Osborne’s Mane journey
Everyone told Neil Osborne he was mad when he bought Mane Lodge for $400,000 around 40 years ago.
It was the early-80s – a time of big hair, synthesisers and shoulder pads, and some pretty grotesque interest rates as well. For Osborne to make it he’d have to abide with not just stallions and mares in his head but beady-eyed bankers as well.
“People said I was crazy, and I probably was, because we were paying 19.5 per cent interest, or $6,333 a month,” says the veteran trainer-breeder, with some seared-in recollection of that frightening detail. Not only that, the then 30-year-old and wife Denise had two young kids to raise.
You don’t have to embrace madness to go into this business, but you can see it from there. And Sutton, midway between Canberra and the quite often moist Lake George, was on the far frontier as far as thoroughbred breeding goes. But Osborne had a feeling he could prevail, and determination to match.
The lifelong capital resident – “My dad was the 43rd policeman in Canberra” – and Northern Suburbs rugby zealot – “I played under 12s when I was eight so I became a hooker ‘cause I was the smallest” – had grown up on a sheep and cattle farm with three brothers: “There wasn’t room for all of us, so that’s why I branched out on my own.”
He teamed with a couple of racing fan footy mates for a union in horses. There’d be setbacks, of course. He forged a brand for the trio’s enterprise and began using it – LBS for the Lynborne Bloodstock Syndicate – then got around to registering it with the Department of Lands.
“They came back and said ‘You’ll have to turn the L backwards’, maybe just to teach me a lesson about registering with them first,” says the man whose enticing eight-horse draft at this Inglis Classic, like hundreds before them, are duly branded that way.
When he bought the 200-acre Mane Lodge from former leading Canberra trainer Robert O’Sullivan, Osborne planned to train as well as breed. To do that you need horses, and his came in a style perhaps typical of the bush character he is.
“I started with two racehorse fillies. I swapped two steers for them with a mate who had a butcher shop,” he says. “One was called Generate. The boys called her Degenerate, because she wasn’t much good. The other one was called Bless Me Honey, which we optimistically called Bless Me Money.”
Generate (Major General), born in 1971, ended up belying her nickname. Her second foal was by Godavari (Red God) – one of the earliest stallions of around two dozen Osborne stood before giving that side of the game away. Named Godarchi, he won Eagle Farm’s PJ O’Shea Stakes (Gr 2, 2200m) in 1984.
Later on, Osborne acquired another mare, Fatina. She was a Hayes-trained daughter of Rory’s Jester (Crown Jester) of whom decent performances were expected, until one day at Victoria Park she indecently performed the unexpected.
“She got away at the barriers, bolted and galloped up the main street of Adelaide,” Osborne says. “The following Friday, she was in a tried horse sale in Sydney.”
Osborne bought her, won two races with her – including at non-Royal Adaminaby in 1999 – then put her to Snippets (Lunchtime) for a first mating which produced Snippety Day, a filly he couldn’t sell, but who came fourth in the Black Opal (Listed, 1200m) of 2004.
“Fatina was the foundation of what we’ve got now. We’ve still got that family today,” he says.
Now 70, Osborne has 24 horses on his books as a trainer, around the same number of broodmares, and agists horses on his property for others. Under yet another hat, he has three horse trucks, transporting for his region’s biggest trainers such as Nick Olive, Matt Dale and Keith Dryden.
Living in New South Wales but taking horses to the ACT for fast work at Canberra presents headaches around the jurisdictions’ differing workplace laws, but Osborne’s location has paid one massive dividend.
His was the spelling property used by another trainer who resided outside the ACT border and worked other jobs: a Queanbeyan taxi driver – the Queanbeyan taxi driver – the once-anonymous Joe Janiak, who found fame and quite some fortune with Takeover Target (Celtic Swing).
“We used to look after Takeover Target so I followed him pretty closely,” Osborne said.
In May, 2009, Osborne watched the miraculous sprinter win the Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m) at Morphettville, but was also taken with the horse that ran second, in what was the highlight of his career, since the biggest thing he won was a Group 3.
He was called I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), and when he began his stud career for $11,000, Osborne took a punt on Yarraman Park’s scheme to give their moderately-performed stallion a push: if anyone sent a mare to him for his first three seasons, not only could they have it for a discount $30,000, they’d gain a lifetime breeding right.
