WANNA PLAY WITH ME

There’s usually a rogue name somewhere among the bluebloods in this series but they are hard to find in the case of Wanna Play With Me who is from what many would describe as a royal trotting family, remarkably consistent and recently   producing young trotters of note over several years and having a close affiliation with the best of American trotting bloodlines. 

But there are always anomalies as we shall see.

The Wanna Play with Me tribe are probably not quite as commercial as you might think considering its success, especially with young horses in recent times but it does ok,  

Her own dam, Wanna Play (Majestic Son), was typical. 

She chased Monbet home a few times at two but beat him in the Sires Stakes final along with all the other young guns, a number of them from All Stars. After running fourth to Monbet in the Harness Jewels, Nathan handled her to win at Ashburton. Her later form was not quite as hot and her next win was at Kaikoura out of the Bruce Negus stable. Trevor Casey then put her to stud.

Miss Whiplash’s dam, Working Girl  arrived in  NZ in the mid 1980’s import boom with a foal who would be Lilly the Pink, placed third in an Inter Dominion final for Carl Middleton behind Diamond Field and stablemate Fraggle Rock. Lilly the Pink  was of the hardy sort -the veteran of 100 races for 13 wins. That didn’t stop her from being the granddam of Engheim a brilliant young trotter with soundness problems, 

Working Girl had left Stakhanovite to Speedy Crown in the US who later came here as a stallion leaving some useful sorts without setting the world on fire.

Working Girl had quite an impressive background, winning 5 races in North America. She was trained by the famous Jimmy Takter and qualified as a youngster in 2.01 in Canada.

 Bred by  Stoner Creek Stud she was  by Nevele Pride from a Porterhouse mare so had some credentials. Nevele Pride had been bought at the close of his racing career from Stanley Dancer by a Stoner Creek syndicate for $US2million then a record for any standardbred stallion.  

He had cost Dancer $US20,000.

Working Girl’s dam was by another trotting star Porterhouse , who won the American Classic and competed in Europe before standing at stud.

Rather remarkably Porterhouse -purely trotting bred- left Sir Dalrae who had pacers and trotters on his dam side but only wanted to pace..

A champion on the track especially as an aged horse,  Sir Dalrae came to Southland and in  spite of his pedigree left largely pacers, notably Comedy Lad and Tax Credit. He left trotters but not many and no  notable ones with the high speed of his best pacers.. However his stock could be a mite unpredictable and after a few years his patronage fell off,

Porternouse was a son of Rodney whose grandsire  Scotland also left not a bad sire of pacers in U Scott. 

Sir Dalrae was named after owner Bill Smith’s Dal Rae restaurant in California where the 1973 Horse of the Year’s race sulky hung from the ceiling. Mr Dalrae a son was the 1984 Pacer of the Year and also raced by Smith.

The legendary Jim Dennis trained both while Earle Avery trained and drove Porterhouse for Norman Woolworth. However while he had great regard for Porterhouse Avery, who for a time combined racing a team of horses with a 300ha potato farm  did later buy not a bad pacer called Meadow Skipper for Woolworth- and he would always be number one.

Miss Whiplash was the last foal of  Working Girl by Gee Whizz  (Speedy Crown) and was bred by Tony and Ann Parker along with Peter Wolfenden who trained her throughout her career.

Miss Whiplash was not precocious not racing until a four year old for her breeders but winning her first two and building up a remarkable record for consistency.There was too perhaps less emphasis on two year old trotting races then,

At the end of her career she had won 13 of 71

She was beaten by some real good’uns too-Sundon Way, Africa, Chiola Cola, Sunny Action and Buster Hanover in The G2 Lion Challenge with a good field including Pride of Petite in arrears.

She also ran fourth in a Dominion Handicap to not a bad sort in Lyell Creek.

Her first foal, Madam Soire, was a winner and every foal out of her to race won, some several times. She is the granddam of Fanny Hill.

Dutch Annie, the next live foal was also useful and the dam of one of the first youngsters to shine from the family in Hot Pants. Granted the daughter of Majestic Son did not win at two but measured up well and was distinguished at three for Trevor Casey and Natalie who sold her on to Spreydon Lodge for her breeding career. So far the returns have been more than useful

Dutch Annie then left Yagonnakissmeornot. Shady Sailor and The Player. While Miss Whiplash went on with Emma Hamilton a similar type to her dam who proved a good money spinner for the Parkers out of All Stars.

Two foals later came Wanna Play the first live foal by Majestic Son out of the mare/ She has had just the two foals to date, Wanna Play With Me and Wanna Play with Fire a daughter of Father Patrick giving Trevor plenty to work with in the future.

It is interesting that Love You the sire of Wanna Play With Me has had very few mares by Majestic Son to his court and this filly could be the first one to win, 

Judging by the brilliance of Wanna Play with Me at Addington last week and the year by year success of the breed he won’t be wasting his time either

AN OPEN SECRET AIDS ALL STARS AGAIN

All Stars has produced any number of winners bought from Australia over the years and RIVEERED is only one of the latest. And capable of adding large to his record yet.

Mark and Natalie were hardly buying blind. Just the opposite. Riveered was by Bettor’s Delight and you don’t get much more proven than that; just as importantly he was from a mare by Safely Kept one of the best kept secrets of All Stars success with Australian stock.

Think Safely Kept mares and think Smolda,Vincent and Kept Under Wraps for starters. All G1 winners, two of them two of the best horses in the history of All Stars. So when you add on that the millionaire pacer, Caribbean Blaster is closely related and one of the few others in this successful family by Bettor’s Delight-well it’s hard to keep your bidding finger in your pocket right ?

Incidentally Rock Legend, another promising three year old in the stable, temporarilý sidelined, is also from a Safely  Kept mare- and by Bettor’s Delight’s brother Roll With Joe. There have been several others through the stable over the years including War Dan which is doing  well still in Australia after being repatriated there. He won the Caduceus Club (G2) at Cranbourne and Group placings in the Gold Chalice Final to Lifeonthebeach. He has won over $180,000 for Danny Zavitsanos

Safely Kept was a top pacer who won the North America Cup but on the then popular breeding lines in the US he was not quite in the top echelon. In Australia he started fairly slowly then became over the years a highly influential stallion.

He was especially able to sire early speed, one of his best, Manifold Bay, winning the Breeders Crown Juvenile at only his third start and later the Chariots, WA Derby and Golden Nugget even though often unsound. Safely Kept  was three times the leading two and three year old sire and is also a leading broodmare sire in that area. 

His own sire Jate Lobell became celebrated in America eventually but not immediately. Himself a blazing two year old and a very successful sire (average earnings to starters $82,000) standing at a top stud, he left stars but not real superstars -which you have to do in the land of opportunity. He is best known in this part of the world besides Safely Kept by the deeds of Village Jasper a very successful stallion and broodmare sire in Australia.

But Safely Kept had another string to his bow. As an unexpected success as a sire of trotters.

La Coocaracha was the best of many. She was usually said to be  pacing bred and  Safely Kept certainly was. You had to go back to 1935 to find a trotting sire in his maternal pedigree and almost as far to find one in Jate Lobell’s. 

We never want to get too technical here but there is another  interesting cross featured in Riveered ‘s  family.

His dam Arivee was the only foal from her prolific dam, Willing Greek, to be by Safely Kept. Just to show the luck of the draw, incidentally, the only one by Bettor’s Delight was a failure at stud.

But there was another cross.

Willing Greek is from a family from nowhere until her dam, Winning Whizz (1985) won the Bathurst Gold Tiara and other good races. Until then when the family was numbered by breeding guru Ian Daff it was no 913!- near the very end of the list.

Willing Greek, who was at stud for 20 years but spent many of them not being foal, was by an American stallion Golden Greek an Abercrombie horse out of a Meadow Skipper mare.Maybe completely by coincidence and maybe not Secret Passage the dam of Safely Kept, was also by Abercrombie and out of a Meadow Skipper mare. 

Golden Greek left over 460 winners from 650 starters and a onetime Miracle Mile favourite(2005)  It is I, who won 19 of 24 but suffered from chronic tendon problems making four comebacks. Golden Creek also sired the dam of David Hercules.

Arivee the dam of Riveered was Willing Greek’s  6th foal. The first,Kalypso, was a handy race filly and a good broodmare. The  second Xiphias was moderate but the third ,Katasopos, left the $300,000 winner Copper Coast. A full brother to Katasopos came next and won 44 races but of over 200 starts and not a lot of money. The fifth, Teebone Woody, was by Village Jasper but did not make the grade. Arivee did winning 13 races and over $80,000 though her biggest winning stake was under $5000.

Willing Greek  was a test of faith missing for 6 of the next 7 years and then leaving Grand Stride (Artiscape)  winner of over $300,000, the best being the G1 APG 3yo final and the Breeders Challenge the same season. He also won the Allied Express (G2) as an older horse for the McCarthy stable.

After missing another two years Willing Greek left the 1.52.2 filly Sapphire Stride winner of the G1 Breeders Challenge for John McCarthy but yet to fire at stud  and then Dragon Stride before missing for another 6 years, and then her last foal not being worth the wait. Frustrating.

Riveered’s dam Arivee inherited the habit  and missed for 6 of her first 8 seasons at stud and also has had a rocky time since Riveered arrived. Of  interest is that her first foal, Eye Like Candy, is the dam of Jawbreaker which is raced by a Kennard Syndicate through the Michael House stable with which the Kennards have always been associated, Michael being their first trainer. They bought the youngster in Australia and and he has a win from 9 starts and a recent placing at Addington.

It is a rather odd family, coming from obscurity to leave top horses but often with lulls in between their appearances. As Forrest Gump told us life is a box of chocolates and breeding horses is no different.

Having Safely Kept in there somewhere though is undoubtedly a bonus

BREEDING - TOWN ECHO -FROM A LONG PAST

The emergence of Town Echo as a contender for upcoming filly features after her placing at Addington for All Stars stable shines a light on one of the most unusual family histories in standardbred racing.

In the years before World War 2 it was one of the most famous tribes in the country as classic and Inter Dominion winners and a stream of horses of high ability rode the scene.

Then,when a number of  daughters of  the top mares in the tribe failed to breed on it went into temporary eclipse.

Back in the day  a dual gaited mare called Brown Owl changed hands in Southland for 800gns as a youngster in the days when the best yearlings couldn’t bring that much. She left a mare by a disappointing stallion  who wasn’t all she might have been on the track.

 But the mare, Rosehaven, then started leaving classic winners like the later famous broodmare Black Watch (by Scottish Command) and who won the Juvenile Championship; and Spare Parts, a feature race winner.

Black Watch became a sensational broodmare. Her first two foals were Tay Bridge and Remarkable and the third, Aberfeldy, left  Reba Lord, Jayvee (gddam of Jay’s Debut) ;champion, ill-fated filly Megaera; Tosti, gddam of Arden Rooney  etc etc etc. We could be here all day talking about the Black Watch family of Sandy Yarndley and Ken Breckon. 

She is the third dam of Town Echo who is bred on the same Art Major-Bettor’s Delight cross as Princess Tiffany .

Town Echo barely met the sales average at $30,000 but to be fair she was a first foal of a moderate performer who was nevertheless a half sister to Lauraella. Sales lots are full of black type these days and competition keen. 

The Black Watch tribe might have been overshadowed by the Scuse Me family in recent years in the north but it is never far away from the limelight.

Which is in marked contrast to the family beginnings.

A Canterbury breeder managed to pass off to Winton farmer, James Duffy a “flat footed” (media description) mare called Regina, by the first standardbred import stallion Berlin from a thoroughbred mare for $50. Regina was actually quite a smart  racehorse but her stud reputation soon  hung  by a thread.

After leaving one filly foal she never had another-Duffy, who farmed on a large scale at Winton and raced and rode trotters, eventually gave her away as a hack.

But that one foal, Regina Belle, was a cracker. She left Logan Chief, so good he won 12 thousand pounds in his long career -great money in the ‘’20’s- and one of her several productive foals, Regina De Oro left Native Chief who should have been our first two minute pacer. Regina De Oro was by the first stallion to come to NZ who had run better than two minutes for a mile, Copa De Oro. Unhappily, and reportedly a nasty surprise for his Southland buyers, he was 19 on arrival and only left a handful of foals. They made their mark.

Native Chief had his brilliance-he ran 800m in 59.2  in training one morning at Addington-unequalled gob stopping stuff then= and crowds would gather to watch him work.But he was mad as a meataxe.

On his day the NZ Derby winner could beat any horse in Australasia. 

But he could drive people to distraction. One day he was responsible for five successive false starts in a match race at Addington watched by thousands.He won, beating superstar Great Bingen and the crowd booed him!

A  number in the family were similar  even if  Duffy seemed to manage them well enough in saddle races. Erratic racing highlighted the tribe though once tamed as Logan Chief was they were exceptionally durable racehorses.

Duffy and later his son, Martin, continued breeding from the family for some years.

Duffy was also a hard case. When Native Chief’s manners became almost unmanageable his lessee and trainer, the great Jack Kennerley, wanted to run him against time certain he would go two minutes-this fully 10 years before Lawn Derby did that in 1938.

Duffy called it off.Unhappy with the way his horse was going and stunned by the demonstration against his horse following the match race  he ended the lease and then took it off Kennerley just before the trial was due.Native Chief held the mile record here for several years but never reached his potential.

On another occasion Duffy was fined 20 pounds (huge then) for reaching down and grabbing the reins of a rival in a tight finish at a local meeting riding Regina Bell which a local scribe reckoned was “the worst interference I have seen in 35 years”

Grand Mogul appeared just after the “Chiefs” from this family and went on to win an Inter Dominion final and won big races in Perth until he was 15.He was a star on both sides of the Tasman A Dillon Hall colt  from the family (Smile Again)  topped the first yearling sale and Miss Julia Cuff had successive three year old stars in Southern Chief (she bought the dam in foal for 100 pounds  from Martin Duffy) and Walter Moore both of whom had won the Timaru Nursery Stakes, then the major juvenile event in the south.

However as mentioned several daughters of most of these mares did not really breed on, just as Regina hadn’t . But  enough survived to revive the line. The “Seafield”breed, once so familiar to racegoers, is another branch and another line produced NZ Cup winner Trusty Scot. Then the Black Watch line totally rejuvenated the breed 

So while topping sales and producing outstanding horses as the Black Watch family has done is a new peak it is not a new one for the Regina tribe. Connections will be hoping Town Echo is just another chapter in a  century old successful story.

BACK TO NEWS OR READ MORE PEDIGREES

LOOKING FOR AN EXCUSE FOR ANOTHER PARTY

Stag Party was on the Sires Stakes trail this week in Auckland and quite apart from owner, Jean Feiss, there will be others hoping that this once lesser known branch of a famous family soon has an excuse for another party,

Among them will be the syndicate of familiar names from the Purdon/Dalgety stable who will race Republican Party after going to $210,000 to buy him at the Yearling Sales that was otherwise lacklustre for his immediate family. 

That’s because   his dam, Democrat Party (American Ideal) , was a terrific and courageous performer for owners John and Katrina Price who brought this branch of the family back to Southland probably 60 years  after it left. Ian Dobson had been involved along the way from what was an established Auckland tribe thanks to Pearl Baker. 

 Republican Party is his dam’s first colt foal and  Stag Party is the first colt from Democrat Party’s sister Surprise Party. He was also a 6 figure yearling.

This family has travelled around New Zealand over the years. This branch of it has a  slightly reduced recent sales profile because of the number of fillies its members leave. When successful professional breeders are usually retaining fillies for future business sales product can suffer in the interim.

On the other hand why wouldn’t you ? Democrat Party, who was from a Soky’s Atom mare -a boost to any modern  maternal pedigree-, is a grand daughter of former Broodmare of the Year Bee Gee’s Dream whose offspring like Another Party ($900,000;Hunter Cup; Fremantle Cup) , Party Party ($200,000;  Caduceus Classic winner and dam of G1 colt Hoss Cartwright -she was easily the fastest daughter of her moderate sire Mister Hanover II));plus Champagne Party ($160,000;the Soky’s Atom one )  set the tracks alight in their day.

Democrat Party won a Sires Stakes after coming back from a cannon bone break; Champagne Party her dam, won the Premier Mares Championship (and 2nd in the Standardbred Breeders, trained by AGH and driven by Mark) and her dam was also  granddam of Harness Jewels winner Cowgirls n Indians. You would be keeping the fillies, right ?

Long time ago this family was started in Chertsey by an outstanding trotting mare in pioneer Ashburton racing called Polly, said to be by a thoroughbred sire but with that famous Ashburton trotting blood somewhere around. She was owned throughout by  William Hood a stalwart for the sport in those times. She ran off ridiculous marks at local carnival meetings because she was a star  road trotter. 

Her foal Imperial Polly (Prince Imperial) , raced and trained by George Hood who ran the Southbrook Hotel, was a high class racemare and ran in three New Zealand Cups. Mated with the winner of two of them -Wildwood Junior- she produced Our Nurse and on George Hood’s estate dispersal she in turn went south (Tapanui)  to dual-gaited owner Winifred MacKenzie, the first female owner of a New Zealand Cup winner at Riccarton when Palantua  set an Australasian record.

Mrs Mackenzie  bred and raced  from this family and owned  one of Our Nurse’s foals, Sure, when she won the NZ Trotting Gold Cup. The southern enthusast laid the foundation for this branch of the Polly family with her breeding decisions. 

Other branches produced the first male 2 minute pacer in New Zealand, Gold Bar, and another NZ Cup winner and mile record holder, Lord Module. There were dozens of Polly’s racing in the early days but only one was special.

Sure went out of fashion but a close descendant was Tom Pepper, a top pacer in his day.

Our Nurse would probably have been a Broodmare of the Year in her time for beside Sure she left two notable race or broodmares Night Nurse and Sister Polly.

Night Nurse, by the oddly coloured Wellington Direct, left as her first foal Smiler,  the dam of the erratic but brilliant Frown, most famous for being eliminated from a New Zealand Cup field purely because of his barrier manners- something trainer Stewart Sutherland never forgave Addington for- and also granddam of Steven Stock. 

Her 3rd foal, General Sandy, beat Johnny Globe and a field of stars on their merits in the 1954 NZ Pacing Championship for Cecil Devine after being transferred from the south stable of  Stan Kirby. It was no surprise to Don Nyhan who recalled in later years he had observed General Sandy’s work “over the fence” from the nearby Devine property and how brilliant it was. General Sandy  died from a heart attack at the peak of his career.

The  sensational juvenile Testing Times as well as the NZ Derby winner Naval Officer came from this branch of the family.

Sister Polly left the champion trotter Recruit (Rowe Cups;Dominion) for the Rooney family and Milford Girl dam of Vanderford. Maurice Holmes trained the first and usually drove the second. Recruit was a hard horse to train but just brilliant on his day.

This family was usually  sent to the best sires of this era which retained its aura and resulted in the high class racemare  Super Nurse. Her daughter, Nurse Brigade, found her way to Pearl Baker in Auckland in the mid 1960’s.

Pearl  bred widely from  her  “Parisian”tribe and many had their moments but the most influential was Parisian Dream. Trained earlier by Kevin Holmes and Colin Butler and later by Roy and Barry Purdon for Mrs Baker she won 6 of 30 and excelled at staying distances winning at Hawera over 3200m

For the Cardigan Bay Breeding Co she left Bee Gee’s Dream but the Staying Alive Syndicate, a who’s who of Auckland female racing personalities including owner Suzanne Herlihy  raced and bred from her.

For them Mark drove her (for Roy and Barry)  to a winning debut in a $50,000 two year old race in 1990. She only had 6 more starts before producing one track star after another. Clearly Butler B G had added some electricity to essentially a staying tribe. The results spoke for themselves.

So while it is still a case of raising glasses for those associated with this tribe we await a real party maker from the current crops. It will happen. Fingers crossed it happens again soon.

One thing is for sure.The Polly family has proven to be a kettle always on the boil.

ABANDONED MARE FOUNDED A TROTTING DYNASTY-ANOTHER BREEDING FOLK TALE!

PARAMOUNT PRINCESS

Breeding successful racehorses is easy ? Well ,sometimes. 

As with Paramount Princess.

Of course  often it isn’t though. As the owners of some of her antecedents found out over a period of about 40 years. They would probably be astonished by the talent the family have shown in more modern times.

So can it ever be just  a matter of breeding the best to the best and waiting for the cash and the trophies to roll in  ?

It starts to look  that way for Graham  Gimblett and Brian West with promising trotter Paramount Princess.  Formula: Take an open class trotting mare by Sundon and send her to Muscle Hill (the same cross as Kings Landing) who is already a proven cross with the family through Muscle Mountain and off to the races we go.

