Welcome to Season 2026

I do not recall how many “Welcome to Stud Season” blurbs I’ve penned over the years but none of them have given me pause to think seriously about the future of horse racing and breeding as much as this one.
Traditionally the whole business has been underpinned by a large number of smaller owners breeding and racing their own horses. There have always been commercial farms breeding to sell and targeting the bigger end of town. The corporatisation of the thoroughbred industry over the last 25 years has driven tremendous returns for an ever decreasing number of so called commercially bred horses and the businesses that own them. The sad fact is just as the supermarket replaces dozens of “Corner Stores” so do large corporate breeding and training entities come at the cost of smaller, more personalised establishments.
The large and diverse range of stallions on offer 30 years ago, have been replaced by a handful of expensive stallions covering extraordinarily large books of mares and for the most part, drowning out stallions of real merit on smaller farms. It is unfortunate that the egalitarian nature of race horse ownership for which Australia was world famous has now almost been lost.
I started in this game as a 16 year old. I have just turned 63. My tenure in the thoroughbred game has been, for the most part very rewarding and a lot of fun, it helps that I like hard work. There are still those that have a real love of horses and the sport of racing, with courage enough to back their own judgement with the resolve it takes to see the venture through. There are still smaller farms that provide the best of personalised care and excellent value stallions of real merit with the focus on realising the best possible outcome of the breeder.
It is with this in model that Bombora Downs has been able to maintain its place within the thoroughbred industry and it is only with the support of our many long-term clients both seasonal and permanent, that we have been able to do so.
On this note I would very much like to thank you all for the faith and support we have enjoyed over the 25 years Bombora Downs has been operating as a private farm. And wish you all the best for the upcoming 2026 breeding season.

Christoph Bruechert