Mario Cesnik, who runs his thoroughbred breeding operation with wife Jenni and daughter Lexi on the family farm, always had a passion for horses and around 2006 decided to step up from his previous efforts of breeding the occasional horse to race.
"The first horse I owned would have been 35 years ago. I had a horse at Wagga and it was trained by Barry Bowditch, the father of young Barry, who runs Magic Millions now. I probably went quiet there at the end of the 80s, but we had bred our own horses to race back then," he told TDN AusNZ.
"My daughter and my wife have show horses and we went to the sales there one day in Sydney and came home with two broodmares and started breeding horses and selling them commercially.
"It's just an extra income off the farm. We used to have the service centre in Tarcutta and we have sheep and cattle here too but we love horses. I just love breeding."
Cesnik has always had a fondness for the families of the old Woodlands Stud, which used to be located at nearby Cootamundra, and he has sourced many well-related mares to bolster his broodmare band of about 18.
Mario and Jenni Cesnik
In 2014, he paid $20,000 for Torchslinger (Ad Valorem {USA}), the half-sister to triple Group 1 winner Yell (Anabaa {USA}) from the family that has also produced Group 1 winners Holler and Microphone.
She paid him back that investment with her first foal, a colt by Star Witness, selling for $55,000 at the Magic Millions Adelaide Sale in 2016. This year she provided a jackpot return when her colt by Street Boss (USA) fetched a record $200,000 return for Riverina Downs at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale.
In 2016, Cesnik secured another Woodlands-bred mare, paying $15,000 for Patina (Anabaa {USA}) in foal to Epaulette. Not long after, Patina's previous foal by Poet's Voice (GB), Viridine, came out and won his first four starts for Godolphin, including the G2 Roman Consul S.
Viridine
The Cesniks opted to keep the Epaulette filly, named St Edward's Crown, to race and breed with themselves and while she has won just one race, she has shown considerable promise and was narrowly beaten into third in a stakes race last year.
Her younger half-brother by Frosted (USA) fetched $60,000 to Snowden Racing at Melbourne this year, part of a sale where Riverina Downs sold five horses for a strong return of $391,000.
St Edward's Crown is trained by Bendigo-based Shane Fliedner, someone the Cesnik family have forged a connection to as the trainer of choice for their homebred horses who aren't sold through the yearling sales.
St Edward's Crown gets a pat from Cesnik | Image courtesy of Riverina Downs
"When I got back into breeding horses, all the trainers I knew from back in the day, all the ones around Wagga, had retired and I didn't know anyone. I asked Steve Brien, from there at the old Darley at Cootamundra, who a decent trainer might be, and he said Shane Fliedner," Cesnik said.
"I race a few with Shane now and I have five horses leased to him."
Stranger headed for Flemington
On Saturday at Flemington, the Cesniks and Fliedner combine with another product of an inexpensive mare, in a stakes race.
Luxury Suite (Viscount) cost Mario and wife Jenni just $3000 at the 2011 Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale.
The first foal they bred themselves from her, Penthouse Poet (Dylan Thomas {Ire}), fetched $32,000 while her most recent colt, Hi Stranger (Zoffany {Ire}), was foaled in 2016, and brought $50,000 at the 2018 Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale.
Shane Fliedner and Mario in the stalls with Queen Guenivere
"I didn’t want to sell Hi Stranger. I took him to Adelaide and my wife said, you can keep five per cent. I saw Shane (Fliedner) there, he has always had a couple of my horses, and I said if you buy him, I'll take 25 per cent," Cesnik said.
"I didn’t want to sell Hi Stranger. I took him to Adelaide and my wife said, you can keep five per cent. I saw Shane (Fliedner) there... and I said if you buy him, I'll take 25 per cent." - Mario Cesnik
Cesnik also wanted to name the colt after another chestnut that had left an impression on him when it was running around the Riverina in the 1980s.
"He was trained by an old gentleman, a very good horseman, named George Day, and the original Hi Stranger won four straight and broke down. He was a little red horse like this Hi Stranger," Cesnik said.
"George's son Billy still lives in Wagga, and I asked him if I could call the horse Hi Stranger and he agreed."
Hi Stranger
Hi expectations
He may not have quite reeled off four straight wins, but this Hi Stranger looks a promising prospect. The Zoffany gelding has won three races, including two at metropolitan level in Melbourne, and lines up in the Listed Creswick S. at Flemington.
It will be the 3-year-old's second shot at stakes company and his breeder and part owner thinks it could be a sign of better things to come.
"I've been offered a bit of money for my 25 per cent, but I'm not selling. I've got the mare and he's paying his way and Shane thinks he can measure up. I hope he does well this week, because it will look good for the mare," he said.
"He's so honest and he tries and that's 90 per cent in a racehorse. He puts his heart and soul into every race and he is a good and sound horse."
Luxury Suite hadn't been bred from since she foaled Hi Stranger but is now in foal to Ribchester (Ire).
Cesnik said that's an example of he and his family being more selective with which mares they breed from.
"We’ve upgraded our mares to ensure they are city class mares at least. We look to serve 12-14 mares, to get 10 to the yearling sales and that's what we work on. We do everything ourselves, so we have to limit what we can do in terms of numbers," he said.
"We are just a small operation and we plod along. We have some nice weanlings there, some real beauties and we will see how we go at the sales next year."
