The first day of the Australian summer has sounded the end of the foaling season, with the majority of farms across the country welcoming their last babies this week. It’s a time of year that brings a welcome end to all the long, late nights on foal watch and the unsteady first few days of new life.
I Am Invincible x Celebrity Dream (filly) born at Holbrook Thoroughbreds | Image courtesy of Joan Farris
For most farms, it’s a brief point of celebration in the middle of the breeding season, with stallions still covering mares into December. Stud staff kicked back this week to enjoy the seasonal milestone, even if it’s a brief interlude.
Shortly, if not already, most farms will plunge into yearling parades and preparation for the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in January, living up to that age-old adage that ‘there’s no rest for the wicked’.
Beer and skittles at Blue Gum
In Victoria, Philip Campbell’s Blue Gum Farm marked its final foaling this week with a staff gathering under the bloodwood trees. The team had safely welcomed 100 foals, and the staff put their feet up with woodfired pizza and Peroni.
“For me, it was all about the efforts of so many people that have gone into getting through a successful foaling season,” Campbell said. “They got the job done well and we celebrated that, and it’s all about the people for me. Patti (Campbell’s wife) and I do breakfast for the guys here every Sunday morning during yearling prep, and we have pizza and beer catch-ups like that at numerous points throughout the year.”
The Blue Gum operation is people-minded, so marking the end of foaling season was a natural excuse to sit down.
“You’ve got to stop, and you’ve got to be able to enjoy each other and talk about what you do,” Campbell said. “You’ve got to be able to celebrate the successes and commiserate the negatives. That’s very important for mine.”
The studmaster said the closure of foaling was usually met with relief, as enjoyable as the whole business was. Around 90 per cent of mares foal at night, making it a tiring few months where the staff logistics stretch.
“It’s a big relief to get through and be done with the job because someone’s always watching out for the mares at ungodly hours and finishing the job properly,” Campbell said. “So when that last foal comes along, there’s no doubt about the great relief for us all.
“It’s a big relief to get through and be done with the job because someone’s always watching out for the mares at ungodly hours and finishing the job properly.” - Philip Campbell
"The quality of bloodstock just goes up and up each year too. This year we have foals here by all the major stallions and multiples of them, so it’s great to have it all successfully behind us.”
At Blue Gum, the last mare to foal was Cloanthy (Statue Of Liberty {USA}), who dropped a Palentino filly for a perfect farm century this spring. In her wake, the team can take a small breather with no horses headed to Magic Millions in January.
Still, Blue Gum’s yearling preparation has already begun with certain young horses in work. The whole barn will be rolling in about 10 days, Campbell said. The farm’s chief market is the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale in March, in which Blue Gum has been leading vendor across four of the past seven years.
Farm life goes on
At Kitchwin Hills along Waverley Road, Scone, the team foaled down its last mare on November 22. It was the broodmare Weiner (More Than Ready {USA}) when she dropped a full brother to the stakes winner Rathlin (Fastnet Rock).
The foal was welcomed with only a little pomp and ceremony by the Kitchwin Hills team. According to Pauline Alix, assistant stud manager, it was relief more than anything.
“It means the end of foal watch and no more getting up at night,” she said. “There’s also a sense of achievement too. We’re proud of bringing horses into the world and having a good outcome for our clients.”
Alix said none of the team had much time to mark the occasion.
“Even when we stop foaling down, life on the farm still goes on,” she said. “Stallions are still covering and the yearlings are in, so our Christmas party is really when we have a night to chill out and celebrate and thank all the staff who work very hard for us the whole breeding season.”
“Even when we stop foaling down, life on the farm still goes on. Stallions are still covering and the yearlings are in..." - Pauline Alix
Kitchwin Hills foaled down 110 mares this spring and, with Magic Millions around the corner, the team has 25 yearlings to prepare for the Sale. They’re by such stallions as Capitalist, Hellbent, I Am Invincible and The Autumn Sun, not to mention resident sire Sooboog, who has four in the Gold Coast catalogue.
Extreme rhythms at Yarraman
Close by at Yarraman Park, the team foaled down its final mare last week, the Lonhro broodmare Crystal Whip who had a Hellbent filly. It was the last foal of about 145 for the farm.
“The show doesn’t stop when the last foal arrives,” said Lance Forbes, the yearling manager for Yarraman Park. “We have very good systems in play at this time of year, from Anna (Pesek), our foaling unit manager, to Ed (Houy) who looks after our broodmares. It’s very well spread-out and the whole thing just flows nicely into each other.”
“The show doesn’t stop when the last foal arrives.” - Lance Forbes
Forbes kicked off yearling preparations within a day or so of the last foal arriving. Yarraman Park has 34 yearlings catalogued for the Gold Coast in January, and not just by home sires I Am Invincible and Hellbent. There are youngsters in the draft by Zoustar and first-season sire Trapeze Artist, as well as Justify (USA) and Extreme Choice.
“At this time of year, we’d normally do a nightly prep here for the Magic Millions yearlings,” Forbes said. “They come in and start getting light exercise, and we’ve got great turnouts for them during the day. Some get lunged, some go into the walker. It’s a great time of year.”
Forbes personally looks forward to this point of summer.
“I love it,” he said. “I love working with young horses and it’s always been a big passion of mine, although this year has been different again with the floods. Last Thursday we weren’t even able to get into town.”
Forbes said he’s getting used to the summer extremities. A native Kiwi, he arrived in Australia four years ago and, since then, he’s lived through summers of extreme drought, extreme fire, last season’s mouse plague and now floods. If there’s any merit to ‘never a dull moment’, stud staff in the Hunter Valley know all about it.
Still, the Yarraman Park crew had time last week to down sticks for a beer and a pizza when the last foal was up and around. Like Kitchwin Hills, there was a sense of relief and achievement.
“Everyone in the foaling unit is still extremely busy working with the foals and getting those last mares pregnant, but it takes a lot of stress off the night crew to have it all behind them,” Forbes said.
“All those guys on night watch and day watch into the weekends and people being on-call all the time, that’s all over now. We had a few beers on the Friday after the last foal was born, but we’ll have a good blow-out at the Christmas party."
