YOUR BAT! Raise

by Glen Latham

When John Andrew next walks through the gates of the Magic Millions Sale complex at Middle Swan he could be forgiven for raising a non-existent bat given it will be fifty years since he sold his first yearling in Perth.

A half century in any profession is an outstanding achievement, but fifty years riding the rollercoaster that is thoroughbred breeding is a feat very few have the patience and acumen to survive.

The market John stepped into in 1974 bears little resemblance to today In that time three different entities have run the sales in Perth – Coles Brothers, then Goodwood Bloodstock and now Magic Millions Over the years advances in transport have made the West Australian market more accessible and a host of WA breds, Northerly, Scenic Blast, Placid Ark and Miss Andretti to name but a few, have reminded buyers champions can be found out west In that time we saw the rise of the shuttle stallions and through their impact the strengthening of our bloodlines And most importantly, prizemoney hikes through innovations like the Westspeed Bonus Scheme, the Magic Millions Perth Classic and The Quokka, meaning racing in the west is both vibrant and carries tremendous commercial appeal

But looking back to 1974 and John is managing Karnup Thoroughbreds for Jeremy Hayes

The Karnup draft that heads to Belmont Racecourse is three strong and they give a solid account of themselves both in the ring and on the track “The three yearlings were an impressive Swiftly Morgan colt that won eight races as Good Morgan, a Prince Of Orange filly that raced as Daffodil which, I think, won over twenty races, and a Vibrant colt that won a race in the ownership of the Governor of

Western Australia’s wife ” All were educated and prepared by John so this was a strong start The following year John would offer his first yearling at auction, a Hotroy filly, and the sequence remains unbroken to this day

John spent seven years at Karnup before hanging the shingle out on his own property

“I left Jeremy’s place in 1979, buying 83 acres and calling it Alwyn Park after our daughters Alison and Bronwyn When we bought the property it had absolutely nothing on it, no trees, nothing But my mother and father-inlaw were very helpful and while I was breaking in horses they and my wife were putting up sheds and fences ”

“We started from scratch and I was fortunate I had two yearlings that first year, a Beau Sovereign and a Jungle Boy I was worried when the auction house told me they would average about $8000, but then they made $19,000 and $20,000, respectively Those two horses and the 6500 bales of oaten hay I cropped that year got us started Also, I had a very good association with Barry Farmer at Heytesbury Stud and through that I broke in some of the best horses that raced in WA at the time, Carry A Smile, Chanteclair and Hold That Smile to name a few The cash flow from that helped greatly in those early years ”

John continued to breed horses in tandem with his breaking business “During the 1980’s I didn’t have a lot of mares but I had some success Businessman Dallas Dempster bought horses off me and every one of them won races including a tough son of Serheed called Hard Act that dead-heated in a Bunbury Cup He also bought a Haulpak filly called Wild Touch who broke the track record winning a Listed race I bred a full sister to her that I took to Sydney in 1989, the year Tommy Smith and Bart Cummings went crazy, and despite being one of the last lots she made $120,000 After that things crashed and through the 1990’s we were getting very little money for horses ” John didn’t know it but one horse was about to take Alwyn Park in a different direction

“In 1990 I was sent a Beau Sovereign colt to raise and sell To be honest I questioned the wisdom of the ownership group and managing owner Mike Scaffidi when the colt got to $50,000 with a $55,000 reserve and they passed him in But the owners were determined so I took him back, broke him in and as Palace Reign he started off at Len Morton’s where, plagued by sore shins, he still ran third in the Karrakatta Plate which was a Gr 1 back then After that he was sent to David Hayes at Lindsay Park where he won the Caulfield Guineas on a bog track ” It is history that, in what is widely regarded as the strongest W S Cox Plate field in memory, Palace Reign with a featherweight for a threeyear-old was bolting “down the school side” before falling, Super Impose going on to beat Let’s Elope, Better Loosen Up et al What might have been! Palace Reign came back the following season to win both the J F Feehan and Memsie Stakes

But John’s association with Palace Reign was about to become a bond broken only when the horse passed away in 2020 “I had never considered standing a stallion as that compels you to support the horse with your own mares But when Palace Reign retired Mike said I needed to stand the horse, so he became my first stallion and I think I’ve stood about 16 since He was such a lovely horse to do anything with and when he died we buried him here on the farm He didn’t get a champion but he had a number of good horses race in Singapore and probably his best was a horse called Finito who was born and raised here for Ian Duncan and won seven stakes races ”