Well easy now for this family but the fact is for  years  you couldn’t give them away. Literally. And in fact it was one of those orphans who started the modern successful version,all because John Gimblett had enough faith in a mare someone abandoned on his farm in the 1940’s and never came to pick up to breed a foal from her- and start a revolution.

The mare was Lady Errol and she was by that well known sire Robert Earl. Well,well known in the Central Districts.

John, a Dannevirke farmer, bred from the mare in partnership with his friend Arthur Cammock and later with son Graham.

More recently Graham, a prominent Central Districts administrator,  went into a breeding partnership with the successful Brian West partly to be able to base his best mares where the action is. Things have gone rather well..

The family is actually one of the “Originals” tracing to an American mare Fanny Belle, one of the first to land in this country in a historic shipment  in 1881. It flourished immediately but over time drifted into the comparative wilderness probably largely because of restricted opportunities. It has often been influential and some of its descendants helped produce champions out of rabbiters hacks. True story.

In modern times it first hit the headlines with Darky Forbes , a tallish lean black, trained later in his career by Colin Berkett and driven by Mike De Filippi back in the 1960’s to win a Nationall Trot. He was by the  pacing sire Hi Lo’s Forbes.

His dam, Lassie Hanover, who qualified pacing and battled away in the Central Districts to win 6 of 115 starts -making her a family star at that point-was by Lucky Hanover a pacing stallion with a trotting pedigree on his male side.

It was never easy selecting stallions at that time with this tribe because you wouldn’t know if they were going to pace or trot- or both

 Lassie Hanover won as a pacer and a trotter but Lucky Hanover’s  best trotter was Mighty Hanover a NZ Trotting FFA winner for Bob Young and several other features. They seem to be the only two winning trotters left by Lucky Hanover.

Even Luck’s Way, a half -brother to grand trotter Annual Report, preferred to pace  Diamond Hanover was probably Lucky Hanover’s best pacer and his brother Damian another. As a breed they were considered fast but a little erratic.

Karen Maree, a pacer, was a daughter of Lassie Hanover by another little known stallion, the well-bred Signor. He never had more than 3 starters in any of many seasons  his stock raced but left the wonderful  trotter Tutira whose raid on the Cup meetings at Addington (including the Dominion) was big news at the time.

Ironically it was  when Karne Maree was sent to a pacing stallion (Lonero, a Meadow Skipper horse) that  she left Koranero the ancestress of the present Paramount trotting tribe bred by Graham and Brian. 

To another pacing sire, Ike Frost, Lassie Hanover left Frosty Lass who was trained by Ivan Dickie to win both as a pacer and a trotter running second in a Rowe Cup and winning a major trotting race in Australia the Sydney Spring Trotters Cup

Ike Frost, an Adios horse (they didn’t trot) , only left two performed trotters, his best pacer being the brilliant Governor Frost.

The Dickie family were to cash in on the breed in later years too. 

The string of family topliners including Paramount Gee Gee (17 wins from 30 starts) Paramount Queen (8 of 27) Paramount Dream (8 of 28) who won over $700,000 among them; and Paramount Faith the unraced one of the tribe is the dam of Muscle Mountain. There was also Paramount Jack (12 wins) earlier who ran 3rd in a Dominion Handicap a race in which Darky Forbes beat all but the champion trotter Easton Light.

So the family is in the zone. But for many years it was in the wilderness.

The founding mare Fanny Belle,  was immediately successful leaving Kentucky, at one time claimed to hold the world three mile pacing record and the best of his time. Mambrino Mac was another topliner, both by Berlin the stallion who had come out to NZ with Fanny Belle  One of her foals Black Belle, left the stallion Satinwood.

Satinwood disappeared into the depths of Central Otago but he had the goods. He left a number of unregistered fillies who made their mark in breeding history. One left another unregistered filly who was the dam of a mare called Sashwood who left a filly by Nelson Bingen called Stella Bingen. She showed plenty of ability on the southern circuit. That is where the rabbiters hack angle came in for her daughter Tracebearer was the granddam of Stella Frost.

Meanwhile Fannie Belle, the US mare, had a filly here also called Fannie Belle (imagine trying to do a Stud Book in those days!) who only left two foals. 

The first was the open class horse, the fast but at times erratic  Dillon Bell who set records pacing and trotting.. Around the same time the family, through Wild Belle, produced Gold Bell, the sire of a great public favourite of northern racegoers in her era Steel Bell,a grey who won two Auckland Cups. A full brother to Gold Bell, Jingle, was an outstanding pacer of the earlier years of the 20th century trained at Greymouth 

The family then battled,with some handy  sorts like Forbury record holder and successful sire Sir Hector, but with a  gradual trend toward second tier stallions such as Robert Earl who left a smart filly Earl Marie and later Andy Earl  -and succeeded moderately as a broodmare sire without ruffling the pages of history. According to official records he only raced as an 8 year old with one win from 6 starts but likely more often.

So it was a highly unlikely outcome for this family. An abandoned mare by a moderate pacing horse  left a double gaited mare who had 111 races pacing and trotting and then left two top trotters and a pacing mare who is ancestress of the present Paramount trotting breed.

 John Gimblett, who died in 1981, would have loved that. His son, who incidentally bred the near champion galloper Xcellent first time of trying in the thoroughbred world, is still reaping the rewards -and the advice of Brian West, is, as always, astute.

Like we said, looks easy. But  as we all know most ot the time it isn’t. Fanny Belle could tell you if she was around.

WHAT’S YOUR SECRET? -OR IS IT BEYOND WORDS ?

All Stars take two likely types to the races on Friday in Whats Your Secret and Beyond Words, both from that prolific base of Studholme Park and its driving force Brian West.

One WHAT’S YOUR SECRET is from a mare who was star for All Stars in her racing days, winning 10 races as a three year old to G1 level in a relatively short career for West.

 The other is a granddaughter of another high performing Studholme Park matron who measured up to the best three year old fillies of her time for trainer Christine McDonald. It is probably typical of the West breeding success that he took over the breeding of that mare, Fear Me, after several prominent names had had a go and then s produced her best race filly, Quote Me, now the dam of Beyond Words.

Both trialled well recently before preparing for their first start and are well placed to exit maiden status quickly. 

That will be good news for her owners as she is now four and making her debut. She has had three public outings and has looked more than competent in all of them. 

Whats Your Secret has just turned three so is at some disadvantage there.

Still her dam Secret Potion, was an outstanding race filly hitting her straps as a December three year old winning a Sires Stakes heat at Auckland with Nicole Molander in the cart but in the final everything turned to custard.

From the one-one Secret Potion, a stout stayer, was sent to the front which gave  stablemate and favourite Lancome (also raced by Studholme Park) a trail for the last round, opening up the race for those further back at the same time. 

Secret Potion still appeared to be travelling strongly at the turn when she broke also taking Lancome out of the race. All Stars Meredith Maguire, last with 1400m to go but taking advantages of other moves, won the race strongly. 

Secret Potion beat a G1 style field (De Lovely 2nd) after resuming and then turned the tables at 7/1 in the Great Northern Oaks.

Again taken to the front half way thru the race giving Meredith Maguire the trail and De Lovely 3 back she seemed a sitting duck at the 500m but gathered steam around the corner and kicked away to beat the other two fillies on their merits.

She then tried for the Oaks-Derby double, the latter being won by Russley Rascal and after returning south proved too strong in the Nevele R final, Nicole again in the cart, sealing her class.

Again she didn’t have it easy ranging up at the 800m to be parked giving Meredith Maguire cover and Lancome handy and again she found another gear in the straight holding on for a stable trifecta, Lancome again being unlucky.

Secret Potion posted two Harness Jewels placings but in her later career was probably overshadowed by multiple Jewels performer Lancome, clocking 1.56 behind that mare in her final outing in the Harness Jewels at 4.

She has yet to leave a “ball breaker” at stud but you would look to the fillies in this family which has a long tradition of producing top ones, and her first three foals were colts. 

Her own dam Putting On the Glitz (unraced) left some useful sorts though given good opportunities. She was by the outcross (Big Towner-Best of All cross) Walton Hanover and her dam, Awfully Nice (Nero’s BB) left a 1.50 (US) miler in Silver Lining Pocket.

A Walton Hanover mare to Bettor’s Delight left the NZ Cup winner Arden Rooney

Brian, through his Yonkers Partnership, had bred the high class pacer Defoe from Awfully Nice’s dam, Dream Bel, a close relation to well performed Sir Avon. He was also the breeder of Bit of a Legend and played a key role in the breeding of Lazarus so recent times have been good to him.

This family, which if you go back far enough descended from an Arab mare who lived in Greenpark =not far from where Whats Your Secret was raised at Coes Ford 140 years later-, has left some terrific brood and race mares over the years starting with the NZ Cup winner of 1915 Country Belle. Male and female, trotters or pacers the family of the little Arab mare has been a tremendous one.

Whats Your Secret also looks ready to advance the broodmare standing of Courage Under Fire which, in all honesty, has been somewhat underwhelming so far -considering the talented race trackers he has left and the fact that his fellow In the Pocket star, the more fashionably bred Christian Cullen, was a goldmine as a broodmare sire.

You would have to go into great analysis to quantify things like opportunity (fillies left in New Zealand and bred from here for example) and fashion; but Courage Under Fire does not feature prominently on broodmare sire lists (Arms of An Angel one of the best) and his mare’s matings with Bettor’s Delight have yet to set the world on fire much less compare to Cullen

But then you don’t have a mare with the race record of Secret Potion going to him every day either. As every breeder gets to learn through experience “they can come from anywhere”.

BEYOND WORDS on the other hand has the increasingly fashionable cross of Art Major and Bettor’s Delight as noted in filly pedigrees like Princess Tiffany and she won’t  be long making her mark.

Studholme bred their first foal from her Sires Stakes final placed Fear Me several years after she went to stud and Quote Me was easily her most successful offspring winning six. What is more Fear Me was by Soky’s Atom a West favourite and  close up still (3rd generation)  in so many leading pedigrees.

This is a very good family most often associated with Hororata farmer Eric Mee who began the “Me” association which has long outlasted him. While he sold the best performer of his owner era with the family- the Mike De Filippi-trained Take Care to the US (for huge money then)=Eric had a long association with the breed that only ended with his passing.

 He started with Roistar bred by Ernie Johnson, also an influential small breeder of Prince Charming fame, and bred from her Believe Me the ancestress of Beyond Words and Quick Feet-the latter, Take Care’s dam, ( and also of Rapid Man) -to Fallacy and Johnny Globe respectively.

 Take Care was the only filly of her dam and had a  few foals on her return to New Zealand where she was not a great success.

Nanoose,from Believe Me,showed high promise and her three win career is not a good reflection of her ability as she suffered a wind affliction. She  left Talk About Me as her first foal the winner of 10 and a top performer. Fear Me was her 5th foal followed by two that died and then the highly talented Pocket Me winner of nearly $300,000 here. 

The next foal, Estabella (sister to Fear Me) was useful and left the stakes filly Delight Me and also Bella Me the granddam of the fastest of the family so far in Eclipse Me (1.48.4) who equalled the then world record for mares with her time (1000m track) while defeating the 2019 Breeders Crown champion,Caviart Ally.It makes her one of the fastest Kiwi mares of all time.

Eclipse Me, a fair performer in Auckland in her time year was the Pocono Downs Mare of the Year last season.

The ability of the family to produce top race fillies and mares, sometimes from unexpected sources has already proven itself to Brian West and indeed to All Stars- and will be proving itself for a long time to come 

Maybe starting here.

ROCK LEGEND

So there you go. All Stars has seemingly at times a stable full of pacers by Bettor’s Delight and then maybe  along comes a new brush to sweep clean?

Not really. The subject of this week’s breeding angle is by Roll With Joe.

A brother to Bettor’s Delight. OK then.

The youngsters name is Rock Legend and he is making good progress along with several others in the All Stars barn. And  looking at his credentials there seems no reason why this (very) close relation to Bit of a Legend and London Legend won’t write his own story in the months to come.

Rock Legend (right) keeping Delighful Dude up to the mark in his work. He was due to debut at Addington at the weekend

He is the first son of the Australian-based Roll With Joe to shape up at All Stars. Roll with Joe hails from New York’s Blue Chip Farm where Bettor’s Delight, American Ideal and Sunshine Beach also stand. 

While Cam’s Card Shark dominates the promos of horses like Bettor’s Delight and Roll With Joe it might well be their damsire, Armbro Emerson an Adios line horse through Abercrombie (who else?) who lifted the filly performance in this family by a considerable margin.

His daughter Classic Wish, dam of these two pacing champions and others nearly as good, ran a mile in 1.52 (TT) and won over $US400, 000 primarily in Sires Stakes events, Her immediate line might have gasped at that number.

The granddam of Roll With Joe and BD was by Albatross but she was inaptly named as Best of the Best having battled to a 2.04 mile as a four year old and won the princely sum of $US1400. The next dam, Arlene Dares, gave Classic Wish a double cross of Adios through Meadow Gene but finally ran 2.00 as a 4 year old and won $17,000.

Armbro Emerson had an earlier connection with New Zealand his granddam being Dotties Pick, a champion racemare who won over $US250,000 in the 1950’s including $100,000 in one season then a record. She was one of the last mares to beat the males under free for all conditions at the top level in America.

Two of her foals, Armbro Hurricane and Eagle Armbro came to New Zealand the latter the hope of the Raceway Stud in Mid-Canterbury a  brave co-operative enterprise. whose hopes he effectively dashed. Armbro Hurricane stood a better chance at Roydon Lodge and left stars like Cyclone Lad ,Double Cove, Hurrania, Philippa Frost and Lancia the last three outstanding mares in the tradition of Dotties Pick. Both stallions could be counted as disappointing as broodmare sires considering their heritage.

Roll With Joe has not had the impact yet of his full brother but he is a decade younger being foaled in 2008. Stallions who have brothers have been up against it statistically down through the years but it is only a statistic reflecting the odds against any stallion becoming a top sire.

Rock Legend’s dam A Legend, a minor winner but a winner nonetheless, is by Safely Kept the damsire also of Vincent, Smolda (how are we going s far  ?) Caribbean Blaster, Mach Denario  and John of Arc. For good measure the odd trotter has appeared notably Cyclone Bolt a dual Harness Jewels winner, one for All Stars. A Legend’s breeder Brian West gave Safely Kept several chances at stud.

Rock Legend is almost purely American bred. His dam was from a Soky’s Atom mare from an American mare Shebatross who was by the fabulous Niatross. His influence unhappily did not extend much past one generation but as a racehorse he was unforgettable.

Shebatross  was imported by the Wellington-based Devon Bloodstock (Stanley Williams) an outfit that cut  dash in the boom times being also associated with Gina Rosa. Devon also bred the American mare’s most influential daughter, Soky’s Legend. 

One thing certain in today’s breeding world -beside Bettor’s Delight -is how you love to see Soky’s Atom in the third line of any pedigree he fills the place  in so many elite ones.

Soky’’s Legend left London Legend (first foal) a brilliant yet durable performer but her best was her 7th Bit of a Legend, a three quarter  brother in blood to Rock Legend (Bettor’s Delight-Soky’s Legend) 

Bit of a Legend was probably the best three year old of his year in  New Zealand but he was outgunned by two brilliant drives by Mark Purdon behind Border Control who outwitted even Dexter Dunn taking the NZ Derby and then the Harness Jewels in a time record that still stands. The best drive won both races rather than the best horse. It is doubtful if Mark could do that to Dex these days !

That Bit of a Legend returned to headline making form at Yonkers would not have surprised his Kiwi fans. He went through a bad patch but he was a monster of a performer.

The astute Brian West, also associated with the breeding of Lazarus, has been in the mix breeding from Soky’s Legend from the start and later on his own account.

She missed for three seasons since 2016 and was served by Vincent this season which is an interesting cross.  Hopefully there will be a result.

The Shebatross tribe goes back to La Byrd Abbe, the dam of the great but controversial pacer, Nero whose actual ability was never in doubt.In his time he was considered probably the best two year old America had ever seen.

Nero started off as a standard rags to riches story. His trainer Jim Crane had been a knockabout horseman for many years who finally decided to take the plunge on his own account. He  rounded up two friends who didn’t know a hoof from a harpoon and raised enough cash to spec a yearling for a whole $US20,000. Cue Nero for whom $US2.5m was refused while he was still racing. Crane modestly said he had got in early at the sale “before the big boys arrived” and got what he wanted. He later bought La Byrd Abbe.

Crane’s down to earth attitude born of many disappointments and the wild enthusiasm of his new chum partners took the story all the way to Sports Illustrated and the Wall St Journal as the champion two and three year old of the early 1970’s. That was the elite media company then.

But, according to some, Nero had a dark side. Not as dark as the desperate criminal who injected him with a massive dose of tranquiliser in his stall leading up to the Fox Stake. Crane walked him through the night and saved him but he took a long time to recover.

Then there was his eyesight. Too good, the experts reckoned. He saw more than other horses and reacted accordingly. Nero jumping shadows  when sighting imaginary threats became the major talking point of his track career. Yet it was claimed he never galloped in hopples. Came down pacing. Some of his offspring mimicked the habit. That was a problem

Later Crane fitted him with special tinted goggles (think Hands Down who had a similar tendency) to help with the problem.

All this led breeders to think Nero was highly strung. Just the opposite. He would lay down resting in his stall most of the day. Sometimes they put his food down beside him so he wouldn’t have to get up to eat. He’d go to sleep quicker than a bear in winter given the chance. His other trick was when in front and thinking he had the race won he would poke his tongue out of the side of his mouth as if taunting his rivals. Probably was.

But late in his career he suffered from corns the pain of which can distract the most placid of colts. He still went to Lana Lobell Farms for a record syndication.

Nero never really made it as a stallion, at least at the highest level -but he was not a failure. Two of his sons, Neros BB and Clever Innocence, made an impact in this country.

So this is a family which has had class for a long time. Rock Legend is a good chance to extend a story of success.

Hanging By a Thread ?  The Art Major dynasty and Two Lines of Fire

On the one hand there is VINCENT - one of the best track performers of his time from the best training stable of our time;  bred both in the purple yet as a natural outcross for mares by super stallions like Bettor’s Delight;  the scion and pride and joy of  Alabar Stud not least because his  pedigree is steeped in that famous farm’s tradition.

On the other hand there is SKY MAJOR. Not quite just a one man battle to help a stallion also from a Purdon stable reach success yet, in the corporate age, a David against the Goliaths. 

Only this David is called Trevor-Trevor Casey to you-  and he is a man who has the knack of being in the right place at the right time.

Africa, Waikiki Beach, Lazarus, Winterfell, One Change, Escapee and Pocaro-need we go on.

In the middle is Sweet Lou another great hope for the Adios line through Artiscape and already showing signs of success. The industry needs that.

 Art Major has been a sensational sire but as with all stallions there is always the question whether the sireline will live on.  Art Major is nearing the end of his career but does not have a  strong commercial son in this part of the world.

There have  always been sceptics  that doubt the Art Major paternal line to Adios. It was looking in its death throes 30 years ago before along came Abercrombie, then his son Artsplace and then Art Major. A rather slim thread but holding on strongly at this stage even though it must be said Artsplace has turned out an enormous influence as a sire of broodmares and it somewhat overshadowed his male dynasty. His fillies may well turn out sheer gold.

Sad to say with many sirelines it is three strikes and out when it comes to generations at the top. For many the 4th generation can be just a  walk to first base. 

But now along comes Vincent. 

But while most breeders have only admiration for the beautiful, sensational, friendly blue blood that is Vincent it is a little harder when you have to start more or less from scratch to build a stallion’s reputation as is the case with Sky Major.

As Trevor puts it quite simply about Sky Major who stands at Wai Eyre

“ Ï brought him back here (from America) to be a stallion so I am bound to give him his chance. Whether he makes it or not  is up to him. But you couldn’t say that if he has not had a chance”

Trevor has put his money where his mouth is and partner Kate Marriot has been working overtime on the Sky Major youngsters and tirelessly promoting them.

In his first season he did 44 mares and it is a safe bet mares owned, leased or controlled by Trevor made up half of that number. What is more they are largely by commercial stallions from good families not your usual colourful first lineup for a “colonial” sire.

He was fertile and left 35 foals who will be watched closely when they get to the tracks. It’s sometimes  been a fact of breeding history with this line that the most obvious son is not the one to carry it on. Has Sky Major any chance of matching Vincent the horse Mark Purdon tips as the next big thing ?

