Australian Sprint Horses - Super Sprint Horse Racing

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STUD HISTORY
Ken Fogarty owned The Palms Resort in the hinterland of Queenslands Goldcoast and was a man of some affluence and influence, who had a passion for Sprint Racing. Ken won Queenslands first Sprint Race on registered tracks at Esk on 2^nd Sept 1978 with Thunder Not ( Thunder Alone AJC ) ridden over 520m by M. Marion. He continued breeding and training throughout the haydays of sprinting until the AJC closed them down in 1993. (Little wonder when the Sprint Meeting at Clifford Park on Boxing Day 1981 set new records, in the 120 year history of Toowoomba Turf Club, for prize money, nominations and attendance. Could we have been a little too popular for the AJC’s comfort?)

Ken’s F6Q Brand was carried by some of the greatest – Sava Jet, Model Bird, Bellard Bird and Sava Lady for example. In the late 1980’s Ken formed an alliance with Curly & Dulcie Steward’s Curly D Stud, recently moved from Sydney to Toowoomba where it was all happening then. The already powerful CD Brand continued breeding great stock with Model Bird becoming the resident sire.

When Sprint Racing was taken off the registered tracks in 1993 Ken naturally downsized his operation, but kept his most cherished breeding stock until, due to health problems, they were offered for sale as a package in 1997. We purchased the package and a new Stud was formed.

To this nucleus of mares we set about adding the best performed mares available from that era and the bar was set at it’s highest level. To these we added daughters of Toowoomba Sires Produce winners Dozen Editions and Dandelion ( Cebu Duchess AJC ) and a daughter of the great Supreme Jet (Smart Jet AJC). To these we then added some younger Quarter Horse mares who had not yet had the opportunity to prove themselves on the track, but with outstanding pedigrees.

During this process Touch of Mighty presented us with a magnificent colt foal that was built like a Brick S***House! We decided that to name him that way was probably not acceptable, but being by Model Bird we settled on Brick Birdhouse. Birdhouse Stud was born – along with this colt.

Birdhouse Stud originated in Toowoomba, and after moving to South Australia for two and a half years (in the expectation of sprint racing happening there) we have now returned to Toowoomba.

When racing commences at Adelaide, we will be training on the track and breeding in Queensland.

Our breeding philosophy is a mix and match approach to produce horses with the temperament, muscling and early speed of the Quarter Horse with some added leg and athleticism from selected Thoroughbred lines.

Over the past seven years we have used the sires Model Bird, Im Dandy-TB, Instant Reaction, Ala Dozen, Currajon Caseys Luck and Lets Fly Savannah, and the home-grown Brick Birdhouse, Strike Me Lucky and Biscalight.

Models Birds' credentials speak for themselves - holding the 400m track record at Toowoomba for some time, and later becoming Australia's leading sprint sire.

Im Dandy-TB, a son of Vain-TB, is a strong boned, well muscled sire producing quality stock.

Instant Reaction is possibly the best son of Easy Dozen, and a great racehorse and sire in his own right. He was the fastest ever qualifier for the Toowoomba Sires Produce.

Ala Dozen is, as yet unproven, but being by Instant Reaction from a daughter of the great Femme Fatale(imp), he is not likely to let us down.

Caseys Luck is the winner of numerous sprints including the All Australian Futurity. His two year olds competed in the 2003 All Australian at Gympie, with Sunday Son easily defeating the All Australian field on the first day. He had his mind on the fillies in the final and subsequently had a visit from the vet! Fortune Cookie ran 3rd in the All Australian carrying 20kg more than her allocated weight.

                                               Ruby Duby
                                               Goetta
                                               Chrislyn Calendar Girl
                                               Lady Simba
                                               Casey Mae
                                               Grandstand Wedgtail

The horseman behind Birdhouse Stud and Training Stables is Steve Hogno. Steve boasts a highly successful history of competitive riding dating back to the late 1950’s. He won his first Open Campdraft at Tamworth while still eligible for the Junior ranks, and went on to compete in Polo, Tent Pegging, Shows and Rodeo at the highest level.

In the early 80’s Steve’s interest turned to Sprint Racing and, soon after he moved to Queensland and gained an Open Trainers Licence on the Darling Downs. He is one of the few remaining active Sprint Trainers who have competed under the stringent controls of the AJC Stewards.

Apart from full-time employment Steve takes care of all the Breaking, Training, Farrier duties, Stud Management and a lot of the veterinary tasks.

The other half of Birdhouse Stud is Debbie Lee. Deb loves her horses and their babies and takes great pride in seeing them develop into race winners. While working hard at Stud duties, Deb’s main focus has been to produce the Pedigree Database which now boasts over 120,000 horses linking Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds. Her dedication, research and data entry skills are quite amazing, and the efforts of a single operative has resulted in accuracy and uniformity not found in other registries.