TBV – 7th July 2021
A new chapter will be written in the Collingrove Stud story when Daniel Brash and his team relocate to their new home in northern Victoria.
Formerly based at Euroa, Brash and Co. will make the short journey to Murchison to take up residence at the sprawling property and continue the Collingrove tradition.
Having taken over the Collingrove brand two years ago and enjoyed great success at the yearling sales, Brash is now keen to develop the business into a year-round operation with the inclusion of a boutique broodmare offering.
He believes that their new base is the perfect fit for their specialised operation, which will still predominantly focus on producing quality yearlings.
“We’d been looking for a while for the right property, and this one ticked all the boxes,” said Brash, whose career in the racing industry saw him learn from the likes of legendary trainers Lee Freedman and Gai Waterhouse before he switched his full-time focus to breeding.
“It’s got all the facilities we need, the whole property is spread across 1,200 acres so we’re not leasing all of it, but we’ve got plenty of room to expand and develop the business.
“We’ve obviously now finished our yearling preparation, and the end of the sale season seemed a good time to make the move. We will also start acquiring some broodmares to add to our yearling operation, we will probably look to have around 40 to 50 mares so the focus will be on quality care, rather than quantity.
“By keeping the numbers fairly low, the broodmares won’t impact on our core business of producing yearlings but the addition of mares will enable us to run an all-year operation.”
With the likes of Swettenham, Darley Northwood Park, Yulong Stud and Leneva Park all in close proximity, the farm’s prime location also appealed to Brash.
“We’ll look to provide a walk-in service to the nearby stallion operations, the proximity to some fantastic stud farms was an important factor when we decided to take out the lease on the new place,” he said.
“Plus the climate in northern Victoria is ideal, so there were many reasons why it made sense for our business.”
With a strong second season at the sales behind them, highlighted by a Puissance De Lune filly who was knocked down at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale for just under $200,000, the focus will also be on building up their client base and firmly re-establishing the Collingrove brand.
“We sold very well at Melbourne Premier Sale, we only had two lots passed in and then one of them sold at the Melbourne Gold Sale, where we had a 100 per cent clearance rate. So we’re very happy with how it went as our sales were pretty strong across the board,” said Brash.
“We’ll now be looking to build on our existing relationships. We’ve been very well-supported by the likes of Swettenham Stud and Gerry Ryan, so we’ve already got a very strong base and we’d like to show more people what we can produce. We would obviously love to present a draft at the Magic Millions next year, so a lot of our focus will be on that.”