On paper, no.

Vincent,so well named by Jean Feiss being an oil painting of a horse, has such overwhelming factors in his favour it is almost a surprise he only got 148 mares in his first season !

His sire is a champion. His dam, Kept for Pleasure  was the best left by her mother and one of the best race fillies and mares of her generation, Vincent is her most outstanding offspring. Oddly, after Vincent she never went back to Art Major.

Vincent’s s damsire, Safely Kept, was something of an outcross when Aussie standardbred breeding anchor Alan Galloway  brought him out for Alabar (sire Jate Lobell,by No Nukes from an Abercrombie mare) but soon established himself in Australia as an outstanding sire and he is close to the top of the broodmare lists.

Wait there’s more.

Vincent’s s  second dam Full Pleasure was also the best of her dam’s stock. She was by Alabar’s Armbro Operative (Cam Fella/B G Bunny cross) and left 6 foals who won over $100,000 in stakes. His third dam was by another Alabar stallion Kentucky who perhaps did not have the success expected but was well credentialled; the 4th dam (by Hilarious Way) won her only start and her 5th dam (imported) had 17 foals in 19 years to kick the family off.

While much has been made of the fact this family has British and German origins it was almost purely 100 per cent American blood, just little known stallions bred on fashionable crosses and exported  (Tar Heel/Adios eg). In fact the 5th dam, Saunders Directa, was served while in quarantine for Australia in England by an American horse by Tar Heel.

Not many holes in that pedigree. The other great thing is the names that are  in it. Or not.

There is no Direct Scooter (Christian Cullen) ; Cam Fella (Bettor’s Delight) is  distant enough  and having full Australian bloodlines Vincent is a reliable cross for any mare in the country not by Art Major.

And on family connections of Art Major he  should go well with the Western Hanover line of American Ideal for good measure. His family has als0 produced Captain Treacherous so the “stallion gene”is still strong

The interesting aspect of all this is how much more notice breeders here have taken of Vincent than they did of  his sire.

Art Major was rushed by Australian breeders. In his first three seasons he served over 750 mares, 345 in his third season.

From his first crop came Avonova and For a Reason and from his second Sushi Sushi (from a No Nukes mare he being the grandsire of Safely Kept). 

Contrast that to his reception here. In his first crop he left 7 foals who all won He left champion two year old Major Mark in his second crop from  29 mares and at that stage was being heralded as a disappointment.

But the wish is the father of the thought. As soon as he got over 100 mares things changed. His fifth crop threw Sky Major, Isaiah and Allelluia and his 6th Fight for Glory (Golden Goddess) , Hughie Green and Field Marshall the current Australasian mile record holder. It was all a question of numbers. 

Even the deeds of Field Marshall, Vincent, For a Reason and Sushi Sushi have never quite shaken the view that Art Major is primarily a source of youthful speed though you only have to look at the winnings of those horses to see the merit. Lasting more than three busy seasons starting at two is rare for any stallion in modern times.  Not showing anything in age groups and succeeding, once as probable as possible is commercial suicide.

There seems some feeling that Art Majors are either good or they are  not with less in between than some breeds but there is nothing really new on that when you do the numbers. Anecdotal evidence seems to be they can be difficult compared to the Bettor’s Delights. It will be a surprise if that is the case with the stock of the gentlemanly Vincent or Sky Major.

Sky Major has more modest claims on the pedigree side but healthy outcrosses have a very good history in New Zealand breeding. Unfortunately like all NZ bred stallions who were not superstars it can take a while to get to the right numbers.

Bred on the same cross as such standouts as Alta Maestro, Pacing Major, Max Phactor etc, hee was also the best foal from his dam who was the best from her dam. 

Further back Sky Major’s pedigree is not studded with stars but has its share  and it has been an enduring success over a long period with a speed influence from the brilliant Tuapeka Knight and some real stars from the good old days.

Bonnies Chance showed the potential it had given the right opportunity and Anne’s Day was another mare to mix it with the top males while Gliding Light (Nursery Stakes) was a brilliant young pacer exported early after placings to Koarakau, Koare Legend and similar stars at Addington. Brucus and Ada Scott are from long memory but terrific horses and that has threaded through each succeeding generation.

Sly Major the record setting Harness Jewels champion was as good as any.

So there it is. Art Major has left around 1800 winners but his fans are looking for a son to carry on at the top level Down Under.

Vincent is manna from heaven in that regard especially for Alabar  and associates.  But Sky Major will be in there helping the cause.

The last 20 years has been an era of super stallions, one of them legendary. But the next five are shaping to be just as fascinating for different reasons-the new questions that will be asked and ultimately answered.

Or older ones, like will the Adios line survive ? At this stage things are looking bright for Art Major’s classic son

PRINCESS- A MOST AMAZING RACING AND BREEDING  STORY

It had been a tough day at the office for Ashburton jockey Dave Price and he faced financial ruin. But if a week is a long time in racing and a day a chapter, it took only a moment to change Price’s life -and his bank balance

There are romanticised versions of how the amazing pacing mare Princess came to Price’s attention but we prefer his, told many years later, when his recall  of the resulting events was crystal clear.

Walking home, leading the galloper he had put his savings on and who had failed so miserably, he was passed by a man riding one horse and leading another.

It wasn’t the racehorse he led  that grabbed Price’s attention. It was the mare Frank Black was riding. For one thing she was a nice mover. And for another she was pacing, something not often seen in those days on  mid Canterbury roads.

Price started a conversation with Black and inquired if the mare was for sale. Black was not  enthusiastic but an offer for 20 pounds plus contingencies tempted him.He agreed to trial the mare for Price the following day.

 He did not tell Dave the mare had already had two foals and Price didn’t tell him he didn’t have two dollars to his name-but  the trial beside the railway line (to measure the distance) the next day showed Price, who didn’t even follow  trotting at that time, she had unusual ability. 

He scrounged among family and friends and came up with the cash. Jack Loughlin a friend from the Dunedin racing days and later a prominent bookmaker and owner was probably the main source. 

“We call her Princess” Black shouted as Price rode away on the mare.

“I’ll be calling her Dollar Princess before long” Price called back.

 As our first mile record holder; winner of four feature events in the first day she went to the races as well as  landing one of the biggest bets in our  trotting history and then leaving a champion sire, she turned out a Dollar Princess all right. 

A million dollar princess for David Price

A remarkable series of events unfolded immediately after the sale.Dave and his brother Newton, who worked closely together, were getting anxious. They had bought Princess  on a Sunday,nominated her for a race on Monday and on Tuesday  Princess hit herself in work and had to be eased.

Coming up soon   in Dunedin was the richest trotting meeting yet held in this country, in fact the code’s  first feature meeting. It was a leap of faith for the Dunedin Jockey Club to celebrate a world class event,the 1889 Dunedin Exhibition  

Price had been looking out for a contender on learning this, (he had been apprenticed in Dunedin) plotting to drop one into those races at a luxury handicap as an unknown and clean up. Princess was the horse he selected for that.Now things were looking desperate.

Then came  a  good old-fashioned punting story. Finding the injury cleared up in a few days and anxious to find out how good she really was, Princess  was trialled at the Ashburton racecourse.

But not in the usual way. There were plenty of “”spotters”at the track and one of them owned the later Australasian trotting champion mare, Calista, who was favourite for the big Dunedin races.

The trial took place at 3 am under moonlight when getting on to the track was also a problem. No trouble for Princess. Price jumped her over a hedge, the watches came out and off she went. This was the big test because Price had never ran her faster than 3 minutes for the mile in work

The results were astonishing. Princess ran 3200m on her own under a full moon in 5.30. The New Zealand record then was 5.31- and she was unraced!

The team concluded they must have got the pegs wrong. So two days later they jumped the hedge again in the moonlight -and she ran 5.15. Even if the distance was not quite accurate it was a dramatic trial. It would be another seven years before five minutes was officially broken for that distance in New Zealand,and then by a star.

Nobody outside the Price circle knew about those trials but  everyone knew how good Princess was after the historic Exhibition Trotting Cup day at Dunedin in March of 1889. 

Princess, a free legged pacer (no hopples then)  ran four times (heats and finals) in one day, won them all -and won them easily. She set national records for the mile and two miles (3200m) at her raceday debut !.Under  the conditions of the race Princess got 30 seconds start from the scratch horse  in the 3200m  heats as an untried mare  and 15 seconds in the one mile heats.

She beat the younger Calista with ease in the 3200m heat returning a remarkable 22/1 to the syndicate whose tight lipped secrecy over the moonlit trial paid off big time

All the profit was re-invested on the final when she paid just over 2/1.

By the time the mile feature came around Princess was back to scratch giving two well known trotters three seconds start. She won easily, held back to the field, and returned surprising 12/1 to the syndicate who had again gone all up. They did it again in the final  where she was  odds on, even though she was placed 4  seconds behind scratch (already the back mark) giving nearly a minute start to some of the field as the handicapper became desperate to make for a better contest.

 After that win  Dave Price, who had never driven a trotter in a race before that day (but had been a successful jockey) and claimed to know little about training them either, told the team he had “30 seconds up my sleeve”. Press reports referred to her “going past her rivals as if they were standing still”

In the mile final she ran her first 800m in  1.11 ( by far the fastest ever recorded at that time )  and passed 20 horses to reach the front by that stage. “A sensation” was one media description.

Tradition had it when the boys travelled home on the train, pound notes were tossed around like confetti. Frank Black, who ended up with 80 pounds with his contingencies would have been happy too.

Price enjoyed the limelight and was usually the best dressed man on the course,but he rarely gave much away in interviews -unless he was a seller or showing off a horse-but said in later years  that the team itself won over 1650 pounds ($3300) just on bets It was reported in the media at the time that 800 pounds of that came from the totalisator, bookmakers being much the favoured betting medium of the time.

Bear in mind that at that time the Australasian record for a thoroughbred yearling was less than 2000 pounds -and it is  now well north of $2m.

The problem however was that the  ease of the wins had made Princess a racing pariah with no rivals prepared to take her on and handicappers not risking being caught twice. 

The last time she was handicapped in New Zealand she was  required to give the best horses around 52 seconds start over a mile; 75 seconds over two miles; and 96 seconds over three miles. When she went to Addington she was rated 1000m better  -by time- than when on debut and had had less than five races !

She was reduced to racing two top cyclists (in relays with two other horses) on a 400m track  in Ashburton for 25 pounds. 500 people watched what the media called the “wonder mare” run the last leg and win by over 100m. But the  Price boys were restless.

They took her to Australia later in 1890 where her ability had preceded her. That posed problems with handicapping and Price was charged over one of her races and disqualified, along with his mare, for life. 

It was generally considered very harsh treatment even in Australia though not aided by Price speaking rather too frankly about the abilities of those judging him.  He  did riding tricks and exhibitions on Princess at Exhibition Hall in Melbourne and at shows to turn a dollar and eventually returned to New Zealand having put her in foal to a grandson of Hambletonian and named the foal Prince Imperial.

That was a great result for New Zealand in the end.  Prince Imperial was the best locally bred horse of his time (though beaten when below his best in a match with the imported trotter Wildwood) and  became  one of the most influential sires in our standardbred history, and a legend in the stronghold of mid- Canterbury. In one race there of 23 runners, 21 of them were by Prince Imperial ! Take that,Bettor’s Delight.

It was chiefly through his pacing ability and siring success  at that gait that pacers started to overwhelm the trotting horses at the turn of the 20th century. He died at 20 and few stars have emerged from Mid=Canterbury since without at least one strain of his blood. He made geese into swans as you can tell from the long list of unnamed “Prince Imperial mares”in the Stud Book about whom nothing else was known, at least officially,

So who was  Princess ?

She was by a thoroughbred later well known for his pacing daughters in  Dexter, from a mare by the Norfolk Trotter,Prickwillow. That mare  was owned by John Grigg whose farm at Longbeach was once rated the best in the Empire.Royalty was hosted there. But though an influential harness breeder through his imports Grigg was only mildly interested in racing horses. So  many handy sorts like the dam of Princess could be leased or sold  locally when past their prime on the Estate.

Prickwillow, a grandson of a famous English stallion of the same name, left good road trotters for the day if a little irritable,and they were also very clever jumpers- hence Princess clearing hedges with ease.

Not much is known of the Prickwillow mare except she was believed to be at least half-thoroughbred -a common source for trotters then. But she wasn’t finished shaping trotting yet.

After Princess’s  stunning debut local farmer Frank Black had a sudden interest in her earlier foals. The first, Prince Edward, was a useful winner and the only other, Prince Albert, became  an open class pacer of quality. All three foals won their first four races, an unusual feat. Unfortunately, Princess never left a filly.

Wag and Mrs Anne Lowe after his Australasian mile record in the 1970’s. His dam, Merval, also raced by Mrs Lowe set a mare New Zealand record of 2.00.2 in the first mile mobile run at Addington, 70 years after Princess set the first standing start one for Dave Price

But locals were tracking down  her family and Bill Lowe managed to buy a half sister to Princess from a prominent HInds farmer, Mrs Beach, for 50 pounds. It was made to sound like a bargain, and it was, but a high stake then was around 25 pounds for trotters.

This mare, Jessie B, while not having the same ability as Princess, did leave fillies and her whole family became famous, usually through the Lowe family. Hundreds of winners resulted and they have taken home at least three New Zealand Cups.

In the 1970’s  a direct descendant, Wag = raced by Bill Lowe’s widow Anne, then 92, and whose dam, the brilliant Merval, proved what might have been in the first mobile mile race run here (when she ran 2.00.2-a N Z mare record back in the family!) -took the Australasian mile record winning the Pan Am Mile. Blood will out.

These days the Prickwillow mare nobody seemed to know much about would have been an automatic Broodmare of the Year.

Some years after his return to New Zealand with Prince Imperial, Price co-owned with Hall of Fame jockey Tod Hewitt and trained the champion pacer Ribbonwood (by Wildwood) and after winning everything possible here took him to Australia.

 Price  sold him there as a stallion and he topped the Australian sire lists for some years. He was the  Lazarus of his time.  Price was in America with James Pettie when the latter bought the great foundation mare Norice on Price advice and Dave trained her here for the first New Zealand Cup.

Price took other top horses to Australia and both he and Newton, who had a top stable by the Sockburn overbridge for many years, trained New Zealand Trotting Cup winners. 

But after a major coup with a New Zealand galloper (Machine Gun) considered past his best with wind problems before Price took him over he changed codes again. He became a top thoroughbred  trainer in Melbourne almost immediately and remained one. He died in 1943 after a long illness. 

Price  cut a dash on the racecourse and while able to produce his share of trickery to fool rivals and handicappers -as was the norm then-he was a highly regarded and a popular figure on the turf.

Princess was not quite so lucky. 

For some reason, possibly associated with the ban; breeding  problems or the lack of a commercial future, the Prices sold Princess to India. Not cheaply. She brought 500 pounds a great price then for a pacing mare. But our first mile record holder walked on to a boat one day in Melbourne and into history.

50 years after her great wins at Dunedin, Dave Price recalled the story in a media interview. He brushed off compliments on his memory of far off events after so many years of success in Australia with a response that showed how much it had meant to him. 

“It was a long time ago-but to me it seems  like yesterday”

Even today, the amazing story of Princess can still have that effect.

A GREAT MARE -AND  A GREATER MYSTERY

It is so easy now to look up the breeding of a winner or a horse which has taken our fancy we hardly think about it. 

When it was a lot harder in olden days with so many mares listed as s  “unnamed”“unregistered” or simply “unknown” it would seem not nearly as many people seemed to want to know

Were the old timers really so incurious as to not try and find out where their fast trotter came from-or were there other reasons?

Most might have  felt it was something they didn’t really need to know. There was no Stud Book, the horses were largely used for “work”; few raced them, breeding was by word of mouth and sales were done purely on a horse’s ability. Some shrewdies might also have felt that having got a fast breed it was not something everyone needed to know about.

Then there were those who  didn’t want to know. They feared they may find out things they suspected might be the truth.Better to plead ignorance.

And so our first great racemare and broodmare, Gentle Annie, the Scuse Me of her time, has a highly mysterious background, the official version of which was doubted even by her connections at the time and merely greeted with cynical smiles  by many others

Here is the official version.

Gentle Annie arrived in New Zealand in 1864 with a gang of Australian gold miners. She was such a stylish trotter with high speed not often seen here that Sam Garforth, who was making his fortune  as a butcher selling meat to the Coast miners  quickly became, and remained,her owner.

Garforth was a Yorkshireman,who would later own the famous Spreydon Lodge and become a noted breeder, dealer and show entrant of both sheep and cattle and also of thoroughbreds in Canterbury. He was proud of Gentle Annie,took on all comers who quickly  dwindled to very few and she soon had a reputation right through the young colony as the fastest trotter New Zealand had ever seen. 

Nearly all her contests were matches over any distance between 3200 and 18,000m (12 miles) which was the racing scene  for trotters at the time.  Some of them were for big stakes (up to $1000 -when a good wage per annum was $40) and she beat all comers,setting records not beaten for 20 years. 

One of her most famous victories was a celebrated match in Christchurch in 1866. She was put up against  the high class galloper (and later stud sire) Orlando who was dual gaited, for $350. Many times that was bet on the side.It was over 16km  from the Styx Bridge to the Carlton Hotel and because of the money involved, a crowd of several hundred braved the early morning chill to watch them go by. A small army of punters on their mounts followed the race.

Orlando was the favourite partly because he had the famous jockey Bob Ray up carrying just 59kg while the mare was ridden by amateur Pat Corkery at 82kg. It made no difference. Orlando took a while to get organised on the trot, Gentle Annie got a lead early and was never less than 100m in front winning easily. Truly a marvel mare.

At stud Gentle Annie can lay claims to being the foundress of the local trotting industry before there was a trotting industry- and even though Garforth bred her continuously to thoroughbred stallions rather than Norfolk Trotting horses.

Her first foal, to a chance mating with a draught colt,was a filly who left  Commodore so fast off a standing start no cyclist ever beat him over 100m in a betting match. He could  run from a stand in an officially timed nine seconds 130 years ago.

He was a trotter who wanted to pace and wore enormous weights to keep him to the gait. Even his trainer felt sorry for him and devised a special way of applying them.. Yet Commodore  held New Zealand records over short trips.

Her second foal , a colt called Spot owned by John Grigg of Longbeach, was one of the most sought after trotting stallions of the pre-American era when  Longbeach was the source of many of the best Mid-Canterbury families. 40 or more foals of hack, road and thoroughbred mares were handled at Longbeach most years-a virtual stud on its own.

But there were  “mysteries” there  too because shiploads of horses arrived from Australia without racing credentials =but clearly had them. Two examples were  called Opossum and Wallaby,both natural trotters. Opossum once gave a round start on the half mile track at a Tinwald meeting to other local stars and still won. Possibly they were sold back to Australia. Neither mare ever figured in the NZ Stud Book though it is known Opossum left a smart Ashburton trotter in Marengro. And, just perhaps, a few “ünregistered” or “unknown” fillies ? 

Gentle Annie’s next foal, Duchess of York, was a very successful broodmare and was followed by Southern Queen,the dam of  the champion mare of Australasia in the 1890’s, Calista.

 Calista was as an even bigger star than her granddam especially across the Tasman, Outclassing everything in NZ she became a celebrated trotter there setting Australasian records and was one of the first to use the “new fangled” speed carts. She only left two foals, both winners but only one a filly who only left colts.

Calista once gave a field 85 seconds start over 3200m and won easily. 

Gentle Annie’s next foal,Dexter is, in the time period we are discussing, a leading  sire  over many years, He left New Zealand’s next champion mare, Princess,who could pace or trot, and  that was part of  Dexter’s appeal. Princess set unheard of records right from the start of her career, almost a reincarnation of Gentle Annie.

While Gentle Annie was only seen in public as a trotter, Dexter’s ability to leave foals, especially fillies, who preferred to pace was a major plus in an era when pacers were finally gaining acceptance.This was hugely   accelerated when hopples were introduced to steady them. Dexter’s daughter Princess’s first foal, Prince Imperial, was the ideal sire to produce them.Before Dexter in Canterbury locally bred pacers were by accident not design. 

Since Dexter was by a galloping sire, the pacing trait may have come  from his dam who reportedly was naturally dual gaited. 

According to the late Ted Lowe,  Prince Imperial owed his popularity to the fact he left mostly pacers. Oddly, Princess ended her days in India.

 Shamrock was another famous foundation mare  by Dexter  whose immediate family featured several New Zealand record holders. Another Australasian mile record holder  and superstar of her time, Emmeline, trained in Ashburton by Randle McDonnell, was inbred to Dexter. His influence remains today and would take a whole article on its own to explain. Spot was equally popular.

