New Breckon Farms complex opens after “unreal build”

[Wandering Eyes]

By Brigette Solomon 

The brand new state of the art complex at Breckon Farms has been officially opened – and it’s “impressive”.

Set in the heart of the Waikato at Ohaupo, Ken and Karen Breckon’s newly-completed showpiece was unveiled with friends, colleagues, and industry members this week.

“We are absolutely thrilled with it, the whole process and the people involved have been incredible,” said Ken Breckon.

With formalities managed by Trackside’s Greg O’Connor and HRNZ CEO Brad Steele officially opening the complex, guests were welcomed to walk through the barns and view Breckon Farms 2025 NZB Standardbred Yearling Sales draft in the stables before moving into the function room with its floor to ceiling windows offering picturesque views of the farm.

“Ken and Karen are really raising the bar and setting new standards for harness racing,” said Brad Steele, “it’s such an impressive facility and they should be applauded for their efforts.”

It features stabling for 48 horses in two wings, one for colts and one for fillies, with each wing including a feed room, wash bays, and tack rooms alongside spacious staff facilities. The central courtyard between the stable wings houses a fully equipped function room with views overlooking the picturesque farm to the west, while the view to the east from the function room deck look out to the barns and parade ring where guests enjoyed a parade of two of Breckon Farms prized mares Twist And Twirl and Millwood Nike.

“The idea of this barn first came up about six years ago, but everything got put into a spin when Covid-19 hit and it wasn’t until the world got back to some normality that we really got serious about it,” said Breckon.

“We undertook a lot of research and planning as it was important that the facilities were functional as well as beautiful, we would have visited at least 10 thoroughbred studs to view their facilities and get feedback, but the clincher was visiting Cambridge Stud which owners Brendan and Jo Lindsay have extensively updated.”

“The Lindsays, alongside their CEO Henry Plumptre and Marcus Corban, were amazing, welcoming us into Cambridge Stud and making their facilities fully available to us to view.”

The Breckons then worked with Te Awamutu architect Joanne Chalkley of New Vision Architecture to create their facility, allowing them to stamp their own style into the building.

“We wanted the barn to fit in with the surrounding environment of the farm and Karen was adamant on having the brickwork around the lower part of the external walls which looks great,” said Breckon.

“The fittings and facilities for the horses also had to be safe and practical and we worked with Phil Hoburn from NZ Equine Solutions who was instrumental in procuring the rubber for the flooring, stables and walkways, as well as connecting us with the internal stable fit out which came from Poland.”

And while the planning was a major undertaking in itself, the timeframe allowed for executing the project was just nine months, and it all went without a hitch.

“It was absolutely unreal how the build went, the timing was tight as it needed to be complete by mid-November to allow the 2025 yearlings to begin their sales preparation,” said Breckon, “so earthworks started the day after the horses left for sales in February and miraculously everything went to plan, the weather was dry at the right time for pouring concrete, the steel fittings were in on time, it just worked out so well which is never a given with projects like this.”

With their impressive new barn safely installed, Breckon is now looking forward to the 2025 NZB Standardbred Yearling Sales with plans to expand numbers in coming years.

“We have some nice young race mares coming through and with the new barn we’re planning to increase our numbers and hope to eventually have up to 50 Breckon bred yearlings to go through the sales.”

“There is a multitude of people to thank from our farm manager Nigel Fahy and the team on the farm, to New Vision Architects, the builders at Construct Advantage, Phil Hoburn from NZ Equine Solutions, all the subcontractors, and so many more.”

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