Blue Diamond Stakes: Glenlogan Park chasing big pay day with Rulership

Blue Diamond fancy Rulership is out to continue a golden run for Queensland nursery Glenlogan Park since it decided to ditch the sire business and focus on taking small shares in well-bred yearlings.

• Eustace torn between Diamond beauties
• Star colt will ‘need some luck’ after Diamond draw

Blue Diamond fancy Rulership is out to continue a golden little run for Queensland nursery Glenlogan Park since it decided to change direction three years ago.

Once the home of Queensland’s best stallion roster, Glenlogan principal Jon Haseler and his manager Steve Morley decided to opt out of the sire business, instead concentrating on a stronger broodmare band and taking small shares in well-bred yearlings.

The first crop included Group 1-placed Reloaded (a runner in Saturday’s Hobartville Stakes at Rosehill) and Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Exceedance.

Watch over 50 sports LIVE on Kayo! Stream to your TV, mobile, tablet or computer. Just $25/month, cancel anytime. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >

Rulership is second favourite in the Blue Diamond Stakes. Picture: Getty Images

This year’s group of two-year-olds could produce even more lucrative results.

Rulership, considered the main danger to Hanseatic in Saturday’s $1.5 million Blue Diamond, is joined by Aim, Bartley, Postcode, Wild Ruler and Wednesday’s impressive Kensington winner Barbaric.

“We’re loving looking after a high-quality broodmare band and though our shares in the racehorses only range from five to 25 per cent, it’s terrific being involved in horses like Exceedance and Rulership,” Morley said.

“Jon’s always been a very passionate racing and breeding man. He’s getting a lot of satisfaction and a lot of joy sharing in the ownership of live genuine chances in the biggest races in the country.

“We’re really looking forward to this weekend. We think Rulership has an undeniable chance. Both Peter Snowden and Mark Zahra felt that first run at Caulfield would be a massive leg up going forward. They are both quite bullish that Rulership can turn the tables.”

Morley said he and Haseler had no regrets about changing the business model three years ago.

“At the time neither side of government had shown a commitment to the Queensland racing industry, or shown support, comparative to what they are privileged to down south,” Morley said. “Queensland was going backwards.

Glenlogan Park manager Steve Morley is enjoying the ride Rulership.

“We had the ability with the farm to be involved on the national stage and breed a higher end product, and that’s what we decided to do.”

The waters have changed a lot since then, with the Labor government now contributing an extra $41 million directly to the industry each year, courtesy of the Country Racing Package and Point of Consumption tax negotiations, the latter of which Morley was part of the thoroughbred representation to government.

“It was great to see the industry come together as one and really stand beside each other for something that was so important,” he said.

“That was the biggest investment we’ve seen from a government for a long time – even though we think they should go even further – and the team at Racing Queensland has done a terrific job slowly turning the Titanic.

“Although we no longer stand stallions, we are still passionate Queensland racing supporters and love to see our old stallions do well, like Rothesay at the moment with Rothfire.

“There’s some real optimism in Queensland racing right now.”