By Daithi Harvey
As the crow flies the Fitzsimons family's Oak Lodge Stud in Naas must be one of the closest stud farms to Goffs, but the 10- strong draft of foals consigned under the banner of Oak Lodge & Springfield House Stud this week have just a slightly longer journey to make to get to the sales. Linda Coffey, a daughter of Oak Lodge's Pat and Claire Fitzsimons, is the spokesperson for the Springfield House side of the partnership and she explained to the TDN how the structure came about.
“Myself and my husband Reddy acquired Springfield House Stud in Laois back in 2006 with the intention of bringing the two farms together under the one banner to provide a full service to the bloodstock industry, from breeding, consigning, pinhooking, boarding, foaling and standing stallions,” Coffey said. “Obviously we don't have any stallions at the moment but that is something that we could look at again if the right opportunity arose. Heliostatic (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) was the last stallion we had here but he is in Argentina now where I believe he is doing quite well.”
With the stallion business so competitive and difficult to break into at a high level Coffey and her husband have meanwhile been building up the other facets of their business over the past decade. “When we bought Springfield House we built a state-of- the-art foaling unit and have added extensively to the overall facilities, so we are well set up to cater for any aspect of the business,” she added. “We do a lot of boarding for international clients. The farm is very centrally located for stallion farms around the country so it's quite handy when transporting broodmares.”
This week at Goffs the Oak Lodge & Springfield House draft of foals has a decidedly Italian flavour to it with the majority of foals bred from former Italian race mares that board at Coffey's farm. One of these, lot 551, is a Night Of Thunder (Ire) colt out of the eight-time winner Paris To Peking (Ity) (Intikhab) who scored three times in stakes company for trainer Stefano Botti.
“He's a lovely, big, strong chestnut colt. The mare had a lovely Teofilo (Ire) colt that we sold last year as a foal and he sold quite well as a yearling in Italy in September,” Coffey said.
Another Italian stakes performer represented in the draft is March Madness (GB) (Noverre) who is the dam of lot 758, a filly by Kodiac (GB). The dam's first foal Candy Store (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) is a high-class performer and having won the G3 Premio Elena e Sergio Cumani at San Siro last year, she proved her worth internationally when winning at Saratoga earlier this summer for her current trainer Christophe Clement and owner Speedway Stable.
“She is a really smart foal and her sister is a very good filly so she should sell well,” Coffey said. Coffey echoed that remark when describing another Kodiac filly, lot 701, out of the winning Galileo (Ire) mare Galmalea (Ire).
Interest in the progeny of Irish National Stud stallion Free Eagle (Ire) has increased since his first foals came on stream last year with his yearlings this autumn headed by a €400,000 colt that sold to Shadwell in the Orby Sale and it will be interesting if that positive momentum continues with his second crop of foals this week. The Coffeys offer a colt by the sire as lot 501 and this May foal is a half-brother to the prolific 22-time winner Regarde Moi (GB) (King's Best) and five other winners.
“He is quite young so he won't be the biggest foal in the sale but he is a nice horse and it will be interesting to see how he will be received. Overall we are just trying to present nice horses; the market is so unforgiving at the moment and you won't get very far if your horses are not up to scratch,” Coffey added.
Oak Lodge & Springfield also offer foals by two Tally-Ho Stud first crop sires in Vadamos (Fr) and Mehmas (Ire). Although the good-looking son of Monsun (Ger) was a stakes winner over a mile-and-a-half as a 3-year-old, it was over a mile that Vadamos excelled later in his career as evident by his win in the G1 Qatar Prix Du Moulin at ParisLongchamp as a 5-year-old.
“The foals by Vadamos are nice; they look like they are going to develop into big, strong horses with plenty of bone and substance. We've actually held back one of our own that we bred to offer as a yearling next year,” Coffey explained. “The Mehmas filly we have [lot 102] is out of a stakes winner called Virgin Queen (Ire) (Iffraaj GB}) and she seems like a lovely straightforward filly with a great temperament,” she added.
In between selling, Coffey and her husband will also be trying to acquire a few foals for resale next year to supplement the homebred yearlings that will be offered for auction.
“We do like to buy a small number of foals each year just to mix up the yearling draft a bit the following year. As breeders it's hard to sell homebred foals and yearlings and have high quality drafts of each, so we tend to focus on selling foals belonging to clients and then concentrate on selling our own stock as yearlings.”
The Fitzsimons and Coffeys were indeed proud breeders this year when they watched their former protege Blue Point (Ire) (Shamardal) win the G1 King's Stand S. at Royal Ascot in June. The Godolphin-owned colt was bred by Oak Lodge Bloodstock out of the now 17-year-old mare Scarlett Rose (GB) (Royal Applause {GB}), who is thankfully still going strong and being prepared for the 2019 breeding season. “Unfortunately Scarlett Rose is barren this year but we sold a Night Of Thunder (Ire) yearling colt out of her at Tattersalls in October. She looks great and she had an Invincible Spirit (Ire) filly foal this year who we will probably offer at the sales next year. The foal was born a bit late so we rested her this year so hopefully we can get her in foal nice and early next year.”
Scarlett Rose is in good company at Springfield House as Marlinka (GB) (Marju {Ire}), best known as the dam of dual Group 1 winner and 6-million gns mare Marsha (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}), is also a long-term guest at the farm.
“We keep Marlinka here at Springfield for Elite Racing Club; we foaled Marsha and everything else out of the mare and she has a lovely Dark Angel (Ire) yearling filly that is going into training soon with Sir Mark Prescott so that will be exciting to follow her progress.”
Springfield House is not the only offshoot of Oak Lodge Stud in existence. Indeed, the original farm name can also be found in Kentucky where Coffey's brother Alan Fitzsimons operates Oak Lodge USA. “Alan and his wife Suzy established Oak Lodge USA in Paris, near Lexington, around the same time we set up Springfield,” Coffey explained. “They provide a similar range of services: boarding, pinhooking, foaling, etc., and they seem to be getting on very well over there.”
With Ireland well covered and an operation at the epicenter of American bloodstock, the Oak Lodge & Springfield banner is well positioned to remain at the forefront of the industry internationally.
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