All change at Scenic Lodge
Leading Western Australian farm set to conduct bumper dispersal sale as founder Smith retires
A bumper selection of 80 thoroughbreds, from broodmares to yearlings and foals, will go under the hammer when West Australian breeding institution Scenic Lodge conducts a huge unreserved dispersal sale next month.
The famed stud north of Perth – which claimed the state’s sires’ title for 21 years running through titular stallion Scenic (Sadler’s Wells) and then Blackfriars (Danehill) – is about to embark on an era of change with the retirement of David Smith, its 87-year-old founder.
Smith’s son Jeremy, who’s managed the stud since its founding in 1996, and his wife Sarah will take over ownership of the operation on March 1.
David Smith will put up 30 broodmares and 25 of their foals, along with ten yearlings, in the early Inglis online sale next month. Around 17 yearlings will also be sold at the Magic Millions Perth sale on February 22-23.
Among the leading broodmares to be offered are three in-foal to Scenic Lodge’s sole stallion Universal Ruler (Scenic): Star In The East (Secret Savings), a half sister to six-time Group 1 winner Black Heart Bart (Blackfriars); Fast As The Wind (Blackfriars), a sister to Group 1 winner Come Play With Me; and Diamond Card (Blackfriars), a half-sister to stakes-winning racemare and black–type producer Karuta Queen (Not A Single Doubt).
Foals for sale include a sister to three-time stakes victor Gemma’s Son (Snippetson), winner of both Perth’s Magic Millions WA 2YO Classic (RL,1200m) and Magic Millions WA 3YO Trophy (RL, 1200m), plus half-sisters to the triple stakes-winning Tell Em We’re Comin (Blackfriars) and South Australian Derby (G1, 2500m) runner-up Yaphet (Blackfriars).
Yearlings include a half-sister by Universal Ruler to West Australian Derby (Gr 2, 2400m) winner Mystic Prince (Reset), and a half-sister by War Chant (Danzig) to the stakes-placed triple city winner Malkar Pindari (Gingerbread Man).
“There’s a good variety of stock on offer,” Jeremy Smith said. “Dad’s got a quality line-up of stakes-winning and stakes-producing mares he’s built over time.
“The majority of them are in-foal to Universal Ruler, while others are in foal to other stallions including Aysar and Safeguard.
“The foals are mainly by our two stallions Universal Ruler and [the late] Snippetson, but there’s also foals by Smart Missile, Rich Enuff, Rebel Dane, Awesome Rock and Dash For Cash.
“There’s no reserves and there’s going be some very good buying on offer. It’s not usually the time of year people are thinking about broodmares, so I’m sure there’ll be lots of bargains to be had.”
Smith Jnr said Scenic Lodge would be remodelled after the sale, operating as more of a boutique farm before likely building back up again, although not to the same size as now. Smith has four broodmares of his own, and Scenic will continue to care for around 30 clients.
“That will be our focus in the short–term, and making sure we have the business on a sound footing,” he said.
“So we’ll go from being a major player to a smaller operation, then hopefully in time we’ll build back up again. Probably it won’t be as big as it got under my dad. The whole industry has changed a lot over the years, and it’s become very top-end. It’s more about having quality over quantity these days.”
Smith Snr, who bred six Group 1 winners headed by Scenic Blast (Scenic), Black Heart Bart and Playing God (Blackfriars), said the time was right to take a step back.
“It’s a bit of an end of an era I guess,” he told ANZ Bloodstock News. “It’s been a long ride. I’ve been in horses since my first racehorse in the early 1980s, and with Scenic Lodge since we set it up in 1997.
“But the time has come to pull up stumps, and it’s nice that it’s staying in the family with Jeremy and Sarah.”
Smith Jnr, 51, paid tribute to his father, saying he’d made “an amazing contribution to the industry”.
He said: “He backed his own judgement, brought in those two stallions in Scenic and Blackfriars, who had phenomenal success, and now their legacy is going on through their sons like Playing God and Universal Ruler.
“And Dad’s bred some amazing horses off the property. He’s had a huge impact on the industry.”
A “Ten Pound Pom” from Middlesbrough, Smith arrived in Perth in 1972 and founded farm merchandise business IAMA (the Independent Agriculture Merchants Association). After its sale to industry giant Wesfarmers, in 1997 he bought Uminga, the former training establishment of Ted Hickling, which had hatched four Perth Cup winners.
Smith renamed the 250-acre farm Durham Lodge, after his English county, but it became Scenic Lodge in 2012, after the foundation stallion who’d racked up nine WA general sires’ titles on end.
That was a record only eclipsed when Blackfriars won the next 12, before his son Playing God ended the streak last season.
Smith said to have the success he enjoyed was “beyond my wildest dreams”.
“I guess the biggest highlight was acquiring those two stallions of ours, Scenic and Blackfriars,” he said.
“When we bought Scenic, for $1 million, he was a little on the nose, but within a couple of months of buying him, he started having Group 1 winners all over the place. Lindsay Park leased him back from us for another season, for the same price that we’d bought him for.
“And to go from him to Blackfriars was phenomenal. And now his legacy is passing on through his sons, especially Playing God.”
As a breeder, Smith has enjoyed outstanding success, most notably through the half dozen elite-level winners he bred.
Black Heart Bart won no fewer than 15 stakes races including six Group 1s, from the 1200 metres of the Goodwood Handicap to his dual victories over 1800 metres in the Underwood Stakes.
Scenic Blast claimed three Group 1s, taking Flemington’s Lightning (Gr 1, 1000m)-Newmarket (Gr 1, 1200m) double, before the King’s Stand Stakes (Gr 1, 5f) at Royal Ascot in 2009. Playing God won two Kingston Town Classics (Gr 1, 1800m) and has of course gone on to become WA’s champion sire, with a second title this term seemingly inevitable. He sired his own Kingston Town Classic winner, Kay Cee in 2019, and added a second elite-level success this season with Bustler’s Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m).
Smith Snr’s Group 1-winning sextet is rounded out by Railway Stakes winners Gilded Venom (Golden Snake) and Great Shot (Magnus), and 2009 New Zealand Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) hero Coniston Bluebird (Scenic).