Under the banner of his Lomar Park Stud, Fred Peisah, a Sydney solicitor with a passion for thoroughbred breeding, will be the only vendor at the 2019 Sydney yearling sales who was in charge a consignment, his first, fifty years ago.
There will be lots this year from several other vendors who sold in1969, namely Widden and Newhaven Park, leading stud farms still in the same family, but managed by later generations. Also represented in both years are drafts from Bhima, Segenhoe,Yarraman Park and Sledmere, but proprietorship has changed.
The1969 sales were Fred Peisah’s first appearance as a vendor under his newly established Lomar Park stud, one at Werombi in the eastern foothills of the mountains an hour’s drive south west of Sydney city. It was an introduction to a breeding farm which has been a significant player in the industry ever since.
Guided by Peter Nicole, a very knowledgeable student of breeding who was a sad loss when asthma destroyed him in his prime, Lomar Park got a big lift in stature when its foundation sire, Le Cordonnier (GB), a son of Saint Crespin 111 and a Honeway mare produced by a daughter of Star Kingdom’s sire Stardust, was immediately high class as a sire. He had been a leading European 2yo and prominent middle distance performer at three and four.
Le Cordonnier’s first foals, offspring born in 1969 and sold at 1971 sales, earned for him the 1971-72 first season sire title and saw him finish third leading juvenile sire.
Contributors from the first crop included Sovereign Slipper (racing in Sydney he won the Sires’ Produce Stakes, Breeders’ Plate, Silver Slipper and, against older horses, a Flying Handicap, and third placed in the Golden Slipper) and Sabot (in Melbourne the Edward Manifold and Bloodhorse Breeders’ Stakes, 2nd Maribyrnong Trial, 3rd Vic Oaks and One Thousand Guineas).
Le Cordonnier went on to have 285 winners, a remarkably high 85.2%, from 383 starters, a big percentage reared on the mountains lowlands that hosted Lomar Park
Many of the early Le Cordonnier winners were from mares acquired by Peisah who rose up over modest backgrounds to become the ancestors of good horses produced on Lomar Park ever since. One of these mares, unraced Social Smile (GB), a daughter of little known Golden Cloud sire Ennis and a grandaugher of a half-sister to Smokey Eyes (Ire), a good Stardust English sprinter who from use at the Lyndhurst Stud at Warwick in Queensland was record source of winners, has to date been ancestress of more than one hundred winners raised on Lomar Park. Nearly all of them have been by Lomar Park sires.
Social Smile supplied nine winners, all her starters, including the good Lomar Park producers La Femme (Le Cordonnier; 12 foals, all winners), Reason to Smile (Le Cordonnier; seven winners), Sea Holly (Fairs Fair (GB); eight to race, all winners), Ever Elegant (Steel Pulse; 11 winners), Social Heir (Le Cordonnier; 8 winners) and Imperious (Le Cordonnier; 5 winners).
Among stakes winners raised on Lomar Park descending from Social Smile have been Moment’s Pleasure (G2 winner, G1 2nd), Razor Sharp (champion sprinter,15 wins, VRC Newmarket-G1 twice), Steel Blade (11 wins to G2), Sail to Glory (to L, 2nd Flight Stakes-G2), Robian Steel (won QTC Stradbroke-G1, 2nd Doomben 10,000-G1), Super Elegant (19 wins, SAJC Goodwood-G1, Doomben 10,000-G1), Elegancy (12 wins to G2), Mister Elegant (14 wins to G3), Miss Fantabulous (4 wins to G2), Regal Chamber (won STC Magic Night-G2, 3rd Golden Slipper-G1), My Lady’s Chamber (Canberra National Sprint, 2nd Flight Stakes-G1), Valentia (G2 Skyline), Kid Choisir (triple Listed winner Perth), Highlad (Rotorua Cup, Wanganui Guineas) and Rock the Moment (Tasmanian Gold Sovereign Stakes.
Eight of the eleven yearlings under Lomar Park in the Inglis Classic sale catalogue are descendants of Social Smile, seven of them having his grandaughter La Maison as their third or fourth dam.
The Lomar Park contribution includes colts by Choisir, Rubick, Exosphere and Zoustar and fillies by Choisir (2), Star Witness (2), Dawn Approach (2) and Zoustar.
