Swettenham’s Cup Runneth Over

There’s been plenty of hand-wringing in Australia in recent times over the lack of homegrown staying prospects, with expensively purchased European imports playing an increasingly dominant role in the country’s cup races.

This year’s G1 Melbourne Cup winner Prince Of Penzance (NZ) (Pentire {GB}) was a welcome return to a more familiar scene. Though imported across the Tasman from Australia’s near-neighbor New Zealand–a more traditional source of staying blood–the 6-year-old was at least locally trained.

For Adam Sangster, the dream is to see more vibrant support for middle-distance stallions from Australian breeders and through his roster at Swettenham Stud he has set about facilitating this objective. Under its former name of Collingrove Stud, Swettenham has already been home to a Melbourne Cup hero in Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum’s 1994 winner Jeune (GB) (Kalaglow {GB}) and one of the highlights of the current line-up is Dynaformer’s imposing son Americain, who lifted the Cup in 2010.

Purchased by Gerry Ryan from his breeders Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, Americain won a total of four group races in Australia to add to his French brace and has split his nascent stud career between Swettenham, which is close to Ryan’s Limerick Lane farm near Nagambie, Calumet Farm in Kentucky and the Irish National Stud.

Encouragingly, Australian breeders have welcomed him with open arms.

“We were very lucky to have Gerry Ryan just down the road from us,” says the British-born Sangster who is now an Australian citizen, having lived in the country since 1991. “We were told we’d get 50 to 60 mares to the horse but we got 158 in his first season. They are now yearlings and he’s continued to be well supported.”

He continues, “The Australian dollar was much stronger a few years ago than it is now and it seems that the appeal for Australians to buy the European-raced horse is maybe changing its jurisdiction. The lure of the Cup must be taken into account–we perhaps didn’t fully appreciate that when Americain first came here. People were in awe of him and the owner-breeder came to him big time.”

Americain has been joined at Swettenham by another of Ryan’s star performers, Puissance De Lune (Ire), a son of Darley star Shamardal. Like Americain, Puissance De Lune started his racing career in France before being bought to compete in Australia under the care of this year’s Cup-winning trainer, Darren Weir. Currently in his first season at the farm, the dual Group 2 winner proved versatile on the track, winning at various distances between seven and 13 furlongs, and he too is being kept busy in the covering shed.

“We call him our ‘look and book’ stallion,” said Sangster as the strapping grey was shown to breeders during Swettenham’s annual stallion parade on the eve of the Melbourne Cup.

It’s not just with Gerry Ryan that Swettenham has developed a working partnership. Newsells Park Stud’s Equiano (Fr) (Acclamation {GB}) offers a speedier element to the stallion roster, as does the G1 TJ Smith S. winner Master Of Design (Aus) (Redoute’s Choice {Aus}), whose $2.1 million yearling price tag is testament to the fact that he has the looks and swagger to match his pedigree and race record.

Significantly, Swettenham also provides a southern hemisphere base for two of Al Shaqab’s young stallions, each emanating from popular sirelines in Australia. Toronado (Ire) is a son of the late High Chaparral (Ire), whose achievements at stud were arguably greater in Australasia than in Europe, while The Wow Signal (Ire) did a superb job in advertising the merits of his subfertile sire Starspangledbanner (Aus) when winning the G1 Darley Prix Morny and G2 Coventry S. The link with Sheikh Joaan Al Thani’s operation extends to the Qatari flag sharing a pole on Swettenham’s driveway with the Australian flag.

“The aim is to have a blend of bloodlines which fit all owners’ pockets, and we have a fairly significant broodmare band ourselves with which to support the stallions,” explained Sangster. “We have a great relationship with Julian Dollar at Newsells Park and it’s an honor to be associated with Al Shaqab. That came about really through John Warren, who recognized that Victoria was a great place to stand Toronado. Then Benoit Jeffroy of Haras de Bouquetot decided to send The Wow Signal. Victoria didn’t have a son of High Chaparral, who was taken far too early, so it’s great to have Toronado here, and physically he’s really the right horse to bring down–he has such terrific muscle definition.”

During the Northern Hemisphere breeding season, Toronado stands at The National Stud in Newmarket, where Sangster’s brother Ben is Chairman.

“Obviously I have the close link through Ben which works very well and I try to engage with the Qatari ambassadors in Australia,” says Sangster, who is on the board of Australian breeding’s promotional arm Aushorse and Thoroughbred Breeders Australia, as well as the committee of Thoroughbred Breeders Victoria.

These are roles which he has earned through his 21-year association with Swettenham Stud, which he bought from his family following the death of his father Robert in 2004.

“Dad had a big operation in South Australia and I worked there until he bought this place in 1994. We’d already established a good link with the Hayes family with the purchase of Rory’s Jester but we could only buy him if we purchased the farm.”

The establishment of the lucrative Victorian breeders’ premium scheme VOBIS was a spur for Robert Sangster and Colin Hayes to invest in the farm on the banks of the Goulburn River in the north-east of the state where Thoroughbred breeders vie for space with wine growers.

“I kept on coming down to Australia through our operations here and came to love the place,” reflects Sangster. “My brother Ben had taken on Manton in England and a Chinese gentleman said to me, ‘Adam, two tigers can’t rule one mountain’, so I came to Australia and dad very much stood behind the investments he had down here with other people. In 1994, the original VOBIS scheme came out and we were advised to purchase a property north of the Great Dividing Range and next to a river. Dad added that it also had to be next to a vineyard–so this was the perfect place!”

He adds, “I think a lot of the Australians looked at me and thought, ‘Here’s this whippersnapper, he’s Robert Sangster’s son, is he serious about this business?’ Many good people have helped me through and stood behind me but I hope I have got to the position now where people think I have taken it seriously and I’m here to stay.”

As well as the stallions, Swettenham is also home to around 120 mares, a fifth of which belong to the farm and the rest made up of permanent boarders.

Sangster continued, “We brought Swettenham into the light through Collingrove and in those days we had 75 to 80 broodmares and would sell at all the major sales. We did that until the dispersal in 2008. We had a major reduction of all the Sangster family horses and we were very lucky to hit the market when we did but I couldn’t really afford to buy any of our mares. Since then I’ve been building up our broodmare band as well as our team here at Swettenham. And with that, now have come the stallions.”

Reflecting reward for effort, along with the increasingly global nature of the racing and breeding industry, the Swettenham Stud stallion barn boasts an appealing young line-up of sires on the 900-acre property nestled between the Mitchelton and Tahbilk wineries. There will doubtless be plenty of cause to raise a glass to toast their success in seasons to come.