Mark Rowsthorn has sold Woodside Park Stud, the stallion farm which gave rise to this season's soon-to-be crowned champion Australian sire Written Tycoon.
Woodside Park Stud, based at Tylden, has been purchased by fellow Victorian breeder and racehorse owner Eddie Hirsch, who is adding the stallion arm to his growing bloodstock portfolio.
The deal, after months of negotiations, was finally completed late last week between Rowsthorn and the United Petroleum co-founder, who in 2019 also bought the nearby training facility from his fellow Melbourne-based businessman.
Foxwedge, who was already owned by Hirsch and whose 3-year-old son Lunar Fox won the Kennedy Australian Guineas (G1) in February, Rich Enuff, and Tosen Stardom will remain standing at Woodside Park this year and beyond as part of the buyout.
However, Rowsthorn's Morningside, an 1,100-acre property on the Goulburn River near Nagambie, is not part of the Woodside Park sale, which has been under his ownership since 2012 after being founded by his father, Peter Rowsthorn Sr.
Long-time Inglis employee Mark Dodemaide, who left the auction house after three decades in April, has joined Woodside Park Stud while Hirsch also has former Darley employee Dave Collison on board as broodmare manager.
"It has been many, many months of work and that is why I couldn't really say anything (before now) as I had to deal with other parties as well and shareholders in the other two stallions. There was a lot of dotting the Is and crossing the Ts, so to speak, to get it done," Hirsch, 67, told ANZ Bloodstock News.
"I will be spending more time away from the (United Petroleum) business now and spending more time with the stallion operation side of it. I am just lucky to have guys like Dods and David Collison and those people around me to guide me through it.
"Getting these quality people into the organization is a big winner for me."
Dodemaide said: "I don't want to be getting too carried away and saying it's the rebirth of Woodside, but Eddie's got a passion for breeding. From the barn having a new lick of paint, to trying to get a new stallion, it'll be the whole thing.
"A lot of people get into racing purely for the racing side of it, but Eddie loves the breeding side at least as much.
"He's enjoyed watching all those Foxwedges run and he's going to do the same with the Rich Enuffs and Tosen Stardoms."
Former Caulfield-based trainers John and Frank Salanitri, who won the Midfield Group Wangoom Handicap with Royal Island in 2015 and Yarra Valley Cup with Hard Call in 2017 among several other city winners, are now preparing horses from Hirsch's Tylden property, Hirsch Park.
More than AU$3 million has been spent since its acquisition to improve the camber of the two training tracks and other facilities, on what is one of the few private training facilities in the state.
Hirsch has also made a concerted effort in recent years to upgrade the quality of his broodmare band of 30, which are now almost exclusively stakes-performed or stakes producing mares, in an investment he hopes starts to pay dividends on the racetrack and in his support of the Woodside stallions.
"I am in the petroleum business, that is the business I am actually in, but the horse side of the business has always been a passion of mine and I am starting to lean over a bit more to that side as I am slowing down in the United world, so to speak," he said.
"I decided that if we are going to go into this breeding, let's just go with better broodmares."
Hirsch added to his broodmare band this year with the AU$190,000 purchase of stakes winner Lady Melksham, who is in foal to Justify , at the Inglis Chairman's Sale in May, while he bought two more mares at the Australian Broodmare Sale and three at the Magic Millions Gold Coast National Sale.
He also has Obsequious, the dam of this season's Darley Maribyrnong Trial Stakes and Talindert Stakes winner Ingratiating, in his possession. She has a weanling brother to Ingratiating and Hirsch sent her to Russian Revolution (Snitzel) in 2020.
"If you talk about the top end of the market, I have been buying at the Chairman's Sale now for three or four years and improving my band of broodmares, so we do buy at the top end," he said.
"Also, I recently bought a few up at the Gold Coast Magic Millions sale. I bought a Frankel mare (Collection Privee, in foal to Too Darn Hot)."
While his focus has been on broodmares, now that Hirsch owns Woodside Park, which has the capacity for six stallions, he will be looking to add to the roster.
"Hopefully one of our own horses that we breed can become a stallion. That would be the icing on the cake if we could get some of the horses that I am racing to become stallions," he said.
"But if the opportunity is out there to buy a stallion, we will be there negotiating, there's no question about it."
Hirsch has predominantly bred his own horses to race and, while that is likely to remain the mantra, he has also become more active in the weanling and yearling markets in recent years and plans to head back to the sales next year to add to his Thoroughbred arsenal.
"I have got a couple of 2-year-olds who look pretty good at the moment. The I Am Invincible colt (Mighty Hercules, out of Lonhro mare My Goodness) I bought at Easter and a filly who is a half sister to September Run by American Pharoah (My Yankee Girl) is showing good signs.
"They are at the Salanitris' and they are very exciting, those two."
Hirsch also has unraced juveniles by Zoustar, Astern, Choisir, Kermadec, and Star Turn on the books and, as a parochial Victorian, Dodemaide reinforced his new boss's commitment to the state's industry.
"The good thing about Tylden and where Woodside Park is, it's 10 minutes to Kyneton, 10 minutes to Woodend, 10 minutes to Trentham. The location is surprisingly good," Dodemaide said.
"A lot of people have a go and say it's a little bit cold, but horses are bred in Kentucky and Newmarket, and a lot of the best horses in the world are bred in a climate like this.
"Eddie's not going anywhere. Put it this way, Woodside Park will be going for as long as Eddie's going."
Hirsch's decision to dramatically scale up his racing interests has him excited about the future.
"I am looking forward to it. It is going to take a bit of time, but we will get there," he said.
