One of the best-known Muswellbrook properties is Merton, from whose luxurious paddocks Mr. E. R. White bred so many winners. It is now owned by Mr. W. H. Mackay, junr., a son of the owner of Beauford, and who inherits the family’s love of the Thoroughbred and their knowledge of them. He is just starting to breed in a small but successful way. Martindale, owned by the polo-playing White Bros., is not far away, and shelters an English classic winner in Night Hawk, winner of the Leger. This hefty son of Gallinule looks like doing yeoman service in the near future for his owners.
Leaving Muswellbrook we reach one of the most famous fattening properties on the Hunter in the famous Turanville Estate, with its beautiful flats and willow trees, and, adjoining this, is Camyr Allen, where two of the younger generation of the famous family of horse-breeding Thompsons have settled. The stud is owned by Messrs. W. B. and C. L. Thompson, who have had great success at the yearling sales, and in the paddocks is Bob Cherry, the dam of Eurythmic, the largest stake winner in Australia. His sire, Eudorus, an imported son of Forfarshire, and another English importation in Buckwheat, by Martagon, are the stallions being used at the time of writing by the Thompsons. The Camyr Allen mares are a very representative lot, and, as a great proportion of them are daughters of Maltster, it is almost unnecessary to add they have produced, and are producing, a big percentage of winners. Maltster, whose fame as a stallion is almost too well-known to bear repetition, has gained undying fame through his daughters.
Camyr Allen is only a few miles out from Scone, on the other side of which prosperous town we find the Sledmere Stud, which has been quite recently established by Messrs. H. R. Denison and H. G. Raymond, the latter recently bringing on his return from England the successful sire Quantock, a son of Thrush. Since coming to Australia Quantock’s stock have been remarkably successful in England, and he looks to hold the ball of stud success at his feet. A well-chosen and select band of matrons are happily ensconced in the Sledmere paddocks, and if the young Quantocks bred there follow in the footsteps of their English relatives, the stud’s fortune is made. At Sledmere is Mr. Denison’s old favourite Poseidon, a winner of over £19,000, and although more or less of a stud failure, is being well cared for in his declining years by his grateful owner. D. S. and H. Hall are young breeders in the Scone district, who generally are represented at the Sydney sales by a good-class yearling or two, and, leaving their place at Cressfield, we approach one of the largest and most important studs on the Upper Hunter in Kiora, the property of Mr. Percy Miller. No breeder of recent years has gone more whole-heartedly into the breeding business—for business it is nowadays—than the owner of Magpie, Sarchedon and Demosthenes, all very high-class English importations. The first-named horse is by Dark Ronald, and in his last race in England was beaten by a neck by his stable companion Gay Crusader in the English Derby. Demosthenes, by Desmond, and a close relation to Sunstar, was brought from New Zealand, where he had been a great stud success, at a very high figure; while Sarchedon, the most recent addition to the stud, and incidentally one of the highest priced horses who have come this way, is a grey son of The Tetrarch, and was the most brilliant two-year-old of his year in England. There are certainly more high-priced mares at Kiora than in any other New South Wales stud, and it keeps growing in numbers from year to year. The property is part of the very famous Segenhoe Estate, and the Hunter divides it from the original Segenhoe Homestead block where Mr. William Brown bred many good ones.
Across the range from Segenhoe, in a very rich bend of the Hunter, is Kingsfield, owned by Messrs. J. E. and C. H. Brien, and three stallions live in luxurious ease here. Malt King, one of the most brilliant horses we have had of recent years, and the fastest horse Maltster sired, has been at Kingsfield since the inception of the stud, and he is kept company by Beragoon, an Australian-bred son of Multiform, and the recently imported St. Frusquin horse Rossendale. Beragoon was one of the finest two-year-olds produced here, and was a racehorse of the highest class, winning both the A.J.C. and V.R.C. Derbies, and is siring some useful winners.
Rossendale comes from England with sire honours thick upon him, and with the splendid chances Kingsfield will afford him he should do really well, for he is a splendid type of horse whose racing merit was of the highest order. The Kingsfield brood mares are second to none, the foundation stock being young English mares bought at a very high cost from the well-known English breeder J. B. Joel, and the additions made to the mares since have been wisely chosen with a very high regard for quality and a disregard for cost. Kingsfield is an ideal situation for a Thoroughbred Stud, the Hunter running right through the property, which consists of rich flats extending by gradual slopes up to limestone hills, which form an almost natural boundary fence to the property.
