New industry investors buy Rushton Park
Johnsons land quick sale as Scott-Smith and Kerr decide to make leap into thoroughbreds
Victoria’s Rushton Park has been sold and the new owners are set to ramp up their involvement in racing and breeding by taking over the reputable thoroughbred establishment in the heart of the state’s Goulburn Valley.
David and Kayley Johnson placed their property near Murchison on the market about three months ago, leading to strong interest from various parties involved in the thoroughbred industry, but it was relative newcomers Frank Kerr and his partner Emily Scott-Smith who produced the successful offer.
Accomplished equestrian Scott-Smith, 40, grew up on a beef cattle and Shetland stud while helping at her family’s indoor equestrian centre prior to expanding her horsemanship skills by working for horse breaker and trainer Frank Saunders educating quarter horses and thoroughbreds.
In more recent times, Kerr and Scott-Smith have operated an agistment farm in Gippsland, accommodating up to 70 pleasure horses, while concurrently establishing a successful plastering business, which they recently sold, enabling the pair to seek out their next opportunity of an equine variety.
Whetting their appetite for thoroughbred racing and breeding in recent years, the couple also has a small band of six broodmares with two yearlings to be offered at next year’s Inglis Premier Yearling Sale through the Noorilim Park draft, while other homebreds are about to go into work with young Mornington trainer Dylan Dunn.
While it wasn’t “100 per cent intentional” to branch out into a large-scale thoroughbred stud, Scott-Smith didn’t want to let go of such a unique opportunity that the Rushton Park farm and business offered.
“We like to be busy and we feel like we’re already doing it on a small scale between our cattle and our own thoroughbreds, so this was the next step,” Scott-Smith told ANZ Bloodstock News this week.
“We had been casually looking, to be honest, and the last place that we sold we were in Nar Nar Goon North. We had it on the market for a little while, it was a very niche property, and then all of a sudden it sold and we had nowhere to go.
“We baulked and panicked and bought something and it wasn’t necessarily what we had wanted to buy, so in the back of our minds, we were still looking half-heartedly, I guess you could say.
“It was either now or we weren’t going to do it because otherwise we would have bought another business or started another business down here and then we would have been tied down for another five to ten years, then we probably wouldn’t have done it as Frank would be 60 and I’d be 50.
“I guess we both wanted a bit of a change and didn’t want to regret it.”
Scott-Smith is aware of the daunting task of taking on a commercial thoroughbred operation, with the initial foray to focus on broodmare agistment and foaling down before perhaps one day putting the Rushton name back on the vendors’ list at yearling, weanling and broodmare sales.
“David and Kayley have been amazing and have offered pretty much all the support they can and they will point us in the direction of staff and contacts of suppliers up that way,” she said.
“We are excited and we can’t wait to start.”
The new owners are set to take over at the end of April after contracts were exchanged in a sale negotiated by Magic Millions and Donovan & Co.
The 309-acre Rushton Park property, set across two titles, has a main barn, vet facilities and a foaling hub, with CCTV throughout, as well as a double fencing and laneway system, with 56 paddocks.
The two houses include a main three-bedroom, two-bathroom homestead, which has recently been fully renovated, and a second country style homestead, built in 2015.
There is also significant infrastructure, such as machinery, hay sheds and workshops, staff accommodation and silos. The property has 100 acres of flood irrigation and an exceptional watering system.
Importantly, Rushton’s new owners will be retaining key staff while the Johnsons will remain a shoulder to lean on for advice in the early stages of Scott-Smith and Kerr’s thoroughbred venture.
“The farm is well-known, we’ve had a lot of winners and a lot of good horses come off the place now, so hopefully that can help [the continuation of the business],” David Johnson said.
“Kayley and I have said that we’ll be available if they want to jump on the phone if they’ve got some questions. We’re quite happy to have stuff bounced off us.
“Like anything, I know how hard it was when we started off 15 or 16 years ago. It would have been fantastic for us to have someone to bounce ideas off, have a chat and tell us to do this or not do that – so if we can help out in any way, shape or form, we’re only too pleased to do so.
“They both seem very switched on and I don’t think it’ll take them long to pick it up.”
Thoroughbred Breeders Victoria president James O’Brien welcomed the new participants to the state’s thoroughbred sector.
“David and Kayley did a fantastic job, it’s certainly a great farm and it’s exciting to have new people wanting to become heavily involved in the Victorian breeding industry,” O’Brien said.
“Victoria’s a great place to breed and TBV is here to be supportive of all our members and industry investors.
“We wish them all the success in their new endeavours as it’s a great industry to be involved in.”
The Johnsons, who purchased the property in 2008 after relocating from Western Australia, have built the Rushton Park business up from scratch.
With their son Patrick, who is now eight, they have decided to take a break from the relentless seven-day-a-week commitment of operating a horse stud to do some travelling before the likely return to the thoroughbred business.
Rushton Park will have a draft at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale in March and they will also sell some weanlings in 2024 before embarking on a sabbatical.
“Honestly, at the moment, apart from putting a deposit on a caravan a couple of weeks ago we haven’t decided anything,” David Johnson said.
“We’ve still got our little block over at Violet Town, which will be our home base for now. We’ll put a storage shed on and keep our stuff in there, then we’ll do a bit of travelling, see a bit of the country.
“I don’t know whether we’ll come back into it at the size we have been at, but it’s pretty much all we’ve done the past 20-odd years and we don’t know a lot else, so we’ll work it out and we’ll be back at some stage.”
Rushton Park’s graduate honour roll includes Group 2 winners Boogie Dancer (Sooboog) and Victoria Quay (Dundeel), stakes winners Quang Tri (Shalaa), Mnementh (Eurozone) and Mystery Love (Eurozone) and a host of stakes performers, last season’s Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) runner-up Bases Loaded (Deep Field) among them.