Cover image courtesy of China Horse Club

China Horse Club have been carving a reputation as breeders of top-class bloodstock for a number of years and horses bearing the CHC brand have been a familiar sight on many a sales ground in the past.

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In fact, China Horse Club can lay claim to having bred some blue-chip stock, including multiple Group 2 winner Dame Giselle (I Am Invincible), who was a $500,000 purchase by Go Bloodstock at the 2019 edition of the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, while other horses bred by Teo Ah Khing’s powerhouse operation include, G2 Blue Diamond Prelude (Fillies) winner Revolutionary Miss (Russian Revolution) and fellow Group 2 winner Global Exchange (Dundeel {NZ}) to name a few.

Gallery: Group 2 winners bred by China Horse Club

Indeed, last year on the Gold Coast a colt they bred by Zoustar out of dual winner Pirapala (Sepoy), who is herself a half-sister to Group 1 winner Instant Celebrity (Not A Single Doubt). He handed them a memorable result when he was purchased for a massive $1.3 million by Rosemont-Victorian Alliance, Suman Hedge Bloodstock (FBAA) and David Redvers Bloodstock.

It will not be the first time a sales ground has played host to a draft from The Chase. In 2022, they offered their inaugural draft at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale and enjoyed wonderful results and finished atop the leading vendors by average when selling five yearlings for an average of $156,000.

Natural evolution

China Horse Club’s Australasian representative, Michael Smith told TDN AusNZ that off the back of last year’s success in South Australia, it gave their operation confidence to offer a group of horses under their own banner at Magic Millions’ headline auction in January, while they will also return to Adelaide for a second time in 2023 and cap off the yearling sales series by presenting their first draft at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in April.

“I think having our own draft is a natural evolution of where the operation is right now. China Horse Club has been around for nearly 10 years now and we are breeding a significant number of horses, so it makes sense to do more of it in-house,” said Smith.

“Currently, we are operating out of a 100-acre property and based on our current capabilities we are able to prep yearlings for those sales this year but a planned expansion is in the works and we should be able to expand what we can in-house in due course.”

“I think it is fantastic that we are now participating in the full life cycle of the thoroughbred. We are breeding them, racing, buying them and now selling them ourselves. I am very lucky to be working for a visionary like Mr Teo. What CHC has been able to achieve globally in a short 10 years is remarkable and has been driven by him. I am also proud to have played a part in that and fortunate to be surrounded by a great team, headed up on the farm by Alex Kingston; it has been wonderful to see The Chase enter the next phase.

“We are raising these horses to sell well and then go on to win good races. It is very rewarding for a breeder to have control of your own stock and be able to bring them to market and then see them go on and succeed on the track.”

The Chase will present a draft of 14 horses on the Gold Coast this year. The group of horses they have assembled includes yearlings by three stallions they raced in partnership during their time on the track. These are headed by six yearlings by Newgate Farm’s Russian Revolution, while they will offer two yearlings from the first crop of his barnmate Cosmic Force and one by Rosemont Farm’s fellow first-season sire Strasbourg.

Gallery: Sires of the yearlings The Chase has heading to the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale

The group of yearlings is completed by a pair of youngsters by Deep Field and three yearlings by Widden Stud’s Zoustar.

“We are bringing a really lovely draft up to the Gold Coast and hopefully we can kick off the year on a really good note,” said Smith. “We have had a lot of traffic through the door in terms of the on-farm parades and we have gotten a lot of really positive feedback. I am personally delighted with how our horses have come up and we are excited to take them up to Queensland and offer them to the buying bench.

“We have a nice mix of proven stallions like Zoustar and Deep Field, Russian Revolution, who is an exciting up-and-coming stallion and then first-crop sires in Cosmic Force and Strasbourg. I think top to bottom we have something for everyone.”

Very satisfied

The Chase’s Stud Manager Alex Kingston has been preparing the first Magic Millions-bound January draft and she has been very satisfied with how each and every one has come through the preparation.

“They are a very precocious bunch of horses who have come to hand extremely well and have all thrived during the prep. They have all taken massive leaps in the last couple of weeks,” Kingston told the TDN AusNZ.