Retracing our steps again to Scone, we find above Sledmere, on the Kingdon Ponds, the brilliant Panacre, by imported Linacre, at the head of the Cliffdale Stud, formed last year by Mr. J. Campbell Wood, whose colours Panacre carried with such success. On this very rich and sound piece of country a select stud is being put together, and the young Panacres will shortly be trying to emulate the deeds of their speedy sire. On north from Cliffdale Sir Samuel Hordern’s Petwyn Vale lies, a small, attractive holding whose name has yet to be made. Let us hope the well-bred Englishman Emblematic, a son of Tracery, and a fine stamp of stallion, will rise to fame and breed some good winners for his sporting owner, whose success as a breeder has been small in comparison with his efforts. He has the horse, the mares and the country—that great essential—and the remaining one, luck, let us hope, may be lurking behind one of the corner posts. Still further north, near Quirindi, is the Werribon Stud, and here The Sybarite, a half-brother to the ill-fated Craganour, is located, with a number of well-bred mares.
Branching off the Northern Railway line at Werris Creek, well outside the Hunter District, and running inland towards the Queensland Border, is Mungie Bundie, where Messrs. B. and J. P. Burgess have lately taken over the stud run so successfully by Mr. John McDonald. Here, on very rich country, is a grandson of Carbine in Mountain King, a successful sire, and this year he has been joined by another colonial-bred horse in Kennaquhair, one of the finest individuals and gamest horses who ever looked through the proverbial bridle.
Mr. D. Livingston, whose property, Boolaroo, is also in the Moree District, has recently joined the ranks of yearling breeders, and he has made an auspicious start by securing the imported Polymelus horse My Poppo, who is siring good winners. The Yetman Stud, owned by Mr. G. W. Dight, is farther north again, being practically on the Queensland Border. The well-bred importation Chipilly, a son of Spearmint, and that great mare Pretty Polly, is at the head of affairs at Yetman, and should help to strengthen the house of Carbine in Australia.
Back to Scone once more, and striking out across country towards the Widden Mountain in the direction of Mudgee, we find a belt of country which has no superior in Australia as a Thoroughbred nursery. Here is the home of a famous family of horse-breeders, the Thompsons, and it was here such famous stallions of the past as Lochiel, Grafton, Ayr Laddie and Maltster all earned their undying crown of fame. Widden is now owned by Messrs. A. W. and A. E. Thompson, and they, with their cousins, the Thompson Bros., of which firm Herbert is the head, have been wonderfully successful horse-breeders. Widden and Oakleigh are beautiful bits of country, and the excellence of their paddocks has contributed a great deal to the success of the numerous horses reared there. Herbert Thompson and his brother can lay claim to be the largest breeders of the Thoroughbred in the world to-day, and last year they sent down to the Sydney sales no less than seventy yearlings, all of whom sold remarkably well. At Widden the premier stallion of New South Wales, in Linacre, a well-performed son of Wolf’s Crag, shares the honours of the stud with the French-bred Kenilworth, a staying descendant of St. Simon. Both these stallions have been remarkably consistent as winner-getters, and if the grey Chrysolaus, the most recent addition to the stallion strength, meets with the same success, his dual owners, the Thompson Bros., and their cousins A. W. and A. E., will have no reason to regret having spent 3,600 guineas in acquiring him. The Widden and Oakleigh mares are a wonderful lot, and are kept up to a very high standard by the retention of the best fillies bred at the stud. In an article of this description it is impossible to write of individual mares, for reference to the good producers owned by the Thompsons would fill many large sized volumes. At Oakleigh are the English stallions Gadabout, by St. Denis, Sir Dighton, by Bayardo, and Cooltrim, by Flying Fox, and the Australian-bred Greenstead, by The Welkin (imp.). The stud suffered a severe loss recently by the death of imported Tressady, a successful son of Persimmon.
Another Thompson holding is Canema, where Baverstock, a son of Maltster, and Wakeful, is siring winners, his son David ranking as one of the best stayers racing in Australia at the present time. Eaton Lad, by Orvieto, sires his share of useful horses at Holbrook, near Widden, for his owner, T. A. Harris. Leaving Widden behind us, and traversing the Bylong Valley, long famous for the production of good cattle and horses, we get within close call of Mudgee. Some ten miles before you reach this veritable lucerne oasis Havilah appears in its picturesque frame of hills, and here some good performers have been and are being bred. The property is now owned by Hunter White, a member of one of the best-known pastoral families in Australia, and a nephew of the late James White, a counter-type of the famous Admiral Rous. Three, a very highly bred son of The Welkin, is the hope of the Havilah Stud at the present time, and he is a splendid individual who looks like getting good stock. Mr. Hunter White not only breeds on a large scale, but is a staunch supporter of the N.S.W. Turf, and no colours are more popular than the red jacket and white Maltese cross of their non-betting owner.