The bloodstock industry
The White family's signature Thoroughbred nurseries Bhima and Invermein at Scone in the Upper Hunter are on the market, but the family's well-known purple and white racing silks will still be prominent on racetracks nationwide.
Prominent civil engineer Geoff White and his wife Beryl founded a Thoroughbred dynasty with their 1982 Golden Slipper winner Marscay, and now own fourth and fifth generation members of the champion stallion's family.
Their son Greg White (pictured), based at Scone with wife Jodie, emphasised putting the family properties on the market would not mean scaling down their breeding and racing program.
"We're not getting out by any stretch of the imagination, but we are doing on 473 hectares we will do on about 121ha," he said.
A revamped business model will concentrate less on breeding to sell and operating on a commercial level, and more on running a fine-tuned breed-to-race plan that will pay for itself.
There are no plans to downsize the broodmare band; the family currently owns 98 horses including about 35 broodmares.
"What we have concentrated on is not just to the carry the (Marscay broodmare) legacy for the sake of it, but that the bloodline is quite potent and successful with Northern Hemisphere sires," Greg explained.
"We've got daughters, grand-daughters and great-grand-daughters of Marscay, there's a few families we are concentrating on.
"We've got a model we have worked on, that we are fairly happy with and confident to take into the future, and we can pay our way racing, especially with the increase in prize money hopefully up to $100,000 per race in Sydney.
"Whilst the breeding and racing can pay for the breeding and racing it can't actually stretch into the running of 1200 acres (473ha) of Thoroughbred farm, it is a little prohibitive financially to run that without selling yearlings on a bigger scale," he said.
After completing a commerce degree and successfully running several of his own businesses, Greg stood in for a farm manager while he was on holidays, then permanently swapped "shiny shoes for Blundstones".
He readily confesses he is happiest working with his horses rather than out garnering new clients for the farm.
"I am not very successful at the meet-and-greet and the client relations things, I just don't have that in me - although we do have some long term clients and they appreciate the way we do things," he said.
Over more than 30 years his parents Geoff and Beryl have been a well-liked and regular presence at the races, with Beryl and daughter Judy Hudson always wearing a splash of purple.
"Beryl has her idiosyncrasies - if two horses are scratched she'll have $2 each way on the one in between them, and she always comes out a winner, even though we laugh at her," Greg said of his mother.
The family is famous for giving every horse a seven-letter name (the same as Phar Lap), starting with Marscay, and Beryl is responsible for naming horses.
For many years horses bred and reared at Bhima and Invermein ensured the farms were among prominent vendors at major sales - just one example is the Marscay youngster Excellerator.
Knocked down to Gai Waterhouse for $50,000, he went on to earn $2,228,495 for his owners with victories including the Group 1 Epsom Hcp in 2002.
But it is racing their own horses - planning the matings, foaling down, raising the yearlings and watching them succeed on the track - that has always been most satisfying for the close-knit family.
Marscay's daughter Triscay proved a champion, winning five Group 1 races, and the family rates Eremein - by the unfashionable stallion Timber Country out of the Marscay mare Marrego - as their best ever horse; he retired with $4,260,445 earnings and five Group 1 wins.
Other Group 1 winners carrying the white, purple star and hooped sleeves have been Euclase, Jetball, Filante, Yippyio, and Reenact, to name a few.
"Marscay really started it all off for us, Triscay is our sentimental favourite, Filante was brilliant and Yippyio was very special - but I would think Eremein was the best we have raced," Geoff reflected.
The family's dream of winning a Cox Plate with Eremein went awry three times: once with a bone chip, once with a bout of colic, and once due to the equine influenza outbreak.
The Cox Plate proved elusive with Filante too.
The Bart Cummings-trained Saintly had beaten Filante by a mere eyelash in the weight-for-age championship in 1996 and the following year Bart's mare Dane Ripper again relegated brave Filante to second.
Geoff, always an affable presence at the track, admits his true passion has always been building things - and White Industries counts the National Art Gallery and High Court of Australia among successful projects, as well as significant projects in Singapore, Fiji and India.
He more or less indulged Beryl's love for Thoroughbreds before becoming hooked himself. The couple bought their first yearling in 1973 and most of their horses were trained by the notoriously private Jack Denham until his death aged 85 in 2010.
The White Thoroughbred empire had its beginnings at the 20.2ha Robrick Lodge near Richmond before the family purchased the 160ha Bhima and neighbouring 313ha Invermein in 1994, rejuvenating and merging the two properties.
Since 1976, the family has bred 380 horses, for 301 runners, 66 per cent winners, seven individual Group 1 winners - enviable statistics by any measure.
And a highly successful family realm in the Sport of Kings is set to continue.
Source: farmonline.com.au