The wave of success

Let me be a little self-indulgent. When Encosta De Lago retired to stud in 1997, I was in the early stages of a bloodstock agency business after leaving trainer Lee Freedman’s employ as stable manager.

Freedman trained Encosta De Lago and I was keen to be involved when the son of Fairy King went to stud in 1997. I took six bookings per season in a two-year deal with Blue Gum Farm and on-sold the service fees for a nice discount for the broodmare owners and “an earn” for myself.

Most of resultant foals from the matings were sold as yearlings, either privately or through the sale ring, and most achieved a good return on investment, turning the about $8000 outlay into an average sale price of around $30,000. Of course, these days few of us can afford to go to Encosta De Lago now that he stands at Coolmore Stud at a fee of $220,000 (inc. GST).

One of the mares sent to Encosta De Lago was the Crested Wave mare, Light Wave (NZ), owned by a close friend from Adelaide, Terry Dickson, who was just starting to get involved in the breeding industry.

He had bought Light Wave on my recommendation for only $5000. The mare was trained by Lee Freedman for Tasmanian neuro-surgeon Dr. Stan Siejka, who had bought her dam, Marimekko (IRE), in foal with Light Wave from Ra Ora Stud in New Zealand. Light Wave’s third dam was the champion 1965 Melbourne Cup winner Light Fingers (ch m 1961, Le Filou (FR)-Cuddlesome, by Red Mars (GB)) – Light Fingers’ daughter Nimble Fingers (1973, by Alcimedes (GB)) was sent to Ireland where she produced Marimekko to champion sire Habitat (USA). Light Fingers is pictured beating Ziema in the Cup.

Freedman liked Light Wave, who showed natural ability on the track, but took a week to get over any gallop. She was a frail, lightly-framed mare who didn’t take to city life too well. Freedman sent her back to Siejka in Tasmania where he expected her to win races. Unfortunately, wet tracks hindered her training and Siejka retired her after a two placings at Launceston and Hobart from a handful of starts.

When Siejka decided to sell the mare, I moved on behalf of Dickson, as I thought she was a mare that might give him some fun as he learned more about the thoroughbred breeding caper.

Light Wave’s first foal was by Umatilla (by Miswaki (USA)), a big, strong, heavy-boned stallion that was a contrast to the mare and a good match. Life as a broodmare appealed to Light Wave as she blossomed into a beautiful mare – her first foal was an attractive, athletic colt, a nice first foal.

The Umatilla colt was a little too immature for a yearling sale, but we sold him out of the paddock to Terry Henderson’s OTI Racing group, who raced him as Lightuma (under the care of Peter Hayes and Tony McEvoy at Lindsay Park). Lightuma went on to win the 2002 Benalla Cup (2300m) in record time and he was bolting in front on the turn in the 2002 Geelong Cup, won by Media Puzzle, when he broke down. He may not have beaten Media Puzzle, who went on to win the Melbourne Cup, but he certainly would have finished second, and he would have been competitive in the Cup at Flemington.

Light Wave missed to Encosta De Lago in 1998, but produced a lovely brown filly by him in 2000. Henderson had no hesitation on buying her from the paddock on the strength of the promise shown by Lightuma.

The filly, named Café Del Mar debuted at Murray Bridge in January 2003 and charged home from last to win comprehensively over 1400m. Trainer Tony McEvoy believed the filly was to be the stable’s South Australian Oaks contender that year. But her career was cut short at her next start at Victoria Park, when, in a winning position on turn, she was galloped on by another runner. The injuries were so severe that she was retired to stud.

I was reminded of this story when Café Del Mar produced her first winner at Geelong last week. Sunset Café, trained by Leon Corstens, improved on his first start placing to win impressively over 1418m – there are more wins in store for this 3YO son of Bianconi (by Danzig (USA)) with the family link to Bart Cummings’ first Melbourne Cup winner.

Dickson continued to do well out of Light Wave – five of her six foals have won races – before he sold her in 2007. The old mare, now 19, has a 2YO filly by Untouchable (by Danehill (USA)) and she was covered by Southern Halo (USA) in 2009.