Star of the Lawlor legacy 60 years in the making

A 60-year breeding journey has delivered its ultimate reward for southwest Victorian father-and-son team Gary and Darryl Lawlor — the “best horse we’ve ever had”.

Four-year-old mare Sweet Ideal (Sweet Lou) is turning heads again in 2025 after a breakout three-year-old season that included five consecutive wins and a start in the Breeders Crown final.

“We’ve had this breed for 60 years and this is really special because Sweet Ideal is just the real deal,” Gary Lawlor, of Camperdown, said.

“The bloodline started with my father Joe, who was an expert on pedigrees and was one of the first people to bring out stallions from the USA (in the 1970s), horses like Brets Knight, Mamies Lad, and Right Retort,” he said.

“Dad had the champion Heytesbury Meadow (Meadow Vance), who won 15 three-year-old races in his year (1967).”

The bloodlines of Sweet Ideal trace back seven generations to Heytesbury Meadow, and her win at Melton on Saturday night (May 31) gave a strong indication of just how good she might be.

From barrier six, reinsman Darryl Lawlor allowed her to ease out of the gate before unleashing her in the home straight. She stormed home with the earplugs still in, scoring by eight metres.

Watch the replay here: 

“We’ve had some nice horses in the past — probably the best was Bad Billy (18 wins from 93 starts and $214K in stakes), who was in an Inter Dominion heat, but you had to drive him quiet early,” Lawlor said.

“In fact, Sweet Ideal is out of a half-sister to Bad Billy (Lagertha) – Bad Billy I would say is an eight out of 10 horse, Sweet Ideal is a 10 out of 10. She can stay, she can sprint, you can use her out of the gate and she will still have plenty to give at the end — and she’s a better horse over 2100 metres. She’s won six and we haven’t pulled the plugs on her yet,” he said.

“I break in all of the horses we breed and from the first day I put her in the cart, everything about her was perfect. I told Darryl from that first day she would be the best horse we’d ever had — and she is.”

Like many great stories, though, Sweet Ideal’s journey nearly ended before it began.

“When she was 10 days old, we sent the mum and foal to a property to be served. They were in muddy yards and Sweet Ideal came back with pneumonia and colic,” Lawlor said.

“We had our local vet look at her and she just told us to put her in the float and race her to Simon (Pearce) at Golden Plains Equine (one and a half hours away).

“Don’t stop, don’t look around, just get there. Simon and his wife Alex saved her life and nursed her back to health.

“Perhaps that’s why she’s so quiet and such a beautiful horse to handle – they only know what we teach them.”

Lawlor took out his trainer’s licence when he finished school and began working at the powerful Abrahams stable.

“My first horse was Abbe Peak and she won races at the Showgrounds when I was only about 18. In the end, with what she won and when I sold her, I had enough to pay for my first house!” he said.

“Horses have been good to me. I ended up training gallopers for about three years — by accident. I had broken in a horse for a neighbour who was a gallops trainer, and it had a few starts. But her marriage broke down and she asked me to buy the horse from her,” he said.

“It was called Opposing Miracle and ended up winning $85,000 for us. She won 10 and I had a few other handy ones. I finished up winning 33 races over three years, but in the end, once my kids grew up and didn’t want to ride trackwork anymore, it was too hard to get riders.”

Now retired, Gary is looking forward to the fun that lies ahead with son Darryl and his family.

“We’re only working two and we do everything together with the horses, so where we race her will depend on Darryl’s availability,” he said.

“I’m retired, but he is an electrician at Bulla — the ice cream factory — and working all hours of the day and night, 60 hours a week. He has two teenagers who play sport and do a lot of things.

“So we’ll just take it one run at a time, and because we own her, it doesn’t matter if she does or doesn’t chase those big races. She can run a last quarter at Terang in 26 outside the witches’ hats any day of the week though — so I think that’ll take her a long way!”

Sweet Ideal’s next assignment is back at Melton on Saturday night (June 7). See fields here:

From Terry Gange for Harnesslink