Every breeding season brings tales of joy and sometimes sadness and the team at Cressfield have ridden the emotional highs and lows over the past month with Operations Manager Liesl Wickson sharing her story of two remarkable mares and a prized colt.
Not long after Stefi Magnetica triumphed in the Group I Stradbroke in June 2024, comparisons began to surface between her and her dam, Mid Summer Music, who had also secured a Stradbroke victory in 2012.
Both mother and daughter, though modest in stature and unremarkable in appearance, defied expectations to become stars on the racetrack and Mid Summer Music later earned a reputation as one of Cressfield’s most esteemed broodmares.
Sadly, life’s parallels would strike again for this family.
Mid Summer Music was raised as an orphan after her dam, Samsara Lady, died during foaling. Tragically, history would repeat itself.
On September 1, 2024, just 18 hours after the birth of her final colt by All Too Hard—a full sibling to Stefi Magnetica—Mid Summer Music passed away, leaving her newborn an orphan as well.
Given the sudden loss, the response to care for the colt had to be swift. The team at Cressfield quickly arranged for emergency milk from Scone Equine Hospital to ensure the foal was fed through the night, transitioning to hourly bottle feeding. However, bottle-rearing is labour-intensive and doesn’t allow foals to learn crucial social cues from their mothers, making long-term bottle feeding impractical.
“After Mid Summer Music passed, I knew we needed a nurse mare for the colt,” said Liesl Wickson, Cressfield’s Operations Manager.
“When I called Ezy Care Nannies and learned there were no nanny mares available, we had to devise a Plan B.
“Last season we were able to induce lactation in a lovely kind Clydesdale mare and foster a foal onto her, so taking that experience we had with her I looked at our own paddock of dry mares for a potential candidate to do similar.”
With the criteria for a calm, quiet mare that has had foals previously in mind, Liesl quickly landed on dual Group I winner Platelet as the mare most likely to fit the bill.
“We initiated the lactation induction protocol with Platelet the next day, which can take up to a week to produce enough milk for a foal. But getting a mare to accept a foal when she hasn’t recently given birth is another challenge altogether,” Liesl explained.
After diligently following the induction regimen and successfully generating a healthy milk supply, Cressfield staff felt both eager and apprehensive about introducing the Mid Summer Music foal to Platelet.
“There was no need for nerves,” Liesl recalled. “As we approached with the foal, Platelet looked intently at him and nickered, showing us positive signs she would accept him.”
After observing Platelet’s positive behaviour toward the foal for 24 hours in a stable next door, the decision was made to bring them together.
Platelet showed no signs of rejecting the colt, despite not having raised a foal since 2021. She patiently waited for his nursing instinct to kick in again. It was as if he had always belonged to her.
While Platelet was a dual Group I winner of the Goodwood and the Robert Sangster Stakes and had yearlings sell up to $1.8m, there is no doubt in Liesl’s mind this has been Platelet’s most notable achievement.
“Every day, I feel a deep gratitude towards her. There’s a beautiful symmetry in it all—the son of a Group I winner and sibling to another, being raised by a Group I winner. It’s a story that truly writes itself,” Liesl concluded.
News from Cressfield
