About Wai Eyre Stud
5 Star Agistment and Breeding Farm
We are located on the northern side of Christchurch, situated alongside the Waimakariri river and handily located to Christchurch Airport. The farm comprises of over 800 acres of lush fertile soils. We constantly fertilize the pasture and this coupled with our irrigation, provides us with lush quality nutritional grass year round for the broodmares, race horses and young stock.
We specialise in providing five star agistment and breeding services for your horses. In addition we also stand a small number of select, predominately NZ owned Standardbred stallions including the living legend that is Lazarus.
We are a preferred semen insemination base for all the major studs in both New Zealand and Australia. We offer in conjunction with our vet Andrew Bailey from Rangiora Vet Centre, an Embryo Transfer programme.
With excellent on farm in-foal rates for both fresh and frozen semen we are an excellent choice for your valued mares. Our 24 hour supervised foaling service compliments the breeding operation.
We are committed to providing the best possible care for our client's bloodstock and to meeting their breeding goals. Our experienced, long serving staff, combined with our purpose built equine facilities, mean we are able to provide the perfect breeding base for your mares and enable us to give her every opportunity to be a successful broodmare.
Wai Eyre Farm's History
In the 1960's Mike Brown set up the original farm which comprised some 226 acres. Mike concentrated on beef and deer. Mike's son Darryl learnt his basic farming skills from his father. In the 1980's Darryl took a more pro-active role and in conjunction with Mike they changed direction into its current equine theme.
They set a goal of "continually striving to be one of the best breeding and agistment centres in New Zealand."
Darryl has attended many farming and farm related management courses to enable them to achieve that ongoing goal.
While initially set up as a broodmare base, over the years Wai Eyre has stood stallions of the calibre of the well known Christian Cullen and In the Pocket.
Having concentrated more on the mare side of the business in recent years. Wai Eyre has more recently committed to the stallion market once more, including exporting to Australia, standing a fabulous line up of predominately NZ owned stallions including Lazarus and the imported US Captain.
With a renewed vigour, Wai Eyre's vision is driven by a commitment to be one of New Zealand’s premier stud farms, ensuring valued clients are provided with the best care for their horses, and for the farm to play a vital part in the future and sustainability of the Harness Racing industry.
We continue to market our services to the wider equestrian world, including the sport and pleasure horse and pony market.
The farm has now expanded to its current size of just over 800 acres and currently also runs beef cattle.
Due to the size of the farm and the ability to cross graze pasture with cattle, they are able to manage the land to its best which provides the perfect environment for agisting horses.
Horses thrive on the rich, fertile pastures of Wai Eyre Farm.
Meet The Team
Farm Manager
Darryl Brown
Having grown up on the farm at Wai Eyre, Darryl began farming in partnership with his father Mike back in 1986.
Over this time with the expansion of the farm and stud, Darryl has gained extensive knowledge of both the stud and farming practises, even taking the role of Stud Manager for a number of years.
Darryl now concentrates on the farming side of the business, ensuring that Wai Eyre is able to offer the best grazing for both the fattening of cattle and the agisting broodmares, youngstock and spelling racehorses.
Office Manager
Lisa Clark
Lisa has been Office Manager for Wai Eyre Farm since 2014 and is plays a vital role in our team taking care of the myriad of administration and account work that an operation of this size entails.
In her own words “ working at Wai Eyre is actually my dream job and I couldn’t have scripted it any better if I had tried – horses, farming, admin and accounting work. It doesn’t get any better than this!!”
Lisa has had a life-long passion and involvement with horses, having ridden, competed and bred sport horses. She is currently a Show Hunter judge and is involved with the administration of the sport at both a local and National level.
Stud Manager
Anna Murphy
Anna started her stud career in 2006 at Wai Eyre Farm, and has now come full circle, returning to Wai Eyre to take on the role of Stud Manager.
Anna brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experience after 19 years of working in the harness racing industry. There isn't one aspect of stud work that Anna isn't passionate about, and she gets as much thrill as owners when she sees horses she and her team helped into the world, hit the race track.
Anna is delighted to be back at Wai Eyre and is looking forward to instilling the same drive and passion she has for the industry into the staff around her, ensuring the best care for your bloodstock.
Stallion Sales
Jess Davidson
Jess joined the Wai Eyre Farm team in December 2025, returning to the harness racing industry after working in mainstream media as a producer and radio host.
With a career in harness racing over 20 years that includes marketing for Harness Racing New Zealand and production and hosting for Trackside television and
Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey, Jess has always had a passion for the breeding aspect of the sport. She also provides regular news and media for our website.
Jess fully believes in what Wai Eyre Farm is striving to achieve for breeders, and is excited to work with the team and breeders in their decision making for their mares