Hutchins Family In Their Element

Josh Hutchins | Kelsey Riley

By

GOLD COAST, Australia–The Hutchins family–John and Fu-Mei and son Josh–have done things in reverse to the typical Thoroughbred breeder's timeline: first, achieve success on the racecourse. Second, acquire a top-class foundation broodmare. Third, purchase a farm. It is a formula, however, that is clearly working for the family, as they can boast the distinction of breeding and racing a Horse of the Year and also owning Element Hill, which has become one of Queensland's leading vendors and offers 17 yearlings at Magic Millions this week.

Josh Hutchins is the general manager of Element Hill, and he explained, “Dad started dabbling in racehorses about 20 years ago. He got [trainer] John O'Shea to buy him a horse from New Zealand. It was an Anabaa filly, and we brought her over to Australia and managed to win a stakes race with her. The enjoyment of winning a stakes race was a catalyst for us going, 'this is fun, let's have more investment.'”

It didn't take long for the Hutchinses, who own the Australian women's footwear company Famous Footwear, to make a big investment. While the pricetag on the Group 1-winning mare Tracy's Element may have seemed steep, she has since proven priceless for the family as their foundation mare and the namesake of their farm.

Hutchins explained that the price placed on Tracy's Element by Vinery Stud was A$1-million, but his mother insisted something be added to the deal.

“Mum being mum, she said 'I want a discount,'” he said. “[Vinery manager] Peter [Orton] wanted A$1-million and mum said 'no, I want a discount, you have to give me something.' Peter said no, so it was a bit of a stalemate there for a little bit. Our bloodstock agent Neil Jenkinson brokered the deal, and he said to Peter, 'I really want to get this deal over the line, but you have to give me something.' Peter said, 'how about I give you a service to Red Ransom?' That resulted in Typhoon Tracy.”

Typhoon Tracy would win six Group 1 races in the Hutchinses red and yellow silks, including four straight through the 2009/10 season, which saw her crowned Australia's Horse of the Year. Typhoon Tracy was retired after winning the 2011 G1 Futurity S. but sadly died the following year after producing her first foal, a colt by Street Cry (Ire) named Last Typhoon (Aus) who has won twice.

“Tracy's Element was the first mare we had great success with,” Hutchins said. “We got four daughters out of Tracy's Element, which is the backbone of our broodmare band and from there we expanded to where we are now, with 42 mares in Queensland, over 700 acres, and a small 100-acre farm in the Hunter Valley. Our mares get covered in the Hunter Valley and come up [to Queensland] once they're 45 days positive.”

It was the same year that Typhoon Tracy received her Horse of the Year hardware that the Hutchinses purchased Element Hill and named it in honor of their champion's dam. The first Group 1 winner to be reared on the farm was the 2015 G1 Queensland Derby winner Magicool (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}).

“The farm we bought in Queensland was pretty much an old rundown dairy farm and we started from scratch and built everything the way we wanted,” Hutchins said. “Once it was fully operational in 2011 we shipped all the mares we had in Coolmore and Vinery to Element Hill.”

Hutchins was bit by the unrelenting racing bug early on, and after finishing high school spent 18 months at Coolmore doing both foaling and yearling prep, followed by a further short stint at Glastonbury Farm. He graduated university with a finance and accounting degree in 2009 and started running Element Hill a year later.

“I just decided to take the reins and said, 'let's do this and do it properly if we're going to do it,'” he said. “It was never my intention to but because we had such a large investment in it I felt someone in the family had to oversee it and I fell in love with it straight away. Now I wouldn't change it for anything.”

Element Hill will this week offer 17 yearlings, 15 of them homebreds and two pinhooks. Hutchins nominated the likely draft topper as lot 239, a powerfully built Fastnet Rock (Aus) colt out of Risk Aversion (Aus) (Encosta de Lago {Aus}), a mare bred and raced by the Hutchinses to win the Listed Juanmo S.

“He's been very well received, he's one of the nicer Fastnet Rocks around and has a big, international page, so I'm hoping the international market will be all over him as well as the domestic market,” Hutchins said.

The consignment also includes a Redoute's Choice (Aus) filly (lot 51) and an I Am Invincible (Aus) colt (lot 399) out of daughters of Tracy's Element.

“It's a family people have tried to get into and because we have all the daughters of Tracy's Element it's not an easy family to get into, especially up top,” Hutchins said. “We try to keep direct descendants as close as possible. They have to prove themselves as broodmares, but we have four young mares out of Tracy's Element that we're keeping, and hopefully we'll cash in on their progeny and hopefully they set the world on fire.”

Another Redoute's Choice filly in the consignment is lot 511, the first foal out of the multiple group winner Arabian Gold (Aus) (Dubawi {Ire}). Lot 749 is a colt by the three-time champion sire, from the family of Royal Academy, while lot 114 is a filly by the on-fire Not A Single Doubt (Aus) bought last year for A$240,000. Lot 220 is a colt from the first crop of Horse of the Year Dissident (Aus) and a grandson of the dual Group 1 winner Danendri (Aus) (Danehill).

“I would be surprised if he's not in the top three or four lots selling by Dissident,” Hutchins said. “[Newgate Farm's] Henry Field came over and said he's definitely in the top 5% of Dissidents at this sale.”

Looking at the big picture, Hutchins said, “We may not have those A$1-million yearlings, but hopefully we have A$400,000, A$500,000, or A$600,000 yearlings. That would be a good average to have. We've been well received from everyone here. We're really putting the effort into selecting these mares, and it's a long process as a breeder; what you're doing now will affect you in two years' time, so you have to put a lot of thought into it and hopefully it pays off.”

While the results this week will tell the story, the Hutchins family appears to have found the Element of success.

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