Arrowfield wins Best Horse Stud Award

Well, okay, it wasn’t a Group One, or the Oscars, but the competition was certainly stiff, the talent extraordinary and the effort intense.

The annual Scone Horse Parade was held in gorgeous weather on Saturday morning and this year’s theme, ‘A Kingdom for My Horse’, could hardly have been more appropriate for Arrowfield.

Ably organized by Amy Kelly and Alice Messara, the stud staff, who will soon welcome Dubai World Cup winner Animal Kingdom to the roster, became jungle animals for the morning.

The large crowd that turned out for the parade was greeted by 80 entries, including Arrowfield’s tiger, gorilla, giraffe, herd of gazelles and a particularly fetching lion and baby elephant, aka trainer Paul Messara and his two-year-old son Frank.

Arrowfield was judged the Best Horse Stud of the parade, an award that now sits proudly alongside Animal Kingdom’s World Cup, and the Golden Slippers won by Miss Finland & Flying Spur!

The Parade was the founding event of the Scone & Upper Hunter Horse Festival which now fills 17 days with competitions & exhibitions, fairs & fetes, parties & dinners – all celebrating the horse which has played, and continues to play a major role in the culture and economy of the Upper Hunter.

The Horse Festival concludes this week with a focus on thoroughbred breeding & racing. Arrowfield welcomes visitors to their Stallion Open House on Thursday, Friday & Saturday mornings and Sunday, and the town heads to the races for the two-day Scone Cup Carnival. Prizemoney of more than $2 million has attracted high quality entries for the $200,000 Emirates Park Scone Cup LR on Friday and six Listed Races on Saturday, including the $500,000 Inglis 3YO Guineas (R) LR and the $140,000 Arrowfield Denise’s Joy S. LR for 3YO fillies.

Click here for more information about the Arrowfield Stallion Open House.