Llowalong Farms looking fresh this season

New Zealander Paxton Conder knew little about harness racing’s Llowalong Farms stud prior to being introduced to its owner, Kath McIntosh, by Ken Breckon from Breckon Farms.

Based in the Waikato, Conder recently launched her own marketing business and is being contracted by Llowalong Farms to promote the New Zealand side of their business.

“I was talking to him (Ken) one day and told him I was looking at going out on my own. Ken knew Kath and they had booked a few mares into King Of The North. Ken put me in touch with her and it all stemmed from there,” Conder said.

Paxton comes from a showjumping background and, after attending university, she became the marketing manager for the Counties Racing Club before heading to Dunstan Horsefeeds.

Part of her contract with Llowalong has been to create a new, easy-to-navigate website. Designed by a Waikato developer, Conder is responsible for the content, and she says they’re pleased with the result.

“We’ve been working on that for the last four or five months and it was great to get that live in the last couple of weeks. The NR (Northern Rivers Equine) and the veterinary side of the business will run through the old site. The stallion and farm side of the business will run through the new website and it just allows a clean and easy focus for our breeders to get on there and see what it’s all about.”

Conder says the new site allows breeders to book their mares to Llowalong stallions and complete their contracts online.

“There’ll be the odd one we’ll be helping out and we’ll be offering paper copies for them (laughter).”

Formed in 2009, Northern Rivers Equine Veterinary Clinic and Llowalong Farms is an equine-cattle clinic and stud farm located in Kyabram, Victoria Australia and is run by McIntosh.

“Kath is an absolute superwoman and I don’t know how she fits everything into her day, especially at this time of year. She’s actually collecting from all the stallions herself. She has a grasp on the harness racing industry in both Australia and New Zealand. Llowalong are big sponsors across the industry and she also runs the farm.”

Since 2017 the stud component of Northern Rivers Equine has grown into the world class facilities that now present a world-class stallion line-up.

Leading the roster at Llowalong is millionaire world champion son of Walner, King Of The North, who’s returning for his second season in Australasia.

Last season King Of The North showed his excellent fertility when he was bred to by 151 mares.

“It’s great to have the Walner bloodline on offer Down Under. He’s got the hundred thousand bonus attached to him. If you breed to King Of The North this season, you’re eligible for that $100,000 bonus. If your horse wins the 2028 Sires’ Stakes Two Year Old Trotting Final and it’s by King Of The North, you’ll take home an additional $100,000. If that’s not an incentive to breeders, I don’t know what is. If the horse is sold, the bonus moves with the horse.”

Conder says the uptake on King Of The North has been strong.

“The breeders will be going around for plenty of money if they’ve got the progeny of King Of The North in that race. We’ve had six mares booked by Jack Harrington so he was one of the trainers to put his hat in the ring.”

In a nice touch, Llowalong has also donated a service fee to King Of The North to Michael Ward, on behalf of the late Katie Cox.

“Katie’s mare Chesterfield has been booked to King Of The North. So it was great to offer that service fee back to her family to see them have a foal on the ground this year after that awful tragedy.”

Breckon Farms has sent trotting mare Tickle Me Pink (Muscle Hill-Luby Ann) to King Of The North and she’s had a positive scan. Tickle Me Pink won nine races including the Group One Three Year Old Ruby, the Group Two Sires’ Stakes Championship and the Group Three Northern Trotting Oaks.

Conder reports that Breckon’s mare Alanah Hall (Angus Hall – Regal Volo) has just produced a King Of The North filly foal, while Muscle Girl (Muscle Hill – Anreca Hest) owned by Brad Reid and Tom Bagrie has had a colt by King Of The North.

On the pacing front, Poster Boy leads the lineup at Llowalong.

He has strong bloodlines, being by Somebeachsomewhere out of the Artsplace mare Aston Villa.

Poster Boy crafted a fine career on the racetrack. He won 22 of his 30 starts, including five Group Ones. His biggest win was in the 2019 Chariots Of Fire in a lifetime mark of 1:49.1.

His stud career began on a positive note with his first crop launching him to the top of the 2024 Australian First Season Sire table.

“Poster Boy has been massive this year which has been great. He’s fully booked in Australia, and we’ve seen a lot of bookings to him in New Zealand. There have been some good results from his progeny on the track. He was hugely popular when I toured New Zealand during the breeders’ seminars. There were a lot of questions around Poster Boy.”

The millionaire son of American Ideal, Soho Tribeca, also stands at Llowalong Farms.

He won 21 races over four seasons including three Group One features.

He was a winner, and a Breeders Crown finalist at two and came into his own as a three-year-old, winning eight of his 20 starts. As a four-year-old, Soho Tribeca proved to be one of the best of his age and sex, winning the $200,000 WA Golden Nugget and a heat, semi-final and the $120,000 final of the Vicbred Series.

Soho Tribeca set the seal for his greatness in his five-year-old campaign, earning a whopping $670,544 from 19 starts.

“The future of those pacing boys (Soho Tribeca and Poster Boy) is here at Llowalong.”

Raging Bull, after spending the early part of his career in New Zealand, is now based at Llowalong Farms.

Since 2013 from limited opportunities, Raging Bull has sired Wildwest (1:52.8, $603,000), Our Bare Knuckle (1:51.5, $100,000) and Princess Holly ($110,000; 1:52.3).

“He hasn’t been hugely supported in New Zealand which is a shame. His foals are really strong and trainers are seeing a lot of speed in them.”

Pastor Stephen adds further strength to the trotting roster at Llowalong.

On the racetrack he earned more than a million dollars and he has let down to be a tall outstanding looking stallion.

“We offered a free service to him during the Breeders Seminars, and it was won by Andrew Henderson from Canterbury. He’s got Gaytana (Trixton) booked into Pastor Stephen this year.”

Helpisontheway is another trotter on the Llowalong Farms roster.

“He’s very popular over in the US. At five-and-a-half grand in Australia and five in New Zealand he’s one that can certainly be looked at too. We were talking the other day and it was said that there are 14 mares available for every stallion this year so there are a lot stallions out there.”

Completing the Llowalong lineup is Yankee Rockstar.

“Kath has ownership in him. He’s only available in Australia.”

With a strong line-up of stallions catering for most breeding tastes and appealing to a wide budget range Llowalong has plenty of appeal to breeders as we get well into another breeding cycle.

“One would say this is the time to breed if we’re going to be seeing less horses around. We’ve got all these races that have come along with the support of Entain. It would be a real shame if we didn’t have the horses on the ground to support these additional races,” said Conder.

To visit Llowalong Farms new website, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink