Redistribution Of Wealth In Its Purest Form

Alfred Grant’s ghost is not amused.

He didn’t think he’d see the day when his reputation as the last of the Queensland big spenders would be usurped.

Well, it’s been left in tatters by Nathan Tinkler’s Patinack Farm which spent about $11 million at Karaka and Melbourne yearling sales (mere practice runs for the real thing coming up) plus racing stables and studs, plus a raft of potential stallions - each delighted to find a home - plus broodmares and untold private purchases … if the bloke’s got any change out of $45 million so far he and his advisers are not really trying.

I raised my eyebrows when I noticed Patinack bought the top-priced mare at Deauville late last year (for about A$1.25m), by a sire which has never sired a stakeswinner (oldest progeny are now five) out of a dam which was 22 when she produced it, and the mare in question raced twice, finishing out of sight both times. Here is a serious player. Mr Tinkler is cashed up and obviously in a hurry.

The forthcoming MM/Sydney yearling and breeding stock sales might be great spectator sport.

Patinack’s also stolen the thunder of the originally Queensland-based Wadham Park, the 2003 lovechild of former Toll Holdings chairman Peter Rowsthorn. Wadham Park has spent well over $20 million on yearlings as well as entering the stud business with Econsul and Grey Swallow (after the Cox Plate debacle) and setting up a number of elaborate complexes, some of which are now on the market. I’d only be guessing but the total spend must be in the order of $60- $70 million. Most of Wadham Park’s serious purchases are just three- and two-year-olds of the current season so plenty can still happen, but the outfit’s a black hole up to this point. Standing Ovation ($1.3 million worth of Sadler’s Wells-Ha Ha colt), judged by his fifth of eight at Bendigo on Thursday, has a way to go.

At every gathering of racing/breeding types these days, I hear them tut-tutting under their breath, wondering out loud how come the likes of Tinkler and Rowsthorn don’t realise they are wood ducks. Despite my reservations about the Deauville mare (above), I’m definitely not one of those people. I hold the view that anyone smart enough to have made as much money as Tinkler and Rowsthorn are nobody’s wood ducks. Not even in racing, where rich men and their money are so easily parted. To the contrary, these guys will be as they were in their other business: in control, aided by trusted advisors, calling the shots and buying only what they want and happy with the prices, irrespective of how it might look to the casual observer. They will be fully aware they are a mark.

Tinkler and Rowsthorn are the best thing to have happened to breeding/racing in the last five years. They are spreading their largesse and enriching a helluva lot of people on the way through. It’s redistribution of wealth in its purest form. They should be on everyone’s Christmas card list.