Written by Jessica Owers (TTR)
Kerry Stephens and Denis Griffin, both well-known and well-respected in Australian breeding circles, have recently taken the keys to their new property, the old Sefton Park Thoroughbreds. Now named Glenbeigh Farm, it’s a pipe dream made very real by the tenacious, likeable couple.
A little way out of Scone, between the township and Aberdeen to the south, the old Sefton Park Thoroughbreds property is in new hands. For a long time belonging to Colleen Buchanan, in November last year it was purchased at public auction by new tenants, couple Kerry Stephens and Denis Griffin.
Beyond the familiar pillars of the main gate, the farm opens up its 107 acres of thoroughbred setup. There are two dams, a 12-box stabling facility and a vet crush with yards.
The property has floodlit foaling paddocks and an outdoor stable yard under lights, as well as all the useful, fully fenced paddocks for housing a boutique number of broodmares and offspring. Behind the homestead, the property rises up to a gentle, northern incline.
Stephens and Griffin have renamed the property ‘Glenbeigh Farm’, a nod to Griffin’s hometown of Glenbeigh in the Iveragh Peninsula, in Ireland’s County Kerry.
Since moving in nearly a month ago, the couple has been busy with painting, “so much painting” according to Stephens, and matters like fencing, reseeding and water. They’ve taken a lease on a further 100 acres next door, bringing the total farm to a tick over 200 acres.
The whole experience has been a long-time dream realised for the couple, who will operate the commercial Glenbeigh Farm with their already well-established reputations in local breeding.
Sowing the seeds
Both Griffin and Stephens are European ex-pats, and they settled in Australia in 2008 and 2010 respectively.
As a very young man, Griffin started out with John O’Connor at Ballylinch Stud, then the Aga Khan’s Giltown Stud in Ireland before embarking on a career in Australia. He spent valuable time at Arrowfield with seven years as yearling manager before moving to Vinery Stud.
Stephens, on the other hand, is English.
She grew up in the pretty districts of Cornwall, but she went to university at Hartpury, which is in Gloucester and, incidentally, next door to the David Redvers-run Tween Hills Farm. Stephens’ first job in racing was for Redvers, and he remained a strong mentor in her young life.
“David basically said to me that I needed to go to America or Australia, and I came over to Arrowfield Stud with an initial plan to spend six months there and a month travelling before going home,” Stephens said. “It didn’t quite work out like that, obviously, because I’m still here 12 years later.”
At Arrowfield, Stephens wound her way up to the position of Operations Manager.
In fact, in their respective careers in Australia, both Griffin and Stephens have been highly successful and well-liked. They have worked for two of the best breeders in the business, which will stand to them enormously in their partnership at Glenbeigh Farm.
“We’re not married yet,” Stephens said, chuckling. “Although the accountant did say to me the other day that we’re financially married.”
The dream realised
For many professionals in the breeding industry, having their own farm is a lifetime ambition. For Griffin and Stephens to actually achieve it is a tidy effort.
“It’s been a dream of ours since day dot,” Stephens said. “It’s like a bug, isn’t it? You start working with thoroughbreds and you get bitten by it. I’ve always wanted my own farm and so has Denis, and so we worked really hard and saved really hard, and we’re very fortunate that we managed to get Sefton Park.”
The old Sefton Park property had been in Colleen Buchanan’s hands for some 20 years. As far as options go, it was an ideal opportunity for Stephens and Griffin. It had equine facilities, reputation and location.
In March last year, Buchanan married Rodney Bushby, of RB Horse Transport, and she decided to relinquish Sefton Park by public auction.
“She’d been there about 20 years, building it up herself,” Stephens said. “She designed a lot of it, and she was a single mum too. Twenty years on she has married and decided it was time to move on, and she’s still got a few horses of her own in her new place with Rodney.”
Stephens and Griffin had spent much of 2021 looking at farms to buy. In the end, it came down to Sefton Park and one other, but Sefton Park had all the facilities they needed.
As such, it was a case of move in and shut the door, albeit a little more complicated in reality.
“Colleen was a very practical woman,” Stephens said. “The farm has been set up very well. You don’t need a heap of staff to make it work because she had to do a lot of it by herself, so it will mostly be just myself and Denis running the place. We’ll probably take on seasonal staff at a later stage, but right now it will just be ourselves.”
They’ve improved the pastures and undertaken soil samples. They’ve introduced bore water, and the couple has brought a few spelling horses to Glenbeigh already.
With the paddocks reseeded, however, they’ve got no plans to have high numbers of stock just yet.
Going it alone
Breaking into the game as sole traders, there is plenty of excitement and plenty of anxiety for the couple.
They’re bringing stout reputations to Glenbeigh, along with valuable skills and experience, but Stephens said it’s natural to feel apprehensive about going it alone.
“I am incredibly excited about the whole thing, but I’m nervous too,” she said. “I’m always a bit pessimistic on that side of things anyway because I like security, so it is nerve-wracking to think how we’ll be perceived.
“But I’d like to think that we’re known by the people in the industry as being honest and hard-working, so hopefully people will be willing to give us a chance just because of that.”
“… it is nerve-wracking to think how we’ll be perceived. But I’d like to think that we’re known by the people in the industry as being honest and hard-working, so hopefully people will be willing to give us a chance just because of that.” – Kerry Stephens
Already, Stephens and Griffin have had a lot of interest in their new business, which happens when you are pleasant and ambitious in a rural community. They are hoping to have their first sales presence at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in January 2023, but Stephens said they are keeping their overall ambitions grounded.
“We want to be a top-quality, boutique thoroughbred stud,” she said. “We want to agist quality mares, but also be able to sell quality yearlings at the major sales to really build our brand. We don’t want to be overly big because we want to do the majority of it ourselves.”
However, she has a private ambition to be a little bigger than even that.
“I’d love to maybe purchase more property eventually and stand a couple of stallions,” she said. “That would be my ultimate goal. I work with the stallions at Arrowfield and in the covering shed, and that’s really where my passion is.”
Savings and savvy
Griffin and Stephens have two broodmares of their own, the Manhattan Rain mare Downtown Manhattan, and Moonchild, by Charge Forward.
From this pair, the couple have sold at the elite end of national bloodstock in the last few years, but this doesn’t take from their diligent saving and financial savvy that was years in practice to get them where they are right now.
“We’ve worked really hard to get this far,” Stephens said. “Downtown Manhattan has been an absolute queen for us, but for years we have been saving really hard and looking ahead. Right now, we’re trying to the get the uniforms sorted and we’ve even got our brand being made, which we’ll get to try this year.”
“We’ve worked really hard to get this far. Downtown Manhattan has been an absolute queen for us, but even before her we were saving really hard and looking ahead.” – Kerry Stephens
Stephens and Griffin have made their way to the Gold Coast this week with an eye on picking up a few weanlings.
“Obviously, the market is really strong right now,” Stephens said. “It was super strong in Sydney too, but if you’re not there you can’t have a go, which is how I tend to look at things.”