Gentle Annie-Princess-Calista- Emmeline- all Australasian mile female champions one generation after another. Not many families could beat that.

So how did this Gentle Annie emerge from being a gold miners hack to a foundation standardbred breeding influence ?

Good question.

In the first Stud Book (early 20th century) she is listed as being by (gallop sire) Sportsman then based in Victoria from a “half bred mare”  and bred by a Mr Borham. That will always be the official version. Trouble was, a lot of people never believed it.

A long lived Ashburton trainer,Josh Lewis, recalled in interviews that rumours of a much different background were very strong when Gentle Annie was alive, “based on good information” from the West Coast,

Also odd was that when Gentle Annie died in 1881 the press report based on statements by  Samuel Garforth stated that  “in spite of extensive searches her breeding has never been established”

The popular alternate story is a lot more intriguing and just as believable. 

According to the published Lewis memories (he was around at the time),   there was a doctor in Melbourne who was extraordinarily proud of the prowess of his trotting mare and offered large sums for matches against her. 

Some astute types decided to take him down but fast road trotters were hard to find. The legend has it that  they brought in a mare from the US by a devious route (usually Queensland) and  “legitimised” her. This was normally done by putting the horse through a sale ring with a “pedigree” ,buying it in and claiming it as a record of identity. Don’’t worry, it happened here too.

On the appointed day and with very heavy betting in Melbourne over the match Gentle Annie (so common a racing name then it added to the later confusion) drew away and won easily. Then, according to the conspiracy theory, the elderly man who was listed as her  owner died and the miners purchased her for New Zealand. 

So someone would give away Scuse Me ? Hard to believe such a performer would be so easily bought by a bunch of battlers- unless of course there were suspicions about her true identity and so getting her out of the country before there were too many questions asked was a smart move.

Gentle Annie never broke in a match; “never took a lame step”according to Garforth, and won her last match here as a 20 year old. She died foaling at Spreydon Lodge at 24 still in good condition. One of her foals was raced in Australia and went on to England as a road horse.

A pure and, especially,reliable, trotting gait in those pre-American sire  import days was extremely rare. A mare of  such superb performance and breeding blood languishing around the NZ gold fields seems too good to be true.

Perhaps because it was.

 We know Gentle Annie, now long forgotten, is one of the best and most influential mares in New Zealand trotting history.

What we don’t know, and can never know, is just who was she, really ?

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TWO OUT OF THREE -AIN’T ALWAYS GOOD

The two earliest pioneers of trotting imports from America  were men of enterprise,skill and enthusiasm,who set out for the  United States in the late 1870’s to buy standardbred stock and raise the standard of the breed in this country. 

But while their  ambition was admirable and one of them was a man of great expertise  their process was flawed. 

Robert Wilkin and Jack Kerr were the men in question. Their influence was ultimately considerable but  errors  of judgement or just bad luck  cost the local industry big time from their decisions in the short term. Though to be fair  they were thinking as much about road horses as track types at the time

Wilkin was the better known of the two  with a high profile in Christchurch business and farming circles. His stables at Fendalton were luxurious -later turned into a handsome house-and he was knowledgable himself and had excellent advice as  he travelled extensively to Europe and America to select the right horses.

In Scotland Wilkin saw a celebrated local racer, Childe Harold, but he was not for sale. Instead he bought the Woodburn Farm-bred stallion Berlin there and then set off for  Woodburn Farm itself in  Kentucky -where Childe Harold was also bred-  and bought another son of Harold named Vancleve. The idea was almost certainly  to cross him with Berlin-line mares, the cross that had already produced Childe Harold that had so impressed Wilkin

Harold himself had gone to Woodburn from New York at good money in an attempt by  the stud to upskill its stallion ranks with Hambletonian line horses- even though  he was  once  described by a critic as a “bench legged runt”. He could trot but had been a stud disappointment before producing the world champion mare, Maud S at Woodburn in 1879. Scorned by many locals, his mares turned out  outstanding producers and  he had a lasting influence in Australasia.

It is a complete mystery as to why Wilkin   would go to so much trouble and then send Vancleve to Australia on lease soon after he arrived in New Zealand rather than wait for Berlin fillies to appear. Vancleve never left a foal here and never  returned to New Zealand, being sold after Wilkin’s death in 1886. Perhaps his own health was a factor but it was a disastrous move from a bloodlines viewpoint 

What is more Vancleve had to stand alongside but against  the celebrated Childe Harold for a time and only got the second pick among the mares. 

Vancleve, who trotted a mile privately in a then impressive 2.16 was later a sensational success  his most famous offspring being the wonder trotter Fritz who, Wilkin would have noted with satisfaction, was from a Berlin mare. Fritz, a trotter, was beaten by the pacer  Ribbonwood in famous match races but when past his best He was hugely popular in both countries.  Vancleve’s greatest years were when he was bought by J A Buckland, who raced and bred on a grand scale, and promoted him to king of the hill at his own stud

The reason Vancleve and Childe Harold were at the same stud was that  when Childe Harold, later sire of the great NZ-based stallion, Rothschild, did come on the market Wilkin passed the offer on to Andrew Town, owner now of Vancleve. Childe Harold was a hero across the Tasman but what if two such quality stallions had been available in New Zealand later with all those Berlin mares around ?

Many Vancleve fillies and mares came over here and formed a backbone among a number of our best staying families. In fact he was the leading sire here one season without ever coming to the country just like the modern frozen semen horses. Nothing new under the sun.

 Kerr, an entrepreneur from Nelson where his family were early settlers, reputed to have used the first ploughs there, was a butcher as well as a large scale farmer, and  imported  Irvington,  the first and only son of Hambletonian 10 to ever come to either Australia or New Zealand. The virtual founder of the standardbred -every horse racing today will trace to him-Hambletonian was the most famous horse in America by the end of his career standing for an unheard of $500 a service. 

Thanks to the Ashburton Trotting Club he is the only trotter from the 19th century still to have a race named after him in this country -as well of course, as  America’s most famous trotting race.

So Irvington, a high priced son of the greatest stallion in the world  and one of whose sons had already been sold to the Rothschild family of Europe for over $5000, might have been expected to carry all before him.

Instead he left just  two winners and was eventually passed on to Australia. But it was not all his fault and it  did not represent what would  become his legacy

 Jack Kerr who owned the Lake Station on the shores of Rotoiti, the water that would one day claim his life, was something of an adventurer compared to Wilkin. Regarded as a “rough diamond”, big, friendly but bombastic, he had made a small fortune importing draught horses and believed he could improve the road horse standard similarly by bringing in standardbreds. 

Both men may also have been looking at developments in Australia where importing American trotting stallions was coming into fashion for use as road horses.

Kerr went first to California, as you did then, and inspected Irvington and his full brother Arthurton. They  had been bought by another Scotsman, William Corbitt in the east for a then sensational $25,000. Corbitt made a fortune in California, lost it all, and returned to make another one. His property was a showplace.  Like Robert Wilkin he wasn’t keen on  two horses competing for mares, preferred Arthurton, and Kerr forked out big money to buy Irvington. 

 Kerr then travelled east to Kentucky but reckoned he saw nothing better than Irvington and bought two of his sons from Corbitt on the way home. Keen judges back in Irvington New York where he was bred reckoned Irvington on his younger days “to be as good a young trotter as there was about”and no less than the sporting Bible- the Turf Field and Form- declared “no pedigree could be better in trotting blood than that of Irvington” The first foal he left  went straight into the Standardbred list and won a lot of races.

So what went wrong ? 

Well Jack Kerr didn’t quite do all his homework and he also  lived in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Almost immediately on arrival Kerr entered most of the horses including Irvington in a Tattersall’s sale in Christchurch. Many hundreds looked but none bought. Irvington, then 10 years old, was described as having “a magnificent head and neck, wide chest and splendid hindquarters and  with a  fine action. He will bring a new era to trotting in Canterbury”

But the market wasn’t there yet and almost all the horses were passed in Irvington at a respectable 800 guineas. It may have been thought  Kerr was  just testing the market but he may have been counting the costs of his enterprise as well and auctioneer Matson was critical of trotting enthusiasts.

“New Zealanders are just learning the alphabet for trotting and have yet to get past abc” he told them

But Kerr’s big problem was that Irvington left relatively few foals and none at all in his later career. Also Kerr appeared to lose some interest in the horses after a time and often left it to others to promote them.

Jack Kerr had political aspirations which were sunk by overly frank comments like that recorded when constituent miners from Nelson Creek raised a petition against him during his one term as a politician. He dismissed it by saying   “They could get any number of signatures down there to hang the Governor for a pint of beer”. Winston Peters at his best had nothing on Kerr but he was not diplomatic enough to survive

Irvington was passed on eventually  to George King of Christchurch who was he one to sell him to Australia.

In 1898 while out checking his fishing nets on  a punt close to the  shore of the lake, the boat capsized and Kerr was drowned. It was thought health problems that caused giddy spells when he stood up had  led to the the capsize.

He is rarely mentioned in history (another of his stallions,Fitz James, left the first Auckland Cup winner Rarus but foundered and died from bad feeding) but his legacy deserved a better fate.

Irvington’s  legacy  apart from a few mares, relied on just two of his sons especially ,Young Irvington. who, in his later years became the most sought after stallion around. Owned and raced by New Brighton’s Tom Free he was auctioned on the latter’s death and bought by James Jarden who also stood Rothschild. The Jarden  family was influential in trotting for a century. 

James’s  somewhat fiery son Ben, was the glamour trainer in Canterbury for some time through the deeds of a champion called Author Dillon and his luxury stables in Hornby were named Irvington Lodge.

Our first real champion pacer, Ribbonwood, was from a Young Irvington mare and then two other mile record holders and  a host of other influential broodmares came from him. He was so good they took to calling Irvington “Old Irvington” as his best son overshadowed him. Ribbonwood was a champion sire in Australia.

Lincoln Yet, the first foal of the famous Pride of Lincoln and one of Irvington’s first crop,  fairly much failed on the track but he was a popular road trotting sire for many years travelling all around Canterbury. Sometimes he carried a cab around the city, But he was actually much more than that. He sired two NZ Cup winners, including the first, Monte Carlo, beside many outstanding horses and several influential broodmares. 

Just on a sampling you will find Irvington with only two sons at stud and a handful of producing mares,  somewhere in the pedigree of False Step, Ribbonwood, Harold Logan Johnny Globe Thefixer Tactician, Loyal Nurse, Auckland Reactor, Elsu, Luxury Liner and his relatives: the Armalight  family  and Lyell Creek -plus  hundreds more. 

Berlin’s son Kentucky sired Thelma a half-sister to Lincoln Yet and for a century regarded as our greatest broodmare. He is in the pedigrees of Christian Cullen and Take a Moment in more recent times but many others through the Thelma association alone

The Woodlands Stud family of Adore Me, Christen Me, Dream About Me etc has Vancleve in the back ground and he is common in many of the famous mid Canterbury families.

So while Irvington passed quickly into history as a perceived failure the son of Hambletonian did a lot more than given credit for. Perhaps that is why the outstanding trotting journalist Karl Scott, editor of the Trotting Calendar for many years and author and editor of two books on harness racing, chose a special name for his byline over all that time.

He called himself “Irvington”

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IRISH STEW- LOVING GIFT HORSE  THE UNSUNG HERO OF NZ BREEDING

It was a reality check for New Zealand harness  that warm November day in 1938.

First an Australian visitor Lawn Derby went against time and became the first outside America to break two minutes. We had been striving for that ourselves for years only to be pipped at the post so to speak.

An hour later his travelling companion Logan Derby, placed in record time over 3200m earlier in  the day,  came out and beat our champion mare Parisienne and all our other great performers  in the NZ Free for All. It was reported as being the most popular win of the meeting. Not quite like the Bledisloe Cup but in those days, but damn  close to it.

To their credit the locals gave the Aussies  a big hand, not realising at the time that one of them would return the favour, big time-but to much lesser acclaim.

Logan Derby is still the only pacer to have raced in New Zealand to sire both  a son and a grandson to win the Sires Premiership. Not U Scott, Light Brigade, or Christian Cullen. A pony from Tasmania whose favourite treat at home was a serving of Irish stew.  Not bad when you consider he came to New Zealand breeding at an advanced age as a gift horse.

Logan Derby left Johnny Globe, say no more, and Johnny Globe left Lordship, both leading stallions. He also, incidentally, sired the brilliant but erratic trotter Vodka the first New Zealand-trained horse to win in America.

We have had a number of leading stallions who have sired other leading stallions, eg U Scott (Scottish Command, Young Charles): Bachelor Hanover (Noodlum) and  In the Pocket (Christian Cullen). But none managed the third step. To be fair even Lordship failed in that regard but he had already set plenty of records.  

That does not only happen in  New Zealand of course-and therein lies a coincidence.

Albatross was an unreal racehorse and a huge success as a sire in America and in Australasia. But his two best descendants, Niatross, still considered the greatest young pacer of modern times and a leading sire for one season; and his son Nihilator (the main reason he was leading sire) failed to leave a colt to carry on the line even though both stood at $US40,000 service fees at one time and got the best of mares.  Nihilator in fact didn’t leave much of anything. You could  have made a million then betting that the Albatross line , after his fifth title  in 1986, would never win another one- but it happened.

And in New Zealand Albatross sired two highly influential stallions in Vance Hanover and Holmes Hanover who won 14 premierships between them. But still no son to carry on the line. Like Albatross, Holmes Hanover had a lot of influence as a broodmare sire. So did another successful Albatross son, Sokys Atom. But among the three of them along were nearly 8000 foals so a notable siring son might reasonably have been expected

That shows just how hard it is to sustain paternal lines in New Zealand, especially with non -American horses,in a land when later emerging stars have usually had an operation early in  life to curtail a breeding future.

Enter Logan Derby- an original “little horse that could”

He was foaled in 1930 in Tasmania for Globe Derby’s owner, Edgar Tatlow,  but sold as a weanling for 100 gns to a Mr Balloch of Melbourne who was just getting into harness racing. Balloch was advised by trainer Bill Tomkinson who made such a mark in this country.

 But the owner wanted to return to thoroughbreds so Logan Derby was sold, rising three, at a Victorian  auction for 60 guineas to a Tasmanian visitor. That was canny  Harry Barnes, a dairy farmer prominent in several  sporting fields who claimed he was not specifically interested in the Globe Derby colt but he had done his homework. Back to Tassie the little youngster went. 

Logan Derby was  just above pony size  at 14.3hh and even then a touch taller than his  grandson Lordship who was a similar “bulldog”on the racetrack. Johnny Globe seemed of similar height but was a pocket battleship like his sire and actually measured over 15hh. Unhappily the Globe Derby line barely survived them. 

Its a David and Goliath story at the 1936 Inter Dominions. Logan Derby the smallest horse in the series eyes up the biggest Willie Whisp

As Lordship was from  a U Scott mare from a fast family and Johnny Globe’s granddam was a record fast yearling in America (she never showed anything here) the pair produced many more  early comers than Logan Derby had, especially Lordship.

Logan Derby, like his sire, didn’t show a lot of ability until late in his three year old career and he was also a slow maturer physically. His dam was  a highly bred New Zealand mare, Belle Logan, developed  by Bill Morland of Rakaia, (and later Christchurch) a leading authority on the game in his time, who sold her to race. Her first foal, Dillon Logan, won a Dunedin Cup after which there was regret she had been exported. That was going to  get worse. Her sire  Logan Pointer  had 6 seasons at stud here and won the premiership 6 times then became even more successful as a sire of broodmares. But,again, none of his sons were much chop at stud.

Logan Derby was an iron horse hugely popular with the public as Johnny Globe and Lordship would both become. He travelled over  50,000km by road and sea during his career of over 60 wins and won over 10,000 pounds, huge money then.

He had an odd record in the Inter Dominions. He was unbeaten in Perth in 1936 but denied the championship because there were points for fastest time as well and  his three heats and a final win were not enough without them. He was back in 1940 and this time was well  beaten in the final after a hardly believable early break but still recorded fastest time which gave him enough points for the title. Point made. 

 He won  three of 7 in New Zealand on his 1938 trip with 3 seconds and a third in the NZ Cup. He did not win a race until a four year old and retired in his 14th year.

Logan Derby was a brilliant beginner and so smoothly gaited he thrived on small tracks (his first  Inter Dominion “win” was  on a 600m circuit) but he didn’t mind a good old slog on a big track either. Beside a smooth stride it was a lengthy one. Oddly Denis Nyhan recalls that Lordship who only wore a 56 inch hopple, would give the impression it was much longer when stretching out around the field with his brilliant runs just as his ancestor had done.

Harry Barnes had become an accomplished horseman and trained Logan Derby for most of his career. He would talk about him all day. His wife, who won saddle trots at the Show meetings so popular then, also raced Logan Derby at times. 

He was generally rated a disappointment at stud before coming to New Zealand but like the handicaps he raced off (he once won from 180m in Tasmania) things were against him. Tasmania  was awash with Globe Derby blood restricting his chances and  then he was sold to Perth where few topliners are bred at any time. 

His health failing, Harry Barnes had sold the stallion to his friend J P Stratton the “MrTrotting”of West Australia. Stratton dreamed of breeding a  two minute horse on his own huge property out west that also included Clydesdale stallions (from NZ) and Percherons. He would use a team of 20 horses on double and triple ploughs rather than use tractors.But his two minute pacing dream remained unfulfilled. He raced Logan Derby between stud seasons and he was not retired until 1944

In 1946 Stratton presented Logan Derby as a gift  to his friend F J Smith for his  Village Farm stud, Takanini. Smith also had Josedale Grattan, an American import he trained to win a New Zealand Cup here and who was also a successful sire.

Considering he was 18 before his first stock arrived here Logan Derby did exceptionally well though overshadowed by the deeds of another outstanding Globe Derby horse Springfield Globe who had the “ädvantage” of being trapped in New Zealand during the war years.

Beside Johnny Globe and Vodka Logan Derby left the high class pacer Ricochet, regarded by Denis Nyhan as one of the most underrated horses of his era and who won a Hannon Memorial, then the major Cup leadup. Jewel Derby was another tough customer winning  17 races. 

His most famous broodmare performer was Master Dean, a horse of extremely high speed. Names like Full Measure, Kahu, Emory Wheel; other  trotters like  Logan Count and Sure Court were familiar especially considering Logan Derby’s short career here and  at a northern stud for most of it.

In noting that Johnny Globe was probably best known in Australia as a sire through many trotters headed by like Gramel, Au Fait, White World, Snow Globe Bay Johnny, Poupette, Johnny  Gee  etc; and  Logan Derby had Vodka, it should be said champion pacer  Globe Derby himself had originally been tried in Australia as a trotter.

Logan Derby had a great  personality and was a family pet on the Barnes farm where he was virtually given the run of the place. Johnny Globe who rather enjoyed children riding him bareback even in the breeding season inherited his personality. Logan Derby’s  favourite treat, believe it or not, was Irish Stew and he whinnied with excitement whenever it was presented to him.  As far as the Barnes family were concerned he had earned every serving.

Whether he has earned the full respect he deserved for his racing and breeding achievements in New Zealand may be another story.

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GEORGIAS BETTOR - A TEMPTATION TOO GREAT TO PASS

Ticking the right boxes is the key to successful yearling purchases and ace selector, Jean Feiss, must have found it easier than usual in selecting Georgias  Bettor as a target in February. Even if she had to produce another $200,000 bid to back her judgement 

Some of the incentives for Jean to be a big bidder on the Bettor’s Delight colt were, given her history at the sales, a no brainer.

Georgias Bettor paraded in outstanding fashion-always the clincher- but had caught the eye of many a bidder long before then. Especially Jean’s.

He is from a Christian Cullen mare the same cross as Self Assured.  Tick.

He is also bred  on the same cross as a close relation, Spanish Armada, winner of over $700,000 for Jean and 14 of just 19 starts before being sold for a stud career (Jean and Bill Feiss no longer breed their own) for a very healthy sum. Tick.

The colt is the 4th live foal from his dam but the first by Bettor’s Delight. Big tick right there.

