About Us

The Hawkins family moved to New Zealand in 1990 and have ever since been highly involved in both the thoroughbred breeding and racing industries. Dean is the youngest in the family and when his parents, Des and Jan Hawkins, first created Wentwood Grange in 2000 he elected to take on the substantial role of manager. Before taking on this highly influential role Dean worked under some of the greatest horse men of our time. Dean has always known that he wanted to work with horses, “I just never imagined doing anything else.” He says.

 

Rodney Schick first recognised Dean’s natural talent for horses when he started work at Windsor Park Stud in 1999 Dean flourished under Schick who developed his skills further.  He then spent his winters in Coolmore Ireland and Newmarket in Cambridge, England. Dean believes that through these experiences he honed both his knowledge of horses and learnt new management skills. These new skills have enabled Dean to effectively manage Wentwood Grange and guide it to become the successful boutique stud farm that it is.

 

“There are many things that make up a successful stud” says Dean but one thing that he holds above others is great staff and good clients. The Wentwood Grange staff are all trained to the highest standard and huge emphasis is placed on the family relationship between each member of the Wentwood Grange team. Through this Dean says that all of the horses cared for on the farm are cared for equally and individually, which is the best way possible. Because of these work ethics each horse develops to be the best that they can be.

 

The fact that Wentwood Grange is a boutique stud farm this means that there are no stallions on site. This gives the team a great advantage over other studs. As they are not limited to certain stallions they are able to pick and choose from which ever stallions they like around New Zealand and Australia. Clients should also use this to their advantage, Dean says, as they are not obligated to which stallions they use. Wentwood Grange carefully selects the stallion that will hopefully produce the best result from the mare.