At Wahring, about 87 miles distant from Melbourne, Mr. Norman Falkiner has established his Noorilim Stud, whose rich and highly improved paddocks shelter the best collection of mares owned by any one man in Australia. Here, too, is that most perfect horse Comedy King (imp.), a splendid son of Persimmon, and one of the outstanding stud successes of to-day. He is a most versatile sire, producing as he does sprinters, stayers, Cup and Grand National winners. With Comedy King at Noorilim is the imported Spearmint horse Spearhead, a highly bred young English horse who is just starting his stud life.
Some ten miles away on the Melbourne side is Chatsworth Park, where the Redfearn family bred many good horses in days gone by. The V.R.C. Chairman, Mr. L. K. S. McKinnon, on Woorak’s retirement from the turf, established him at Chatsworth at the head of a very select lot of mares, but dispersed the stud in 1921. Chatsworth is now owned by Mr. Hildyard, who is gradually establishing a stud there with the imported Quæstor, by Cicero, at the head of it. The hunting enthusiast, Mr. A. T. Creswick, whose years sit lightly on him and who yet takes tea with the best of them over the stiff post and rail fences the Melbourne Hounds hunt over, has a nice property at Negambie. Here, at the Nook Stud, is All Black, an imported son of Gallinule, and whose daughter Desert Gold is one of the best of the Australasian Turf’s fair sex. White Star, an own brother to the English Derby winner Sunstar, is also at The Nook with a wonderfully choice collection of mares, who are bound to produce more than their share of winners. Not far away Mr. Winter Irving keeps some half-dozen very select mares, and he has already added to the valley’s reputation by breeding good horses.
This year death removed Mr. J. V. Smith, a familiar figure from the horse-breeding world of Victoria; he has left his sons to carry on his breeding operations. Only recently the stud was moved from Bundoora, where it had been for many years, to Kuarangi, a rich valley property near Dhurringle. Wallace, who was at Bundoora for several seasons, was undoubtedly the best horse Carbine left behind him in Australia, and the Messrs. Smith are happy in the possession of a number of well-bred mares by him. The stallion now in use is Ethopiam (imp.), a son of Dark Ronald, and this year will be his first at the stud. Toolamba is another valley stud of recent origin, owned by Dr. S. A. Syme. He has a prospective stud success here in imported Lanius, a very well performed and staying son of Llangibby, whose progeny are just starting to race this season. The New Zealand-bred Broadsword is also at Toolamba, and siring useful horses.
All the successful Victorian studs are not to be found in the fertile Goulburn pastures, for one of the most famous of them is situated some 20 miles the other side of Melbourne. This is Mr. E. E. D. Clarke’s property, Melton, which he keeps almost entirely as a private stud, only selling a few yearlings each year at the sales. Melton shelters that wonderful horse The Welkin, one of the most successful stallions ever imported to the colonies. Another importation is Cyklon, by Spearmint, who was bought by Mr. Clarke quite recently. This year Melton has achieved something in the way of a double-barrelled record, for The Welkin is at the head of the Winning Sires’ List, while Mr. Ernest Clarke tops the names of the Winning Owners of Australia.
Other Victorian breeders, in Messrs. Philip Russell, Major Alan Currie and the Hon. Agar Wynne, have all established studs on the Western Plains of Victoria, and are breeding their share of winners; while Messrs. F. W. Norman, D. J. Bourke, H. F. Creswick, A. S. Chirnside are also doing their bit in the production of the Victorian Thoroughbred.
Most of the breeders above named send drafts of yearlings annually to the sales held in Melbourne during March by Messrs. W. C. Yuille & Co. and Messrs. Adamson, Strettle & Co. The number of yearlings sold by the two firms falls a long way short of the number offered in Sydney, but they are remarkably successful.
South Australia does not produce a great number of Thoroughbreds, but quality is very much in evidence in the yearling drafts which are annually sold in Victoria by Messrs. J. H. Aldridge and R. M. Hawker. Richmond Park, owned by the Aldridges, has been famous as a Thoroughbred nursery for many years, and has been remarkably successful in insistently producing good winners. The sires now in use are Pistol, by Carbine, imported some years ago; St. Anton, by St. Frusquin; and Lucknow, by Minoru. Mr. L. F. Aldridge, who manages Richmond Park, is a practical enthusiast who leaves nothing to chance. Mr. R. M. Hawker comes of a South Australian family famous as sheep breeders, but he has shown that he can breed Thoroughbreds equally as well, and his young Cyklons are proving themselves on the racecourse.
Western Australia for years barely attempted to produce the home-grown article in the Thoroughbred, but recently Messrs. P. A. Connelly, D. Grant and others have started breeding with success, and with others following their example the West should more than hold their own against horses bred in the other States.
The Thoroughbred studs of Queensland are more or less confined to a very rich tract of country known as the Darling Downs, situated within easy reach of the New South Wales border. Here Mr. C. E. McDougall has that fine property Lyndhurst, where he has been breeding winners for many years. Lyndhurst has been particularly fortunate in its stallions, for Ladurlad (imp.), Syce (imp.) and Seremond (imp.) have all been stud successes, Syce in particular being a really great sire. Another English importation in Chantemerle, by Polymelus, is now at Lyndhurst in company with Seremond; and the stud sends drafts of yearlings annually to the Sydney sales, where they sell exceptionally well. Mr. J. H. S. Barnes, a member of a well-known New South Wales family of horse-breeders and pastoralists, recently bought the Canning Downs property near Warwick, on the Darling Downs, and has imported Highfield, by William the Third, at the head of his stud of select mares established there. Other well-known Queensland breeders in Messrs. M. Ryan and W. Glasson are producing winners, and the future of the Thoroughbred in the Northern State seems brighter than it has been for many years.
Thoroughbred horse breeding seems to be on the increase in nearly all the States, and though the modern Australian Thoroughbred may not be as tough an animal as his early progenitors, or possess their staying powers, he is, taken all round, a sounder horse than is produced in any other part of the world to-day. The few horses that have been sent to England from Australia have more than held their own both on the racecourses and at the stud, and it is to be hoped that the demand from home for the good staying Waler will be revived.