Odd man out Desert Lightning joins Barneswood Farm’s Group One list

A departure from standard methodology had its ultimate reward at Trentham on Saturday when Desert Lightning won the Gr. 1 TAB Classic.
The four-year-old gelding races in the orange and white colours of Barneswood Farm principals Ger Beemsterboer and Sarah Green, and like all others in the same ownership, he is trained by Byerley Park-based Peter and Dawn Williams.
That partnership dates back more than a decade, with their many successes headed by the 2011 and 2018 New Zealand 1000 Guineas winners Planet Rock and Media Sensation. Since 2020 Barneswood has been the official sponsor of the Riccarton fillies’ classic.
However Desert Lightning, who is now their third Group One winner, could be described as the “odd man out” given all others before him carrying the Barneswood Farm colours have been fillies.
The son of Pride of Dubai has been a quality performer from the time he won on debut as a late summer two-year-old. His two remaining juvenile starts produced fourth placings in the Gr. 3 Matamata Slipper and Gr. 1 Sistema Stakes and next spring, after finishing fifth and then fourth in the Gr. 2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas and Sarten Memorial, he split Pier and Prowess when going down by a half-head in the Gr. 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas.
Another minor placing followed behind Prowess and Wild Night in the Karaka Million 3YO Classic and he got the win he deserved in his next start, the Gr. 2 Avondale Guineas. In his two remaining appearances at three, Desert Lightning finished midfield in the New Zealand Derby and second in the Manawatu Classic.
Just two starts preceded Saturday’s breakthrough Group One victory – a fresh-up win over 1200m at Pukekohe and a third placing at 1400m on an unsuitable heavy track at Tauranga. Maintaining the same three-week gap between races, he was faced with a wide draw in the TAB Classic, but as events transpired that ultimately didn’t matter.
Post-race discussions have been blighted by the failure of the three outside gates housing Desert Lightning, Aegon and Faraglioni to open and a false start declared, but neither Peter Williams nor Sarah Green believe that should take anything away from their horse’s win.
“There’s been a lot of talk about the three horses that were locked in their gates having an advantage over the rest of them,” says Williams. “That’s rubbish, they went no more than 400 metres before they were pulled up. What about those three that bashed their heads on the front of their gates and then had to stand there when they should have been racing?
“Nothing will convince me they had an advantage over the others. I know they filled three of the first four places, but I would argue they did it on merit.”
Williams can take credit with his wife not only for the fine-tuning that went into Saturday’s big win, but also for sourcing Desert Lightning in the first place.
“I saw him at the sales and took a real shine to him; I just had to buy him,” Williams recalled of the bay colt in Little Avondale’s Karaka 2021 yearling draft. “I got him for $150,000 and then I rang Sarah and Chris (Green) to say I had bought this colt and I really liked him.
“They said if I liked him that much they had better be in, so that’s pretty much how it happened. Peter and Dawn have been fantastic to work with, and loyalty has been a big part of that – for them and for us.”
Sarah Green grew up in Ashburton and recalls Peter and Dawn Williams from those times when they were training there. In time her husband Chris developed a seed production business that extended to Europe and a partnership with Netherlands-based Ger Beemsterboer.
Thoroughbreds were foreign to him, but on a business trip to New Zealand Beemsterboer’s interest was piqued by Sarah, leading to the decision for them to enter a partnership based around investing in quality bloodlines.
Fastnet Rock filly Planet Rock was a notable early Karaka yearling purchase at $290,000, and the stakes were even higher when the I Am Invincible filly Media Sensation was purchased from the same sale for $425,000 in 2017. The Barneswood Farm portfolio has remained select and now extends to the broodmare paddock, which includes the stakes-placed O’Reilly mare Symphonic.
She cost $330,000 at Karaka in 2014, and eight years later her Savabeel filly was sold through the same ring by Barneswood Farm for $625,000. Now named Orchestral, on Saturday she went within a nose of completing a massive double for her breeders when beaten by Lupo Solitario in the Gr. 3 Bonecrusher Stakes at Pukekohe.
“We’re both buyers and sellers these days,” Sarah Green said. “We plan to continue buying at Karaka and we’ll be offering a brother to Orchestral there in January as well as a colt by Exceed And Excel from Media Sensation at the Sydney Easter sale.”
Karaka sales week in late January will have an additional edge, with Desert Lightning being aimed at the $1 million Elsdon Park Aotearoa Classic on the Karaka Millions card, for which he is the $6 second favourite behind fellow Karaka graduate Legarto.
“I said at the start of the season that we’d be sticking to 1400 and mile races, and that now includes the new four-year-old race at the Karaka Millions,” Williams said. “We would consider stepping him up to a middle-distance after that and we might look at Melbourne too – there are some pretty attractive races there that might be weakened given they clash with races up in Sydney.”