees hope following the extensive investigation and report commissioned from Australian identity John Messara last year.

“It’s not unique to New Zealand, but there’s been no shortage of challenges in the last 20 years,” he says, mentioning the decline in finances and the country’s foal crop.

“The foal crop going down is related to life changing in general. Every farm in New Zealand used to keep a broodmare. Now, there’s pressure on using the land, for things like dairy and horticulture. There’s no room for that mare at the back of the farm.

“Fortunately, we have a government and a Racing Minister in Winston Peters who are making legislative changes that will help us into the future.”

Initiatives such as tax breaks and prizemoney boosts will hopefully lure more people, with money, into the industry, with the hope the foal crop will rise.

“There are plenty of people making money in different industries,” he says. “We need to make racing and breeding attractive to them. We’ve seen such a thing work in Ireland, so why not here?”

While Sir Peter is hardly slowing down, he can gaze from his window upon a reminder of what triumphs the turf can bring, thanks to a familiar figure who is enjoying a change of pace – the 22-year-old Ethereal.

“We haven’t covered her for a few years now. She’s living the life of luxury,” says Sir Peter, who offers a simple reason for his success.

“Luck!” he says. “We’ve had a lot of good luck. You can have all the science and the money in the world in this game, but you’ll still need luck.”