Pressed to name his best stallion John put forward Verglas for his international success but was quick to add Trade Fair “He was a very underrated stallion and I thought enough of him that he too was cremated and buried at Alwyn Park And Maschino is on his way with his progeny earnings now well over $7 million and include Fabergino who was successful in Melbourne Also, I bred a good one called Wilchino that won six in a row and nine races in total (and started favourite in the Gr 1 Winterbottom Stakes!) He’s such a versatile stallion getting pure speed horses or milers like Snowchino and middle distance types like Marocchino and Another Chino He’s such a good natured horse you wouldn’t know he’s a stallion and importantly he throws that into his stock ”

Working in partnership with Steve Hoare of Rivercrest Park Stud, Alwyn Park will present 14 yearlings for sale this year amongst which are a trio of Maschino’s “I’ve got a very nice Maschino full sister to the Listed winner Snowchino, and to Nero King who has now won three times for Jim Taylor ” A walk to Barns B & C and prospective buyers can inspect quality yearlings by the likes of Playing God, Per Incanto, I’m All The Talk, God Has Spoken and young sire Ducimus

And given the consistent success of Alwyn Park graduates, most at prices that would be considered modest, that gentle stroll could prove lucrative “Your horses have got to do the talking for you and over the years some pretty handy ones have come off the farm We sold a Verglas colt for $24,000 that won ten races in Malaysia, four in Singapore and one in Dubai winning $1 3 million racing as Captain Obvious I sold a Citidancer colt to the same trainer in Malaysia and he ended up winning 4 5 million ringgits and was Malaysian Horse Of The Year, and then I bred Buster Bash who won last year’s Perth Cup ” But it doesn’t always have to be the champion that provides good memories for a breeder “The one that gave me the greatest satisfaction was years ago I bred a filly by Galileo out of an American mare called Ooh Gorgeous Me and sold her for $68,000 Named Hunter Forward, she wound up in Victoria where the story goes she was shown to Luca Cumani during one of his Melbourne Cup visits and he agreed to take her back to England She won twice over there (at Haydock and Sandown, no mean feat) and then was shipped to America where she won again and was Stakes placed To breed a horse good enough to win on three continents; that was pleasing ”

We asked John, a Life Member of the West Australian Breeders’ Association, to point to any developments that have positively impacted on the local industry and he came back with two examples “I think, especially in the last few years, the industry has changed dramatically Firstly, when I was on the board of the Breeders’ Association the Westspeed Bonus Scheme was formed, and at that time the only money that was available was what the breeder and owner contributed to Of course as more horses won these races the pot ran dry, but since RWWA took over not only do we have the Bonus Scheme but now we have Westspeed Platinum which only the progeny of West Australian owned mares that are sired by West Australian based stallions are eligible That has encouraged local people to buy West Australian bred horses If a breeder wants to send a mare east to be covered and upgrade their stock, those horses are eligible for Westspeed but not for Westspeed Platinum And that Platinum bonus makes a massive difference Someone told me they won a Saturday race worth $50,000 but with the bonus on top they collected $87,000 That has helped the industry generally, even to the point where I know eastern state farms are sending mares over to be covered by West Australian stallions, and as long as the mares have West Australian ownership in them, they will be eligible for Westspeed Platinum ”

John also thinks having a purpose built sale complex for breeders to showcase their products has stimulated the market “Previously we only had Belmont Racecourse as a make-shift sales complex with the stalls turned into boxes, the situation getting continually worse each year The breeders here are so grateful to Gerry Harvey for putting his hand in his pocket and building the new complex; to do so is mind-boggling It’s cost him a lot of money that he probably won’t see again but the breeders have a decent complex at which to sell their horses That massive commitment by him has been a boost for the industry and I think that investment has triggered more growth as there is a lot more interest from over east and a lot more breeders are sending their mares east to upgrade their stock ”

So plenty has changed in the industry over the past half century but with a quality draft ready for sale and a young sire delivering the goods on the farm, the future for John and Alwyn Park looks just as bright as it did in 1974 n