Leneva makes move into stallions by acquiring Seymour Park
Vandersluys takes over lease of Aquis Victoria property while maintaining pre-training facility
Racing can be an ego-driven industry which attracts those who like to be front and centre but Luke Vandersluys, the man behind Victoria’s Leneva Park, is not one of those and so it again proved when the spelling and pre-training operation announced it had also taken on the lease of Seymour Park.
On Wednesday, Vandersluys confirmed that Leneva Park would expand by taking on Darren Thomas’ Seymour property, which Aquis Farm had leased for the past two years as its base in Victoria, to stand stallions and house its growing broodmare band, foals and yearlings.
Lean Mean Machine (Zoustar), Aquis’ foundation Victorian stallion, and Royal Meeting (Invincible Spirit) will both remain at the property, which will be renamed Leneva Park Seymour.
Vandersluys, who runs Wodonga-based business CountryWide Asphalt, is principal owner of Leneva Park and is making a big impression in his short time of large-scale investment in the thoroughbred industry.
The 30-year-old entrepreneur prefers not to be the face of his burgeoning thoroughbred empire, instead leaving those hands-on in the business to do the talking.
That includes Mick Sharkie, a racing media pundit turned bloodstock consultant who in June was lured to Leneva Park after a stint with syndicator Brad Spicer.
Sharkie, the bloodstock adviser for the expanding Longwood-based operation, this week revealed that Vandersluys had harboured plans to diversify into broodmares and stallions while continuing the successful pre-training and spelling business.
Aquis Farm’s dramatic restructure, as reported by ANZ Bloodstock News last month, has hastily brought forward Vandersluys and Leneva’s plans to become involved in the, at times, volatile ‘stallion game’.
“When I started here in June, Luke really wanted to put some time into developing a good little group of broodmares that we could take the progeny of to the sales and eventually, down the track, we might be in the position to buy stallion shares and have some good core mares that we could utilise with those noms,” Sharkie told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“When Aquis was restructuring and we got wind that their might be an opportunity at Seymour Park, we changed that strategy a little bit and thought maybe this was an opportunity to accelerate things, which is something that Luke’s never afraid to do in his business away from racing, and it was well worth taking the punt.
“We’re very lucky that guys like Mark Pilkington and Darren Thomas, who own Seymour Park and have big stakes in these stallions, have the confidence in our team and our business and have chosen to give a young business a go rather than going with someone who is established.”
A two-year-old Group 1 winner in France, Royal Meeting and dual Group 2 winner Lean Mean Machine will provide Leneva Park with a strong base to build its client base, while Brian Byrnes will continue managing the property as he has for the past two years.
Aquis Farm will also retain its shareholding in both stallions.
“We could have gone and got another property to expand the breeding, particularly the broodmares, but having those two stallions there as going concerns, if you like, with good numbers behind them and Lean Mean Machine’s foals look particularly nice, I think that was the sealer for Luke and his family,” Sharkie said.
“He thought, we’re already halfway there with those two stallions and if we can add to it along the journey and recruit some more, it’s not like you’re starting from scratch. He’s got kind of a head start.”
Sharkie added: “It is a gamble, but we are not going to die wondering and we are pretty confident that we have got a good structure and a good strategy to make a go of it.
“We’re not trying to be a Newgate or anything like that straight off the bat. We understand that there’s a bit of a resurgence in Victorian breeding and we want to be a part of that.
“We’ve bought into Strasbourg and we have bought into I Am Immortal. We want to work with other Victorian farms and we think this is a good opportunity for them to work with us, too.”
The relationship between Thomas, Pilkington and Leneva Park is likely to play an important role in the growth of the Levena Park Seymour operation.
Thomas’ Seymour Bloodstock, managed by Pilkington, has extensive racing and breeding interests including in Merchant Navy (Fastnet Rock) (Coolmore) and the Matthew Smith-trained three-time Group 1-winning entire Fierce Impact (Deep Impact).
Fierce Impact, who ran sixth in the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) in October, is back in training at Warwick Farm.
“A horse like Fierce Impact, if we could get hold of him, I think that would be a fantastic help and from there we will see how it plays out,” he said.
“If we can get some good numbers again to Royal Meeting in his second year and Lean Mean Machine in his third year, which is always tough, if we can get out there and on the front foot, do some marketing and hit the phones and get some nominations to them, then hopefully there’s some owners out there and breeders who have got stallion prospects who want them to stay in Victoria … and we can play a role in that.”
While Lean Mean Machine and Royal Meeting’s home is assured, the future of fellow 2020 Aquis Victoria resident sire Needs Further (Encosta De Lago), who relocated from Armidale Stud in Tasmania last year, is less certain, although Sharkie indicated that Leneva Park would be keen to see him remain on the stallion roster in 2021.
Armidale Stud’s David Whishaw and his family owns 50 per cent of Needs Further, the sire of Group 1 winner Mystic Journey and Gordon Richards’ talented sprinter Bold Star, and he faced a tough decision when his fellow shareholders agreed to send him to the mainland last year.
Whishaw is also yet to discuss Needs Further’s future with fellow shareholders but he makes no secret of his desire to see him return to Tasmania.
“We have got to catch up with David and see what he wants to do. He got decent numbers (of mares) and we certainly have an appetite to stand him if David (and the other shareholders) wanted to leave him in Victoria but we have got to have that conversation with him first,” Sharkie said.
“We will let the dust settle over the New Year period first and see what he wants to do.”
Meanwhile, Vandersluys purchased Rockmount at Longwood, near Euroa, in early 2019 and renamed it Leneva Park, which has quickly established itself as a premium pre-training and spelling facility used by a number of leading trainers.
The pre-training arm of the business is overseen by Luke’s sister Sarah Beaumont, an elite level equestrian, while Leneva Park has been investing in its broodmare band and was active as last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale.
Despite the acquisition of Seymour Park, Sharkie said there was no rush to dramatically increase broodmare numbers despite taking on two stallions, with Leneva Park likely to continue buying two to three quality broodmares each year, while also attempting to acquire a small number of yearling fillies to race and subsequently breed with.
“Luke is not your typical 30-year-old bloke and most people fall over when they look at what he’s been able to do given his age, but he’s got an old head on his shoulders. He’s a country lad who was well taught by his grandfather in regards to business and he doesn’t make snap decisions,” Sharkie continued.
“He thinks them through, takes them along slowly and in any business decision that he makes, it’s got to work out on the bottom line. We spent a lot of time on this acquisition with Darren Thomas and Mark Pilkington and our own analysis with the lay of the land and we saw enough potential to go ahead and make a go of it and now the onus is on us to go and make the numbers work.”