Cover image courtesy of Phoenix Broodmare Farm
Phoenix Broodmare Farm have offered four stakes winners at the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale over a four-year period. Current 3-year-old filly Getta Good Feeling (So You Think {NZ}) sold here in 2023, and Steel Trap (King’s Legacy) was in the same draft, later selling at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale. They sold Group 1-placed Elliptical (Dundeel {NZ}) here in 2020, and Ripcord (Written By) in 2021.
Elliptical and Ripcord came from their Euroa farm, while Getta Good Feeling and Steel Trap were the second crop off their new property near Taree in NSW.
“It's been pretty handy. We only do a small crop of horses, offering about eight foals a year on average. We’re building a good record of runners,” said Damian Gleeson in something of an understatement.
Selling the whole crop as weanlings
Most farms would love to say they’ve sold four stakes winners from such small numbers, and the farm, who moved to their NSW property after COVID, made the decision to sell almost all their annual foal crop as weanlings.
“We sell all of ours as foals if possible. Sometimes we’ll have to run a yearling through (the ring) if something goes wrong, but we market ourselves as selling weanlings. It’s a business model that works for us as we’re only a small farm," said Gleeson.
“Preparing yearlings is quite physical and my partner Deb says, the horses get bigger and I stay the same size! Prepping foals is much nicer and this allows us to combine our lifestyle with breeding horses.
Damian Gleeson and Deb Gifford | Image courtesy of Phoenix Broodmare Farm
“At our time of life, we don't really want to prep yearlings anymore. Selling weanlings enables us to have an involvement in the industry. It’s also more relaxed, as you don’t have the restrictions on you that you have at the yearling sales. Buyers are a little bit more forgiving on x-rays and people will take a chance on a horse that might need a bit of time to grow. People buying weanlings aren't quite as particular as what trainers are about buying yearlings. Pinhook people are a bit more forgiving.”
Pinecliff Racing-owned Getta Good Feeling, winner of the G2 Wakeful Stakes and Group 1-placed was sold by Phoenix Broodmare Farm to Suman Hedge Bloodstock (FBAA) for $400,000 and on-sold via Milburn Creek’s Inglis Easter Yearling Sale draft to Dean Hawthorne Bloodstock for $575,000. She’s now won over $1.2 million from four wins.
Getta Good Feeling | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
“We are trying to breed horses that will suit the weanling market and that people can trade on and make money from. We sold a Stay Inside colt out of Ocean Deep a few years ago for $230,000 to Jim Carey and he went on to make over $600,000.” Now named Oceanic (Stay Inside), the unraced 2-year-old gelding was purchased by China Horse Club, Newgate Farm and partners for $675,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
“We have a good record of people being able to trade our horses and make money.”
“We have a good record of people being able to trade our horses and make money.” - Damian Gleeson
Gleeson calls G3 David Coles AM Stakes winner Steel Trap a “rarity” because she was passed in at the 2023 Magic Millions National Weanling Sale and they had to take her to the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale where she sold for $30,000 to Angas River Contractors. She’s since been purchased privately by Yulong and has earnings over $200,000.
Small drafts and a personal approach
To gain such amazing results off small numbers takes a lot of time and planning.
“I think it's just a combination of things. We do a lot of work on our foals right from the start. Because we’re small we can teach them to lead from day one," said Gleeson.
“I think it's just a combination of things. We do a lot of work on our foals right from the start. Because we’re small we can teach them to lead from day one." - Damian Gleeson
"Temperament's important with us, getting them to walk properly, having them well educated. We don't own a walking machine and we don't have a round yard. All our foals go out and run in the paddocks during the preparation. We have small runs set up for them and they go out there, so they're out on grass all the time. They come in each night, but they go out on grass. So our prep is very gentle on the foals.
“I think that helps them going forward. I’ve had people said to me, oh, they just go home, and go straight back in the paddock, and they're great to deal with. Deb and I have prepped yearlings and sold horses for years and we wanted to make our horses user friendly for the next person.”
It’s not just educating horses from birth that helps, it goes all the way back to the decisions on which broodmares to purchase.
“We put a big emphasis on the temperament of our mares that we buy. Obviously everyone wants to buy a nice type, but we also try and buy mares with good temperaments, good walking mares that that'll throw that into their foals.”
