Cambridge Stud Farm

Cambridge Stud, New Zealand’s premier thoroughbred facility has undergone significant enlargement and enhancement since new owners took over in 2018.
Brendan and Jo Lindsay, last year’s Owners of the Year at the New Zealand Thoroughbred Awards, have inspired the comprehensive revamp of the Cambridge Stud complex to include a suite of buildings offering an increased level of comfort and luxury for the horses in what is now deluxe accommodation.

Comfort comes courtesy of insulated roof panels (Thermospan EPS) from Metalcraft Insulated Panels, offering high R value so the stables are warm, quiet and calm for their valuable residents.

The Lindsays have brought fresh ideas to the complete rebuild of the stud, the entire project encompassing 12 buildings which have been completed over a period of 18 months. Included is a hospitality building and a heritage museum, honouring the legacy of the stud’s founders Sir Patrick and Justine, Lady Hogan and the horses that have come from this iconic thoroughbred nursery including the legendary stallions Sir Tristram and Zabeel.  The intention is for Cambridge Stud to offer educational visits to the museum with many interactive features and elements to foster interest in one of the largest and most modern studs in Australasia. 

Metalcraft Insulated Panels was first approached by the architect in 2018, outlining the scope of the planned project with the hospitality building already under construction. Following an initial consultation over the design the full scope of the project was revealed as other support buildings were added to the project as part of the owners’ evolving design requirement. 

The main stables is the largest and most technical building and is the showpiece of Cambridge Stud, in the shadow of the bronze replica of New Zealand’s famous stallion Sir Tristram (1971 – 1997).  Etched in stone above his courtyard resting place are the words “The greatest thoroughbred stallion to ever stand in the Southern Hemisphere”.

At 62m x 13m, the roof design of the main stables was complex as it encompassed full length and full width cupola raised turret roofs for louvred ventilation with 1.3m lengths of 50mm Thermospan EPS panels at the top gable.  

Travis Cook and his team from Roof It Waikato handled the difficult valley junctions well and quickly mastered the best way to fit the many insulated panels.  All Thermospan EPS panels include a 100mm rebate for the gutter overhang which saves considerable time for the installers.

As always the maximum span between the purlins was a prime consideration at 7.62m long, 75mm Thermospan EPS was chosen to adorn the lower slopes of the main stables and this became the template for most of the other key buildings.  The 75mm thick Thermospan roof panel proves a 1.96 R value, offering an increased level of comfort for the horses.

Among the many challenges working on an operating stud in the quietest possible manner was the requirement that no screw ends were to be visible from below.  The solution was for a 65mm x 35mm steel box section with screw ends less than the maximum 30mm inside measurement.  Konnect supplied 135mm Steeltite screws for the Thermospan and 115mm Steeltites for the 75mm Thermospan roof panels with the result that there are clean lines throughout the inside of each building. 

Along with the main stables, other buildings roofed were a covering barn, preparation barn, stallion stables, yearling stables – north and south, foaling barn (opened in August 2020), store room, heritage museum, staff cafeteria, feed shed and the hospitality building. 

The roof colour of choice for Cambridge Stud was COLORSTEEL® Flaxpod®/Titania, a colour chosen for the recently completed stables project at Ellerslie and is an inspired choice in the stud’s idyllic rural setting. 

Allowing the day-to-day work of the stud to continue the contractors under the helm of Shane Morgan of Shane Morgan Builders had to observe some restrictions on when vehicles could access the site and throughout the extended project Shane communicated well and was concise in what was required, giving plenty of notice regarding key dates for panel installation.

Terry Stevenson, Technical Sales Consultant for Metalcraft Insulated Panels says the Thermospan roof panel is becoming increasingly popular for animal, industrial, commercial, and also some residential roofs.  As well as flat EPS and PIR wall panels, Thermospan EPS roof panels come with a fire retardant expanded polystyrene core while SuPIRspan PIR panels have an even higher R value for the same thickness and are more fire resistant. 

“SuPIRspan PIR roof panels are becoming a popular choice for architects on large and small industrial/commercial roofs; insurance companies are well versed with the superior fire resistant qualities of PIR panels.

“The real benefit of both Thermospan EPS and SuPIRspan roof panels is we can manufacture these up to an incredible 25m in one length, which removes the requirement for one, or even two end laps.

Cambridge Stud was established in 1976 when Patrick and Justine Hogan (now Sir Patrick Hogan) sold their Fencourt Stud property and purchased 400 acres of land at Cambridge.

The foundation sire was Sir Tristram, son of English Derby winner Sir Ivor, the stallion sired 45 individual Group 1 winners and more than 130 Stakes winners. The success of the Hogans thoroughbred nursery brought about significant changes in the Australasian breeding programme.  Apart from Sir Tristram, Cambridge Stud also produced his champion prolific son Zabeel.

At the time of sale, Sir Patrick was adamant that Cambridge Stud should not end up in foreign ownership, leading in 2017 to the purchase by Brendan Lindsay MNZM and Jo Lindsay, plastics moguls who had sold Sistema, their Kiwi plastic kitchen containers company.

The Lindsays’ vision for the stud going forward has included replacement of all the stud barns along with the introduction of new, state of the art facilities to enhance the experience of having what is surely the best and most modern stud in the country. Education and acknowledgment of the rich history of the stud, its legendary founder and the hundreds of winning horses to have been associated with the stud is a key ingredient of the Cambridge Stud refurbishment.

Since purchasing Cambridge Stud the Lindsays have added over 40 new broodmares to be serviced by world renowned stallions Almanzor – imported from France – followed later by Embellish and Hello Youmzain – also imported from France.  

Eight Melbourne Cups, four Cox Plates, three Caulfield Cups and the Golden Slipper have all been associated with Cambridge Stud. The construction of new buildings has dominated life at the stud farm as the owners’ master plan for their tasteful improvements has reached a conclusion.