Owner Spotlight, Alistair McFarlane 29/12/08

OWNER SPOTLIGHT
Alistair McFarlane
Alistair McFarlane is an interesting bloke.
Arriving in Australia from Scotland in the early 1950s, he tried his hand at real estate and kangaroo shooting … moved to Canada and worked in a gold and nickel mine, then in a bank, before switching to an electronics company, ending up as a manager.
Eventually Alistair would secure a Ricoh dealership, selling office equipment, before returning to Australia in the mid 90s.
It was then he purchased Tori Park in South Australia and decided to get involved in the thoroughbred caper. But he and wife Patty have certainly made up for lost time: kicking off with just a couple of mares, Tori Park has produced – since August 2004 – 34 winners from 41 runners.
Amazingly, 21% of them are stakes performers including multiple Group One winner Hollow Bullet, Blahnik (Adelaide Guineas-G3), Red Hot Mama (Myer Stakes-LR) and Elysees (Pewsey Vale Stakes-LR), along with the stakesplaced One of a Kind, Lust for Dust, Sebrie, Thesandmancan and Steel My Heart.
An astonishing record!
A proud shareholder in Champion Victorian Sire, Bel Esprit, Alistair was on hand at Cheltenham on Boxing Day to cheer home first starter, Esprit de Bullet, who notched up yet another city win for Tori Park and the highly prolific mare, Beat The Bullet.
The dam of five winners from five to race, Beat The Bullet has produced Hollow Bullet and Red Hot Mama, while Esprit de Bullet – based on his debut – could well become the third to snare black type.
Alistair is adamant Tori Park is going to produce a champion by Bel Esprit and, based on ‘form’, who could argue?
Meanwhile, Tori Park has a Shamardal from Beat The Bullet to sell at Easter ’09 and as you can see from the accompanying photo, Alistair looks like heading to Sydney again in 2010 with the God’s Own colt foaled on 13 November.
Tori Park will also be front and centre in Adelaide, with a pair of Bel Esprits : namely a filly from Bold Reef (who won 10 of 17 starts with Phillip Stokes) and a colt out of home bred Penny Dane, a daughter of Sydney stakeswinner Penny Row and closely related to black typers Tempestuous, Rich Pageantry, Speedy King and Miss Pageantry
Alistair is currently equal 2nd on the Bel Esprit Owners Club Leaderboard, to be published in the New Year.