Longwood farms struck a second time after bushfire forces evacuations

Leneva Park’s pre-training facility has been struck once again by the massive Longwood bushfire, as thoroughbred properties in Victoria endured a second day of threats.

A further wind change on Friday brought the fire back towards Longwood where Leneva Park, Longwood Thoroughbred Farm and several other thoroughbred properties were first struck on Thursday.

Leneva Park general manager Mick Sharkie confirmed the Country Fire Authority were doing their best to protect the major buildings on the property, which has escaped major damage when the fire first front came through on Thursday.

Sharkie said a small window on Thursday afternoon has allowed hundreds of horses to be evacuated from that property and from Michael Christian’s Longwood Thoroughbred Farm, which is across the road, after the initial fire front had passed.  

At this stage, there has been no reported loss of thoroughbred life and no injuries to staff.

Lindsay Park, at nearby Creightons Creek, has been under threat for most of the past two days, while plans were being made to evacuate horses from Blue Gum Farm.

Will Hayes sent a statement to SENTrack on Friday morning confirming the farm had been impacted by the fire.

“Last night we were hit directly – CFA are heroes. All horses are okay – they’ve been fed, have water & all necessary veterinary treatments been given,” he said.

It was also revealed on Friday that Magic Millions’ Victoria and Tasmania manager Tim Brown had lost his house near Creightons Creek in the bushfire.

At least 10 homes have been destroyed in nearby Ruffy, while emergency warnings are in place for a massive area stretching from the Hume Freeway in the west to Alexandra in the east and Kinglake in the south. 

While Leneva Park had been hit by the fire on Thursday, Sharkie said on Friday morning that key infrastructure had escaped damage.

“We’ve got a lot of extensive damage to fences and paddocks,” he said.

“It looks like the main infrastructure and the two main houses are relatively undamaged. So that’s great at this point.

“The staff are just on their securing everything, getting horse feed off that hasn’t been damaged so we can take it around to people who’ve taken horses on to support them.”

Sharkie said Leneva Park had 10 staff who live on the property and 23 in total. The horses off the affected farms have gone to a variety of local properties, including Sullivan Bloodstock, Swettenham Stud, Noorilim Park and Leneva Park’s farrier Sean Gray farm at Novella.

Leneva Park’s foals and mares were moved to Blue Gum Farm on Thursday, although that property has come under threat and horses are set to be moved again.

Inglis has offered to take on horses at its Oaklands Junction property just north of Melbourne and those looking to relocate horses are asked to contact James Price on 0409 806 595.  

Racing Victoria chief executive Aaron Morrison told SEN Track that the regulator has been in touch with those impacted.

“Directly, the stewards are reaching out and are in regular contact,” he said.

“There’s also quite an effective chat group, a WhatsApp chat group, up and running with a lot of individuals participating in that where they’re organising the logistics of moving horses and keeping everyone updated as to what’s going on in terms of property.

“I think from what we can tell, the good news is that there hasn’t been any impact from a human or equine perspective in terms of injury.”