Malaysian tycoon Teo Ah Khing - from China Horse Club - snaps up historic The Chase at Sutton Forest
The Chase, the historic trophy property at Sutton Forest, has been bought for $5.8 million by the Malaysian horse racing tycoon Teo Ah Khing.
The five-bedroom 1880s house with a reception hall, formal sitting room and dining room, billiard room and living room is on 40 hectares in the NSW Southern Highlands.
Surrounded by sweeping lawns, hedged and walled gardens and exotic trees, The Chase homestead comes with a cottage, stables, barn and cattle yards as well as a pool and tennis court.
The restored and extended house comes with 3.35-metre-high Wunderlich ceilings.
It has 600 square metres of internal living space after extensions in the early 1980s.
Teo Ah Khing, who linked up with Coolmore to spend $2 million-plus on yearlings by Fastnet Rock for the China Horse Club, was the big new comer at the 2013 Easter Inglis yearling sales..
It was sold by John Starr, a real estate franchise tsar of Sydney's western suburbs, through Bill Carpenter from W. Mcl. Carpenter and Associates earlier this year with the buyer details recently revealed on settlement. John Starr had bought it for $5.25 million from the retired Compaq executive Ian Penman, turned listed property website chief executive, and his wife, Ayesha.
The Penman's had bought it from insurance industry operative Rob Porter in 1996 for $2.6 million.
It had sold at $2.55 million in 1991.
John Starr, who has downsized to a smaller property in the area, sold it to a company associated with the Teo family, who have plans to use the estate’s stables, yards and barn to raise broodmares on the farm.
Teo heads Desert Star, the parent company of the China Horse Club whose horse, Zululand became the first group winner for The China Horse Club in Australia in its second year of racing in the region with the win in the G2 VRC Sires Produce Stakes (1400 metres) at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne in March.
Teo Ah Khing has a design consultancy TAK Design Consultants which fulfilled the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai, by designing and completing the iconic Meydan Racecourse for the 2010 Dubai World Cup.
It has made its presence felt in the global equine affairs with another landmark project – Tianjin Equine Culture City (TECC) – in China. The CHC Clubhouse won the 5-star award in the International Property Awards for Asia Pacific Region in May last year.
Teo has also brought together the global leaders of horse racing in France and Ireland, as partners to re-introduce the sport of horseracing in China.
Another significant Southern Highlands equine property Belle Cheval, previously known as Longview at Wildes Meadow, remains listed for sale.
Dellarose Swanson-Baevski has a $4.5 million asking price on the 30-hectare Wildes Meadow holding. It's one of the best-equipped equestrian properties in the Highlands, with an eight-bay stable, heated feed room and a floodlit outdoor dressage arena. It was initially listed with $5 million hopes. It was bought in 2007 for $4.45 million by Dellarose Swanson-Baevski who has since secured the property fully from Michael Baevski, with its now-demolished 800 square metre house built by Ayesha Penman.
It was then known as Longview, the flagship development for the Penman's development company Vistatop, designed as the sister property for The Chase in Sutton Forest, by Ayesha Penman and husband Ian, who had established Compaq in Australia and New Zealand.
The five-bedroom house with a separate billiard pavilion is on a 30-hectare property had been bought from green thumb Don Burke in 2003.
Its being marketed by Andrew Hearn as "arguably the most panoramic uninterrupted views in the Southern Highlands extend from this incredible horse property in Wildes Meadow."
"The horse facilities are fabulous with irrigated and floodlit 70 metres x 30 metres dressage arena with soil-tex fabric and sand surface.
"There are 23 Day yards all post and rail with auto waterers, and divided by laneway system.
"There is a eight bay stable complex with adjustable walls to suit the size and needs of the horse, a magnificent tack and wash house with ruba-roc surface throughout heated rug and tack rooms as well as another kitchen and laundry area for those colder highlands mornings," Andrew Hearn's marketing says.
There is also a fully equipped level jump area.