Peter Orton leaves Vinery Stud after 25-year tenure

Peter Orton will step down from his role at Vinery Stud ahead of the 2024 breeding season, bringing to a close a 25-year tenure that has seen him lead the farm to the forefront of Australian thoroughbred breeding.

Since helping establish Vinery’s Australian operations in 2000, Orton has been instrumental in building its legacy, starting with the acquisition and shuttling of More Than Ready. The Southern Halo stallion would go on to become a champion sire in both hemispheres and set the foundation for Vinery’s rise.

Under Orton’s leadership, Vinery developed a strong stallion roster that has included household names such as Red Ransom, Mossman, All Too Hard, and Testa Rossa. Alongside its premium broodmare band, the stud grew into one of Australia’s leading breeding establishments.

Now, as the farm enters its next chapter with the recent sale of Vinery finalised, Orton will move on to focus on his own thoroughbred farm and personal bloodstock interests. Vinery’s current roster includes exciting young sires like Exceedance, Hawaii Five Oh, and Ole Kirk, who leads all first season sires by winners, Stakes wins, and prizemoney.

“Now that the sale of Vinery Stud has been finalised, it is an appropriate time to take the opportunity to step away and focus on my own thoroughbred farm and bloodstock portfolio,” Orton said.

“This is something that I am very keen to do; however, it was most important that I leave at a time when the Vinery Stud operation is in a great place, with exciting young stallions coming through and a robust client base with strong broodmare portfolios to ensure the continued success and growth of the business.

The most important next step is to ensure that there is an appropriate handover to new management and to ensure that all Vinery clients, staff and bloodstock are well looked after.

I would like to thank all the staff, clients and the previous Vinery Partnership that owned the Stud farm for the previous 19 years, and prior to that Dr. Thomas Simon, who I worked with to establish the business in Australia back in 2000.”