“Of the inspections we’ve had, the feedback has been very positive. The Chase is a beautiful farm to prepare horses and we’ve modified a couple of things on the farm to improve the prepping area of the farm. This has enabled us to have a bigger inspection area, all the paddocks have been developed for yearling runs and it’s all worked very, very well.

Unsurprisingly, China Horse Club has shown an aptitude for breeding high-class horses by the emerging stallion Russian Revolution. The operation has produced his Group 2-winning filly Revolutionary Miss and a pair of the stallion’s stakes-placed horses in the shape of Perfect Proposal and Communist.

Crowned Champion First Season Sire last season, Russian Revolution is the sire of two stakes winners and five placegetters and Kingston has been impressed with his progeny thus far.

“They are very athletic horses who are very precocious and have very strong personalities as far as getting on with their job,” she explained. “They are very uncomplicated, which has made them very easy to prep.”

Smith echoed Kingston’s sentiments regarding the progeny of Russian Revolution, “He is a very dynamic stallion, very like his father (Snitzel). The trainers also seem to love them because they are very genuine horses and they always give you a shot at winning those really good races.

“Out of his stakes horses, we’ve bred three of them and I think that is important for buyers to know that we know how to breed a good one. What I love about him as a stallion is that he can get you a Blue Diamond/Golden Slipper-type 2-year-old as well as horses that will train and get you into a Guineas – it means you have so many more options as to where you can run them and access to an expansive prizemoney pool as well.

“All our Russians are slightly different, but he puts that quality and athleticism into them, very much like Snitzel and that is probably the common thread. We have sent really good mares to him year in, year out and we have backed him right from the start and I think the best for him as a young stallion on the up is still yet to come.”

'Prepped up beautifully'

Of the sextet of Russian Revolutions set to be offered by The Chase, Kingston holds a special affection for the colt out of the unraced Dubawi (Ire) mare Bethsaida (Ire), whose Justify (USA) colt was purchased by Tasman Bloodstock and TFI for $450,000 at last year’s edition of the sale.

“I am very excited about the Bethsaida x Russian Revolution colt. He has just come on leaps and bounds in the last few months,” explained Kingston. “He had a small setback when we started and I was worried I wouldn’t get him there, but he has taken to the challenge very well and within a couple of weeks I knew he was on track and has prepped up beautifully.”

China Horse Club bought Bethsaida for 900,000gns (AU$1,672,300) at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in 2015 and she hails from the same family as prolific Listed winner Dunelight (Ire) (Desert Sun {GB}).

The filly out of Atlantis Dream (NZ) (Elusive Quality {USA}) is another that both Kingston and Smith hold in high regard.

A winner of the G2 Queen Of The South S., Atlantis Dream was acquired by the China Horse Club for $360,000 at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in 2016 and since 2019 she has been exclusively bred to the son of Snitzel.

“The filly out of Group 2 winner Atlantis Dream looks like an absolute jet,” said Smith. “She is a beautiful filly with lots of size, strength and scope.”

Meanwhile, Kingston said the filly has always been a straightforward type and was expecting her to be well found at next week’s auction.

“I have always had a soft spot for the Atlantis Dream,” explained Kingston. “She is very forward and athletic and has always been a very simple horse to prep because she was already ready to go at the start, so she made my job a bit easier, but she looks physically ready as well. The mare was a very good mare and I think people will be impressed with this filly - she’s beautiful.”

Last year at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, a Zoustar filly out of the Group 2-winning, Group 1-placed mare Nurse Kitchen (NZ) (Savabeel) was purchased by Katsumi Yoshida for $750,000 and this year on the Gold Coast they will offer her Russian Revolution half-sister.

Nurse Kitchen was already a winner of the G2 Moonee Valley Fillies Classic and placed in the G1 Vinery Stud S. when Teo Ah Khing’s outfit bought her for a whopping $1.7 million at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. After briefly racing her on, she retired to the breeding barn and the Zoustar filly, who is now known as Princess Kaguya, was the first of her progeny to be offered at public auction.

“She was a very good, beautiful Savabeel mare, who was Group 2 winner. She is a mare we have really given every chance to and she is a young mare on the way through.

A new Force?

This season G2 Roman Consul S. winner Cosmic Force will be represented by his first yearlings and 18 of his first crop will go under the hammer on the Gold Coast this year.

