The Sunlight on Widden Stud

Images courtesy Widden Stud

If outstanding mare Sunlight (Zoustar) can win The Everest this Saturday, it would bring one of the biggest days in the history of the place where she was bred, born and raised. And that’s saying something, considering that history stretches back longer than most breeding farms not just in Australia but the world.

Sunlight the brightest advertisement around for her sire Zoustar (Northern Meteor), having helped him claim the first season and second season sires’ titles in the past two years, plus the 3-year-old sires’ title last season.

And she’s the latest poster horse, among a long list of worthies, for the famed, dynastic institution now under its seventh generation of the Thompson family, Widden Stud.

Todman, Vain, Heroic, Bletchingly, Marscay, Northern Meteor... and the list of outstanding sires goes on and on for the nature-kissed farm that largely kicked off the Hunter Valley as a place to make thoroughbreds.

And there’s a commonsense reason for that. It’s a horse place that was chosen not by people, but by horses themselves.

Land made for horses

Widden was begun in 1867 as a sheep and cattle farm by John Thompson, a doughty Yorkshireman.

“The livestock did well, but after a while it was noticed that their stock horses that were born and raised on the farm would also do particularly well,” says David Merrick, stud manager and recent winner of Thoroughbred Excellence at the Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards.

“It’s in the lay of the land. The country itself has the right kinds of undulations and gentle hills. You’ll want those so you can gently build a horse’s muscles as they grow. Then you might put them in a paddock with the feed up one end and the water down the other, to get them moving.”

Most horse farms studs have undulations. Widden was also blessed with what grew out of them.

“The grass has lots of calcium, limestone, and copper in it,” says Merrick. “Our nutritionist says in normal times -- not like in the drought we’re experiencing now -- there’s enough in the grass to mean we don’t need to add any supplements.”

Merrick should know. He grew up learning about the “farm” in “stud farm”, with his father Clarrie the farm manager at nearby Woodlands Stud. David later jumped the vocational fence, figuring it was “more fun playing with the horses than playing in the dirt”.

Gallery: Some of the Widden Stud stallions

Merrick can look back on 27 years of handling the finest of Widden’s stallions, including the current nine-horse roster headed by Zoustar, Your Song (Fastnet Rock), first-season pair Trapeze Artist (Snitzel) and Written By (Written Tycoon), as well as Nicconi (Bianconi {USA}), who’ll also be represented in The Everest, by Nature Strip.

Merrick travelled far and wide for his getting of wisdom. In the 1980s he worked in Kentucky, at the King Ranch, crossing paths with stallions such as Mr Prospector (USA), Nijinsky (Can), and Secretariat (USA). He worked at Lord Derby’s Woodlands Stud in England, where one day he had to show a horse to a special guest who’d dropped in. The horse was the as-yet unraced Darshaan (GB) (Shirley Heights {GB}), who’d go on to take a host of top races in France, and become its leading sire and broodmare sire.

The visitor? Queen Elizabeth II.

“She was really nice, actually. Very laid-back, and obviously loved her horses,” says Merrick, who worked at Baramul Stud upon returning to Australia.

While one of the characters of the industry -- as a youth he once rode a yearling to the Inglis sales yard bar to fetch a celebratory bottle of champagne -- he’s also collected several industry honours that herald his abilities with horseflesh.

Now 59, he’s a symbol of what many see as the intangibles that have helped build Widden’s success.

“It’s not just about who’s got the biggest chequebook,” says Derek Field, the cheerful general manager who’s another of those symbols, having been at Widden 36 years. “Your clients like to see you’ve got a stable environment, that they’ll be dealing with the same people tomorrow as they are today.

“Manchester United’s got one of the biggest chequebooks in soccer, and they’re struggling. It’s the same in the horse business.

“We appreciate the support from our long-term clients. They’re loyal, and so are we. And whilst we’re a family farm that might not quite match some other players in terms of money, I don’t see that as a massive disadvantage. There’s only so much you can pay for a horse before it becomes financially unviable.”

