Since setting up at Three Bridges Thoroughbreds in Victoria six years ago, Peter and Pauline Liston along with their children Toby and Jana, have concentrated on breeding horses and preparing them for sale.
Having sold, among others, the record-priced yearling ever in Victoria, it is something the Liston family does as well as anyone, but they had been waiting for the right stallion prospect to come along.
After securing Stryker, Liston says he also had to secure the support of fellow breeders to give the son of Fastnet Rock every chance. But he wanted to ensure that those who did support him would not be priced out of the market if the stallion made a success of his new career.
“Horses like Encosta De Lago, Danehill Dancer, Flying Spur and Testa Rossa started off in Victoria but then headed to the Hunter Valley at inflated service fees and we wanted to make sure that didn’t occur with Stryker,” he said.
Liston’s means of doing so was to offer selected breeders a lifetime breeding right in Stryker, as long as they sent a mare to him in each of his first three seasons and paid the full $11,000 service fee.
The result has been astounding . “So far we have had 40 people take up the offer, and that includes many of Victoria’s leading breeders,” he says. “If they help us get him going, we’ll reward them with a lifetime breeding right and that gives them plenty of encouragement to send a nice mare.”
Added to that base of 40 mares for Stryker are another 40 mares owned by Three Bridges and prominent owner-breeder Richard Pegum, as well as five from the Ingham family, who raced Stryker.
Liston joked that part of his confidence about Stryker’s future was that Pegum had a 50% stake. “Everything he seems to touch turns to gold, so I’m hoping that is the case with Stryker.”
Given that Pegum was a part-owner of Melbourne Cup winner Brew, freak filly Amelia’s Dream (who is the only mare of Pegum’s not going to Stryker) and has My Kingdom Of Fife and December Draw heading towards the spring carnival, Liston might be onto something.
The Listons only met Pegum through a shared relationship with New Zealand Bloodstock agent Paul Willetts several years ago, but bonded immediately. “I’m a Mallee boy and had to work hard on the farm for my father during the school holidays and Richard was in a similar situation,” Liston said. “We just hit it off straight away.”
While the pairing of Three Bridges and Pegum, a successful businessman on the world stage might seem a little incongruous, Liston says it is working out perfectly. “It was Richard’s job to secure the horse and once that was done we took over to look after him and make the whole thing work.”
With Stryker, a $600,000 yearling who was a Group 3 winner and dual Group 1 placegetter, Liston believes he has a stallion with the right attributes to make the grade. “The Inghams certainly got it right naming him Stryker. He’s just a superb type.”
He says he has had good results selling stock of Fastnet Rock but such has been the success of the Coolmore stallion that his fee of $132,000 is now a little out of Liston’s league. With progeny such as Wanted, Irish Lights, Rock Classic, Rothesay and Smart Missile quickly establishing him as one of the leading sires in the country, that fee is no surprise.
But as one of his better-performed sons, Liston believes Stryker has the pedigree to carry on that success. “Fastnet Rock is doing everything right and Stryker’s female line is from one of the best families in the stud book.”
He hails from the Denise’s Joy family that has produced stakes winner after stakes winner over the past 30 years, including Joie Denise, Tuesday Joy, Sunday Joy, More Joyous, Bentley Biscuit and highly regarded young New Zealand-based stallion Thorn Park.
Liston says Stryker has been much admired by everyone who has journeyed to Three Bridges to inspect him and expects plenty more tomorrow week. ”We’re holding a stallion parade here on August 7,” he declared. “And anyone who comes along won’t be disappointed.”