Standing alongside his father Deep Field at Newgate Farm, Cosmic Force’s first crop of weanlings were well received last year, with 13 of his foals realising an aggregate of $835,000.

The Chase will offer a pair of colts by the stallion and interestingly they are both out of Fastnet Rock mares, the unraced Joseph’s Coat and Crescent, who was placed in New Zealand. Fastnet Rock mares when mated to Cosmic Force’s father Deep Field have proved a good match, with the nick producing 22 winners from 24 runners and they are spearheaded by Group-winning pair Quantum Mechanic and Big Parade.

“We held on to all of our Cosmic Forces to take through to yearling prep because we were so taken aback by them and I think that decision will pay off. We have got two beautiful colts by the stallion in the draft. They are both physically very forward and have good heads on them mentally. They have prepped up a treat,” said Kingston.

“The colt out of Joseph’s Coat is probably the standout. Physically, he is very well put together and has a good bone - the perfect model for a 2-year-old horse. He will be bang on point for when we get up there.”

Cosmic Force’s sire and barnmate Deep Field is also represented among The Chase draft. Lot 257 is a filly out of winner Primavera (Redoute’s Choice), who is a three-quarter sister to Group 1 winner and now Aquis Farm-based sire Invader, while the colt is out of Listed-placed mare Caricature (NZ) (Power {GB}).

The daughter of Power (GB) was purchased by the China Horse Club for NZ$600,000 at the New Zealand Bloodstock Yearling Sale in 2016 and her first foal was a filly by Deep Field, who was purchased by Go Bloodstock for $340,000 at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

Gallery: The Chase's yearlings by Cosmic Force to be offered at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, images courtesy of Magic Millions

A time to shine

Of the three lots by Widden Stud’s headline stallion, Zoustar, the colt out of dual-winning Snitzel mare Grasslands is sure to be on many buyers’ lists. Grasslands herself is a daughter of the Listed-placed Elusive Quality (USA) mare Elusive Wonder, who is now better known as the dam of Group 2 winner and multiple Group 1-placed mare Away Game (Snitzel).

He will be joined at the sale by another colt by the sire and he is out of New Zealand Group 3 winner No More Tears (NZ) (Darci Brahma {NZ}) and he hails from the well-known, high-class family of Hips Don’t Lie (Stravinsky {USA}), the dam of stakes-winning trio Ennis Hill (Fastnet Rock), Lake Geneva and Acrobat.

“The colts by Zoustar are very different from each other, but both lovely,” said Kingston. “The Grasslands colt is more mature than the No More Tears. The No More Tears is very balanced, well put together and a sharp neat package with a very good walk, whereas the Grasslands has a bit more scope and substance to him. Both are beautiful colts that have presented extremely well during their last couple of parades and I am very happy ahead of them heading up to the Coast.”

Gallery: The Chase's yearlings by Zoustar to be offered at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, images courtesy of Magic Millions

Kingston is looking forward to offering the first group of yearlings on the Gold Coast next week and is confident they will be well received by the buying bench.

“Being my first draft for The Chase and China Horse Club I hope that we have a strong presence up there and we feel like we’ve selected the right group of horses that suit the Magic Millions sale,” she said. “It is a good cross section of horses and we truly believe there is a horse for each buyer and trainer up there. It’s been a long eight weeks and everyone on the farm has worked extremely hard, but I am excited to get up there and get them through the ring safely.”

Cover image courtesy of Milangall Park

Trevor Folsom has been in racing a long time but you might not have heard of him. He was in Double Ranga, that daughter of Exceed And Excel and dam of Scarlet Rain (Manhattan Rain), and he was in Runaway (Manhattan Rain), a Geelong Cup and VRC St Leger winner, and Woodbine (Hussonet {USA}).

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Folsom has broodmare interests at Ridgmont Farm and Arrowfield, and some of his closest allies include John and Paul Messara, John Kelly of Newhaven Park and Brian Siemsen of Black Soil Bloodstock.

If the name doesn’t yet ring a bell, it will through 2023.