I Am Invincible is of course now known by the household name of Vinnie, and stands for 20 times his original fee. It’s a rise reminiscent, though probably a little higher, of the growth in value of Mane Lodge itself since that first bold gamble by Osborne.
“He was a horse I always had in mind and I thought he might do something as a stallion. At 11 grand it was a no-brainer,” says Osborne.
He has had to buy better mares to do justice to the stallion, but he’s also shrewdly bolstered his coffers by selling that right for the past three years, at an average of $200,000.
As for why this horset, who only even contested that one Group 1, has been such a stud success, Osborne believes there are some universal traits that make a sire.
“He was an on-pace speed horse. That’s what I like, and a good type. He was a magnificent animal as a racehorse,” he says. “Those horses want to be up there in the fight, and take the luck out of the equation. I think it shows there’s something in a horse that he can pass on. And that’s exactly why I bought a share in (Yarraman’s other stallion) Hellbent as well.”
From Vinnie’s second crop Osborne bred his best ever, the flying I Am Snippety, out of Snippety Day, out of Fatina. She won the 2014 Wellington Boot (1100m) by six lengths from barrier 13 in a course record, then led the Kindergarten Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) field into the Randwick straight before tragically breaking down. It sparked a fierce outburst from the straight-talking Osborne over the state of the heavy track.
There’s still fire in the belly over various issues, like country trainers being left behind in the prize-money wars. But for this week, at least, Osborne is well chirpy about his eight-horse draft.
“It’s our best draft we’ve ever brought to a sale. The stallions we’ve got this year, we’ve landed on all the popular ones – Extreme Choice, Capitalist, Russian Revolution, Headwater, Deep Field, Hellbent. It’s either good luck or good management – probably good management,” he says, with a wink.
The most popular pre-sale has been Lot 313, the Extreme Choice colt out of six-time winner To Dubawi Go (Dubawi).
“He’s a lovely little horse, not big, but very neat, with a great eye and attitude. He’s quite typical of the breed,” says Osborne, who’s always been eager to roll the dice with the infamously sub-fertile but in other ways hugely potent sire.
“That year I just sent the one mare and got a foal. The following year I sent three and got one. If there’s a trick to it with Extreme Choice, I reckon early morning is his go.”
More of the kind of sage, bush wisdom you can acquire – like the pay-offs that can come your way if you’re sharp enough – from a lifetime of knocking around horses.
River Junction prepares final farewell
Queensland stud River Junction will chart a different course after the Inglis Classic sale, where it is presenting its last draft of yearlings.
Ever-expanding Brisbane trainer Tony Gollan, having used River Junction to spell his horses for several years, last month took things a step further by acquiring the Sunshine Coast hinterland property as his own private spelling farm.
As a result, the two Book 1 and two Highway lots offered in the coming days will be the last sold under the commercial banner of River Junction and its owner, civil construction businessman Troy Schmidt.
“The time was right, it’s the right market to be selling a farm in at the moment, and we’ve decided to pursue it more as a hobby,” said Joe Heather, stud manager at the 100-acre farm, which has been running for around a decade.
“Troy has other businesses that are quite time-demanding. He was keen to concentrate on his core businesses and return the racing and breeding to a hobby.
“We’ve kept a handful of mares that we intend to keep to breed to race, but we’ve wound down the commercial side of the farm.
“It’s always sad to sell a farm or business you’ve built up from the ground, but the time was right and it’s going to good hands, so it’s equal parts sad and exciting.”
River Junction, best known for the deeds of stakes-winners Traveston Girl (Flying Spur), Whiskey Allround (All Bar One) and the multiple stakes-placed Looks Like The Cat (Husson), will offer a select draft headed by Lot 200, a grey colt by Frosted (Tapit) out of Reliable Dame (Reliable Man).
“He’s a lovely, big strong colt, a striking grey and a great first foal,” Heather said. “He’s been very popular this week.”
Their other Book 1 yearling is Lot 379, a filly by Eureka Stud’s Encryption (Lonhro) out of American At Sea (All American) who Heather calls “a really beautiful filly, with a great walk and a great shape”.