Wattle Brae studmaster Gary Turkington (pictured) is a fourth generation of his family at the 2000-acre property at Nobby on the Darling Downs. He talks candidly to Justracing of the positives and negatives facing his family owned and operated stud in 2010.

Studmaster Gary Turkington, a fourth generation family member, who oversees the operation at what is Queensland’s oldest family owned and operated thoroughbred stud – Wattle Brae - sees many positives, but also notes one major negative surrounding the upcoming thoroughbred breeding season. With the 2010/2011 breeding season only a matter of weeks away, Gary is comfortable in the knowledge that the stud has five quality stallions standing this year, with one or more priced to suit every budget.

The roster for this year at Wattle Brae is headed up by Court Command ($13,750 service fee), the evergreen Easy Rocking $8,800, Get Square a Group winning son of champion stallion Redoute’s Choice and the imported son of Storm Cat in the shape of War Trace, who will both stand for $3,300 - and Gone West’s son Mustaneer, who surely fits within every broodmare owners budget at just $2,200.

Sit down and pull up a stump with Gary Turkington at home at the little hamlet of Nobby on the Darling Towns and he’ll exude optimism when looking at the future stud career of Wattle Brae’s dearest service fee stallion – Court Command. Racegoers in Brisbane and Sydney have seen Court Command win four Group races, rounding out those four wins with an emphatic victory, in the fast overall time of 1.18.10 (track record 1.17.09), in the Group 3 BTC Darley Sprint at Doomben over 1350 metres during the Brisbane Winter Carnival of 2009. Gary explained “As a racehorse and now stallion I’m sure he ticks all the boxes. We’ve had a great response to his progeny at the weanling sales, with five being sold at the Magic Millions sale for an average of $28,500 which meant he was one of the few first season sires that averaged more than his service fee. Then at the end of last week there was one that went through the Inglis sale and we’ve got huge accolades from the people at Inglis’ and in particular from (Inglis Director) Jonathon D’Arcy about not only the one that was in their sale, but also others they’d seen around the traps. That weanling that was in at the Inglis sale bought $52,000 and that’s just sensational off an $8,000 service fee, particularly given that most of the various sires weanlings at that sale were flat out even achieving their own sires service fee. So we at Wattle Brae are confident that sprinter/milers stock like Court Command is what the market wants. Court Command has proved to one and all that he’s a tough horse, as he came back after serving 109 mares to win a Group race.”

When the topic changed to Wattle Brae’s Mr Consistency stallion –Easy Rocking - Gary Turkington managed to smile broadly before exclaiming, “You only have to go back to last Thursday in Rockhampton and we all saw his son Baqaba win the Rockhampton Newmarket, then the horse backed up two days later, which was his third run in the space of seven days - and got beaten only narrowly in the Rockhampton Cup at his first try at 1600 metres. He’s just a very, very consistent winner producing sire Easy Rocking. He had five winners last week and that’s his style, he’ll generally throw a winner nearly every day, somewhere around the country.”

Get Square, a 2003 foaled son of Redoute’s Choice has the Wattle Brae boss bursting at the seams with excitement, as later in the year his oldest progeny will turn two-years-old and will start gracing the racetracks of Australia. “Get Square throws really top looking foals,” Gary Turkington stated adding, “He’s had some nice yearlings represent him in the sales ring and they’ve been broken in now and we are getting positive reports that they are nice movers, so we are looking forward to a very exciting time later this year. Even though Get Square was a horse that won a Group race at 2000 metres (2006 Norman Robinson Stakes at Caulfield) and 1400 metres (Maiden win on the Randwick Kensington track) his foals are thick set and look more like 2YO’s than stayers - and that’s what people seem to be wanting.”

In respect of the cheapest stallion standing at Wattle Brae Stud, Mustaneer, Gary stated, “he stands at a bargain basement fee of just a couple of thousand dollars and he himself was the dearest priced Gone West yearling sold in the world that particular year at $800,000 and he’s throwing cracker types. I reckon he’s a real smokey, if broodmare owners would like to get in on a really well bred stallion that throws good lookers.”

However whilst the Wattle Brae boss - renowned for calling a spade a spade and not a shovel – was positive about the current stallion line up, he also felt the need to throw a few left hooks and a few right crosses at where the thoroughbred industry in this State is at currently, by noting, “So as far as our year is going, our stud’s progeny are winning plenty of races, but I just hope we can get some leniency from the government and Queensland Racing and get our prizemoney going in Queensland, as that is something we are lagging a long, long, way behind in. We need to address that aspect very swiftly, as people can’t stay in the industry unless the (State) government and Queensland Racing look at the prizemoney structure, because the current system has become too inadequate to sustain racing.”

A full overview of Wattle Brae Stud is available at www.wattlebrae.com.au.