Hannover Lodge’s Hinnerk Hüeppe chatted with The Thoroughbred Report for TTR AusNZ’s ‘Breaker Insights’ series, sharing insights into several 2-year-olds to follow and highlighting several promising first-season sires.

Continuing The Thoroughbred Report’s ‘Breaker’s Insight’ series, TTR AusNZ’s next stop was the Hannover Farm, where we spoke with General Manager Hinnerk Hüeppe. A love of horses has always guided Hinnerk Hüeppe’s life and in 2009, he took the opportunity to travel from Germany to Australia to work with showjumpers. Soon after, he discovered horse racing and in 2017, he founded Hannover Lodge, named after his birth place.

When asked if there were any special ones to watch, Hinnerk said:

“The So You Think filly out of Miss Foxwood, a very interesting horse that’s worth waiting for and I love the sire.” Group 3-placed city winner Miss Foxwood (Fastnet Rock) is a daughter of dual Group 1 winner Foxwood (NZ) (Centaine) who also produced Group 3 winner and G1 Toorak Handicap-placed Rockwood (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}). The 2-year-old So You Think (NZ) filly is Miss Foxwood’s sixth foal. Miss Foxwood has already produced four winners including stakes placed winning 4-year-old mare Rubicon Crossing (Rubick). This 2-year-old filly was a $310,000 purchase by DGR Thoroughbreds (FBAA) from Segenhoe Stud’s 2024 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale draft.

More about Hannover Farm

“I’m originally from Germany and used to be on the German Young Riders show jumping squad team. My family are all in horses but there’s not much money in it, so I studied media consulting and had an event catering company,” said Hüeppe.

“I came to Australia for three months of travel, and worked for Alice Cameron Oaks Sporthorses who breeds some of the best lines worldwide for showjumping. She had a few horses at the Olympics recently and continues to breed future champions. Then I worked for Julie Ritchie, managing her farm Wild Oaks under the guidance of Tony Hall and Roy Davis for about four and half years also then helped Melanie O’Gorman set up her racing operation in Scone.”

“I came back to Hawkesbury and rode trackwork for the likes of Richard Freedman and Brad Widdup, Jason and Lucy Attard, in preparation for setting up Hannover Lodge in 2017. I met my wife Jade after that, she’s an event rider and has been on the Australian squad for the last 15 years. Now we have two properties, one of 30 acres for our eventers and some rehabilitation horses, and Hannover Lodge on 120 acres with 120-140 horses all year around. We are specialists in full care, we manage our client’s horses from breaking in to their full riding education, their injuries and their spelling. We work closely with our owners and their chosen trainers to ensure we give the horses their best life and best chance at being a champion. We handle surgery aftercare, wound healing with laser treatments, and rehabilitation of tendons and other injuries. It’s a passion of ours to see every horse we deal with to reach their full potential.

“At first, we grew by about 30 horses a year, and now we educate between 80 and 100 young horses each year. We are just as passionate about trying to produce great young people for the industry with our contacts and an equestrian world background offering them the endless opportunities racing provides. If people want to work with horses, they need to be in racing. There’s no money in equestrian sports, it needs to have other businesses to finance it, but racing combines the love of horses with a profitable career.”

Article c/o The Thoroughbred Report for TTR AusNZ’s ‘Breaker Insights’ series, written by Renee Geelen