A half brother from Georgia Brooke by Art Major, Georgia’s Baron, has won 2 from 8 in his first prep. Tick

Ok, Bettor’s Delight is almost an encyclopedia of modern racing success. But he is all over this family through close relations to Jean’s colt in Cheer The Lady- hot property on and off the track- Galleon’s Warrior, Spanish Armada -the list goes on. Another tick

Then, just when you might conclude, yeah but  this is a family dominated in recent times by fillies, Jean can point to Supreme Dominator a brother to Spanish Armada who  was placed in both the Derby’s in New Zealand in his year. and a competitor in both the Hondo Grattan and the Bonanza in Australia this summer.  Tick

Quite a lot of the success of this family in recent years can be traced to the “Galleon” name developed by Gary Allen”s  with David Kennedy and Trevor Casey among those bringing added value. Gary was a fan of the sire Albert Albert and several of the various “Galleon”mares patronised him during his relatively short career down under.  One of them was Galleon’s Cheer the dam of Cheer the Lady and Georgia Brooke.Cheer the Lady joined Spanish Armada at the Taffy Stud in Winton from where their progeny sell like hot cakes.

Albert Albert did not earn  a great deal of respect when he came to Australia as an older horse. At one stage he had moved to California and is said to have been the  first American-based stallion to have chilled fresh semen to Australia and New Zealand but that proved a challenge. 

Albert Albert, a $US42,000 yearling,  had equalled Nihilator’s two year old world record (1.52.8) winning the Fox Stake  but at 3 raced in the shadow of Camtastic, winning heats of the Jug and the Adios but not featuring in the finals. He was not helped as a sire perhaps by the fact that his best racing son in the States, Pacific Rocket, had his share of knockers on the track and at stud in both hemispheres. 

That should not be said of Albert Albert here. He only arrived in 1999 as a shuttle and was retired from all stud duty in  2005.

He left only 115 foals here and 58 were winners. A lot of hyped stallions wouldn’t mind a percentage like that. At least three of them here won over $150,000 and the most unusual result was with Bachelorette His mares left the iron horse Albert Contador, trained by All Stars here, and several others including U May Cullect.

Bachelorette the winner of 10 races here and $187,000  was out of a mare by B G’s Bunny, a brother to Albert Albert’s dam, Lismore. More inbreeding than now popular - but it worked. Oddly enough Cardigan Bay further back in the family, was also very closely bred by modern standards,

This is not the only unusual thing about this tribe. That goes right back to the beginning,officially traced to a mare of unknown breeding called Trilby  by a galloper called KIng’s Quail the only name on the pedigree sheet.

He was a good one too winning the Auckland, Wellington and Geraldine Cups as well as the Easter Handicap at Ellerslie and a rich feature in Dunedin. The unknown part of her breeding is not helped by the number of Trilby’s running around in both codes over the years.

One was disqualified after winning a trot at Matamata way back when because she had previously  raced at a unregistered meeting and might have been “our” one. Or likely not.

The trouble is we can’t be quite sure. 

Trilby had a son called Captain Tracey, a good performer who stood at stud in the Clutha region. There, however, Trilby was advertised to be actually by the leading trotting horse Berlin Abadallah, from a mare called Cottage Girl who was an Otago racing hotshot in her time. In those far off days a pedigree like that left an unknown mother and a galloper father for dead.

The Stud Book might have had  a dollar each way. While the digital version  states the King Quail connection it only lists Captain Tracey and a filly, to whom a good Cecil  Devine-trained pacer Inky Boy traced, as Trilby’s foals. Her most influential foal, Gold Patch, is not listed. 

Yet look up Gold Patch and she is shown to be in fact out of Trilby. There is no mention of a Trilby from Cottage Girl. 

Either the Stud Book was confused; some digital records are incomplete (not uncommon)  or Captain Tracey’s owner had a vivid imagination-most likely the latter (such liberties with the truth were not rare in the days before Stud Books) but with some doubt still. 

In any case it took a long time for this now famous family to hit the headlines.

Gold Patch, able but unruly in harness, was by a lightly patronised but  influential Canterbury-bred stallion George M Patchen, whose son, Eccentric, won the first NZ Free for All in 1914 and who figures in the pedigree of False Step as well as the  Allaksam, Manaroa etc from limited numbers of racers in the road horse era. 

 As an old mare (21) for Andrew Jopp who really was the major influence in the breeding of Cardigan Bay, Gold Patch left a filly called Helen’s Bay, who was also troublesome and slow maturing but as a trotter (as were most of the family at that stage) developed good form very late in her career. 

Jopp then bred her to Quite Sure, a leading trotting stallion, to get Pleasure Bay, reputedly able but injured and unraced, and bred her in turn to the dual gaited  Josedale Dictator (Dictation) to get Colwyn Bay. The latter had a brief but spectacular racing career before foaling Cardigan Bay after an ailing Jopp presented her to the Todd brothers who had trained her. It was Jopp’s matings that had  really laid the foundation for putting some ginger into a rather average tribe and Hal Tryax was the Todd’s icing on the cake when the mighty Cardigan Bay appeared.

Colwyn Bay also produced Swan Bay etc and then one of her daughters left Young Cardigan. Good things still took time with the family. Dame Cardigan, another daughter  left 10 named foals of mixed performance before the 11th, Decision Time, won a Messenger,as

But that wasn’t all. Pleasure Bay, bred to top stallions by subsequent owners  Harold Kay, Roydon Lodge -and the Georgia Brooke line by Wayne Francis- also left Snow Jane the dam of Inter Dominion trotting champion Snow Globe; Snowline the granddam of Hands Down;  Baylight the dam of NZ Cup winner Globe Bay;a star trotter in Australia called Bay Johnny; and Ski Girl the dam of top Aussie pacer Apre Ski. 

So after half a century of “who?” the Trilby family were the toast of the trotting world.

Georgias Bettor comes through Baylight whose daughter No Regrets was a smart if busy two year old for John Noble and Wayne Francis and retired early. Her unraced daughter Not Again Franco is the granddam of Georgia Brooke. 

Baylight, in keeping with the family tradition, did not race until she was five when she ran 6th in a division race at Rangiora. Her best son, Globe Bay, was the beaten favourite on debut in  an age group at three; won a maiden by 7 lengths, then lost all form before Jack Carmichael coaxed him back to his best which included a NZ Cup win . It was in the Francis breeding era that Baylight left No Regrets (3 from 24).

All in all Jean Feiss, such an astute judge of type and pedigree she  has had more success than most -maybe anyone- with $200,000 yearling buys, had a lot of incentive to go big on this one. 

And if there did happen to be more than one Trilby involved-well if Georgias Bettor turns out like many of the rest of the family who cares?  After all all families, human and equine, have their little secrets.

. 

AMAZING DREAM.THE FRENCH CONNECTION

The Amazing Dream story goes back a long way -all the way back to an Akaroa trotting enthusiast named Etienne X Le Lievre one of our most successful breeders of all time.

A son of a French pioneer in the district, Etienne was to make an indelible impression on early trotting breeding even if Akaroa seemed an unlikely source of it

In fact standardbred horses were very popular around the many bays on the Peninsula, most of them with tracks rather than roads, where road horses with stamina and speed were carefully nurtured.  Some leading stallions, such as Victor and the American -bred Ha Ha, stood at stud around the “Bays” in the 19th century. And as the long promised railway never got past Little River the most notable sporting record on the Peninsula was the fastest horse trip from Little River to Akaroa -around 35km, much of it among steepish hills. At the end of a long day in Christchurch you wanted to get home as quickly as you could.

Etienne Le Lievre chased and guarded that record well but competition was keen. The annual Oinako Cup meeting (three laps around a makeshift Akaroa track) was highly competitive. It led Etienne to greater things. He was an expert horseman who broke and handled his own youngsters until well over 80 years of age and bred an impressive list of stars and superstars. The beautiful Le Lievre homestead of Oinako was often used also  for hosting official events in the district. 

 Etienne joined forces with the Halswell-domiciled, ill-fated American, Robert McMillan, who established the then famous Santa Rosa stud close by the present Halswell Hotel. Le Lievre owned most of the stallions including Harold Dillon, the leading sire for several successive years, and Great Audubon who sired a NZ Cup winner, Great Hope. But the best of them was another Bingen offspring, Nelson Bingen.

The partners   visited America on a number of occasions and just before WW1 returned with a mare Berthabell (spelling appeared to vary at times) a four year old with a foal at foot and in foal to The Harvester, the star trotting sire of the US at that time. Nelson Bingen, then a two year old was brought out about the same time. 

The foal was injured during the trip out and never raced though later a good broodmare who left 9 fillies from her 11 foals. It is through  her Amazing Dream traces. The Harvester foal died

Berthabell became the best known broodmare in New Zealand for a decade as a result of a tremendous run of success and the sheer durability of her breed that still entitles her to legendary status as much as  modern greats such as Scuse Me.

Apart from 1914, 1918 and 1927 she left a foal every year from 1913 until 1932 when 24 years old. Twins died in 1915 and, rather remarkably, she was trained and raced in 1917 so was not put in foal that year. She was so fertile that her last foal, Sea Gypsy, left the NZ Cup winner, Our Roger raced by Le Lievre’s son in law, Bill Newton  

Etienne Le Lievre held strong theories on breeding and he bred Berthabell, who was by the legendary Peter the Great and no cheapie, almost exclusively to Nelson Bingen in spite of more fashionable stallions being available. He championed the  Bingen breed even while they had been spectacularly successful in America for a time before going dramatically out of fashion after a “whispering campaign” against them for not being genuine. New Zealand was the line’s last hurrah.

Le Lievre was proven right. To Nelson Bingen Berthabell left the two greatest pacers of the 1920’s.

Great Bingen (2nd foal in New Zealand) was the stakes winning record holder until the 1940’s as a result of a long list of champion performances in the 20’s when he was the  idol of Addington racing crowds off long marks for Roydon Lodge and Dan Glanville.

  Peter Bingen (third foal) , leased out to race by Etienne, won two New Zealand Cups (quinella in one with Great Bingen) and the first Royal Cup event at Addington. Great Parrish won the Northern Derby and the Auckland Cup. Worthy Bingen (first foal here)   was a champion trotter and later sired the wonder mare Worthy Queen who, but for a Christchurch nor wester, would have trotted a two minute mile away back in the 1930’s-before any pacer had done so.She was driven by Jack Shaw who later developed Vodka from the Bell Bingen breed, the first New Zealand-trained horse to win in the United States. Etienne would have loved that.

At one two day meeting in the Waikato in 1939,  four sons of Berthabell each sired winners, surely a unique feat.

But there was a catch. Berthabell’s fillies were all disappointing on the racetrack. Ok to outstanding at stud and with early speed but not raceday propositions. Of Bell Bingen’s 9 filly foals, none registered a time of any description 

Amazing Dream, the only filly from Christian Dreamer registered to date, is therefore an exception to the general rule about Berthabell- line racing fillies - though not of course the only one.

Still.  of the 11 mares in her direct descent from Berthabell, 7 never made the races. Another, Fallacy Queen, a good broodmare,  raced 40 times without a win. 

The line had been nurtured in later years by Etienne Le Lievre’s grandson, Lance,  and by another descendant Jack X Ferguson, whose Jayex, also a descendant of Berthabell,won the Champion Stakes at Ashburton for Jack Smolenski. Another relative, the outstanding trotting mare Au Fait (Dominion Handicap) was raced by one time Akaroa publican (the Bruce) Jack McKay, whose wife was  a Le Lievre. Lance Le Lievre and Jack Ferguson had both ridden winners of the Oinako Cup

Jayex sired Jay Marie among others, who won a Golden Slipper at Waimate for Smolenski before being sold to the US. His dam, Eblouir had been a smart performer for Stuart Le Lievre, whose son, Justin, is still prominent in the harness world.

However in recent times Amazing Dream’s branch,  starting essentially with Lumber Line (qualified but unraced) with Lumber Dream, Sokys Atom and Christian Cullen to help, have gone to another level for Southland connections, the Devery family. This admittedly has coincided with the rise in age group racing for fillies who were previously up against it racing constantly against males and many were unraced or retired quickly to stud for that reason.

Dreamy Atom won the Tall Tree Stakes (Leonard Memorial; now Nevele R) at two, and two Sires Stakes finals. Her daughter Western Dream, who won 6 of 7 at two, took out the the NZ Oaks and Nevele R Final double for the Tony Herlihy stable for Vin and Daphne Devery. She won over $300,000 in all.

Her granddam, one of the unraced Berthabell  brigade and by stud disappointment Nevele Bigshot,was named Ravinalan after three Devery brothers -of a family of 15, by coincidence matching some of the very large Le Lievre families - Ray, Vin and Alan. They also had some success with Ravinalan’s dam Facetious who won 4 from 75.

So Amazing Dream and her close relations represent by far the most successful filly performers from the famed Berthabell breed in modern times.

There is of course more to it than that. For one thing she is bred on the same Bettor’s Delight-Christian Cullen-Soky’s Atom cross as the mighty Lazarus while her full brother, Chase the Dream, also purchased by Jean Feiss, was the leading two year old of his year over Lazarus himself.

Golden crosses everywhere. But the French cross of Etienne Le Lievre and the American standardbred was surely the most unusual.

BACK TO NEWS

BETTOR TWIST, YEA BABY AND THE ARTSPLACE MYSTERY

Everyone is aware that Artsplace is one of the great stallions of modern standardbred history, just as he was a great pacer on the track in his day,

I mean he left Art Major for a start; Grinfromeartoear ,Artiscape etc. I think his stock won over $US120m. Yet in New Zealand where his frozen semem was made available early this century, the results were not so clear cut.

He was not in any way a fail, just short of expectations. At a time when he was the leading sire in the US he battled to make the impact many breeders expected, hoped for and, in the short term, paid plenty for.

He had been the best two year old in America, had a slightly off season at three with setbacks at vital times which resulted in him returning to the track at 4 to boost his stud career -which he did by winning all 16 starts including the US Pacing Championship. Besides high speed he had tremendous courage which appealed strongly to influential US breeders at the time.

Artsplace was handled by two expert trainers, Gene Riegle and Bob McIntosh driven by the very best in John Campbell and directed by the smartest breeding man about in George Segal of Brittany Farms. 

Apart from the semen bias there was probably also a lingering suspicion about his Adios line through Abercrombie initially. Adios stallions were much more successful in Australia than New Zealand where many were simply  disappointing, as indeed many were, in terms of influence, disappointments in America. Old memories die hard.

This was compounded by the fact that frozen semen was still controversial and the services were expensive both in terms of  fees -which you would have to accept when you are accessing the leading US sire-but also in the costs of service which were high for that time.

Even now there are critics of the process but it has  improved greatly since first tried here in the 1990’s with the trotting champion Pine Chip. The late Dr John Shaw, a man of ideas and knowledge drove that project. Unfortunately Pine Chip  was not a success in attracting services and to some extent the frozen semen got the blame even if it could just have been unsuitable matings. 

Artsplace ended up leaving 180 odd foals here, the majority of them after his death at 18 in 2006 from severe laminitis. 6 of them won $100,000 or more, but mostly in Australia or America.On the NZ racing scene the standout was probably Twist and Twirl, born 2 years after her sire died, and one of  his largest crop of 44 foals, probably as a result of breeders realising there weren’t going to be many more. She won the Pascoe Northern Oaks and the Sires Stakes Championship at three and ran second in a Breeders Crown. 

She was from a mare by Jennas Beach Boy who only left about 30 foals in New Zealand one of his daughters producing  another Oaks winner, Nek Time.

Twist and Twirl’s  first foal was West Australian Derby winner, King of Swing, (who has added the Hunter Cup in the past week) and then came Extreme Stride. Her latest to race is Bettor Twist which was to debut this week from All Stars for a Breckon Farms syndicate. The Farm owns  the mare but a further named foal has yet to emerge.

Guaranteed, an outstanding performer in Australia (Chariots of Fire) , and Strike Up the Band were other top pacers Artsplace left (no trotters) but it has to be said that he didn’t quite live up to the hype.

Frozen semen is often under fire because of its hit rate and because of the expensive work still required to help make it better. Since it was only introduced in the US in 1990 -for sending services to Europe- it is an ongoing science.

It shouldn’t be confused with chilled semen which is more commonly used even internationally now air schedules are so friendly  Frozen semen is a more exacting concept. 

Frozen semen involves repeated checking the mare’s readiness to breed every few hours, since outside a certain time frame the semen does not work properly- or indeed at all. 

 Artsplace had a 71 per cent fertility, not bad for the time in the frozen field. Pine Chip, who only served 21 mares in total,his fee too high for most, reached 66 per cent. It is an expert job to work with frozen semen and the better they get at it the more we are staring in the face of a drop in shuttle stallion numbers. 

When as efficient as AI today,American breeders may well start to want to keep their stallions at home and send out their frozen semen. Already Alan Galloway of Alabar Stud is warning of this growing trend and the threat it brings  to traditional studs. The time may well come when many will just be clinics.

So Artsplace ended up with a rather mixed reputation that he didn’t deserve. But when his mares went to stud his class became more apparent.

Border Control, still our fastest domestic miler, was one. Carabella, whose dam was mated with Artsplace in the US, is still an example of the class he could transmit, was another.O Baby the dam of Yea Baby, is from an Artsplace mare, Braeside Lady, one of 16 foals by her sire in 2004. Raging Bull is another and fast mares from Artsplace dams like Raksdeal did well on the track and should carry on in the breeding paddock. 

When you tote up the stallions known to New Zealanders who are out of Artsplace mares its a goldmine. Captaintreacherous, Always B Miki, Rock n Roll Heaven, Pet Rock, Sunshine Beach, Western Terror, Well Said-the list goes on. The decision to bring out his semen has been shown to be an innovative move.

All Stars have always been partial to Artsplace descended stock  and associated with much of its success.Another promising youngster, Maybe, and a later developer in Samhara are horses you are going to hear a lot more of. 

The debate is still  whether Artsplace in the flesh with normal AI would have done better than through frozen semen. There are arguments both ways on the statistics but no conclusion.Certainly his odds would have been improved in that era but now so many top horses are coming through the frozen semen method that is likely to change.

 This is especially true in the trotting ranks (Love You, Muscle Hill) and of course with deceased stallions like Falcon Seelster, Courage Under Fire etc. Artsplace actually served his last mare in NZ in (successfully in foal) in 2018 12 years after his death. Maybe someone found something at the back of the fridge.

Whatever frozen semen meant for Artsplace at stud here, it is more and more looking like being the way of the future.

Casey “"twins” Shaping the Right Way (Part One) and Part Two

With the Trevor Casey breed riding high after Winterfell’s Inter Dominion triumph it looks like being more of the same judging by the promise of La Reina Del Sur and Mexicana who will probably trial again on Monday at Rangiora

They are respectively from two previous Casey track stars, Escapee and Pocaro and the former is by first season sire Father Patrick whose progeny both here and the US are attracting a lot of attention. She is also his first trial winner in New Zealand.

Escapee has another foal by Father Patrick and served by Muscle Hill. She was an outstanding young trotter if a little excitable, winning the the NZ and Northern Trotting Derby, beating males of the quality of Stent, also owned by Trevor, as well as the NZ Trotting Oaks and twice being runner-up in Harness Jewels events.She also won two good races in Australia. Escapee took on the top all aged horses when a youngster and it would be fair to say only some temperamental issues prevented her from being a star as an older horse.

La Reina Del Sur is the more in the news of the two youngsters at the moment as Escapee is a half sister by Sundon to current Inter Dominion trotting champion Winterfell. So this time we will concentrate on her.

You always need a bit of luck in the breeding game but maybe it was more than that when Trevor made the decision to sell Winterfell’s dam, Una Bromac, at auction while retaining her latest foal who turned out to be the Inter Dom hero.

Escapee had been her second foal. The first, Harley, had failed to win for Philippa Wakelin and Stephen Noble and the fourth Needle, by Mexicana’s sire, Muscle Mass, won three at three and was sold in Australia.Since Una Bromac’s sale Caligula ran 1.56 in Australia and won some age group races in small fields.

“I just had too many horses and every year I seemed to get more fillies than colts and it all added up to having to cut back”Trevor recalls.

His timing, it seems, was excellent in this case. But even Trevor wonders how it came about that Una Bromac was a trotter when she had no right to be and how he came to race her.

“I said to Bruce Negus who was training for us then I wouldn’t mind buying a promising pacer. He replied that he didn’t have one of those available but he had a promising trotter and I went ahead and bought a share and later took her over”

Una Bromac ran 4th in a Trotting Derby and won the Graphic Stakes (G2) when trained by Leanne Edwards in the north, beating Martina H. It is not an outstanding record but it is well above any other trotting performer by Live or Die. All of her foals have trotted.

