Eliza Park buys on famous road

Eliza Park Stud has added a fifth property to its Victorian portfolio by purchasing the old Newlands/Wadham Park farm on the famous Northwood Road, Seymour.

Eliza Park Northwood shares a boundary with the historic Darley-owned property, Northwood Park. Also on Northwood Road is Swettenham Stud, as well as Barrie and Midge Griffiths’ Northwood Pastoral (once part of Northwood Park) and Yarran Thoroughbreds, owned by the Griffiths’s daughter Robyn and her husband Andrew Hine.

Eliza Park’s new farm will be a dedicated foaling down and walk-in broodmare property servicing its clients wishing to use stallions in the north-east region. It’s an interesting concept for a stud that stands its own strong stallion line-up, including Victoria’s leading sire Bel Esprit, at Kerrie, near Romsey, to be servicing rival studs, but Eliza Park’s owner Lee Fleming has always taken an overall business approach to running his Victorian operation.

It’s akin to Arrowfield Stud buying a farm near Coolmore Stud for its clients to service the Coolmore stallion roster.

Well done to Fleming for the foresight and business acumen to look beyond rivalries for the good of his vast client base. He also has bought one of the best properties in Victoria.

The farm was initially developed by Walter Altieri who modelled it on a traditional Kentucky farm with its big barns and imposing spires. Altieri closed down his operation, where the stallion Kempinsky first stood, and sold it to Wadham Park, who used it as a pre-training centre until the end of 2010.

It was reported earlier this year that Wadham Park had sold the farm to Bendigo businessman/breeder Jim Anderson, but there is no mention of Anderson in today’s media release from Eliza Park, so at this stage I don’t know what, why or how the property finished up in the hands of Fleming. That’s another story.

The following is Eliza Park’s media release:

ELIZA PARK HEADS NORTH(WOOD)

The continued expansion of Eliza Park took another leap forward with the today’s announcement that the stud had added a fifth Victorian property to its portfolio.

The latest acquisition – a dedicated foaling down facility and walk in farm – is based in Northwood Road, Seymour and was formerly known as Newlands Thoroughbreds/Wadham Park.

The new farm will now be known as Eliza Park Northwood and encompasses 470 acres of prime North Eastern Victoria real estate and boasts world class facilities.

“We’re very excited at the opportunity to shift our foaling unit to Eliza Park Northwood as we again expect to foal down some 250 of our clients mares this spring,” Eliza Park CEO Cameron Croucher enthused. “The facilities are ideal and there will be little to no disruption in making the transition.

“Eliza Park Northwood’s close proximity to all the major stud farms will also allow us to walk on clients mares on their behalf and, naturally, we’ll be using our fleet to transport mares to the Kerrie property as well.”

Eliza Park Kerrie will continue to be the hub for stallions, nominations, marketing, administration and a flourishing racing division, while the adjacent property – Eliza Park Nardoo – houses the dry mares and spelling racehorses.

Eliza Park also has two other properties in the North East – Eliza Park Nagambie, dedicated to rearing young horses, and Eliza Park Smithfield, a purpose built farm to house yearlings and weanlings for the operation’s burgeoning sales arm.

“Eliza Park Northwood is an outstanding farm with much of the infrastructure already in place,” Croucher points out. “The manner and speed at which each facet of the organisation is growing, necessitated the move.

“It’s amazing to think that just on a decade ago our stallions covered just 187 mares … 70 of them owned by Eliza Park’s principal, Lee Fleming.

“Last year, our stallions covered 1100 mares.

“The important thing to remember is that Eliza Park’s expansion is purely client driven. It’s paramount that we offer clients a professional and dedicated service for all thoroughbred requirements: adding this property to our portfolio allows specialist facilities for each component of the thoroughbred breeding business.”

Photo: the impressive stable complex at what is now Eliza Park Northwood.