Enjoying A Scenic Journey
The Age
Friday December 5, 2008
AS WITH most industry participants involved with a serious horse, Western Australia's Durham Lodge Stud was looking forward to big-race glory over the spring carnival.
The stud's hopes were raised after one of its graduates, Scenic Blast, won impressively first-up at Caulfield in mid-August.The 2007 Caulfield Guineas runner-up (behind Weekend Hussler) looked to have a lucrative spring carnival assured, but a couple of weeks later, after a poor effort in the Memsie Stakes, his carnival was over due to a throat problem.After hoping the son of its former stallion Scenic could provide it with its first group1 winner, the Smith family, who run Durham Lodge Stud, were naturally disappointed."I really thought he was in for a big spring and the way horses fell by the wayside, he could have been a real chance in races like the Cox Plate, but that's the nature of the business," said Durham Lodge general manager Jeremy Smith.The mood at Durham Lodge picked up immeasurably, however, on the first Tuesday in November when Viewed, a son of Scenic, won the Melbourne Cup. "It was unbelievable, just unbelievable," said Smith of the Cup win.Durham Lodge moved to its present site in 1996 and took something of a gamble two years later by buying Scenic after he had stood at several studs in the eastern states."He was an underestimated stallion but never in a million years did we think he would turn out as he did," Smith said.Durham Lodge's joy did not end on Melbourne Cup day because two weeks ago, Gilded Venom, a restricted-class galloper at the start of this campaign, gave the Smiths their first group 1 success, winning the Railway Stakes.The Gilded Venom story goes back to the 2001 Magic Millions yearling sale in Adelaide, where Smith's father David took a gamble, spending $4000 on a filly by an out-of-favour sire, and two years later followed up by buying the filly's dam, Daughter's Charm.The $4000 filly, later named Classy Charmer, from the fourth crop of Vice Regent stallion Regal Classic, had a good deal of ability and belied her sale price by winning five races, including two at Belmont Park."She was quite a nice type of horse but I think people were just put off by her sire," Jeremy Smith said.Two years later, at a sale in Melbourne, Durham Lodge was looking for mares to send to Scenic and bought seven.One of the cheapest, at $12,000, was Classy Charmer's dam Daughter's Charm, who was in foal to Golden Snake. A daughter of Delgado, Daughter's Charm was a multiple winner in Adelaide and, from a WA point of view, had the added bonus of being placed in the group 1 WA Oaks.Smith says Classy Charmer was not held back on purpose, but she won a barrier trial, and then her first start the month after Daughter's Charm was bought.Given the subsequent performances of Gilded Venom and Scenic Blast, another of Daughter's Charm's progeny, the purchases of Daughter's Charm and Classy Charmer would seem to be gambles that paid off with interest - but there has been a downside.The year after producing Scenic Blast, Daughter's Charm had a difficult birth and lost her foal and she died two years later, without producing another foal.In her first season at stud, Classy Charmer produced a colt by one of Durham Lodge's resident sires, Blackfriars, but has slipped in two subsequent seasons.Scenic died, aged 17, in early 2005, but by that stage his purchase price had been returned many times over."Getting a stallion like him (Scenic) was just like finding a goldmine for us. He was a freak and we were just lucky that he had a lull just before we bought him but straight afterwards took off again," Smith said.This season, Durham Lodge has secured Scenic's best-performed son, Universal Prince, who numbers the AJC Australian Derby among his four group 1 wins.He was only lightly used over five seasons in NSW, serving a little more than 300 mares, but Smith is hopeful that, given the deeds of his sire in WA, he will prove more popular with local breeders at a fee of $8800."A lot of our mares clicked really well with Scenic so we're hoping lightning will strike twice," he said.Classy Charmer is in foal to Universal Prince and Smith is hopeful she will hold on to the pregnancy and deliver a filly from whom Durham Lodge can breed on.The stud also has a Grand Lodge half-sister to Classy Charmer named Pure Instinct, who is also in foal to Universal Prince.Tomorrow, Gilded Venom will try to make it back-to-back group1 wins in the Kingston Town Classic at Ascot but he is not the only horse advertising the virtues of Durham Lodge at present.Last Saturday at Ascot, Exquisite Timing, a filly by Blackfriars and bred by Durham Lodge, scored her first black-type win in the Aquanita Stakes."He (Blackfriars) keeps going from strength to strength and hopefully with the better-quality mares he has got since he started to prove himself, he could be an exciting horse," Smith said.
© 2008 The Age