A balanced team

Field brought an accounting background to Widden, where he was a key figure in a difficult transition.

Today’s owner/proprietor Antony Thompson was only eight when his father James, or “Bim”, died in a shooting accident. Field was one of those entrusted to manage the stud in trust until Antony could take over, and the pair have become a formidable “yin and yang” team since.

“Our strengths and weaknesses complement each other well,” says Field, whose administrative and business skills complement Thompson’s horse management.

Now 47, Thompson grew up around some regal names.

“Vain was a real character,” he says of the former champion sprinter, and Australia’s champion sire of 1983-84.

“He had an amazing sweet tooth. He loved lollies and sugar. And since I was a kid, and more likely than adults to carry lollies, he’d come running up to me anytime I was walking past.”

Vain’s stud career overlapped with that of another star stablemate, Kingston Town’s sire Bletchingly, who topped the charts three years running up until 1981-82.

“Bletchingly was this very understated horse. There wasn’t much of him, unlike, say, Marscay,” Thompson says. “People would come to see the great Bletchingly, and then when they saw him they’d be like, ‘Oh ... is that really him?’”

Thompson built his experience in Kentucky, Britain, and New Zealand. He was at Cambridge Stud when Sir Tristram (Ire) was there, and at Ra Ora while Let’s Elope (NZ) was starring on the track for its chief sire Nassipour (USA).

He appreciates his fortunate position in the Widden timeline, and its responsibilities.

“It’s amazing to be the seventh generation of Thompson running the place, and to see a family farm going for 152 years, but I’m also just a caretaker, looking after it for the next generation,” says Thompson, who has a teenaged son and daughter.

Contemplating history, of course, runs second to looking ahead. And under Thompson’s stewardship, Widden seems well poised to enhance its reputation as a producer of quality racehorses, particularly of the speedy kind.

Trapeze Artist, who’ll cover 180 mares this season, and Written By, whose book numbers 150, have taken to stallion duties “like ducks to water”, according to Merrick, who says their fertility rates are well above 70 per cent.

Gallery: Some of the Widden Stud stallions

Both sires exemplify Widden’s varied approach. Trapeze Artist is still owned solely by the man who raced him, Bert Vieira. Written By’s owner Neville Begg now shares half of him with Widden. Zoustar is owned by a consortium spread across 60 shares.

Widden also stands Outreach, whose oldest crop are 2-year-olds, Supido, who has foals on the ground, Star Witness and Stratum Star. But there’s no doubt who the major star is.

Zoustar has bucked a trend in that he this year began shuttling to Tweenhills Stud and covering 149 mares, with the thirst in the UK for Australian speed continuing to grow.

And all at Widden will be watching as Sunlight attempts to provide her sire with his biggest payday in the $14 million The Everest.

Thompson has been on this ride from the very start, buying the sprinting mare Solar Charged (Charge Forward), in partnership with Qatar Bloodstock, at a 2014 Magic Millions broodmare sale for $650,000, and saying at the time: “She’s an ideal mare for Zoustar.”

“I thought she’d suit him for speed,” he says now, “and to see how their foal Sunlight has turned out, with this great speed and toughness, has been fantastic.”

Sunlight helped bring Zoustar an incredible achievement amongst his first crop, when she emulated her sire (and his sire Northern Meteor) by winning the 2018 Coolmore Stud S. up the Flemington straight, with Zoustar siring the trifecta through Zousain and Lean Mean Machine.

“Having bred her, it’d be an enormous thrill if she can win The Everest,” says Thompson, whose wife Katie retained a share in the all-female syndicate which races the 4-year-old.

“To see her excel as such a precocious 2-year-old, then kick on at four, is just fantastic, and a great sign for Zoustar,” he says of the sire who now stands for $154,000.

There’s more breeding excitement around the corner, with Sunlight’s full brother to go under the hammer at the Sydney Easter sale next year.

All of which backs up a sound point that helps explain Widden’s reputation, and longevity: if you want to know where to put a horse farm, you should ask some horses.