There are horse breeding families, and then there are the Listons of Three Bridges Thoroughbreds.
At the top of the tree of the 1250-acre farm south-west of Bendigo – which will present 14 sparkling lots at Oaklands’ Premier Yearling Sale - sit Peter and Pauline Liston, renowned horse people with a rich equine heritage. Now married 40 years, the couple set up Three Bridges around 14 years ago.
Son Toby, a Thoroughbred Breeders Victoria board member, is in charge of day-to-day horse operations, and daughter Jana, the eldest, is general manager of administration. The Listons’ second son Sam, a helicopter pilot who flies workers to oil rigs off Broome, owns the farm over the road from Three Bridges, which is leased back to the family business.
And the youngest, Jessica, having attained a degree in horse psychology in Germany, is blazing a path in the fascinating area of horse therapy, using four-legged friends for varied purposes, including helping children in need and corporate training retreats.
Strong family-ties
The Listons feel blessed. Though off the beaten track from most Victorian studs, Three Bridges – which bred last October’s G2 Blazer S. winner Haut Brion Her (Zoustar) - is a beautiful, natural-feel thoroughbred property straddling the Loddon River. (They built a bridge a few years back, but just the one. The farm’s title in fact comes from a so-named area further down the Loddon).
And the Listons are close. In the recent past, they’ve needed to be.
Two years ago Peter, 62, was diagnosed with bowel cancer. After successful treatment, more cancer was found in the pelvis and lungs.
“It was pretty scary,” says Pauline, “sitting there wondering if he’s going to be around in a couple of years.”
Thankfully, surgery and radiation appear to have won the battle, a state of play evident in Peter’s sunny disposition as he immerses himself in the farming side of the operation, and client relations.
But last July came another heavy bout of adversity. After Jessica and Pauline completed a novel mission of bringing 20 wild and endangered Walers from the Northern Territory to Three Bridges, one of their number crushed Pauline into a tree.
Things looked extremely bleak. She cracked no fewer than eight vertebrae in her back, and four in her neck. There were 11 broken ribs, and a punctured lung. At 60, the 2008 Victorian Wakeful Club Lady of Racing Award winner, was in intensive care in Melbourne for 10 days.
“That was pretty scary,” says Peter, almost in reciprocation. “She nearly died here on the farm, and then the air ambulance took her to Melbourne and she nearly died there.”
“That was pretty scary. She nearly died here on the farm." - Peter Liston
With the family rallying round – Sam and Jana took shifts at their mum’s bedside; Toby and Jessica having to run horses and small children – and with Pauline’s obviously unquenchable spirit, a recovery that looked doubtful instead began to look inevitable.
Pauline is back riding horses, although with some pain persisting and a spine largely fused, she’s on “light duties” compared to the days when the former harness and thoroughbred trainer broke in horses most days of the week.
Jessica and Pauline Liston with their herd of Walers from the Northern Territory
“I can’t really remember it,” she says of the accident. “I either didn’t see it coming, or I just can’t remember. I do remember lying on the ground and saying ‘I think I’ve broken my back’. But I can’t remember the helicopter ride.
“But our family were just amazing. We get through these things together.”
On a mission
The project of preserving and re-housing Walers is ongoing. With thousands bred for the Australian cavalry in World War I, many of them were turned loose from the stations that produced them. Only a few hundred are thought to still roam the Northern Territory. Jessica Liston started a GoFundMe page which enabled she and Pauline to corral and bring their selection to the considerably wetter climes of Victoria.
“It was quite funny,” Peter says. “They’d walk along down here and if they saw a puddle they’d just have to stop and drink it, often the whole puddle, because they’d evolved to drink water whenever they saw it.”
But thoroughbreds are of course what makes Three Bridges tick. After a move west for six years of running Lakewood Stud near the mouth of the Murray in South Australia, the Listons returned to the more lucrative Victorian racing scene around 2006. After looking at “about a hundred” farms, Peter says the family had an instant, strong vibe on seeing what became Three Bridges.
The Listons had an 'instant vibe' upon seeing the farm that would become Three Bridges
“The locals all said there’s no better farming land in Victoria than that between the Loddon and Tullaroop Creek,” says Peter, who was raised to the north-west in Beulah, in the Mallee country. “But we didn’t hear that until after we bought it! So we were lucky.
“Back then there were probably only two horse studs in the shire. Now there’s six or seven who’ve set up, realising this is as good a place to raise horses as anywhere.
“The locals all said there’s no better farming land in Victoria than that between the Loddon and Tullaroop Creek." - Peter Liston
“We’ve got beautiful loamy soil, undulations and river flats. In droughts, we’ve still got green lucerne on the river flats, since lucerne roots can go down 20 metres and tap into the moisture.
“We have hundred-acre paddocks and we have six or eight horses in them, so they can go around and be horses. And we’ve planted 60,000 trees. Studies have shown that in winter a horse can spend 70 per cent of its energy just keeping warm, so if you have those wind breaks they can spend more energy on just developing.”
Premier offerings
Peter speaks just as effusively about his Oaklands draft, mostly bred from some 60 mares on the property, of which Three Bridges part-owns 20. While Three Bridges previously stood stallions, Stryker and Unencumbered, it now prefers to hold shares in sires elsewhere, particularly Godolphin.
Around the top of the draft is Lot 116 by Dundeel (NZ) out of the Mossman mare Daisy Can Too, a colt, Peter says, with “an amazing athletic action and a terrific attitude”.
Lot 142 is a filly by Street Boss (USA) out of Edwina Georgie (Testa Rossa), who’s “an absolute clone” of her stakes-winning full-sister Ploverset, including sharing her “powerful massive hindquarter”.
Lot 181 is by So You Think (NZ) from Full Sun (GB) (Cacique {Ire}), an unraced British mare Three Bridges bought at a Sydney broodmare sale. “Buy international broodmares,” Peter says as a credo. “In Australia, we breed maidens from maidens. They don’t do that in England.” Having raised one Oaks-winning So You Think mare in Sopressa, Three Bridges is hoping to repeat the trick.
There’s a colt “with great bone and a big overstep” by Zoustar out of Kuching, a half-sister to the dam of Golden Slipper winner She Will Reign, and another by Japanese stallion Maurice (Jpn) out of Up In Lights (NZ) (O’Reilly {NZ}). This colt’s half-brother North Pacific (Brazen Beau) topped the 2019 Premier sale at $800,000, and ran third on debut in Rosehill’s Silver Slipper S.
Lot 376, by Snitzel, is the second foal of Queensland Oaks-winning Zabeel (NZ) mare Provocative (NZ), who Three Bridges bought for $1.2 million.
“She’ll be at her peak as a 3-year-old, and her pedigree suggests she’ll be something special,” says Peter, whose draft also includes offerings by Holler, Choisir, Fiorente (Ire), Palentino, Toronado (Ire), Winning Rupert, Kermadec and I Am Invincible.
Lot 376 - Snitzel x Provocative (NZ) (filly)
Most of the Liston family will go to Oaklands, including Pauline in her first appearance there post-accident. Those who can’t will be watching closely, for Three Bridges is a family affair, where certain unplanned events have lately brought things into sharp focus.
“Sometimes you don’t realise how lucky you are,” Pauline says of her brood. “We all share a passion. All our kids are into horses, and they’re all very close and good mates with each other.
“You go through plenty of ups and downs in racing, but we’re all very fortunate to have each other. That’s why Three Bridges works.”
Which is why there’s a large promotional banner attached to one of the farm’s stables that reads:
“Our strongest asset is simple … We are family.”
