Vancouver a building block for even bigger things for Woodside Park

Businessman Eddie Hirsch took control of the Tylden-based operation in July last year and his right-hand man on the farm, Mark Dodemaide, confirmed that Vancouver will join the roster of Foxwedge, Rich Enuff and Tosen Stardom (Jpn) for 2022.

And the G1 Golden Slipper S.-winning son of Medaglia D’Oro (USA) may not be the only addition, with Dodemaide saying the strength of the Victorian market meant it was the right time for Woodside to be opening up all options.

“Is Eddie a chance to buy a real nice potential stallion?’’ said Dodemaide. “He is. We’re in no rush, we’ve just got to wait for the right horse to come along… that we believe is the right horse."

Dodemaide said across Victoria, studs including Swettenham and Rosemont all are trying to find a nice young horse.

“Woodside Park is the same as them. Looking for that right horse that comes along,’’ he said.

Hirsch is confident the outright purchase of Vancouver from Coolmore will leave no questions on the table as to the stallion.

He will be with Woodside Park for the rest of his days and is expected to make a good play at Hirsch’s efforts to capitalise on Victorian Racing’s VOBIS scheme.

“Eddie owns him outright so that’s always a positive when you’ve got a stallion that he’ll be down here and anyone that wants to breed to him knows that the horse is going to be here for the rest of his days,’’ said Dodemaide.

“Eddie owns Woodside, so he’s going to be a stallion in his own place. There’s no question marks about anything (with Vancouver).”

Dodemaide says Vancouver in his own right, as an unbeaten 2-year-old and G1 Golden Slipper winner, is a highly valued commodity in the Woodside Park Stud plan, and able to produce runners that would make the most of the VOBIS scheme.

Growing stallion roster

Hirsch’s first venture into stallion ownership came with the purchase of Foxwedge from Newgate Farm in 2019. He was relocated to Victoria to stand at the then Roswthorn family-owned Woodside Park Stud.

“Eddie bought Foxwedge a few years ago now and he's had fun watching the Foxwedges and I think he’s looking to do the same thing again with Vancouver,’’ Dodemaide said.

“Foxwedge came down here and had 11 stakes winners when he arrived here and he’s up to 23 now. Eddie sends quite a few of his mares to Foxwedge and no doubt he’ll be sending a good group of mares to Vancouver as well.

“Vancouver, he kind of seems to be working with Danehill again, so Eddie’s got a group of mares, at least half a dozen that will suit Vancouver. And they’ll be off to him this year.

“Foxwedge was his first go at it and he’s had fun. The last two seasons there’s been 100-plus mares to Foxwedge. That’s worked out and we’ve had good support from Victorian breeders.

“Hopefully the similar thing can be done with Vancouver.’’

A successful model

Dodemaide said the Vancouver purchase and standing at Woodside Park Stud had great merit, and raised Rosemont Stud’s success with relocated-Shamus Award as a good example of what can happen.

“Rosemont, they’ve done well with Shamus Award. He was a horse that came down from the Hunter most likely at a similar stage of his career (as Vancouver) and he’s really kicked on well, so it definitely can happen,’’ said Dodemaide.

Shamus Award moved from Widden Stud to Rosemont in 2019 ahead of his sixth season and he has since had 16 stakes winners, including four Group 1 winners. Vancouver will enter his seventh season at stud at Woodside.

“Vancouver, I think with his crop of 2-year-olds, only two of them have raced at present so they’ll all get rolling soon and that’s something to look forward to. Hopefully there’s a couple of Group 1 horses amongst them.’’

Foxwedge has produced five Group 1 winners and 23 stakes winners to date and Dodemaide said with a quarter of permanent Woodside Park residents, everyone knows where they are at and where they will be staying.

“Rich Enuff has had a couple of stakes winners and he’s on the verge of doing something,’’ Dodemaide said. “I suppose given Eddie likes the VOBIS scheme as he does, he is really working to get some nice horses into Victoria.’’

Breeding to race

Hirsch races almost everything he breeds and has invested heavily in the upgrades to the pre-training facility at Tylden he bought in 2019 off former Woodside Park owners the Rowsthorn family, and renamed Hirsch Park, before the co-founder of United Petroleum also took over the stallion farm from the Rowsthorns.

John Salanitri trains for Hirsch out of Hirsch Park which has had a total track rebuild and realignment since he took ownership of the facilities.

“Eddie does enjoy his racing and he enjoys his breeding as much as he enjoys his racing,’’ said Dodemaide.

“He rebuilt the whole track and winners are starting to come off there now,’’ Dodemaide said. “He’s got some nice horses in the pipeline and you think that should keep going into the future."

To date this year, three Hirsch-owned runners trained by Salanitri at Hirsch Park have struck wins, two of those bred by Hirsch. Kit And Caboodle (Sebring) from I Love It (Artie Schiller {USA}) was a Kilmore winner in January and Mr Freeze by Frosted (USA) from Group 3-winning mare Princess Gisella (King Charlemagne {USA}) won at the same track last week.

Success also came at Flemington in January when Sea The Stars (Ire) gelding Look Closely, bought by Hirsch for £65,000 (AU$123,000) in the 2020 Tattersalls Autumn Horses In Training Sale won over 2000 metres.

“They’ve been in there about 12 months. You should see Eddie making an impact as an owner of winners. There are some nice, well-bred horses going into training there.

“As far as a horse of the future goes, Eddie might be breeding his own stallion. He’s got young horses by really good stallions… who knows?’’