Cover image courtesy of Lustre Lodge
At last week’s Inglis Weanling Sale, Lustre Lodge made waves by selling the highest-priced weanling of the second day—a Toronado (Ire) colt out of the mare Atomic Pulse (Deep Field).
Listed as Lot 318, the colt attracted significant attention and spirited bidding, ultimately fetching $320,000 to the bid of M Patel and secured Lustre Lodge's position as the third-highest vendor of the sale by average.
Reflecting on this achievement, Paige Belsham, Operations Manager of Lustre Lodge expressed her delight of the sale, emphasising the exceptional qualities of the colt.
Lustre Lodge with the highest-priced weanling on Day 2 | Image courtesy of Inglis
“It was obviously a great result for the farm. He’s a lovely style of colt, quite forward and by a stallion that's doing such a great job here and overseas. The price wasn’t necessarily unexpected as I knew there was always going to be so much interest in him”.
In addition to the Toronado colt, Lustre Lodge presented Lot 270, an All Too Hard colt from Warragamba (Medaglia d’Oro {USA}) who fetched a healthy $90,000 to the bid of Woburn Farm, NZ.
“The All Too Hard colt was a fabulous result for the team. He’s a colt that's just come on in leaps and bounds.
Lot 270 - All Too Hard x Warragamba (colt) | Image courtesy of Inglis
“By a proven sire, he was a horse with a beautiful action and a great attitude. New Zealand buyers were really interested in him as a trade horse and he fit that mould perfectly”.
Weanlings set for Magics debut
Looking ahead, Lustre Lodge is set to showcase two promising fillies at the upcoming Magic Millions National Weanling Sale. These fillies, presented under the Attunga Stud banner, have been carefully selected to suit the Magic Millions sale. One of the fillies, sired by Capitalist, boasts a speedy pedigree, while the other, by Snitzel, is the first foal from the stakes-performed mare Just Field (Deep Field).
“We’ve got a really good relationship with Brian and Anna Nutt of Attunga Stud who do a brilliant job. If we are selling just a couple of horses at Magic Millions it is easier for us to consign under our friends at Attunga rather than taking two horses all the way up there ourselves.
“We selected two weanlings that we thought would be really good fillies to take to the market up there, one being the Capitalist filly from Royal Schilling and the other being the Snitzel filly from Just Field”.
“We selected two weanlings that we thought would be really good fillies to take to the market up there, one being the Capitalist filly (Lot 261) from Royal Schilling and the other being the Snitzel filly (Lot 139) from Just Field”. - Paige Belsham
Lot 139, the Snitzel filly is the first foal from Lustre Lodge’s stakes performed Just Field who was a $650,000 yearling purchase by China Horse Club / Alan Bell Racing. She is from a highly-commercial family being the three-quarter-sister to the Listed Blue Diamond Preview (C&G), High Octane (Deep Field) and Belsham anticipates plenty of interest given her exceptional qualities and pedigree.
“Pete Colley co-owner of Lustre Lodge and Louis Le Metayer of Astute Bloodstock found Just Field at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale a couple of years ago. We continued to race her on and claimed a little bit of black-type. Being a get back and run on kind of horse, things didn’t always go her favour all of the time but she had huge ability and she's a beautiful style of horse.
“This Snitzel filly is a credit to the mare, she’s just a beautiful type. When you buy those quality types of mares, they do reward you with types like this.
Paige Belsham
“I think she's probably more of an end-user style of filly. She's a very impressive style with a really commercial pedigree that has plenty of upside, especially with High Octane who was a very impressive 2-year-old this season who should do the same in his 3-year-old season”.
The other weanling set to be offered by Lustre Lodge under the Attunga Stud banner is Lot 261, a filly by Capitalist and out of the well-related Artie Schiller (USA) mare Royal Schilling. A winner herself, she is from the family of stakes winners Fire In The Night (Danewin), Hooked (Casino Prince) and impressive last start Listed Bendigo Guineas winning 3-year-old, War Machine (NZ) (Harry Angel {Ire}).
Belsham envisions plenty of interest for this filly, emphasising her early maturity and commercial appeal.
“Belsham envisions plenty of interest for this filly (Lot 261), emphasising her early maturity and commercial appeal.”
“The Royal Schilling filly is very typical of Capitalist being a strong, forward type. If an end-user brought her that would be great, but if she was picked up by a pin-hooker, I could see her back at Magic Millions in January being such an early style of horse.”
Success on and off-the-track
Experienced in presenting top-quality weanlings, Lustre Lodge previously offered the talented multiple stakes winner Brave Mead (Brave Smash {Jpn}) as a weanling. Acquired by Ciaron Maher for $90,000 from a mid-year Inglis Digital Weanling sale, Brave Mead showcased immense potential in his brief but illustrious 12-start career, tragically cut short last month.
Securing juvenile stakes success in the Listed Valley Pearl S., Brave Mead went on to achieve dual stakes victories as a 3-year-old in the G3 Manfred S. and Listed Darby Munro S. Owned by Australian Bloodstock, the colt was on course for the G2 Arrowfield Stud S. before a devastating accident during routine exercise.
Brave Mead | Image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
Furthermore, Lustre Lodge boasts representation in the form of the G2 Gilgai S. winner Star Patrol (Starsplangledbanner), who was sold in their 2020 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale draft for $78,000 to P Ma. Within just a year, Lustre Lodge achieved another significant sale, with Economics (Capitalist) fetching $260,000 at the Magic Millions National Yearling sale. This lightly raced 4-year-old has since proven to be a talented stakes-winning sprinter.
Despite its modest size, Lustre Lodge consistently produces high-quality bloodstock year after year. Situated in Alison on the Central Coast of New South Wales, the team maintains a select group of broodmares alongside those from Greenhaven Park, owned by one of Lustre Lodge's part-owners, Pete Colley.
“Between Lustre Lodge and Greenhaven Park, we’ve got a really nice broodmare band. We’ve got around 33 mares on the farm at the moment”.
“Between Lustre Lodge and Greenhaven Park, we’ve got a really nice broodmare band. We’ve got around 33 mares on the farm at the moment”. - Paige Belsham
Highlighting their top mares, Belsham mentions, “Our headline horse would be Sweet Deal. She’s in foal to Extreme Choice so we're patiently awaiting the arrival of her foal in a couple of months." Additionally, she notes, “The other is the dam of Big Parade, being Crystal Rock, who is in foal to Toronado. Across the board, we've got some really nice mares with some good pregnancies that we're excited for”.
Multiple Group winner Sweet Deal (Casino Prince) was acquired by Lustre Lodge for $850,000 at the 2021 Inglis Chairman's Sale. Her first foal is a yearling colt by Zoustar, while she has a weanling colt on the ground by Written Tycoon. Crystal Rock's (Fastnet Rock) colt by Star Turn fetched $240,000 at this year's Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, the highest-priced yearling of Lustre Lodge's seven horse draft.