Stock by Live or Die have chalked up over 28,000 starts so far but only 386 of them were by trotters. Of his 2521 live foals only eight appear to have won trotting races, most of them small events being converted from pacing at an advanced age. Even Live the Dream who who has won 11 races trotting had won 3 pacing previously

In addition Una Bromac was from a pacing mare Universal Kim by Holmes Hanover from a Bo Scots Blue Chip mare, Kim Bromac, from a Boyden Hanover mare from a Bachelor Hanover mare. Boyden Hanover left the (very) odd trotter and a very good one in Indette while Bachelor Hanover, once described by an American observer as a pacer who wanted to trot, left several.

Kim Bromac did produce Ken Bromac who was converted to trotting by Clive Herbert as an eight year old and won several races in the north in the next two seasons. And one of Universal Kim’s many foals, most of them anonymous, was the dam in Australia of Ushaka Bromac who was a smart trotter. But it doesn’t add up to much evidence in favour of Una Bromac’s preference.

The key may well lie with an unlikely suspect. Holmes Hanover.

Holmes Hanover stock started in nearly 35,000 races but only 685 of them were trots and of the $25m stakes earned by his foals less than $310,000 was won in trotting races.

Yet he figures in several of Live or Die’s trotting runners. Bonnie Harvest, whose 3rd dam was the fine pacing filly Harvest Gold, was one and Lexus Jaccka and The Peace Monkey were others. Ok don’t go looking in the Hall of Fame for any of those names but in all they account for 50 per cent of Live or Die’s trotters.

The clue ? Maybe in Holmes Hanover’s own pedigree. While most of his foals couldn’t trot in hiking boots, his 3rd dam Kimberley Rodney, did not have a drop of pacing blood in her veins and foaled Nevele Diamond, champion two year old trotter of 1973 and the runner up on points in he 1974 Hambletonian. In fact Holmes Hanover’s granddam, Hope Diamond, was a result of the only occasion that Kimberley Rodney was bred to a pacing stallion.

Father Patrick of course is an exciting prospect here now with his oldest crop two year olds. You can bet he won’t leave many pacers being about 200 per cent minimum, trotting bred. If you delve into his 5th generation it is soaked in pedigrees of trotting legends. And the power of that pedigree showed in both his racing career (two Breeders Crowns) and his stunning start in the breeding shed. He had less than 30 foals in his first year here (44 in the US) but he is booked out on both sides of the Tasman this coming season and his sales success in the US has been notable.

However Trevor is a man who judges his horses on performance rather than hype and just now the reliable Majestic Son, sire of Winterfell and rising star stablemate, Enhance Your Calm raced by Danny Zavitsanos, means the proof will be in the pudding for Father Patrick.

But it looks like a nice big rich Xmas one on events so far.

MEXICANA-FAMILIAR GROUND- and a bad blue on the pedigree records !

Mexicana is another “old hand’ of the Casey tribe her dam Pocaro emerging from a "mix and match” branch of the same family as La Reine Del Sur though the relationship is not close. It is the tried and true No 1 family which seems to be able to throw top pacers and trotters with almost equal ease.

Mexicana's dam Pocaro was something of a triumph for a Casey breeding theory. He had raced the dual Inter Dominion runner-up Africa from Game Flyer who was sold (later returned) to the US. So Trevor bought her full sister Niamey, a moderate performer, along with Gary Allen and Ken Barron. The second foal, Pocaro was a star for Trevor -13 from 42 and over $230,000 and is already the dam of Missandei and Kings Landing. The 4th foal was Springbank Sam and then came Sun of Anarchy who has done well in Perth and Daenerys Targaryen, winner of 15 races here and in Australia

Pocaro, a Jewels winner and the dam of a Jewels winner Missandei with her first foal, has as her granddam Flying Bay, trained by Leicester Tatterson, who was a little surprising as a trotter as her sire Bay Foyle was close to a great pacer and her dam Flying Ailsa was a trotting bred filly who only wanted to pace.Her dam, Ailsa Craig, who struck a purple patch of trotting form as a five year old showing real ability, would later gain fame in the breeding paddock.

Bay Foyle's dam Glen Foyle is shown as with an unknown pedigree on the HRNZ database but that is not the case, However it is an understandable error because of some misleading information in the Australian Stud Book.

For some reason her dam was listed as "Glenfoyle's Dam” in Australia, surprising given that Bay Foyle was so well known and the entries showed that authorities were aware of her antecedents.

She was from an unnamed Sandydale mare but her granddam was a direct descendant of Topsy one of our best known foundation mares. Glen Foyle was a half-sister to Girl Black a grand staying mare with Denis Nyhan states ran a half in 56 on the Nyhan track back in the 1950's. Girl Black's daughter Golden Legacy left the iron horse ,Hi Foyle, Tar Foyle and Sue Foyle and Girl Black's daughter Sara Black left Birdie Hanover .

Bay Foyle by a son of Volomite in Goose Bay, from ace mare Her Ladyship,stood at Kotare Downs in Rangiora and proved surprisingly successful as a trotting stallion. Notable was Kotare Gunner, who had pacing sires right through his immediate pedigree but who beat the headline trotting filly About Now in the NZ Trotting Stakes when trained by Gary Hillier, who was based at Kotare Downs at the time. Further back were trotting mares with pacing sires including one, Silk Thread an American import best known for his liking for savaging his attendants even attacking the American trainer at Roydon Lodge while in the cart on Yaldhurst Rd so badly he returned to the US.Few stallions were feared like he was.

Silk Thread however was a surprising succes as a broodmare sire. Attack, In the Mood, Dancing Years Fairy Dell, Mobile Globe, Empire Lady, Wexford Rose (dam of Excelsa) and Pagliacci were all well known names to harness fans of the '50's from Silk Thread mares, only one of whom took to trotting. Some others were treated with considerable respect having inherited some of their grandsire's moods.Oddly In the Mood played another feature role in one of the greatest trotters this family has produced.

She left the top pacer, Light Mood, who, when he was mated with Ailsa Craig to give the Light Brigade/U Scott cross produced Kimmer the dam of Tussle.

It is a family that certainly keeps giving.

More pedigrees below or Back to News



CHRIS RYDER TALKS ABOUT HIS SUCCESS AND HOW IT WAS DONE

Ace North American trainer, Chris Ryder made a fleeting visit to Christchurch in Carnival week to watch his latest All Stars investment, Oscar Bonavena, in the Dominion Handicap.

That didn’t quite work out so well but the partnership retains an impressive strike rate.

Chris Mark and Natalie had had success with Shez All Rock who won the NZ Oaks and Harness Jewels double in a brief campaign out of Rolleston in Chris’s ownership. She was lengths ahead of our fillies but not fully sound even at the time of purchase and did not stand training when shipped to the US but is in foal and if she leaves something with her own brilliance her stock will measure up in the US too.

Bettor’s Wish has been the Ryder star in the US this year, his biggest stake-wise since 1991 though only one in a long line of super stars tracing back to Sealed n Delivered in the late 90’s; Dan Patch (Horse of the Year) winner Put on a Show ($US1.8m at 2 and 3) and of course McArdle ($US2.4m). Plus many more to many to mention.

Chris was a little more reluctant than brothers Gavan and Peter entering the racing business finally doing so in a partnership deal with a friend in the US. In Christchurch in his earlier days he was a hairdresser at fashionable Beath’s Department store a famous institution in that era though he was brought up with horses and handled them both here and in the States.

“A lot of training success over there is doing the basics well and knowing how to do that”he says modestly

“Top trainers here like Mark and Natalie-they would make the grade over there too . “

He has shown quite remarkable ability selecting and training with young horses but in all his winners have earned over $US40m.

“We have about 25 horses in the barn and another 10 or 15 on hand so probably about 40 in all” said Chris underlying his enormous strike rate (0.341 UDR this year) from over 1500 winners.

Unlike most top colts in the US Bettor’s Wish is unlikely to be retired to stud for a very good reason.

“He only has one testicle “ said Chris who is a part-owner of the colt.

“I’ve tested him recently and he is capable of leaving 50 to 60 foals a year. That is good but is not enough for a commercial stud to consider him.

“I am going to retest him at another time because that test was at the end of the race season and I think he will score better in a different situation. But because of it we will almost certainly race on with him next year”

“We were just a little unlucky in a couple of the big ones but that’s racing”

Bettor’s Wish is by Bettor’s Delight from a Western Ideal mare Lifetime Star who is a three quarter sister to American Ideal and is a first foal. He cost less than $US25,000 as a yearling.

It is a very strong colt family though with Life Sign another colt standout. And his 4th dam, Three Diamonds, was a world champion two year old in her time.

“They were buying (first season sire) Captain Treacherous that year and that helped us from a price point of view” Chris said earlier this year

Sharing in Bettor’s Wish’s success has been regular driver Dexter Dunn whose success in the US owes much to the Ryder stable.

The Ryder family’s connection with the Dunn family goes back a long way. In fact Chris’s father Kevin, who trained in America for several years with his family becoming familiar with life in that country, bought as a yearling one of Robert Dunn’s best fillies, the NZ Oaks winner, Lady’s Rule back in the late 1970’s.

Chris, 62, will be bonding with the close knit Ryder family before returning to America on Tuesday.

How long before Oscar Bonavena follow him its not settled. Chris feels he needs more time here to prepare for the heat of all aged trotting features in the US But this great advertisement for harness racing expertise has plenty going on in is American stable in the meantime,

Kevin Ryder, an innovative thinker on racing, often said he regretted not going to the US earlier in life and having a chance to make the big time a a trainer there. Having a son who could do that is better than second best.

COULD AN ACE BE A KING?

Smart offspring of  brilliant racemares are always of interest to breeders and racegoers alike hence there will be more than passing inspection for the All Stars youngster Arden’s Ace who looks like an early comer among the stable juveniles this season.

The decision was made to geld the Art Major youngster early in November but he should soon be back rattling off some promising fractions in his work assignments.

He has shown potential right from the start but a tendency to do things wrong in harness led to decision to geld with a view to a profitable two year old season.

Venus Serena is well known to most fans as one of the truly outstanding racemares of recent times out of Geoff Dunn’s stable winning 7 G1 races and nearly $800,000 for Dunn and breeders Bob and Jenny Sandford who had won several races with her dam, Inspiring  Dash, out of the Dunn stable. Venus Serena took a lifetime best at 3 in 1.52.4. Inspiring Dash is also the granddam of NZ Derby winner and national 2600m record holder Sheriff

The mare’s great success showed that tradition tells in the standardbred breeding world. 

115 years before she was foaled, a mare called Maud, based in Auckland but by the pioneering Canterbury standardbred stallion Berlin who brought to New Zealand from America by Robert  Wilkin. Berlin revolutionised the sport, turning a willing durable but rather plodding range of trotters then operating in this country into racehorses.

Wilkin made such a fuss of his horses the stable he built for Berlin in Fendalton was later made into a house in the richest suburb in Christchurch.

Maud did not race but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t a star. 

While her immediate family remains an official mystery ( it was advertised at the time) ,it was claimed that she was never defeated in her  show ring career and then she went on to found an astonishingly successful racing family over a long period of time on both sides of the Tasman. It lives well today.

Horses like Master Musician, Sheriff, Trident, Armbro Wings, Corumba; another marvellous mare in Lento; Hunter Cup winner Royal Gaze; the brilliant relations Leading Light and Lightsey, as well as Glide Time a star of a two year old crop whose depth has never been bettered in New Zealand,  have been headliners in recent times.But there are plenty of other sidelights from a family that just keeps keeping on. Every generation seems to produce something of real merit.

Venus Serena is now being bred from by Arden Lodge in Tapanui and that is where Arden’s Ace was foaled. He is the second foal the first, Laver, a full brother bred by the Sandfords,  ran third in a competitive maiden field on Cup Day for the Dunn stable. 

Unfortunately the next foal Arden Federer (Bettor’s Delight) died recently and the mare is in foal to Art Major again.

Venus Serena is bred on the Mach Three-Falcon Seelster cross which was proven by All Stars with standouts like Fiery Falcon and Fly Like an Eagle as well as Renske B and others. The Dorchester, Costa del Magnifico -who was also exported -were other speedy sorts from this potentially potent cross.

All Stars also handled a promising sort bred on the same Art Major-Mach
Three cross as Arden’s Ace in Pur Dan who is now racing in Australia.

Venus Serena’s second dam, Awesome Dream was a Soky’s Atom mare who was a product of Cardigan Bay Breeding and left the 10 win mare, Gail Devers, bred from at Rosedale Farm in Ladbrooks by Ken and Ann Marie Spicer. Another foal, Flo Jo, also at Rosedale is the dam of the smart Smokin By and Mach Scooter clocked a 1.54.6 mile at Albion Park though he never reached great heights. The Spicers bred Sheriff (and Wrangler) from the Bettor’s Delight mare Jen Marie, a daughter of Inspiring Dash.

A lynchpin  for this branch of the family in modern times was the Lordship mare Lochaime who went to Australia (no record)  and thence to the US where she ran an ordinary 2.00.6 mile before being repatriated in foal to Jambooger. JIm Dalgety bred from the subsequent filly foal but she was not a success at stud.

However Lochaime then left Corumba, a star juvenile by OK Bye who beat Iraklis in the Kindergarten Stakes (1994) and The Court Owl in the Welcome Stakes  then a $50,000 race. He also won the Southern Supremacy. Warloch, her previous foal by Holmes Hanover, won 9 races.

Lochaime’s popularity was tied to her own dam, Witchlight, bred by Reg Curtin and Syd Hitchcock and another star of the tribe through a Volomite connection. In this case it was with Local Light, a stallion almost tragically before his time.

Local Light, stood by Geoff and Jackie  Hill at Prebbleton for many years (Mrs Hill’s father Jack Parsons had raced him and stood him originally)  was placed in the first mobile mile race run at Addington (winner Tactician), clocking 2.00 and his very fast dam, Local Gold, was by Gold Bar one of the most brilliant pacers of his era and a hugely popular racehorse. 

 Local Light’s progeny were also noted for their speed and in modern mobile sprint racing he may well have been a sensation. 

As it was he left Miracle Mile winner Locarno, the champion juvenile, Blue, Bronze Queen, Intrepid, Captain Harcourt and Golden Oriole to name just a few in addition to those above.

 He was an especially potent cross with the Maud family and the fact his granddam was bred on the Jack Potts-Rey de Oro cross was also significant.

 Rey De Oro was the first “specialist” juvenile sire to stand in New Zealand, where his first crop trifectaed the then season-defining Sapling Stakes

All this speed was obvious in the Witchlight offspring that included Trident (Kindergarten and Welcome Stakes and later the $100,000 Messenger).

Witchlight was a half-sister to Polly Del and ironically  neither mare (both bred by Curtin and Hitchcock) were fast enough to win a race. Denis Nyhan, who handled Witchlight, remembered her as a big rangy mare but of limited ability.

Yet Polly Del’s first foal was Great Northern Derby winner, Armbro Wings and the second, Petra Del, left Master Musician who, rather oddly, is credited with $1.926m on both sides of the Tasman.

But it wasn’t all fashion producing top horses.

Orbell’s  first two matings for the same partnership were with People’s Blue Chip, neither stallion being household names in breeding circles then or since. Yet the combination produced Bella Chip ($131,000; 1.52.6) the first time and Lento ($279,000) the second, one of the stallions just 21 foals that year. 

Lento was a super mare and beat the boys in the Firestone Junior Free for All on Cup Day and an Inter Dominion heat;,as well as running fourth in Desperate Comment’s Victoria Cup. 

Beside all that she won the G1 Standardbred Breeder’s Stakes. She did well as a broodmare while Bella Chip left Victorian Derby winner, Bella’s Boy, a winner all up of nearly $500,000 and several other good winners including  Winter Rose ,the pride of Arden Lodge;dam of Bettor’s Strike and Southwind Arden among several good winners.

So it is not all about fashion. But Arden’s Ace certainly has that on his side.

Plus a host of terrific other descendants of Maud the mare who showed her stuff in more than one field

BACK TO NEWS OR MORE STORIES BELOW

STAYING WITH A PROVEN fORMULA-FIRST CLASS

The Spankem ownership team have put a new twist on the old saying “If at first you don’t succeed try again”

Their version is the opposite in the case of two year old First Class-if at first you do succeed -just go back for more !

First Class not only races in the same interests as Spankem but he is from the same family. A slightly different branch but both trace to Ar Miss Howie Smith’s star of an earlier era and a breed carried on by the Smith family-chiefly through Vic and Brent who combined to produce the wonderful Armalight  from Ar Miss.

Actually First Class is closer to Ar Miss than his older cousin. She was his third dam while she features as the 4th dam of Spankem.

First Class, not a big horse but an athletic one, cost the Kennard led syndicate just $50,000 at last year’s sales and looks on song to repay that fairly rapidly.

From Amaretto Bromac who was by Falcon Seelster, her late breeder  Bob McCardle’’s anchor stallion for several years, it is probably fair to say her breeding results had been moderate up until now. First Class, however, is her first foal by Bettor’s Delight.

Her siblings from the Talk About Class mare Arma Class look impressively black type but while 10 of the latter’s foals raced, none were truly outstanding on the track. 

However two daughters Arma Dominator (Excel Stride) and Arma Antoniette (Arma Xpress), the mares both winners of one race,  left those top Australian horses;the first an NSW Derby winner and an all aged top performer and the latter the Australian two year old filly of the year based in Perth where she won the Golden Slipper among other top races.

However a number of performers from this family have been fairly moderate in spite of the upper case black type on the pedigree page, a policy in need of review perhaps. Arma Class’’s 12 offspring probably won less than a dozen races in New Zealand in total.

One Armadoctara, unraced,had her first foal at 6 last year and  Heaven’s Mark ( Rock and Roll Heaven filly ) bred by Brent Smith with Steven McRae may turn out to be the next generation for all we know-because this is a family that keeps bouncing back with top line horses at least once in a generation, and retains buyer interest because of that especially with the magical name of Armalight somewhere in the pedigree.

Being bred on a Falcon Seelster cross rather than the Christian Cullen/In the Pocket one so popular with buyers may have affected the price on First Class but was no problem to Kennard syndicates

Flying Even Bettor is their current example of its Bettor’s Delight/Falcon Seelster success while stars like Jack’s Legend, Lancewood Lizzie and Pat’s Delight are substantial assets. Alotbettor and Code Black are both 1.50 plus horses in the US.

First Class has trialled well and is on the short list for the Young Guns series in the north. 

He is not another Spankem yet-but who knows what the future might bring ?

SHAN NOBLE -HANDSOME IS AS HANDSOME DOES

Later in the season we are likely to witness the debut of one of the more fascinating of All Stars graduates from the  Yearling Sales in the form of Shan Noble, the first horse trained by Mark for successful northern businessman and racing owner, Gerald Shand.

After an anonymous kind of start to his education, Shan Noble has blossomed in recent times and looks sure to make the grade as a juvenile.

“He has really gone ahead in recent weeks and got down to some nice sectionals this time in” Mark said

“He has had a little setback which needs a bit of a rest but all should be well for the summer.

All of which is very promising for a horse who has a lot more going for him than most.

His dam of course is the well known Nearea Franco one of the several outstanding FORMULAracemares left by Badlands Hanover.

Nearea Franco’s dam was the American mare No Paba, imported to Australia and a half-sister to Beach Towel the champion and Horse of the Year of 1990 . 

He set an all time (until then) single season record as a three year old of more than $US2m sweeping races like the Little Brown Jug (beating In the Pocket)  Meadowlands Pace, Adios Pace and the Breeders Crown.

Beach Towel is a reminder that Americans do not spare their youngsters like we do even though they turn out champions at stud afterward.

Beach Towel won 11 of 13 races as a two year old but nothing really major after suffering from allergies. 

At three he started 23 times and won 18,all in sub 1.55. At stud he left the winners of $US47m with Jennas Beach Boy in 1.47.6 , then a world race record, dominating. But these career stats can be a little misleading perhaps, in terms of fashion.

He was an early success for co-owner Seth Rosenfeld’s “buy cheap, sell fast” philosophy when he first started out putting his advanced pedigree knowledge into practical action. Rosenfeld formed a syndicate (Uptown Stables) and bought 5 or 6 horses a year going below their value which meant missing out on most of the lots he bid on. 

So Beach Towel, though from Stoner Creek Stud,  did not have an especially attractive pedigree to many would- be buyers (he had been a $US22,000 yearling) and did not stand at one of the glamour studs. His sire, French Chef, was a sensational juvenile who set three world records in three weeks at that age winning 21 of 23 starts -though he did not reproduce that form at three.

Though he left 8 in 1.50 there and was most decidedly a success Beach Towel  was exported to New Zealand as an older horse . French Chef and Jenna’s Beach Boy also ended up in Australasia as did Frugal Gourmet another star of the tribe and also a home bred bargain. 

