Turnermarks Linesman is one of those special horses that has been bred from a mare that boasts everything that is outstanding in a competition horse and by a sire that again boasts a mare line that is the envy of breeders wishing to achieve the ultimate horse.
Hingis was bred, broken in and trained by the late Barry Southern. She always showed her tremendous potential and when she entered Rohan Marks team after Barry’s tragic passing he knew she was better than good as she travelled nicely and chased her cattle beautifully for a young mare. She was Rookie Horse ready and has never looked back. Rohan campaigned her initially until they decided a better fit for the team was for Rohan to take over Cowboy and Kerry to take the rides on Hingis. The rest is history and Kerry and Hingis have developed into a powerhouse team and are the only living Lady Rider Gold Cup winning duo.
Hingis is a mare that needs no introduction because of her own achievements being a Warwick Gold Cup winner, a winner of the Do It For Dolly Series, Barnes Trophy winner, Canning Downs and Gold Cup average winner and numerous Opens and Ladies, however it is by studying the form of her brothers and sisters and her progeny that we can really understand what a genetic powerhouse she is. Her dam, Bookine Patsy, is the dam of Tradition, Roma, Devotion and Hingis. Both Hingis and Roma are Gold Cup winners while Tradition was the winner of numerous Opens, ran 2nd in a Warwick Stallion Draft and is a successful sire of campdraft horses including John Mulcahy’s TKO, Chinchilla Clock winner and Barnes Trophy winner. Devotion is also an Open mare and her progeny include two Open campdrafters.
Meanwhile Hingis’ progeny are another generation of high-end performers. She has 15 foals to date with seven to campdraft, five of them being the winners of 13 drafts at the time of Linesman winning the Stallion Draft at Warwick in October, 2023.
Her first two foals are Sharapova and Navratilova, well known winners on the Turnermarks truck. Next crop of foals includes Linesman, Ballboy and Goolagong followed by Kerber and younger ones are still in the breaking and training stages.
The Hingis statistics are outstanding, but one stands out in particular. She had three foals in the winner’s circle on the same day in August 2022. Sharapova won the Novice and Linesman won the Maiden at Mt Isa while Kerber won the Novice at Barcaldine.
Linesman’s sire is Lawlors Mandana and again he boasts a powerful mare line. It was his mother Madeline that truly impressed Rohan. She was from the Mike Lawler stable and this stable was well known for producing horses that would run hard and clean and could produce those really big runs when needed. When Rohan bred Linesman he says it was simple,
“I bred our best mare to the son of the best mare I had seen. Madeline was an eyecatching big black mare who could just weld cattle to the front of the camp and mesmerise them. We have seen others capable of this since, but she was the first.” Something a young Rohan could see campdrafters should be striving to achieve. Plus Madeline was out of Hostess who had similar qualities when approaching her cattle.
Linesman was born before Hingis won the Gold Cup, but after Kerry won the big one the expectations immediately rose for him. Rohan has purposely kept him to a low key introduction to competition because he wanted to ensure he was the real deal, the next big thing before he was campaigned heavily. They also wanted to ensure his progeny were going to show the promise they hoped for.
They are now 100% happy with the two progeny that are already broken in, a filly out of Annie Oakley and a gelding out of Condalilly which has now ticked all those boxes.
Turnermarks Linesman is now a young stallion and the winner of the Stallion Draft at Warwick in 2023 with a future that could easily elevate him to levels seldom seen.
