Cover image courtesy of Trackside Photography
When Silverdale Farm and Andy Williams went to $750,000 for stakes winner Liquor (Spirit Of Boom) at the Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale, they were not just buying a rising 7-year-old by Spirit Of Boom with race performance, commercial type and a deepening pedigree. They were buying the kind of mare Silverdale has spent the past six years building itself to compete for.
For Silverdale Farm Manager Rob Petith, there was also a personal symmetry to it. Before Liquor was even born, he had driven her dam Luqyaa to Spirit Of Boom during his time at Canning Downs Stud. He remembered Luqyaa clearly - the sort of mare he looked at and thought, one day, I’d love to be buying mares like that.
Now, after Silverdale’s rapid evolution from a weekend beef property with one barn into a serious commercial nursery with a growing list of high-end graduates and pinhooking success stories, that “one day” has arrived.
A proper mare
A $500,000 yearling who was a winner at two and three times placed at Listed level, Liquor’s dam Luqyaa (Exceed And Excel) walked through the Gold Coast ring as a broodmare prospect in 2018, where she was knocked down to John and Jake Warren for $310,000.
For her first mating, she was set for Eureka Stud’s Spirit Of Boom, whose fee had jumped from $11,000 to $55,000 (inc GST) that season in recognition of his first crop’s five stakes winners and 19 winners that saw him finish second only to Zoustar in the first season sire rankings.
With a date in the Sunshine State, Luqyaa was sent to the Barnes family’s Canning Downs Stud, where Petith was the stud manager.
Luqyaa as a yearling | Image courtesy of Inglis
“John Warren had his horses at Milburn Creek, and Scott (Holcombe) and John (Muir) are good friends of ours,” said Petith. “We didn’t usually take outside horses for agistment, but we would take on a couple as a favour for specific clients.”
Luqyaa made an instant impression on Petith when she arrived at the stud.
“It's funny the things you remember, but from the moment she turned up at Canning Downs, I loved her,” Petith said. “She was this beautiful bay Exceed And Excel mare, stakes performed and a beautiful type - she was everything that you would love to buy.
“From the moment she (Luqyaa) turned up at Canning Downs, I loved her.” - Rob Petith
“I remember being almost envious when I saw her. I thought, ‘wow, this is a proper mare, I'd love to be buying these sorts of mares for myself’.”
“So she came to us for the season, and I drove the truck to Eureka for her to visit Spirit Of Boom, and then she went back to Milburn Creek when she was 45 days positive, and that is where Liquor was born.”
Rob Petith | Image courtesy of Inglis
The one we wanted to have
Fast forward eight years, and the result of that mating was a late August-born foal eventually named Liquor after making $300,000 to the bid of Black Soil Bloodstock, John Foote Bloodstock, and Gollan Racing at the 2021 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
“Scott presented her as a yearling, so that gave us some confidence to reach out to him and talk about the type of filly she has been,” said Petith.
Debuting in the autumn of her 3-year-old year, she immediately notched two wins and continued to be a tough filly over her 24-start career, making her stakes breakthrough - and 10th victory - in the Listed Goldmarket Handicap.
She came close to adding another stakes performance to her resume as recently as April where she was fifth by just over a length in the Listed Ascot Handicap won by subsequent G1 Doomben 10,000 second Spicy Martini (Justify {USA}).
Liquor | Image courtesy of Trackside Photography
Liquor was an early entrant in the Gold Coast ring on Tuesday, consigned as Lot 412 by Eureka Stud who were in the 6-year-old’s ownership, and it was here that she came firmly back onto Petith’s radar. His boss, Silverdale owner Steve Grant, was just as keen.
“We had had a small involvement with her stakes-winning brother Tannhauser too through our mates at Newgate,” Petith said. “So everything about her really stacked up. She was an absolute glamour mare, she really stood out to us at the sale, and we knew we had to be strong to take her home.
“She (Liquor) was an absolute glamour mare, she really stood out to us at the sale.” - Rob Petith
“The end price was right up the high end of our valuation, but I still think that we came away with the one we really wanted to have.”
He added, “we were laughing about it a bit after the sale. We have a bit of a theme going with the mares - we now have Liquor, Moscatel, Sweet Sherry, and A Very Fine Red!”
Eliza Grant, Steve Grant, Rob Petith, and Grace Weston with Liquor | Image supplied
It was worth it to take home the type of mare that Petith had always wanted to purchase, ever since seeing Liquor’s dam.
“It can be so hard to get hold of these beautiful stakes-performing mares with quality pedigrees,” he said. “We went back after we bought her to look at her again, and you love going back and really feeling confident about the animal that you've been able to purchase. So we are all very excited to have Liquor in the cabinet.”
“We are all very excited to have Liquor in the cabinet.” - Rob Petith
The influence of a great mate
Holcombe has been instrumental in Petith’s career more than once. When Petith got his start in the industry at Woodlands Stud, Holcombe was the yearling manager, and it was he who tipped the scales in favour of Petith joining Silverdale.
“We have been great mates ever since working together at Woodlands,” said Petith. The friendship came in handy when Petith was presented with an exciting, if daunting, opportunity.
“When Steve approached me to come run Silverdale, I had been in Queensland for 12 years and I had managed Canning Downs for 10 of those years. The Barnes family had been very good to us, so I found it very difficult to even entertain the idea of leaving them.”