Folsom is the new owner of the Esplin family’s Tartan Fields, some 200 acres in Kulnura, north of Sydney. In its past, this neat, well-serviced property bred the likes of Reset, Charge Forward, Plucky Belle (Mossman) and Land Of Plenty.

When it went on the market in March 2022, a “change in direction” according to Hamish Esplin, it was expected to fetch a pretty price, and it did. Folsom and his wife Jacquie, Coogee residents, paid north of $10.6 million.

Tartan Fields was renamed ‘Milangall Park’ and its reinvention began. Today, only months later, it has its old rural charm but with a flood of investment into its fences, facilities and future.

Folsom has reopened the property as a spelling and rehabilitation farm, just 90 minutes north of Sydney and within simple reach of Newcastle and the blossoming regional racing centre of Scone, Milangall Park will muscle into contention as one of the best-equipped, best-located facilities of its kind.

Who is Trevor Folsom?

In private enterprise, Folsom is the co-founder and chairman of the venture capitalist firm Investible. That adventure began as far back as 1998 with Blueprint Management Group, which Folsom founded in partnership with Creel Price and sold out of, for nine figures, around 2008.

For Folsom, his everyday routine is things like investment, advisement, portfolio expansion and start-ups. He is a board member and non-executive director of Kip McGrath education centres, a former chairman of Car Next Door and an entrepreneur in residence at the University of New South Wales.

He is a high-flyer, high-achiever, and high-ender. Folsom is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a prolific angel investor and a continual mentor in investment circles.

He’s also a husband, father of three, and a surfer, and one of those people bitten by racing at an early age.

“When it comes to racing, I’ve been an owner and something of a spectator to date,” Folsom said, speaking to TDN AusNZ. “Now I’m becoming a contributor by maintaining this beautiful farm we’ve bought as a thoroughbred facility.”

Folsom’s emergence as an industry heavy-hitter follows years of interest in racing and breeding. Right back into his early youth, his father was a Canadian dairy farmer who bred performance horses, and Folsom himself was a Canadian migrant to Australia as a child.

“We bought farms in western New South Wales, which were more sheep and wheat but we always had horses around,” Folsom said. “So I always had an interest in them but I didn’t do anything with it until I bought an ex-racehorse when I was playing rugby in Brisbane. That was just for fun type of riding when I was 22 or 23 years old.”

Folsom didn’t spend much time learning about the pedigree of his off-track racehorse, but time in Brisbane and success in business eventually expanded his racing network. He got to know Neil Douglas, co-director of Ridgmont Farm, and Julian Blaxland at Blue Sky Thoroughbreds (FBAA).

“Getting to know these sorts of people was a natural introduction for me to racing,” Folsom said. “I began to buy small shares, initially with Julian, and I spent a bit of time with Gai Waterhouse, bringing the kids to the track in the early mornings and back to the stables.”

Those were the years 2010 to around 2012. In that time, Folsom raced Double Ranga, who was named after his first two children and who was a one-time city winner through 13 lifetime starts.

The chestnut mare was bought as an Inglis Easter yearling by Julian Blaxland for $120,000 in 2010, and her Group 2-winning daughter Scarlet Rain was her first foal, later selling for $950,000 to James Harron at the 2017 Magic Millions National Sale.

“I stayed in Double Ranga and she’s still breeding at Arrowfield today,” Folsom said. “She was probably the earliest transition for me from part-owner into breeding stock, and that gave me good exposure to that side of the industry.”

Folsom’s business acumen has crept into his attitude to racing. He was already successful in private enterprise when he moved into thoroughbred shares.

“I had been very successful in a corporate sense and I didn’t go into racehorses until I had that success,” he said. “It made it a lot easier, obviously. But I never got above my ambitions. I always tried to maintain 10 to 12 runners and only in part-ownerships. My philosophy, which is much like in business, was to surround myself with really good people which allowed me to build a business, and that’s what I’m doing with Milangall Park.

“I’ve met so many good people, and it’s been fascinating how many people are available and willing to give the time and advice and help out. It’s pretty similar in the venture capitalist world, so it’s been really satisfying to experience that.”

New directions

For the best part of three years, Folsom planned to bridge into racing with a property. But where to find a property, and where to find one within two hours of Sydney?

