Nick Williams has confirmed that Macedon Lodge, the racing operation which he co-owns with father Lloyd, will not be importing anymore horses from Europe.
Imported stayer Green Moon won the 2012 Melbourne Cup for the Macedon Lodge team. Photo by: Steve Hart
Team Williams has had great success purchasing horses from Europe to run in staying races in Australia, most notably with 2012 Melbourne Cup winner Green Moon and 2013 Sydney Cup winner Mourayan, but Williams revealed on the Racing Ahead radio program that economic concerns have now made the importation of top level horses impractical.
“I think that we have got the view that we would love to buy some more but the Irish, English and French have worked out the Australians,” Williams said.
“They are good traders over there they have put the prices up about fifty percent.
“The way the Aussie Dollar is going it makes it totally unfeasible to be buying any at this point.”
Although they won’t be adding any new European stayers to the stable this year, Macedon Lodge still has a very strong team heading to the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival.
Green Moon is set to take part in the Cox Plate (2040m) and is still a chance to defend his Melbourne Cup (3200m) title while Seville, who finished second in the 2012 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) but missed the rest of the spring with injury, is considered the stables leading hope for ‘the race that stops a nation’.
Arguably the most exciting prospect is the recently imported Sea Moon who is yet to make his racing debut in Australia.
The rising five-year-old has form around some of the leading European imports who have had success in Australia and defeated Dunaden, Red Cadeaux, Jakkalberry, Fiorente and My Quest For Peace at level weights in the 2012 Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes (2414m).
“I think they will end up with a lot of horses up there that they thought they would sell but they won’t,” Williams said.
“We are lucky that we put together a good team last year that will last us a few years because we certainly can’t deal with them up there at the moment.”