Beach Towel stood at Woodlands but after two big seasons ( 272 mares) he was out of service for the next two and any impetus was lost. He died on Puketutu Island in 2009. He had left some fast horses here including Beach Romance (1.49.6)

Far away from North America he had the last laugh at the experts by siring the dam of Somebeachsomewhere who was also not the most sought after yearling around because of his pedigree.

The “set” against French Chef probably concerned the fact that his dam was wholly trotting bred and American pacing breeders hate surprises.

A full brother to French Chef, Plat Du Jour, came to New Zealand and received mixed reviews. He left some very good horses, Gina Rosa being one, and most were tough sturdy types. But he also left a lot of trotters and as in America many breeders here are code specific.

 He was well promoted and strongly supported in his early seasons though that support faded later. Almost 50 per cent of his stakes won were by trotters.

No Paba was so named because while horses can be affected by sunburn and are treated for it, one of the common elements of sun protection, Paba, causes major problems  if used on animals, especially horses.

The family earlier thrived on a number of  crosses involving Bye Bye Byrd the great pacer of the 1950’s and 1960’s who tackled imported New Zealand stars like Cardigan Bay. His son Armbro Nesbitt sired  Sunburn, a fair performer,from a mare from Dottie’s Pick, a champion mare whose sons Armbro Hurricane and Eagle Armbro came to New Zealand- with mixed success

The next dam Sunbelle Havoer was bred on the once so fashionable Tar Heel-Adios cross but to no avail winning a whole $20. The next  Suave Hanover managed $US5300.

However this family , chiefly through the next dam Shy Ann, seems to have had a great fascination for New Zealand breeders .

Shy Ann left Captain Adios and Dick Adios who both came here as stallions, and also Adios Betty a cracking race mare whose sons Tarport Coulter and Tarport Kid came to New Zealand and Australia.

Captain Adios, a brother of  Adios Betty, died after three seasons following an accident which caused a leg injury. He left 14 winners here but held a big reputation, latterly  chiefly because of his daughters. Adio Star left a record number of Derby winners and Deft left Noodlum and Olga Korbut and they were two of the more famous Broodmares of the Year. There were also  track stars like Jay Ar and Garcon D’or.

Tarport Coulter and Tarport Kid were not greatly successful but they have one remarkable record Down Under.

Tarport Coulter was the sire of one of New Zealand’s most famous trotters, the pacing bred Scotch Tar, while almost at the same time Tarport Kid was the damsire of one of Australian trotting’s true greats in the pacing bred Scotch Notch ! 

However back to the present. The cross of Bettor’s Delight with Badlands Hanover mares has had its moments but has not been a memorable one to date. Possibly the best known are the mares Delishka (1.50.6) and Delightful Memphis (1.51.4), King Solomon was an earlier All Star bred on this cross.

 Badlands has always been an enigma in New Zealand, dismissed by many as a disappointment but capable leaving some of the best racemares of their time including the brilliant Nearea Franco.

His  pedigree leant heavily on  Meadow Skipper and not surprisingly many of his best offspring were from Adios and Volomite line mares.

Any reservations about the Bettor’s -Badlands cross must be tempered by the number of times it was tried and with what backup pedigrees invovled so Shan Noble gets a clear run on that score.

Now he is readying for a clear run on the track And the family history is positive in that respect.

Nearea Franco’s first foal Nike Franco , an embryo transplant foal by McArdle, was sold after one race in New Zealand but was something of a star in Australia.

At three she won the Raith Memorial the Gold Coast and Queensland Oaks and heats of the both the Victoria and NSW Oaks.She then went on to win the $100,000 Westral Mares Classic in Perth and ran third in the Ladyship Mile won by Frith.

Running second, driven by Mark, was Willow and possibly Mark remembered the occasion when bidding on Nike Franco’s half-brother.

At her final appearance in Australia she won the Queen of the Pacific at Melton rating 1.56.7 over 2760m.

She then went to the US where she has won in 1.48.

Those are the sort of performances Gerald Shand and Mark and Natalie hope Shan Noble can match. And if looks are anything to go by they won’t be disappointed

EXPORT OR DIE -DOES IT ALSO MEAN IMPORT AND THRIVE ?

An aspect of the past season that might have passed many by was a connection  with the scintillating success of TURN IT UP and an important aspect of his pedigree.

That is that he is from a US bred mare who has now also produced a high class filly in the Victorian APG series. We have discussed Turn It Up’s pedigree earlier in the series but the aspect we need to talk about here is that he came from an Australian sale.

There is practically no chance he could have come from a New Zealand one.

In the 2019 catalogue not one foal from an American-bred mare was offered for sale. One was catalogued and withdrawn.

This is rather extraordinary compared to Australian sales and the enthusiasm All Stars has shown for yearlings from American mares there. 

That that is not accidental is the number of yearlings purchased at New Zealand sales by All Stars closely descended from American mares. It may not be deliberate of course but the success the stable has had with horses from American mares bought in Australia suggests it might well be. A notable success for them was Follow the Stars and earlier the Harness Jewels Mile record holder Border Control- both purchased in Australia from American mares.

New Zealanders import relatively or very few mares from America though a small number of breeders are admirable exceptions.

Yet American mares have been over the last 120 years, the foundation of much of our racing success. The whole thing began with a shipment of standardbreds to Nelson and Christchurch in the 1880’s. A century ago came the the black mare Norice whose descendants are frequently through our current sale rings while most of the colonial bred mares of that time have nothing  like the same influence.

Names like Estella Amos, Berthabell,  Esprit, Trix Pointer, Belle Keller any number of outstanding Roydon Lodge imports including standouts like Spangled Maiden,  Air Flow and Widow Volo over several decades were measuring sticks for the progress of the breed.

That hasn’t faded even with less enthusiasm for American female blood. Becalm Lobell (granddam of I Can Doosit) Tabella Bindy (granddam of Desperate Comment) ;Andress Blue Chip (dam of Carabella 19 for 17 ); San Sophia (Raging Bull) Giveitawhirlgirl (Twist and Twirl)  Regal Volo (imported to Australia and her several smart trotting foals including a $100,000 Muscle Hill colt, Regal Attire,for All Stars at the recent sales He is a half to G1 names like Twentyten; High Gait and Alannah Hall; then there is Luby Ann (dam of two G1 winners from two foals) Sungait Song (Sundon) No Paba (Nearea Franco) -Blue Jeans (dam of our once fastest ever in Attorney General and ancestress of Chicago Bull) -the list goes on. But not so much lately.

I have heard the topic discussed. Generally the point is made that we now have access to the best current American stallions (where once they were once, twice, three times removed from that list ) and so the fillies resulting have rich American blood in their pedigrees anyway. True, as far as it goes. One of the complications now is that the best bred mares in America if by Art Major Bettor’s Delight or Somebeachsomewhere are not quite the novelty they would once have been.

Secondly there is the reality that access to the best bred US female stock requires deep pockets and only the Roydon Lodge principals Sir John and later to a lesser extent Sir Roy McKenzie were prepared to go to the American sales and take on the top buyers of fillies. One of their imports was bought for a then sale ring record price for a filly in the US. It led Sir John to be the first Kiwi to be a winning owner in America and that  was before the Second World War. 

However in many cases in the history of American mares being successful in this country it was in spite of their pedigrees rather than because of them. A number would not have been at record prices on their pedigrees or anywhere near some of the earlier imports -yet they still have proved their worth.

Breeding families, even the best of them, go through breeding cycles and a number, while never gaining any publicity about it, just die out.

The infusion of new blood can surely pay off in the long run. Ask the breeders and owners of Turn It Up

BACK TO NEWS -OR MORE BREEDING BELOW

CHANGING OF THE GUARD ?VARIETY OF BROODMARE STALLIONS OBVIOUS IN 2019 ALL STARS CROP

Over the hustle and bustle of the Sales schedule one small but interesting fact seems to have been overlooked.

That was the number of purchases made or approved by Mark and Natalie that were not from the “golden cross” of Bettor’s Delight over a Christian Cullen/In the Pocket line mare that produced the great Lazarus and just a heap of others. The cross dominated the catalogue yet the number of newcomers to the stable from it is at a lesser ratio than recent years.

Jean Feiss is an exception and noted for pursuing her own path when it comes to selecting and buying yearlings.

Jean has had such great success with the cross-often through In the Pocket-  she generally stuck to what works this year. But even with her there were exceptions,  notably her top lot Columbo who belongs to the much anticipated Art Major cross doubling up on the Abercrombie line thru a wealth of Meadow Skipper in Bettor’s Delight’s pedigree. Princess Tiffany in reverse.She backed that up with Maybe who is from an Artsplace mare of the Black Watch tribe.

Since Mark and Natalie are very strong on selecting horses on type it is unlikely that this is more than a coincidence but a coincidence that could be pointing to change in a breeding industry seemingly stuck in two grooves.

That “two grooves” comment can be misleading too of course. Of the top 15 performers by Bettor’s  Delight listed in the excellent Standardbred Stallions Register-one of the best of its type world wide-four are from Christian Cullen mares (Lazarus, Chicago Bull, Ohoka Punter and Highview Tommy) while two more are from mares by his sire In the Pocket (Gold Ace and Texican).

That was impressive but left plenty of pickings for other broodmare stallions especially the underrated Dream Away (Tiger Tara and Dream About Me) B G’s Bunny through Adore Me and Have Faith in Me and a nearly great horse in Beautide who is a cross of fashionable American blood and wonderful old Tasmanian influences which once ruled the Australasian breeding world.

Bit of a Legend was another highlight for  his sire and from a Soky’s Atom mare

 Of course 2019 may just be coincidience

“It was probably just how things worked out” Mark reflects when asked to comment.

“We sort out the ones we like on type and then check various other things including the pedigree of course but we didn’t have an  intention of avoiding one line or anything.”

However it may still indicate some changing of the guard

The first lot knocked down to All Stars itself, Nevada, a colt by Bettor’s Delight from La Bastille didn’t fall far from the tree as she is a Mach Three mare and so from the Direct Scooter sireline that spawned the golden cross.The Mach Three cross with Bettor’s Delight features several top horses including Classie Brigade and Trigirl Brigade among others and All Stars have had Zeuss Bromac and Where Ya Bin doing well enough from the same cross before being sold on.

Nevada is also from the family of Black Watch who, considering her dam  was bred on a distinctly unfashionable Black Fury/Black Globe cross (her sire Scottish Command, a son of U Scott, obviously added a great deal) did a wonderful job for the Yarndley family and continues to do so in partnership with Ken Breckon

Considering his 3rd dam was Broodmare of the Year and his granddam a G1 winner (Standardbred Breeders Stakes) this one seemed to represent value. 

Certainly Mark rated him well above the sum paid. Maybe other bidders were hanging out for some Christian Cullen influence!

The Kennard syndicates went to $65,000 for Bettor Medley  a Bettor’s colt who is from a Live or Die mare. The sire of nearly 1000 winners, Live or Die might be fairly termed a “working breeder” sire rather than ever being a glamorous sale ring stallion. As a result his mares have  not had the access to Bettor’s Delight other leading stallions (and he is top line Most Happy Fella like BD though an outcross otherwise) have but there have been successes without notable standouts. This one is the dam’s first live foal.

Three  other Kennard syndicates youngsters by Bettor’s Delight are of note in this area. 

Romeo Shard is from a Western Hanover mare  and a half-sister to stars in Mighty Cullen , Likemesiah etc so a family proved at the All Stars more than a decade ago.

Another Kennard syndicate purchase bypassed the Lazarus cross and again for very good reason. This was hip 353  a colt from the Falcon Seelster mare, Amoretto Bromac. 

Her granddam is a half sister to Armalight and so from the family of Spankem whose owners will also race this one.

The Bettors Delight-Falcon Seelster cross has really boomed only in recent times but it has certainly been a hit with One Change, Lancewood Lizzie and Pat’s Delight three recent stars to mention. In truth the cross had  not been widely followed in earlier years.

The Kennard syndicates haven’t entirely changed direction though, with the purchase of Pace n Pride, a Bettor’s Delight youngster from the Christian Cullen mare Maid in Splendour  one example

Another departure from “tradition” in more ways than one was Mark’s first purchase for well known northern owner Gerald Shand of Nearea Franco’s 8th foal by Bettor’s Delight, Franco Noble, though only her second by that sire  

A terrific mare, Nearea Franco was by Badlands Hanover a stallion with an unusual “hot and cold” career, especially dominant as a sire of fillies. With Bettor’s Delight there have been outcomes like Delightful Memphis and Delishka among the females and of course Nearea Franco’s best performer on the track has been Nike Franco an outstanding McArdle filly and race mare in Australia and the US where she has run 1.48.

The interesting aspect of this family is the rich breeding of Nearea Franco’s dam No Paba, a half-sister to the mighty Beach Towel (a Volomite line stallion like Christian Cullen ) the 1990 American Horse of the Year. Further  back in her pedigree are names well known in NZ breeding history like Captain Adios.

No Paba is actually a clever name from a filly from Sunburn, Paba being a popular treatment in the States for protection from the sun.

Another purchase of Mark and Natalie’s to be raced by Mark with Roy the legend and his friend Sir David Levene- the same partnership who raced More the Better -was a well priced colt from Nitouche Franco whose family has had previous success with All Stars. Nitouche Franco is by Soky’s Atom rather than Christian Cullen but as we saw above it is a proven cross.

Half brother and sister, All Star Man and Whisper Jet, were good winners out of All Stars and neither were by what you would call the hot sire of the month. All Star Man, a rare stayer on his best day was by Real Desire and his mixed form was not unknown in that breed while Whisper Jet was by Jereme’s Jet who was no failure but whose stud feats  fell short of expectations as a champion two year old who did not leave two year olds when shuttled here for some years and had little else to offer. Yet she ran second in the Nevele R Final.

Further back in this family of the star female pacer of an earlier era in Lancia, was Ohoka Arizona a Harness Jewels winner for All Stars

Maybe the 2019 crop will revive the old slogan of horse breeding that it takes all sorts-not just some

JEAN’S PICKS

As the latest Harness Jewels shows few owners ae more shrewd judges of yearlings than Jean Feiss.

Fearless on the bid when she has a set on a youngster she has at times outlaid large sums but again her strike rate in that regard would beat off most rivals. She paid six figures for VINCENT, even bigger sums for SMOOTH DEAL and JESSE DUKE goodly sums for stars like SPANISH ARMADA. There have been some who haven’t measured up but many of them have.

A few years ago Jean told us her approach was to sort out likely prospects then check with Mark and Nataliefor confirmation before commtting to bid. Jean has been around horses mor most of her life and her own knowledge is extensive. The respect in which she is held by Mark and Natalie is exemplified by the fact that whereas the All Stars principals are all about value for money and usually advise clients firmly on top bidding limits, Jean is a law unto herself.

So what were her decisions this year at the New Zealand sales ?

Jean signed for five lots of just over $500,000 three of them 6 figure purchases. The top price of $170,000 was for COLUMBO (renamed) and closely related to Beaudiene Boaz ,a million dollar earner in Perth after a major upset in the 2YO Harness Jewels Emerald when the hot favourite Follow the Stars was knocked out of contention midrace.

Jean’s purchases have reflected her interest in In the Pocket mares by Bettor’s Delight and she gets close here, the dam Beaudiene Marja Babe being by Art Major from Beaudiene Babe, the dam of Beaudiene Boazz and Beaudiene Bad Babe -both G1 and Harness Jewels winners -and the well performed Guns n Roses. Beaudiene Western and Beaudiene Beaufighta were other foals who made their way to Western Australia at big money but who for various reasons made little impression there.

This family was probably best known for its fillies before Beaudiene Boaz (like Beaudiene Bad Babe by Badlands Hanover) changed all that. Though the family goes back to one of the greatest racemares and broodmares in New Zealand history in Parisienne the modern leaning to fillies has been partly because a couple of the smartest broodmares in the family have tended to leave fillies and have success with them. Dave and Dawn Kennedy of Otautau have managed and advanced this family a long way from earlier days and are not afraid to vary their sire selections to bring in new blood

Their association started with Wave Eyre, bought cheaply as an older mare, Rather surprisingly perhaps it was her daughter Beaudiene Lobell who kicked the family along as she was by Nat Lobell the highly performed extremely expensive stallion imported by Nevele R stud but not one to be mentioned often in the history of that fine stud. His mares were not impressive either and Beaudiene Lobell was not successful in a five race career but her daughter by another problematical stallion Cadillac won a Nevele R (then DB) Filly series heat and was placed in the G1 final. Cadillac was a son of Albatross from a mare bred on the Tar Heel/Adios cross then so popular and a brother to another stallion brought out from the US in Admiral Halsey without replicating the enormous deeds of Albatross’s only major success in New Zealand, Vance Hanover.

Jean’s next most expensive purchase was the $140,000 she gave for ALADDIN (renamed) an understandable move since he was a full brother to Virgil a youngster who has gone on to be G1 placed as a two year old in spite of his diminutive size. Jean would have also been fortified by the long history this family has at Woodlands Stud especially in producing outstanding age group horses like Pacing Major., All U Need is Faith, Linda Lovegrace etc. and it is a tradition that should only be enhanced by the presence of Sweet Lou a champion two year old and leading first season sire in the US last year.

Jean’s big third throw of the dice was the $100,000 she gave for Stag Party a handsome colt from a notable “filly”: family though as Mark would have recalled clearly that wasn’t always so.

Party Party, Democrat Party and Champagne Party are among recent notable fillies from this family and Yankee Party, a half-sister to Jean’s yearling purchase won her only start this season for the Price family at Winton who have nourished this family over a long time.

The family has always been strong in the filly department since its founding by Polly who, typical of the backgrounds of many families from mid Canterbury of doubtful origin was “supposed to be a thoroughbred”

But the colts can really perform too. Another Party is the best known of recent times. He was a grand pacer when trained by Mark but he was unfortunately a contemporary of two horses named Christian Cullen and Holmes D G to whom he was regularly placed in the classics.

In Australia though he won the Bathurst Crown (the last racing trip to Australia for Roy Purdon who substituted for Mark on the trip) and later the Hunter Cup and the Fremantle Cup. He was a half to Party Party a sensational race filly and also to Champagne Party the granddam of Stag Party. Tony Herlihy regularly drove Another Party and his wife Susan has bred from the family

But names like Lord Module, Vanderford, the champion trotter Recruit, Steven Stock, Frown; the ill fated General Sandy regarded by Cecil Devine as the fastest horse he trained; Knave of Diamonds a top racehorse in the 1940’s-the list goes on and on-are a reminder that the colts have made a considerable contribution.

The domination by fillies in recent times, and indeed in older ones, seems to be basically a numbers game.

Jean Feiss is very good with numbers

SELF ASSURED -DOES HE HAVE THE MAGIC GENE ?

Most youngsters at All Stars announce themselves loudly at one time or another and the time could be coming for SELF ASSURED a latecomer by the stable standards but not making up for lost time with good trial efforts.

That he is by Bettor’s Delight out of a Christian Cullen mare hardly stands him out from the crowd these days. But of course another mare from his family red on the same cross went under the name of Lazarus which would quicken the pulse of most breeders.

But there are some adventures in between.

Self Assured’s dam Star of Venus was bred and raced by Reg Caldow who has been associated with the breed for several years. She was trained and driven by Jimmy Curtin. It might be fair to say she did not develop quite the form she promised earlier and it might also be said that this has been a trait with some branches of the family. But they can also produce horses well out of the ordinary.

Star of Venus only wanted to breed colts. In fact she only produced one filly and that was in 2017. Her last four foals (and 6 in all) were embryo transfers- only one was a natural foaling- the last in 2018 and she has since died, relatively young.

Her first foal Star of Dionysis was a good grass track stayer at venues like Westport and proved a durable horse for Kerryn Gath in Australia ending in claimers in South Australia but making over the $100,000 in stakes won in a long career. Caviar Star- the first embryo transfer foal won four at 3 and took a 3.12.8 time over 2600 at Addington and won a G3 race in Perth for the Hall Stable.

Star of Memphis (Rock n Roll Heaven) winner at his second start at Oamaru also went to the Gath stable while Vega Star (Real Desire) ran 1.52.2 at Menangle and was beaten a short half head in the Dahua Cup Final in 1.50.9

However it is fair to say Self Assured, an impressive physical specimen, could outdo his siblings without too much trouble.

Star of Venus’s dam, Starlitnight, also had a prejudice against fillies. Star of Venus was her first and only. You have to admire Caldow’s patience. Starlitnight did not leave a foal in her first four years at stud that included three servings (one a dead foal) in just one of them. Her most famous foal though turned out to be Star Galleria, typical of the sort of top pacer this family can throw at you.

