Jenny McAlpine, a popular and well known international racing and thoroughbred figure, is about to embark on her regular assignment to the December Broodmare Sales at Newmarket, in England.  

This will be her twenty first trip to what is the largest and most exclusive thoroughbred breeding auction in the world.

In her role as the Australian Representative for Tattersalls, the largest auction house in Europe is to take a group of Australian buyers over each year to Newmarket.

With the purpose of purchasing mares with suitable bloodlines that will nick with our sires here in Australia.

The sale is well attended by a number of Australian buyers in search of the best bloodlines in the world; money seems secondary now that syndication has become popular as a source of investment.

Jenny spends her five days at the December Sales, generally a dozen up to 20 mares are purchased by Australian breeders, some are flown out to various farms here, while in some cases others are agisted and remain in England.

The mares that remain in England, or Europe, and purchased by Australians will be covered to southern hemisphere time, once the foals are weaned from their mothers they are well handled ready to fly out to Australia, the mares generally remain to be covered again in England or Ireland.

It is an exciting time for Jenny, she loves it and does it so well, she is a highly respected person and trustworthy, there is no quick sell with her.

Tattersalls have already had a very successful yearling sale in October, with a filly selling for 2.6 million guineas, the highest priced to be sold in Europe, she was by Dubawi to the bid of John Ferguson, acting for Sheikh Mohammed.

The guinea is the old traditional horse selling currency of 21 shillings, the auction house receives the odd shilling, with time there have been numerous changes, however, the guinea and Tattersalls are a tradition that is not likely to change.

Jenny was raised on a stud farm Eureka, at Cambooya in Queensland, not far from where Bernborough was bred, and where The Buzzard held court on the rich Darling Downs all those years ago.

She has been among horses almost from an infant, she is no stranger to mucking out horse boxes, or preparing yearlings at sale time, she was never far away from her late father Colin, when you saw him, Jenny was generally following on from behind.

Eureka Stud was founded in 1925 by Andrew McAlpine, he was the pioneer, the Darling Downs is renowned as a great slice of horse country, however, breeding racehorses was not as lucrative as it is in the present era.

The late Colin McAlpine took Eureka over from his father, he soon became a popular and well known figure breeding horses, he made sure Queensland was fully recognised as a successful breeding state, he was a driving force within the breeding industry that at times can be frustrating.

Eureka has stood a number of successful sires over a long period, Lumley Road, by Grey Sovereign, was always prominent on the sire’s list, Colin was quite successful in more recent years with Semipalatinsk and Red Dazzler, they sired numerous winners.

Eureka has always been a family operated stud, it has survived over three generations which is quite rare, the centenary is just nine years away.

Scott McAlpine has since taken over Eureka from his late father and grandfather; he is now busy preparing the first draft of yearlings, by Spirit Of Boom, for the Magic Millions Sales in early January.

Spirit Of Boom has an excellent draft of young horses to represent him in the sale ring, he lacked nothing in ability as a racehorse, he was a brilliant sprinter earning $2.412 million in prize money.

If his progeny have inherited the same speed and toughness of their sire, there is a great future ahead of him.

He is by the brilliant Sequalo, a formidable sire of winners in Queensland.

While Jenny is employed as a public relations consultant for David Hayes, she still has her finger on the pulse at Eureka, she doesn’t miss a beat.

Jenny McAlpine with Oscietra - Black Caviars first foal