A carefully planned breeding program devised more than 10 years ago is starting to come to fruition for Western Victorian breeder Lyndon Turner.
Hailing from a beef cattle background, Turner ranks as the breeder of one of the State’s most outstanding juveniles in Cardigan Sniper, who won a heat of the APG Vicbred Super Series at Melton last Friday and will be highly favoured for the Group 1 $150,000 Final on September 12.
The Ultimate Sniper colt has won five of his six starts to date including the $100,000 Australian Pacing Gold Final and the Victoria Youthful Stakes.
Cardigan Sniper is the seventh foal and sixth winner out of the superbly bred, unraced Artsplace mare Pastels.
“She missed last season but she’s in foal to Ride High which is pretty exciting,” Lyndon said.
Turner said he has been interested in horse racing for most of his life.
“I’ve always loved horses. I worked at a couple of thoroughbred studs before taking a managerial role at Bruce Edward’s Durham Park Standardbreds,” he said.
“After that I decided to have a go at breeding some horses myself. I bought a second property at Crowlands near Ararat, put some infrastructure in and started sourcing mares from good families.”
Turner believes his formula for success is based around husbandry, the pedigree matching of broodmares and the rearing of the foals.
“I’m very fussy with the husbandry, the feeding and the individualisation of each mare and foal.
“I feel privileged to be able to do what I am doing. It requires being able to afford to do it and to have the interest and passion.”
Turner has a 13-strong broodmare band at his 50 acre spread MyParis Farms, named after his daughter Paris.
“I breed five or six foals every year. I’ve got five foals on the ground and four mares to foal and five already booked for the coming season,” Lyndon said.
“I’ve been selling exclusively at the Sydney sales for the last two years and I’ll be selling there again in 2027.”
He rates Cardigan Sniper as the best juvenile he’s ever bred but he has a soft spot for Eyethink.
“He was an exceptionally good pacer who unfortunately suffered an injury. He won $120,000 from limited racing opportunities,” Lyndon stated.
War Western, who won almost $100,000 around the NSW provincials, the cup winning trotter Faith Full and the Group 1 finalist Paris Jamilla have been other smart performers bred by Turner.
- Ideal Frankie and Kahula, who won heats of the Vicbred Super Series for two-year-old fillies at Melton, are out of Vicbred champions in Pistol Abbey and Kualoa respectively
- Springfield Affair, a winner in 1:49 at Menangle on Saturday night, was bred by veteran Goulburn Valley enthusiast Ian Douglas
- The four-year-old Viva Storm, who posted her second success at the Ballarat midweek meeting, was bred by Jane Hearn and John Nalder, of Dunroamin Standardbreds, Congupna