“It was three years in the thinking,” he said. “I always saw spelling and rehab as the best entry, and that’s a big step from small-time ownership. The farm had to tick many boxes. Location, firstly, because it had to be within two hours of Sydney, and then a most important part based on the model was finding the right manager.”

When Tartan Fields emerged on the market last year, it happened to have Danielle Jacklin in tow. She’d been the stud’s manager for nearly eight years and, after meeting her, Folsom was determined she would stay on.

“My introduction to Danielle through the sales process was encouraging, but until we actually made the big commitment and settled on the property, we had to work out if we’d be a good fit for Danielle and Danielle a good fit for us,” Folsom said.

“The model could have been very different without her, like leasing out or going into partnership, but my desire was always to be involved, just with a manager that could guide the day-to-day and also drive the vision that I wanted to create around the property.”

For Jacklin, it was an anxious few months as the future of Tartan Fields sat on the commercial property market. There were 600 reported expressions of interest from developers, racing identities and private investors, so the relief that came with Folsom’s purchase was enormous, and the decision to stay on an exciting one.

“I’d been with the Esplins for nearly eight years,” Jacklin said, chatting with TDN AusNZ. “It was great to be able to stay on, but also to be part of the changes, the new direction that the farm is going in. I’ve been very lucky that it’s been Trevor and Jacquie that bought the farm. They’re great people that want to do some extraordinary stuff, not just for this farm but for the industry as well.”

Jacklin is a mother of two boys. She lives onsite and is a devoted, experienced horsewoman. She is priceless, according to Folsom, and she’s excited about the farm’s move away from racehorse breeding and towards racehorse spelling.

“Tartan Fields didn’t have any outside clients,” she said. “Now, it will be largely clientele based here, so that presents a very different situation for me. At the moment, a lot of my everyday working life is business-related in terms of getting new clients, changing the infrastructure and starting a new business from scratch. It’s been very enjoyable and very new.”

There are enormous benefits to having a familiar face in a new business. Already, Annabel Neasham has committed a few horses to Milangall Park, and word of mouth is spreading among trainers in the Sydney catchment.

The 215 acres of the property will eventually be able to host up to 100 horses, and there are far-sighted plans for Milangall Park to be a pre-training facility too.

“A DA went in just before Christmas for a new stable complex, and that also consists of a secondary barn with a water treadmill and a dry treadmill,” Jacklin said. “We’ll also be putting in a track with the round yard and walking machines, so it’s all happening.”

Friends in high places

The spelling and pre-training space is a competitive one around Sydney, but Folsom has no plans to be average. Milangall Park offers bespoke agistment packages and high-end nutrition, promising the mental and physical regeneration of visiting horses.

Part of this polish is down to Folsom’s background in corporate enterprise. What has it taught him about starting a business in the racing industry?

“The business of investing is a long one,” he said. “Patience is important. I won’t be an overnight success at Milangall Park because I want it to be generational. It was my passion and vision to invest initially, but the success will be built on the people we bring along for the ride.

“The most obvious corporate skill I’ve brought into it is the people side. We invest in amazing founders, and their success is to be able to attract other aligned people with the right skills. I’ve been very mindful that I’ve got a lot to learn, so this farm will be a collective of advice and support from others that have been here before.”

To date, that support has come from the likes of the Messara family and John Kelly, as mentioned. It has also come from Gary Cunningham and Harry McAlpine, and people like John O’Shea, Alan Stephenson, the proprietor of the commercial division at Harvey Norman, and Rosemont's Anthony Mithen.

In a few days’ time, Folsom will head to the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale with Black Soil Bloodstock’s Brian Siemsen, one of his finest friends. With allies like these, is the racing industry a new career for Trevor Folsom?

“It could be,” he said. “I’ve got lots of working life left in me still and my core business is still growing. But I can see the similarities between both, and I can see my ability to be able to transfer between my normal investment life onto the farm. And it’s hopefully something that my kids will want to be involved in too.”

Milangall Park is named after Folsom’s three children, Mila, Angus and Ally. Every detail has, to this point, been pre-planned and executed well.

“We paid nicely for the farm, no doubt about that,” he said. “When we paid nicely we thought it was too much, but everyone since has told us it was a pretty good price given the location, and I’m willing to run with that advice.”