Rowe On Monday – Encosta De Lago’s legacy powers on and why Darren Thomas is racing’s quiet achiever

In this week’s Rowe On Monday column, Tim Rowe provides an insight into the influence of champion sire Encosta De Lago and he catches up with Darren Thomas and Mark Pilkington to discuss the impact of their racing and breeding operation Seymour Bloodstock.

Encosta De Lago sire line still kicking

There were eight sons of Encosta De Lago at stud in Australia last year.

And three of them were based in Western Australia – My Admiration, Manhattan Rain and Maschino. 

On Saturday, Manhattan Rain and Maschino sired the winners of two of the richest races run around the country, demonstrating there is life still left in sons of Encosta De Lago, twice an Australian champion sire.

Manhattan Rain’s three-year-old filly Benagil won the Group 1 Australasian Oaks at Morphettville and in Perth Maschino’s Jokers Grin continued his rapid rise through the ranks to dethrone Overpass and company in the $5 million Quokka at Ascot.

Jokers Grin was one of three winners for Maschino at Ascot and his run of success comes after trainer Justine Erkelens’ filly Machine Gun Gracie completed the WA Oaks and WATC Derby double earlier this month.

Alwyn Park Stud’s John Andrew has had Maschino, a Group 3 RJ Peters Stakes winner for owner Jim Anderson, at his property since 2013.

He admits it’s been a slow burn with Maschino but the stallion has started to gain the recognition he deserves over the past three to four seasons and now it appears as though he’s sired a top-class sprinter in Jokers Grin.

“Jokers Grin is so much like his old man it’s not funny. He’s even starting to look like him. He’s just that relaxed even when Patty (Carbery, jockey) was bringing him back off the track, he just cantered along quietly with his ears pricked,” Andrews said. 

“Sometimes I wonder whether he really knows what he’s out there for, to be honest. Even when I went down and saw him before the race he was all but nearly asleep, which is great for him. 

“He wasn’t sweating or pawing the ground or anything like that. He’s pretty relaxed.”

Maschino also had Trio win the opening race, Fine Touch made it two victories in succession in race three over 1800m, in which Grand Reserve ran third.

“I know in the last couple of years he didn’t get big books but some of the people said, ‘oh, we’ve been to the horse three or four years in a row, we want to go somewhere different’ and I can understand that just to mix it around a bit,” Andrew said.

“But it’s getting to the stage now in WA there’s not a hell of a lot to choose from at present that are really sort of firing if that makes sense.”

In good news for Maschino’s supporters, the stallion’s owner Anderson has agreed to keep the rising 18-year-old stallion’s fee at an unchanged $8,800 (inc GST).

For Anderson, Saturday’s success was also a welcome tonic, with the long-time owner and breeder attending the races for the first time in about 18 months owing to ill health.

His connection to Maschino began in 2009 when Michael Flannery, now a breeder and vendor based in Victoria, purchased the son of Encosta De Lago for $240,000 at that year’s Inglis Easter Yearling Sale on behalf of Anderson.

“I was very, very friendly with Michael Flannery and Michael and I were involved with Dr. Johnson who I stood here and another horse called Verglas who we shuttled,” Andrew said. 

“Michael had a property down near Harvey, but he decided to take the punt and he went east and that’s the best thing he ever did. He hasn’t looked back

“He knew Jim and Jim got him to buy Maschino in the Sydney sale and he paid $240,000 for him. Graham Yuill trained him here for Jim and he won those races, I think he won about $270,000.”

It was on Flannery’s recommendation that Maschino, whose current yearlings averaged $91,292 at the Magic Millions Perth sale in February, stand at Alwyn Park Stud.

“So, we had a discussion, the horse came down here and the rest is history and he’s been here ever since. In the early days basically a lot of people didn’t want to go to him because he raced in Perth,” Andrew said.

“But then when the good horses came out like Snowchino and Wilchino and a couple of stayers that Jim bred that ran second in the Derby (Cockney Crewe) and that sort of thing. The numbers started to increase and they slowly got bigger and bigger as time’s gone on.”

Manhattan Rain, a half-brother to Redoute’s Choice, is one year older than Maschino and has been well-travelled, starting his stud career alongside his champion sibling at Arrowfield before finding a new home at Blue Gum Farm in Victoria.

Blue Gum Farm was also where Encosta De Lago started his career, until Coolmore came calling in 2004 and he ventured to the Hunter Valley.

When Philip and Patti Campbell decided to wind down in 2022, selling the family’s Blue Gum Farm to Trilogy Racing’s Jason and Mel Stenning and Sean and Cathy Dingwall, Manhattan Rain had already found his way to WA.

But not before the Campbells bred Benagil, runner-up in the Vinery Stud Stakes before landing her maiden Group 1 for her and trainer Glen Thompson.

Manhattan Rain covered 30 mares last year at Geisel Park Stud; Tasmania’s Needs Further, a mainstay of Armidale Stud, covered 47, making him Australia’s most popular son of Encosta in 2024.

Rubick, who is out of a half-sister to Manhattan Rain and the sire of Group 1 winner Jacquinot, has since been sold and shipped to China after covering 35 mares last year.