“We put a big emphasis on the temperament of our mares that we buy. Obviously everyone wants to buy a nice type.” - Damian Gleeson
Gleeson spoke about how watching mares at the sales helps determine attitude, and how the rise of the digital market for trading broodmares is making this emphasis on temperament more challenging.
“We go back and look at them a couple of times and just trying to assess their attitude and look at the families as well. You soon learn which families that have good temperaments and throw good types. It’s about doing the homework.
“Buying online means you've got to rely on information from other people. We bought a Nicconi mare last year and we actually went to the racing stable and had a good look at her at the stable and asked about her. Everything everyone said was good and she’s a nice mare now.
“In the next 5 years, mares will probably be all online and that'll involve a lot of travelling for people buying them, going to inspect them.”
Once they have a mare with the right physique and temperament, then it’s a long process to decide on mating.
“We put a lot into our matings and the genetics of our matings. We spent hours pouring over stallions, trying to work out who to breed to, which is going to be very difficult this year.
“Service fees are causing a lot of consternation in the industry at the moment. It's difficult in our position because when you're selling foals there's a limit to what people can pay for a foal. So that means there's a limit to what we can pay for a service fee. So that’s a problem for our business model.”
“Service fees are causing a lot of consternation in the industry at the moment. So that’s a problem for our business model.” - Damian Gleeson
A draft of six weanlings
Phoenix Broodmare Farm will present a draft of six weanlings on Sunday May 24 with six different stallions represented, and Gleeson picked out three favourites.
“We've got a nice Castelvecchio colt from a Deep Field mare. He’s a really lovely colt, a good walking colt with a great temperament. Castelvecchio is doing a really good job off a low base and this colt is just a nice horse. He's just a racehorse, really, a lovely type.”
Lot 275 is the fifth foal of Deepwater (Deep Field) who is a daughter of Listed winner Liesele (Exceed And Excel). This is the family of Champion 2YO in New Zealand and Group 1 winner Velocious (Written Tycoon).
Lot 275 - Castelvecchio x Deepwater colt | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
“The Alabama Express filly is a real sort of classic sort of filly. She is more a 3-year-old type, which a lot of the Alabamas are. She’s a good type.”
Lot 293 is the first foal of Elusive Jewel (Al Maher) who won four times including once in Sydney and Elusive Jewel is a half-sister to G2 Autumn Stakes winner Glint Of Silver (Rubick) from the family of G1 TJ Smith Stakes winner Chain Of Lightning (Fighting Sun).
Lot 293 - Alabama Express x Elusive Jewel filly | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
“The Shinzo is a nice filly. She’s pretty typical of the Shinzo's that we saw in Sydney. She looks very much like some of the Shinzo's I've seen.”
Lot 50 is the third foal of two-time juvenile winner Minjee (Not A Single Doubt) whose first two foals are fillies by So You Think (NZ). Minjee is a daughter of American Listed winner A Brilliant Idea (USA) (Afleet Alex {USA}) and we all know how well American bloodlines cross with Australian form.
Lot 50 - Shinzo x Minjee filly | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
“We like bringing horses up here (to the Gold Coast). It’s a nice climate, and it’s not far from home.”
The other three in the draft are a King’s Gambit filly, and colts by Pinatubo (Ire) and King’s Legacy.
Floods and the recovery process
Speaking of climate, twelve months ago, Phoenix Broodmare Farm was underwater when flooding in the region caused havoc.
“We were very lucky and very fortunate, especially when we look around the rest of the area and how badly people were affected in our area. But we only had minor damage to the farm. Thankfully, our buildings are up high so they didn't get affected. We had to move stock and probably pasture was our biggest problem. We’ve had to reestablish a lot of pasture, but twelve months on and we’re going well.”
The Australian climate is well-known for the extremes of drought and flood, so much that Dorothy Mackellar wrote in her famous poem, coined at the property which is now Torryburn Stud, ‘Of droughts and flooding rains…’ But with floods come nutrients from silt, but also seeds from pastures downstream.
“I’m not an expert, but on our river flats we did get quite a bit of silt deposited there, so I suppose that has nutrition in it, but the other problem is it brings all the weeds in as well. So you have to go and reduce the weeds that washes down off everybody else's farm. There's always a positive and a negative in life, I find.”
“There's always a positive and a negative in life, I find.” - Damian Gleeson
With such a good record of producing top quality horses from small drafts, there is probably more positive than negative to inspect at Phoenix Broodmare Farm’s latest select offering at the upcoming Magic Millions National Weanling Sale.
