‘Darn buoyant’: Lynton Farm targets Classic impact with fledgling operation

For a small thoroughbred property that provided its owner and trainer relative anonymity,  the Southern Tablelands-based Lynton Farm punched well above its weight.

Located 6km from Goulburn, Lynton Farm was owned by the late Alan Cardy, a former Wallabies player, and in later years, Kurt Goldman was his trainer.

They enjoyed success with Hellbent, who would go on to win a Group 1 for Darren Weir and now as a successful stallion, while Goldman would prepare Eckstein to win multiple stakes races from the private facility.

But Lynton Farm, as a training centre, ceased soon after Cardy’s death in December 2021, at the age of 76, with Goldman continuing to operate it until the estate was tidied up and the property was placed on the market.

As it has done elsewhere, Racing NSW swooped, buying the property for $5.42 million 12 months after Cardy’s death and adding it to a $125 million-plus portfolio which also includes Bong Bong Farm, currently leased by Ciaron Maher.

Expatriate Kiwis and business partners Jonathan Scully and Jeremy Whale stepped in at Lynton Farm, taking on the lease and opening a spelling, pre-training and breaking-in business.

It’s also expanded into yearling consignment, with Lynton showcasing a draft of five yearlings at the Inglis Classic sale starting on Sunday, all pinhooked as weanlings into the Riverside Stables sale at a combined cost of $285,000.

The quintet, an Artorius half-brother to the stakes-placed Literary Magnate, a Farnan colt out of a half-sister to Star Thoroughbreds’ stakes winner Fiesta and a Home Affairs filly from the family of Group 1 winner Apocalyptic and Golden Slipper contender Hidrix, an emphatic Canonbury Stakes winner last Saturday.

And Scully has every reason to be optimistic about Lynton Farm’s prospects at the Classic sale, declaring he was feeling “darn buoyant” ahead of Sunday’s first session.

“I’ve been doing it for a long time, but I can’t remember being this crazy, it’s been amazing, there’s still a lot of people we haven’t seen yet,” Scully told The Straight.

“Everyone I spoke to (on Thursday) night said their numbers were up, their card numbers were up, and everything seems a lot busier. 

“Even parading here, we’re just trying to find places to go because there’s eight or nine horses out in one area, and you’ve got to find a spot to show your horses off.”

The Lynton proprietors are recognised as talented horsemen and industry allrounders, with Whale having previously run Diamond Lodge from Cambridge in New Zealand and Scully more recently oversaw Valachi Downs at Matamata for the late Kevin Hickman until it was sold to Lib Petagna. 

“Jeremy came over (from New Zealand) about two years ago, and he was doing something down in Murrumbateman (near Canberra), and then I told him about it and showed him this property and we went from there,” Scully says. 

“It’s a fantastic property, and Goulburn … is a bloody good town, very progressive, with plenty of people, and we couldn’t want any more from a farm, having the grass track with an uphill finish, all fully irrigated and railed, and then we’ve got the sand track about 1600 metres long, which actually goes up over a slight incline as well. 

“We’ve got a swim dam and we’ve got everything we could want. The facilities are excellent.”

Scully and Whale have no intention of heading back to their home country any time soon, with the former living in Australia for more than 25 years and the latter “wishing he did it years ago”.

“We’re trying to build a client base and it’s hard to break that Sydney market with Sydney trainers, but we’re getting some great support from around the area, and our friends from Go Racing, the New Zealand syndicators, send us what they can,” Scully says of expanding Lynton Farm’s business offering. 

“My focus this year is we’d really like to find more yearling clients to come on board with us to prepare yearlings for them.”