Blandford Lodge gets services of top Aust. trainer

Press, 16 May 1985, Page 31

Blandford Lodge gets services of top Aust. trainer

By

NEVIN TOPP

Blandford Lodge, Ltd, the new Matamata-based thoroughbred stud, has made a coup by obtaining the services of Mr Tommy Smith, the top Australian racehorse trainer, as a director.

Although he has been sought by other companies for their boards, this is the first public company that Mr Smith has joined.

While in Matamata on Tuesday for the launching of the company’s prospectus, Mr Smith said he had decided to join Blandford Lodge’s board because it was a well-balanced one, taking in Austtralian and New Zealand interests.

The Matamata Racing Club was quick to seize on Mr Smith’s presence at its race meeting on Tuesday too — getting him to present the trophies for the main race, which was sponsored by the new float. Mr Smith already trains for Mr Brian Freyer, Blandford’s managing director and chief executive. With another director, Mr David O'Sullivan, who is one of New Zealand’s top trainers, he will train some company horses to prove the firm’s bloodlines at the racetrack.

Racing will be a small part of the company’s activities, which will be concentrated mainly on selling bloodstock at the premium end of the thoroughbred market and also stallion services. The Australian connection, through Messrs Freyer and Smith, is seen as important, because of the large proportion of New Zealand-bred winners on the racetracks across the Tasman in relation to the number of New Zealand-bred

horses racing in Australia. This attracts buyers to New Zealand.

Mr Freyer described the New Zealand thoroughbred industry as being like a sleeping giant just starting to awaken.

Three years ago stallion service fees for Sovereign Edition were between $3OOO and $4OOO. Now the fees being sought for top stallions were between $40,000 and $60,000. In addition to the stallion, Alibhai, and the service options obtained from another stallion, Imposing, Blandford would like to get a top stallion from overseas. As well as Australia, and some buying interest for proven racehorses from Britain and the United States, other markets with considerable potential include the Asian neighbours — Singapore and Hong Kong — plus South America, Mr Freyer said. The area was compared to the thoroughbred regions in Virginia and later Kentucky, in the United States, because of the closeness of the studs. Blandford Lodge is also situated on the socalled “golden mile,” a reference to the rich people as well as the rich earth near the Matamata racecourse.

Blandford Lodge is seen as providing good facilities for overseas buyers considering investing in bloodstock. It is among the 15 thoroughbred stud farms located within a small radius of Matamata, giving easy access for buyers.

The chairman, Sir James Fletcher, has had an engineer developing plans to refurbish and extend some buildings on the property ($300,000 has been allocated as shown in the prospectus).

Mr Freyer said facilities could be provided to allow overseas visitors who were seeking bloodstock to stay at the stud. The stud has been designed for the siring of horses, with a central feedout point. The costs of setting up a stud are considered equal to buying an existing one in this instance. For example, posting and fencing the property cost $lOO,OOO in 1971, but now one of the directors, Mr O’Sullivan, said the cost would be 500 per cent. The company’s aim is to breed yearlings from the top end of the market. Mr Smith suggested it would not be long before the first $1 million yearling was sold at the Trentham sales.

Mr Freyer said Blandford was looking at the high prices by getting the best bloodlines.

But it was the Red Anchors (a yearling sold for $ll,OOO in 1983 and now worth S3M), which meant that it was not only the Robert Sangsters who came to the sales, he said. “Blandford has set up a solid base and has plenty of cash.

“The industry is ready to take off, and Blandford will be set to take off with it,” he said.

As reported yesterday, the company will issue 15,022,000 50c shares at par to raise $7,511,000 to buy the 60.8 ha Blandford Lodge Stud, 2km from Matamata, plus bloodstock. In addition, 4,978,000 fully paid 50c ordinary shares will be issued to Freyer Bloodstock Company (NZ), Ltd, to buy selected bloodstock and to obtain the services of a stallion, Imposing.