Proxima Dea: Invisible Coin’s Remarkable Breeding Story

With every good horse, there’s inevitably a compelling backstory and Proxima Dea is no exception.

And while veterinarian Chris “Doc” Lawler didn’t own or breed Proxima Dea, he was associated with the unbeaten Spring Champion Stakes and VRC Oaks winner’s dam Invisible Coin.

He also bred and raced Proxima Dea’s Group 1-winning older sister Gypsy Goddess, having been unable to sell her as a yearling after buying Invisible Coin for NZ$60,000 in 2017 to support Tarzino at Westbury Stud.

She had been sold by David Redvers and Sheikh Fahad’s Qatar Bloodstock when the mare was in foal to their shuttle sire Charm Spirit.

Lawler and his breeding partners sold the resulting colt for NZ$45,000 at Karaka with Invisible Coin safely in foal to Tarzino.

And from here Doc takes up the story.

“(The Charm Spirit) went on to win eight races, he was alright. We put her in foal to Tarzino and we got Gypsy Goddess. She had a bad parrot mouth, she was in the second session and we couldn’t sell her as she was second or third last horse through the ring after five days,” Lawler tells Rowe On Monday.

“She ended up coming over here (to Australia and to Queensland trainer David Vandyke). We dispersed amongst mates at the pub to race and she hadn’t shown a great deal at this stage. She had another Tarzino, which was a colt, which ended up as Bitcoin.

“Once again, he had a bad parrot mouth and NZB came and looked at him and said, ‘sorry, we can’t offer you a place in the first two sales’.”

It was then Lawler decided to change tack, swapping a nomination in Tarzino with Haunui Farm’s Mark Chitty who was standing shuttle sire Belardo. Again Invisible Coin was successfully in foal to the new stallion.

“But then when she got home, she developed this discharge out of her right nostril and a pussy discharge and just sort of wasn’t doing well,” Lawler continues.

Curraghmore’s Gordon Cunningham, who was looking after Invisible Coin, called in the vets, who diagnosed an infected maxillary tooth root and performed surgery on the mare.

All seemed to be back on track, until the antibiotics stopped. Then the nasal discharge would start again, prompting Lawler to bail on the mare, selling her on Gavelhouse to the TransTasman Breeders syndicate for NZ$7000.

“That was after we’d spent $15,000 on a service fee and $30,000 on vet fees. But it was a caveat emptor, buyer beware, and then she went back to Haunui and she had a colt to Belardo,” he said.

“And then they put her back in foal to Belardo. And while she’s in foal to Belardo, the second time, of course, Gypsy Goddess has come out and gone one, two, three, four in her first preparation and won a Group 3.”

In stepped Lawler again in a not dissimilar fashion to when Kerry Packer sold Channel Nine to businessman Alan Bond in 1987, only to rebuy it three years later.

“We went back to New Zealand and I felt like Alan Bond, giving them $110,000 for the colt, the first colt, the one we put her in foal to Belardo,” Lawler laughs.

“He was a horse called Victory Roll who didn’t do much in four runs in Queensland. He came down (to NSW), won four races, won a race at Randwick and won a race at Canterbury. He was subsequently sold to Asia and won a race up there.”

When Gypsy Goddess emerged, Invisible Coin’s new owners sent her back to Tarzino, a mating which produced Proxima Dea, the David Payne-trained three-year-old whose ceiling remains unknown.

A Bridge too far?

The story doesn’t end there, either. In foal to Tarzino, Invisible Coin was sent to North Bloodstock near Scone and mated with Anamoe but the infection recurred.

Surgery was again performed in an effort to rectify the issue – and again it failed.

She was on-sold last year for $200,000 to agent Paul Willetts on behalf of Victorian breeder Toby Liston.

When she arrived at his Three Bridges Thoroughbreds property near Bendigo he was questioning whether he’d torched his money.

“When she got off the float, he’s just gone, ‘what have I done?’ He said, ‘I would never have bought her if I’d seen the mare’,” Lawler recalls.

“She was as poor as a crow, but I’ve got to tip a hat to a colleague here, Tommy Russell down from Racetrack Vets from the Bendigo Equine Hospital.

“Tommy was talking to Toby about it and after seeing the mare, he said, ‘it’s an old, old remedy, but I’ve had a bit of luck treating these with sodium iodide twice a day for 10 days, see how you go’, so Toby did that.

“They ran it in drips, just very slowly, twice a day into this mare and buggered me dead, it healed everything. Now she’s back as fit as a fiddle. She looks a million dollars.”

Now 16, Invisible Coin had a healthy Anamoe colt last year who Liston sold privately as a weanling and she had another colt by Darley’s Cylinder this year.

She is in foal to Ghaiyyath on an October 13 service date.

“It’s been a great carnival for Toby. He bred and retained (Listed Batman Stakes winner) Billycart because he couldn’t sell her and he’s got the dam of Proxima Dea,” the vet said.

Back on Proxima Dea, who was “bought” for $300,000 at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, Lawler defended the so-called “ugly” filly.

“Look, she’s a lovely filly. I can’t quite go along with what David’s got to say, that he’s saying she’s an ugly duckling, because all the frame was there that is of a really good horse,” he said.

“She’s got a massive jowl on her, all these things that you look for in a yearling, the only thing is that she is extremely immature.

“She has still got a lot of development to do, and I would expect by the time she’s a late four-year-old or early five-year-old, she’s going to be a really decent size, a strapping sort of mare.

“She was a really, really good looking filly (as a yearling), in my humble opinion. She had all the right things in her frame. She had really good wide-set hocks, a deep girth and big nostrils.”

Trainer Ivan Lister nominated for Senior Australian of the Year

Trainer Ivan Lister is about as far removed from the Ciaron Mahers and the Chris Wallers as you can get.

Based at Mooroopna near Shepparton in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley, Lister has one horse on his books, training in recent years with the help of his farrier son Max as a hobby.

For more than two decades, Lister, who is now in his early ’80s, has been a rural outreach worker, helping country communities deal with mental health issues.

Often they have been farmers battered by drought and the volatility of the land. More recently, he’s lent an ear to those dealing with the bushfires.

Some of his work has been paid, but even when unpaid, he’s volunteered anyway – and continues to do so.

Lister, whose training base is now listed as Seymour (as that’s where he has more chance of getting a track rider), was recently named as a 2027 Victorian Senior Australian of the Year nominee.

“Ivan’s strong commitment to his community has helped many people when they had no one else to turn to; his compassion and understanding provided a means for people to talk about mental health,” the nomination said.

It’s well-deserved recognition for Lister, who this columnist has known for 21 years. Mates and I have also raced the odd (very slow) horse around the picnics with Ivan.

As the cost of living – and of racing horses – continues to rise, it’s important that the industry continues to nurture the picnic and non-TAB racing scene.

It plays an important role in bringing the country communities together, many of which Lister spends hours on the road visiting – with or without a horse float.

Ivan has our vote.