A Sidestep in the right direction – how Telemon navigates the fickle breeding game

The influence of a stallion sourced on an inkling in a moment of necessity will never be lost on Dan Fletcher and his family in the unpredictable world of breeding racehorses.

Once an entry-level support act on a Darley roster that included his own champion sire Exceed And Excel, Sidestep has been the catalyst for the emergence of the Fletchers’ Telemon Thoroughbreds in southeast Queensland.

Telemon has added another four stallions to stand alongside Sidestep but there will always be a special fondness for the horse who was runner-up in the 2013 Golden Slipper.

From his first crop of foals conceived at Darley’s Kelvinside in the NSW Hunter Valley, Sidestep sired the 2019 Golden Slipper winner Kiamichi.

Sure, Kiamichi won for Sheikh Mohammed’s racing operation, the Godolphin outfit, but Telemon’s attempt to gain an early foothold on the Queensland breeding scene couldn’t have been scripted better.

By the time Kiamichi skipped through the Rosehill mud to lead in a Godolphin sweep of the Slipper placings, Sidestep had already stood one season at Telemon.

He served 57 mares after covering 36 in his final Hunter Valley season, in some way a small vindication of Fletcher’s decision to chase a deal with Darley to find a stallion at short notice when Sun Stud decided to suddenly close its operation.

“At the time we had other sort of things on our plate in life and in business, and we weren’t really looking to have another active enterprise,” Fletcher told The Straight.

“But as it turned out, Sun Stud elected not to renew that lease (on the property), and they did that very late in the piece. And then we needed to figure out what we were going to do because we needed to operate the property as a stud farm.”

Acting on a hunch that Sidestep would receive enough support from Queensland breeders to make him a viable foundation stallion, Fletcher approached Darley and pitched his plan.

“I thought Sidestep was a very worthwhile stallion, and he wasn’t really getting a lot of appreciation,” Fletcher said.

 “I thought coming to Queensland might be a chance to reinvigorate him. At that stage, he still hadn’t had runners, so (Darley) were open to the idea. 

“We knew what’s possible, but you never really expect a stallion like that to throw a Slipper winner. It’s just so hard to do and in that sense he has been a very important horse for us.”

Standing the sire of a Golden Slipper winner almost immediately accelerated the Fletchers’ ambitions to make Telemon a commercial success.

The 240-acre property had taken on many incarnations before the Fletchers arrived with a relaunch.

But while it might be boutique in nature compared to the conglomerates that rule the Hunter Valley, Sidestep’s achievement added to a rich history.

Leading sires stallions such as Success Express, Mossman, and Written Tycoon called the farm home under its various names at various stages of their careers.

Black Caviar’s sire Bel Esprit did a stint on the property and it has been a nursery for headline horses such as Zoustar, Buffering and Gold Edition.

“A lot of good horses have come off the farm. I mean, it’s not a big farm and we still don’t have huge numbers, but acre-for-acre and paddock-for-paddock, it’s got a really, really good track record,” Fletcher said.

“And that seems to be continuing, fingers crossed and touch wood.”

On the doorstep of a new breeding season when Telemon will introduce the well-performed juvenile Red Resistance to the stallion ranks, Fletcher is momentarily looking to the racetrack to enhance the farm’s reputation.

Party For Two has been sent to Melbourne to contest the Group 3 Sir John Monash Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield on Saturday.

A three-year-old daughter of Sidestep retained to race after she failed to reach a reserve price as a yearling, Fletcher is hoping Party For Two can run well for more than one reason.

She will most likely be the farewell stakes runner for Steve O’Dea and Matt Hoysted’s partnership, and a Monash victory would be a fitting way to end their training association.

O’Dea and Hoysted part ways

Steven O’Dea and Matt Hoysted, who reached the pinnacle of racing thanks to Oakleigh Plate winner Uncommon James, will go their separate ways with their training partnership to be dissolved after four seasons.

The StraightBren O’Brien

It would also give the filly a head start beyond her racing career.

“If she happened to be able to knock this race off on Saturday, well, that’d really sort of complete her profile,” Fletcher said.

“I suspect there may be a bit of wishful thinking but it’s only a finite number of opportunities you’ve got with fillies to try and establish them as stakes winners or as group winners.

“She’s been in Group 2s and she’s a multiple stakes-performed filly, but she doesn’t actually have the designation of stakes winner just yet.”

It’s a piece of creative placement that epitomises Fletcher’s approach and diversity to having sustainable bloodstock interests.

His family has scaled the heights of Group 1 success when sharing ownership of retired stars such as Sunlight and Russian Camelot.

And there is a sense of expectation surrounding the spring reappearance of Veight, this season’s George Ryder Stakes winner who will be given his chance to revisit the scene of that Group 1 win in the $10 million Golden Eagle.

But for the investment portfolio manager who mixes the world of finance with the business of breeding thoroughbreds, he is careful to ensure that one doesn’t overlap the other.

“There’s far more risk involved with breeding thoroughbreds. It’s not even close,” he says.

“There’s a lot of people who play this game, but not everyone plays it by the same rules.

“For us (at Telemon), we’ve got to make the books balance and we’ve got to be responsible commercially.

“We don’t have a big pool of wealth that means we’re indulging in that sense … we’ve just got to step up and try and make good decisions and that always helps.”