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Thomas happy to let the horses do the talking

Barely a week goes by where Seymour Bloodstock’s colours aren’t in the winners’ stall.

The reach of Darren Thomas and Mark Pilkington’s racing and breeding business extends beyond states and across various facets of the industry. 

Their Seymour Bloodstock silks have been seen in Melbourne Cups, in Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes via the Thomas and Pilkington co-owned Merchant Navy, also a distinguished winner at Royal Ascot.

On Wednesday, Seymour Bloodstock’s navy blue, white sash and lime green striped silks will also be sported by Taunting, the equal top weight in the Listed Wangoom at Warrnambool, and no doubt they will be seen in other races across the eastern seaboard in the ensuing days.

But Thomas is unlikely to be on course or parrotting Seymour Bloodstock’s success.

Successful businessman Thomas doesn’t shun the racing limelight, but he doesn’t court it either.

The reality is, Thomas manages one of Australia’s largest privately owned businesses, Thomas Foods, and is simply too busy to be front and centre of his Seymour Bloodstock racing and breeding operation.

“Obviously, my main game’s in the Australian meat industry and a lot of travel overseas, but this is a great passion I have,” Thomas tells The Straight. 

“You know, it’s not an industry where you want to try and get ahead of yourself, and (for that reason) we just go along quietly, and I think we’re putting together a good record.”

Pilkington described proud South Australian Thomas as a perfectionist who was on top of all Seymour Bloodstock’s various thoroughbred interests despite his busy schedule.

“He’s got a memory like a steel trap, and as a collective, we are fortunate that he directs a lot of passion towards it,” Pilkington says.

“He really is a big form student, and he follows his bloodlines, and he actually loves it, so he’s a pleasure to be around and be a partner in Seymour Bloodstock.”

At the recent Inglis Easter sale, Thomas sold a Too Darn Hot colt out of Aristocratic Miss for $850,000 and a So You Think colt out of Spanish Whisper for $650,000.

The colts were both out of stakes-class mares raced by Seymour Bloodstock.

Thomas is, of course, happy to sell at that end of the market but he rarely buys at that top-end level.

Four days after the Easter sale ended, Newcastle trainer Nathan Doyle prepared Royal Meeting filly Body Of Venus to win a fillies and mares class one at Port Macquarie for Thomas and Pilkington.

The pair also have horses in training with the likes of Andrew Noblet, Richard and Chantelle Jolly and Aaron Bain and Ned Taylor, Will Clarken as well as Michael Hickmott, the trainer of Taunting.

“I’ve known Tony McEvoy for as long as I’ve been in the industry as well as his son Calvin, and I’ll get trouble for forgetting someone, but even seeing the Hayes boys doing well, I remember them as kids, so there’s just some long relationships,” Thomas says of Seymour Bloodstock’s various trainer relationships.

“Pilko and I have got a certain way we like to do things, and I think if trainers can understand that we don’t necessarily want to train the horses for them, but that we’ve got our way we like to go about things as well (then it works).” 

Part of that Seymour Bloodstock training philosophy is being patient and not pushing horses before they are ready, particularly with an increasing number of homebreds in work by the likes of their stallions Royal Meeting and Fierce Impact, both now stationed at Lovatsville which is based at the Thomas-owned Seymour Park.

The number of trainers Seymour Bloodstock uses is something that Pilkington and Thomas are proud of.

“We’ve worked on trying to understand that there’s lots of spokes … in the thoroughbred wheel,” Pilkington says.

“Unfortunately, many of the spokes in the wheel think they’re the axle that keeps the game going. In fact, they’re only the spokes. So, we actually genuinely understand that there’s a lot of different facets to the game and everyone plays their role.

“With that in mind, that’s why he’s very supportive of whether it be some young trainers, whether it be some existing older trainers or the profile trainers. 

“We play at every level of the game because Darren understands that there’s lots of spokes in the game and they’re all equally important.”

Asked how many horses are in the Seymour Bloodstock portfolio, they both said “too … many”.

“That’s factual. I can’t actually tell you the real numbers,” Pilkington says. 

“Look, I think with the mares, between Darren and myself, we’ve probably got shares in maybe 50 or 60.”

A former shareholder in the Barossa Valley-based Cornerstone Stud with Sam Hayes, Thomas believes that there is still a place for the smaller stallion farm and breeder and that while his home state’s stallion ranks may be almost non-existent, he is confident Victoria is well placed.

“Victorian breeders have been doing a great job in recent times, and we saw Rosemont and Schwarz with their syndicate, it was great to see them getting a result (in the Group 1 William Reid),” Thomas said. 

“You’ve got your big commercial studs, but it doesn’t have to be the only way. It’s something that we want to continue to do at Seymour Park, and we’re always open to looking at the right horse.” 

Pilkington reinforced the importance of having people such as Thomas involved in the industry.

“If he was a bloody F1 car nut or whatever, if something else took that time and energy away, we wouldn’t have him,” he said.

“And he revels in other people’s success, you know, really gets the thrill out of the people that he’s met in the game. He’s a good egg.”’

Thomas added: “I think one of the things you learn pretty quickly in this game is to listen. As soon as you think you know it all, you’re generally on the downhill slope.  

You can get taught some lessons, but I really, really enjoy it. It’s a really great outlet for me.”