Scott Holcombe | Image courtesy of Millburn Creek
Petith initially was reluctant to explore the possibility, but with Holcombe’s encouragement, he took a job he now can’t believe he ever thought of turning down.
“If it hadn't been for Scott, knowing Steve and really believing that this was the right thing for me as well, I might have missed this incredible opportunity,” Petith said. “And it has been a great thing for me and my family. I say to people that next to marrying Lucy, my wife, the next best decision I've made was coming to work for Steve Grant.
“I say to people that next to marrying Lucy, my wife, the next best decision I've made was coming to work for Steve Grant.” - Rob Petith
“I've had a long friendship with Scott, he's been a mentor to me and I'm very thankful for him for many things, especially him convincing Steve to build a farm here because I might not be here.”
A little inspiration
In between the two milestones in Petith’s life, Holcombe and Milburn Creek owner John Muir provided the inspiration for Grant to develop his Southern Highlands property into the stud it has become.
“Steve has told the story many times that, without Johnny Muir and Scott Holcombe, he might not have ever built Silverdale,” Petith said. “It started with a chance encounter when they came to Silverdale one afternoon, which was just a little beef property at the time that Steve would visit on the weekends. We are only five kilometres from Milburn Creek as the crow flies and we have a lot of fertile land on this beautiful, undulating property.
“Steve had his horses mostly agisted at Milburn Creek at the time, and they looked around the place and said, ‘why on earth don’t you have your horses here?’.”
“They (Muir and Holcombe) looked around the place (Silverdale) and said, ‘why on earth don’t you have your horses here?’” - Rob Petith
The gears had begun to turn in Grant’s mind as to what sort of property he would want to construct for his own horses.
“It was from that conversation that Steve started to build Silverdale into what it is today,” Petith said. “That conversation happened in 2017, and when I arrived in 2020, we had one barn and a few shelters and paddocks, and since then we have built two yearling barns, an exercise facility, and a veterinary care facility. We have expanded the farm as well by about 120 acres.
Steve Grant and Rob Petith | Image courtesy of Silverdale Farm
“It's an impressive thing to not just develop the farm to the highest level, but then to also assemble a top quality group of mares as we have done now and to build a great team of people to look after those mares. Full credit to Steve, he's done an amazing job.”
“It's an impressive thing to not just develop the farm to the highest level, but then to also assemble a top quality group of mares as we have done now.” - Rob Petith
A fortunate position
Being in a position to buy these kinds of mares, and the youngstock to pinhook alongside them, is something that Petith feels very grateful to be part of.
“I’m in a very fortunate position now,” he said. “I work for great people and we go to the sales and we try very hard to buy special horses, and Steve gives me the ability to do that.
“There's some satisfaction in having worked with a mare (that) made me think, ‘wow, I'd love to be buying something like this’, and here I am a few years later where we are going to the market regularly to buy those types of mares.” - Rob Petith
“So there's some satisfaction in having worked with a mare that I loved and made me think, ‘wow, I'd love to be buying something like this’, and here I am a few years later where we are going to the market regularly to buy those types of mares. In 2020, we had 14 mares and maybe only a handful were commercial, and now there’s almost nothing on the farm that isn’t highly commercial.
“That takes extreme commitment, dedication, and investment to achieve that in the most competitive area of the market. But it just shows though in doing that and having that attention to detail, we've been fortunate to have some great successes so far.”
Autumn Glow | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
Some of the highlights either born or raised at Silverdale to date include G1 Golden Slipper Stakes winner Fireburn (Rebel Dane), high class juveniles Paradoxium (Extreme Choice) and Masvingo (Zoustar), and Autumn Glow (The Autumn Sun), a famously expensive pinhook who has paid off in spades.
“We went above budget to get her,” Petith admitted about the latter, who was a $600,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Weanling Sale purchase turned Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale topper when selling to Arrowfield Stud and Hermitage for $1.8 million. “We said beforehand that we could go to $500,000 and a bid. Well, we only bid once and it was $600,000.
“But we went back straight afterwards and had another look at her, and there was no buyer’s remorse. She was something really special. It was a massive thrill to then top the Easter sale with her, and then to watch her do what she's done so far.”
“We went back straight afterwards and had another look at her (Autumn Glow), and there was no buyer’s remorse.” - Rob Petith
Before her sale-topping moment at the following Easter, Autumn Glow had a star turn in Silverdale’s social media on April Fools Day, where the Silverdale staff claimed to perform reiki and hoofreading on her to ensure the best outcome at the sale.
“It was such a long video that people weren’t watching until the end, so I had several people call me and ask, ‘are you alright?’,” Petith recalled. “Autumn Glow was the horse featured in that.”
As for Liquor, no decision has been made yet for her maiden mating, but Petith likes the idea of sending her to I Am Invincible.
“We like to give these mares the best starts possible with using proven sires,” he said. “And it is nice to see the dam is being bred up as well, her Anamoe sold well this year and I believe she is in foal to Broadsiding.
“I actually got a message from John Warren after he found out that we bought Liquor, saying how pleased he was that it was us who got her.”
Sometimes it can be a long time until the wheel turns in your favour, but everyone is happy to see people like Petith and Grant succeed.
