Interest ramps up in Spendthrift Farm as all-encompassing deal sought to sell property and bloodstock
Spendthrift Farm general manager Ned Toffey has told ANZ Bloodstock News that initial conversations have been held over an all-encompassing deal to sell the 600-acre property and large bloodstock portfolio, which includes four colonial stallions on their roster.
After last week’s bombshell decision from the US operation to leave the Australian industry after five years running their stud in Victoria, the wheels have been put in motion on seeking a buyer to take over the heavily-invested-in operation.
“Ideally what we are looking for is for the right buyer to come in and buy the farm, the equipment, the bloodstock and just lock, stock and barrel,” Toffey said on Friday. “That’s the scenario that we’re hoping for. That may or may not materialise, but that’s what we’d like to see.
“We’re motivated to move it but we’re certainly not going to just give it away. There’s definitely been some interest and I think people probably need to get down and see the place once we get a little further down the process.
Spendthrift’s site in Romsey is the former home of Yallambee Stud and was acquired in 2015 for an undisclosed sum by founder and former owner, the late B. Wayne Hughes, who died in August last year, with significant investment having been ploughed into the property, which now stands at 600 acres.
“It was always a place that had a very good reputation in terms of raising runners but, much like Spendthrift here in the States, it had gotten to the point where it needed some renovations,” Toffey said.
“Our crew down there did a very good job with all of that and it’s a facility now that anybody could be proud of. It’s always been a very good functional facility and it’s probably a little bit more aesthetically pleasing now.”
Furthermore, Spendthrift have invested heavily in bloodstock in Australia, not least in the yearling market, the method in which they acquired rostered stallions Swear (Redoute’s Choice), Overshare (I Am Invincible) and Dirty Work (Written Tycoon), while Gold Standard (Sebring), who secured his first winner yesterday courtesy of Sheeza Belter at Ascot, also takes his place at the farm.
Overshare, who has his first two-year-olds hitting the race track this season and is already responsible for the unbeaten Annabel Neasham-trained filly Lady Laguna, had covered 483 mares to the conclusion of the 2020 season at an advertised $11,000 (inc GST), while Group 2 winner and Group 1 placegetter Dirty Work covered his first book in spring at a fee of $22,000 (inc GST).
Since 2015, Spendthrift has ramped up its broodmare band to around 50, expending upwards of $7.25 million at broodmare sales in that period, including on Listed winner Madeenaty (Exceed And Excel) for $800,000 and Group 3 winner Baccarat Baby (Casino Prince) at this year’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
Meanwhile, yearling purchases total in excess of $20 million in the same period, which, in addition to three of their stallions, have yielded high class runners currently active including three-year-old Listed-winning filly Mac ‘n’ Cheese (Sebring), a half-sister to Exceedance (Exceed And Excel).
Toffey reaffirmed a commitment that the operation’s valuable bloodstock commodities would form part of any such deal agreed.
“I think it’s important that for any prospective buyer that we include the most valuable pieces of the bloodstock. No final decisions have been made, but the intent would be that anything that is Spendthrift owned would be part of the deal,” he said.
The initial premise for Spendthrift, who have 25 stallions rostered in the US, for their involvement in the Australian industry was to shuttle several of their US-based stallions to the southern hemisphere, and Toffey said the commercial realities saw the venture as an unviable prospect to continue with.
That decision comes despite two-season shuttlers Vino Rosso (Curlin) and Omaha Beach (War Front) having each covered in excess of 100 mares in their first season on Australian soil in 2020 at fees of $13,750 (inc GST) and $22,000 (inc GST), before returning last year.
“A big part of the operation was about shuttling stallions and that was the plan when we got in,” Toffey said.
“It just didn’t materialise as well as we had hoped. In terms of acceptance, in terms of the number of stallions. I think in the first instance we felt that a much larger percentage of our roster would be able to shuttle and it ended up being a fairly small number each year that we felt were able to shuttle.
“It wasn’t so much the numbers (of mares covered), but more the deals we had to make to get to the numbers, is what I would probably summarise it as.”