Like Star of Venus and herself, Starlitnight was the daughter of a first foal, Star of Bethlehem, a sister to the high class performer Spirit of Zeus who would be a star these days. Another of her sisters , Spirit of Beth, was the granddam of Lazarus who, like Self Assured is by Bettor’s Delight from a Christian Cullen mare.

This family was meandering along until it exploded under the influence of the Able Bye Bye mare Tabella Beth bred by Dave Phillips after Kumeu identity Jim Herring who owned Great Evander (damsire of Tabella Beth) and Don Hayes had influenced it. She was a star for young David Butcher winning four as a three year old though during the “off months” at Alexandra Park to be fair. But then she went to America and clocked 1.55.6 for the mile a smart time then.

You don’t see Able Bye Bye’s name in many top pedigrees. One of the earlier Meadow Skipper’s to come to New Zealand he was not one of the better gaited ones, the Skippers sire, Dale Frost, being a rough going horse. The ABB’s were tough as but tough to train too because a smooth way of going was not their strong suit.

This family goes all the way back to an imported American mare, Belle Keller, a pacer who was bred to American trotting stallions. She arrived, imported by J R McKenzie of Roydon Lodge, with a foal at foot, Arion Axworthy, by Arion Guy. He was a good looker who got results mainly as a broodmare sire: and the foal was Roydon’s Pride the dam of the sensational trotter of the War years in Certissimus. After putting up a number of stunning performances he fell during road training near Temuka and died from the injuries, allegedly stung by a bee which caused a gear malfunction, the overcheck being loose. He fell on the sealed road and on his head. An unusual situation arose where he was covered by a tent on the roadside and traffic diverted before he could be moved next day but it was all in vain. He died a few days later.

Roydon’s Pride, a speedy mare but so highly strung she was not a successful racing proposition showed the same double gaited potential as her dam, one of her foals, Roydon Hall leaving the outstanding Cup level pacers, Roy Grattan, Don Hall and Global Hall. Roydon’s Pride was sold cheaply by Roydon Lodge and the Teahen brothers of Temuka profited from the deal

The branch of Self Assured comes through Peggy Hanover and includes stars like Light and Sound trained by Mark for terrific age group success and Stars and Stripes both half-brothers to Starlitnight.

A feature of this family is the number of NZ bred sires who feature. Christian Cullen, Tuapeka Knight, Great Evander and the grand old Author Dillon the Auckland Reactor of a century ago among them.

Self Assured has not one but two double crosses in his immediate family, the Bettor’s Delight-Christian Cullen mentioned and the Smooth Fella-Lumber Dream cross of Tuapeka Knight ( a champion two year old who won 12 of his first 14 starts) that also produced another champion pacer Roydon Glen.

So he has the right crosses does Self Assured to be a potential topliner. All he needs is the right mix of genes to go with it. Here’s hoping

ONE CHANGE- AND HIS CINDERELLA FAMILY

One Change comes from a family that has everything-from champion pacers:to history  making two year old trotters -the gait it preferrred in earlier days - smart age group pacers and a lot of moderate performers along the way- as all families have

It is also a remarkably durable family. For 40 years it did virtually nothing which is not entirely  surprising in view of its foundations. At times since it has hung by the slimmest of threads and it took a good long time after that to make headlines. But a few  things happened -actually three-that energised it and then lifted it to another level where, by and large, it has stayed.

Those changes resulted in the champion pacer, Chokin, one of our GOAT horses (greatest of all time)  and his smartly performed full brother Chuin both bred by Brian Hughes and his partner Alan Meadows.

His full sister Chaanger (North Island Breeders Stakes) wasn’t bad either, winning six before producing Changeover a NZ Cup winner in national record time  The record was to show that this family who descended from Norfolk Trotters could produce great stayers.Chokin was the first horse in New Zealand to break four minutes for 3200m (Auckland Cup) and Changeover’s Cup time  (3.56.4) stood for several years.

Chaanger, granddam of One Change  left 10 winners of over 100 races and nearly $3m

Changeover was bred by   Rob Carr and Don Kirkbride a partnership who had bought Chaanger as a yearling. He dominated age group racing here, his first win at Addington at 2 when catch driven by Peter Davis. Rob was behind the terrifically successful Auckland Trot Syndicates at that time and when Changeover went through the sale ring for less than $30,000 he became a Syndicate horse with such  notable results.

David Butcher soon resumed in the cart  They won the two year old PGG Sales Final but really exploded at three when winning the Rising Star Final: PGG Sales Final, Woodlands Derby, and Harness Jewels, after being sensationally disqualified from first in the Sires Stakes Final as a result of a positive swab. He also won the rich Breeders Crown in Australia. He was twice fourth in Inter Dominion Finals, won a Len Smith Mile and went to stud one of the biggest winners on the local scene since Christian Cullen.

Pretty Smooth, a half -sister to Chokin,  as well as Chaanger gave further proof. She left a three -quarter brother to Changeover called Anvil Vance.

Raced originally out of the Robert Cameron stable at Yaldhurst and later from Barry Purdon’s stable after being sold to a partnership that included original owner Graham Beirne ,Barry’s wife Katrina and an Australian  gentleman called Kevin Riseley who has had a winner or two in Nz since.

Anvil Vance was fine stayer being 2nd and 4th in successive Auckland Cups, in one of them very unlucky, and he  later won the Easter Cup.He also measured up to Australia’s best

Pretty Smooth also left as her last foal, Three Eagles, her first foal by  Falcon Seelster. She became the dam of Fly Like an Eagle, an outstanding age group pacer and Derby winner and while not generally rated, even by All Stars, as a real stayer he went within half a neck of preventing Terror To Love’s march into NZ Cup history  He is now at stud in Australia. Three Eagles also left the Inter Dominion level pacer, Mach Doro, a full brother to Fly Like an Eagle.

Carr and Kirkbride co-breedera of many in this family, then sent Chaanger to Falcon Seelster late in her breeding career and to an embryo transplant she produced One Change’s dam, Changedown. All Stars earlier had some success with another of Changedown foals, Renske B,and ,not surprisingly, her owner, Hazel Van Opzeeland, has sent her to Hazel’s previous star Highview Tommy for her breeding career so far.

Just to show its versatility this family also produced Holy Cord, the first two year old trotter to beat an all aged field in our history, a feat achieved in the early 1970’s in Southland. Strangely enough he was by Holy Hal an outstanding pacer. He ran 2.00 in the US in those days a respectable effort.

The magic in this battling family took a long time to come out of the bottle however

The founder, Lady Agnes, by and from two Norfolk road trotters, won a $35 District Maiden (restricted to local horses) at an Amuri Turf Club meeting in 1899, winning easily at long odds. It is a very long time since District Maidens, $35 races and the Amuri Turf Club were in operation and it was  also a long time before the Agnes family came to light. The next generation consisted solely of Lady Chancellor who also won a District Handicap or two on the West Coast. These races were all kept to locally trained horses and were easier to win in most occasions,

The first turning point was  was when one of her battler descendants, Wicklow Lady, went to U Scott  and her daughter Westland Lady, to Light Brigade giving the golden cross of the era. One of the latter’s foals was Memorandum the ancestress of Holy Cord though not a lot else.. She left his dam Cordette who had one start at five. But the other Wicklow Lady named foal, Nell’s Dream, was bred to Ricochet by then owner Eric Running.  

Dan Corrigan , taking alternate foals from the mare, campaigned the offspring ,Nell Air,who won  3 from 47 and a whole $2600 in stakes. Nothing to light up the pedigree page in the first 40 years then

Corrigan put her to trotting sire Tuft to get Nell’s Pride who never wanted to trot but was a step up otherwise winning at  two and another five later on though nothing major. Nell Air’s sire, Ricochet, was a contemporary and stablemate of Johnny Globe, and like him  by Logan Derby, raced by the Fleming family of Taranaki.

His biggest win was the Hannon Memorial, then a final NZ Cup leadup and a much more prestigious race than now,  driven by Barry Nyhan.Denis Nyhan, who regularly rode him in exercise remembers Ricochet as a lovely mannered top performing  colt who travelled with Johnny Globe to distant meetings like two old geldings without any problems.

Corrigan may have been thinking of the Logan Derby side of the family in going to Tuft because he had left Vodka the pioneer Kiwi performer in the US though admittedly not the smoothest of goers at slower gaits.

Then a major bomb exploded in the Lady Agnes family in the form of Vance Hanover. It is a stark example of the wonderful qualities of this stallion of how he lifted so many northern families several notches on the breeding ladder and there is no better example than this one. In many ways Vance Hanover, unraced and a bargain buy for NZ, was more influential here than Albatross in America. Chokin, Chuin, Anvil Vance all came along in a short space of time, and once on that new level its breeders and runners have ensured they stay there.

One Change who has the Falcon Seelster cross that lifted Fly Like an Eagle may have a challenge to be as good as the best ones in this family but he certainly shows all the signs of advancing it for another generation. And, on family history, whatever he does at two, he will be better at three.





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THE CAPTAINS CALL

Talk to a popular cross section of the breeding fraternity about yearling selection and you will get a popular cross section of the theoretical, the practical, the pedigree wizards  and, well, the slightly weird.

All of them have had their successes,enough to reinforce ideas or reinforce prejudices -a much more common factor around the ring than we like to admit.

Mark Purdon along with Natalie, has such a record selecting yearlings you wonder what was the factor that convinced him to go to $130,000 for a Captaintreacherous colt from his former charge Veste, named Captain Outrageous who will be raced by Dennis and Mark Dunford.

A theory perhaps ?, a pedigree ?, inside knowledge of the family with which Mark  has been involved over a long period with great success ? Apparently none of the above.

“Pretty much purely on type” Mark says. “It was how he presented that drove us really”

There would have been plenty of other good reasons for Mark and Natalie to be enthusiastic.

All Stars trained Veste In her brief and unusual career. She ran second to Fly Like an Eagle first up; beat Elusive Chick to win second up; and won the Caduceus Club (G1) at her 4th start. She beat Dancing Diamonds the dam of Princess Tiffany,  and a rather moderate lot followed them home. Not a bad formline though.

After winning a Young Guns filly heat 5th up her career foundered largely because of a suspect raceday temperament. Tony Herlihy, her regular driver, trained her later but she was retired after just 11 starts.

Her two fillies racing in Australia so far would be rated only provincial horses on their records to date..Her  only colt so far, Yorkshire, qualified for Steven McRae in January but has not been sighted on raceday yet.

Mark would hardly have had to look at the female family though.  It virtually speaks to him.

Veste was by Christian Cullen, damsire of Lazarus. This means that this colt is from Direct Scooter line male and female which surely equates to early speed

Mark had also trained Veste’s brother ,Conversion, while her dam, Coburg, won the Standardbred Breeders for Mike Berger  and was a half sister to Stunin Cullen.

If all that wasn’t enough  Coburg’s dam was a half-sister to Il Vicolo a horse Mark knew quite well.

Katie Carville purchased Coburg for big money as an older mare, doubtless influenced by the fact that she had already produced a G1 winner by Christian Cullen, that cross with Falcon Seelster being the staple of she and her late husband Dave’s successful breeding theories and practices.

In earlier times  this branch of a famous family  was not especially fashionable, Black Globe and Black Fury, both horses with short Australian maternal pedigrees  were not stallion names to cause a lot of excitement. However they combined to leave the broodmare gem Black Watch when Rosehaven  had one of only two matings with U Scott sons -in this case Scottish Command.

To Rosehaven’s credit she also left the maternal granddam of Il Vicolo to Black Fury whose dam, Isobel Derby,  was a NZ Cup performer as a racehorse.

Just goes to show what a cross with the right sire will do. Enter Captain Courageous.

Not many horses have been available to New Zealand breeders as young stallions with  such blazing credentials.

He was Somebeachsomewhere’s best son and just pipped Sweet Lou (who beat him several times on the track) for the 2018 honour of leading juvenile sire. A  remarkable 32 of his offspring went in 1.55 or better at two from 113 foals served at $US15,000 in his first crop (82 starters). This year you will need $US25,000 and if this keeps up a lot more in the future.

Besides being a big striking horse in type, Captaintreacherous has a notably stronger female line than his sire.

His dam,by Artsplace, was a highly performed 2yo who won over $US100,000 and her sister, Worldly Beauty was the Dan Patch (Horse of the Year) winner at both two and three.

The third dam, Rodine Hanover, a champion two year old of the early 1980’s by the successful outcross stallion Big Towner, left three fillies by the great racehorse but disappointing sire Nihilator and two, especially,  were notable broodmares. NIhilator has been almost reinstated with the success of his mares in recent years as Big Towner was earlier.

Captaintreacherous’s second dam, World Order, was one, and  dam of Worldly Beauty. Another was Perfect Profile who was purchased by Brittany Farms at the Almahurst dispersal and became the dam of the champion racehorse and sire Art Major, as well as the high class Perfect Art.

Worthy of mention is that Panspacificflight is closely related and he made an early impression from limited opportunities in the south.

Worth noting too is that Treasure Trove a brother to Captaintreacherous, brought top price of $US360,000 at the record Lexington sale last year.

It would seem, in theory,  that Mark would anyway take a strong interest in the stock of Somebeachsomewhere, having trained the fastest  son of that champion stallion in Australasia in Waikiki Beach for Neil Pilcher and Trevor Casey ,who was out of a Bettor’s Delight mare.

However offspring by the stallion, other than homebreds- like the first to arrive in Someardensomewhere- have not exactly flooded the All Stars gates.

Funatthebeach (bred on the same cross as Waikiki Beach and similarly relaxed in his races) is the only current racing inhabitant, now that the classy Sicario has been sold.

It would be fair to say his appeal to the stable did not get close to matching Bettor’s Delight and it is easy to see why.

This is maybe where Captaintreacherous’s racing style might make, or have made, strong appeal to Mark and Natalie.

Somebeachsomewhere stock, more successful in the helter skelter of Australian racing than here (but still struggling  to match his North American levels) have been considered too headstrong by some critics for local racing,seemingly doing their best when going freely. Waikiki Beach was a notable exception to the rule and so has been Funatthebeach. His current Australlan star, Poster Boy, also seems less mercurial.

Captaintreachersous won races in front but he was not just a natural free runner like his sire whose 1.46.8 mile win was simply breathtaking in its sheer power.

Captaintreacherous won big races from anywhere and everywhere and what most horsemen like about him was his determination in a finish. At times when it seemed he could not hang on or could not run past rivals late, he did so seemingly with comfort in the end. From video he appeared a relaxed colt off the track.

He was rather disappointing as a four year old (when Sweet Lou was flying) but his trainer battled to overcome the effects of a virus and there was apparently some difference of opinion among his owning partnership whether he should be racing at all. In any case he did well enough to avoid any damage to his reputation and standing at Hanover Shoe Farm was a boost.

His  stock (oldest three) seem similar. He averaged $US86,000 at the last Lexington sale, higher than Bettor’s Delight and not far behind one of the last crops of his own sire who averaged $US106,000. Though he is not yet the leading three year old sire in North America (Sportswriter) it is very early in the season and he is poised closely  to soon wrest the lead away.

As he may well do in New Zealand. And there won’t be many better credentialled colts to help that cause than Captain Outrageous.

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ART MAJOR AND FRIENDS

Last season in New Zealand Art Major out performed Bettor’s Delight with two year olds by some measures chiefly a higher percentage of starters to foals and a higher percentage of winners to foals. He left 10 winners from 133 foals and Bettor’s Delight 14 but from 211.

In truth while many might quiver at the suggestion, it can be argued Bettor’s Delight is not the greatest of  sires of two year olds either,here or in the US. Terrific by most standards but not necessarily his own. It may actually be one key to his great success.

Among the list of his highest earners in Breeders literature,  almost all, when coming to their list of major wins start with their deeds as three year olds.

Yes, we all know he has left brilliant juveniles including the unbeaten Dream About Me and plenty of others. But  horses like Adore Me , Beautide, Bit of a Legend, Chicago Bull, Have Faith In Me, Tiger Tara, Gold Ace, Arden Rooney Ohoka Punter  all have their major wins starting in their second season. Some of them did not even race at two.

But they developed  from two to three to four to five where critics claim Art Major’s don’t shine the same way. Statistics back that up but in recent times the old story of the self fulfilling prophecies has been coming to light.

Rather ironically it is All Stars, the driver of so much of Art Major juvenile popularity (Mark rated him the standout stallion in America in an earlier visit there) whose performers cast  doubts about the prevailing thinking.

They took later millionaire Sushi Sushi -dismissed by many as a young hit wonder in spite of him coming over to New Zealand and dealing to New Zealand’s best in the Woodlands Derby -to within a short space of winning a New Zealand Cup and had he had better luck he could easily have done so. He had won the Kaikoura Cup at his previous start. The Addington win  would have changed perception right there.

More recently Titan Banner and Eamon Maguire have shown plenty of resilience as older horses as has Star Galleria to a lesser extent. In Australia of course one of Art Major’s early stars, For A Reason posted 1.58 at two but broke 1.50 as a four year old and won a Victoria Cup and Queensland Pacing Championship as an older horse as well as placing in two Inter Dominion Finals.

In the past year Field Marshall, whose damsire traces to Bettor’s Delight’s grandsire, Cam Fella,  has turned the idea on its head by running the fastest mile ever recorded in Australasia as a six year old. Ouch!.

It is the old story. You breed/buy  a horse to be a two year old probably on type, , train it to be a two year old, and it puts a lot of his/her  resources into that. That can tell against a later career. Modern records show very few horses survive uninterrupted campaigns at the highest level at two, three and four and go on to greater things as aged horses. There are only so many shots in the locker. It took something of the stature of Lazarus to be the exception.

So the  stock of Art Major, whose sire Artsplace had his best season as a four year old (and in his last three races cleaned up the biggest older age races in North America), are expected to “get up and go” and  can be quite happy to oblige.

The other aspect to this  is that both stallions are huge successes in America where performance up until four years old is at a premium. Yes the American Horse of the Year is 7 but it won’t help him when he goes back to stud.

So the combination of the more precocious speed of Art Major with the ability of Bettor’s Delight stock to mature sometimes more slowly but with long term gains looks a marriage made in heaven.

Pedigree wise there are multiple crosses of Albatross and a double up of Artsplace’s sire Abercrombie but it is all looking good, especially as Princess Tiffany’s dam, Dancing Diamonds, herself a winner of the PGG Wrightson 2yo filly feature, was one of the early Bettor’s Delight mares go to stud.

There must be many Bettor’s Delight mare owners pleased with the results so far. And then there is Art Major’s best Down Under son, Vincent, waiting in the wings as well. If ever there was an aged pacing star in the making it was he.

Princess Tiffany is the second success from Dancing Diamonds, first foal Rock Diamonds being good  in Perth. Both were bred by Braeden and Caroline Whitelock who bought Dancing Diamonds as a yearling from southern breeders Phil Creighton (who holds a racing share in Princess Tiffany) and Stu Gillan who own Asabella, dam also of Code Red.

Here it is essential to note that this is a rather famous filly family as has been widely publicised. Asabella’s dam Bellisimo, came  through 7 race winner and close to 2.00 mare,Krina Belle.

She was a daughter of Bellajilly a NZ Derby  winner for the Cecil Devine stable for Nick Matyasevic, a colourful Christchurch restaurant owner. Bellajilly was famously brought back to NZ (cheaply) by Jim Dalgety in foal to Most Happy Fella and produced Jovial Jeannie as her first foal for him.

She was the first filly to win the NZ Derby in 21 years and it  took a further 19 for another filly to win, Hilarious Guest in 1982 one of the best age group fillies in our history. There  have been none since. With diverse opportunities few now try.

There was more. Bellajilly’s dam, Malabella, was another  smart if unpredictable filly for Devine her record not fully appreciated  in the days when she competed with males virtually every start.

She still left Van Glory a Cup class mare  up with the very best of the males. She was the granddam of a sensational filly in Under Cover Lover who competed with  the highest class in the US as a youngster in a historic campaign. Another granddaughter produced Bettor Cover Lover.

A “Me Too” equine story then -with bells on !

Van Glory was a tough customer running in 85 races most of them in top company. She won the NI Oaks  and later broke two minutes winning the Standardbred Breeders Stakes. At two she beat brilliant filly Roydon Roux and as an aged mare was twice fourth in the Easter Cup, once to stablemate Robalan. She set two outright NZ records against the boys in her time. She was bred and raced by Nick Matyasevic who died during the latter stages of her career. She was sold to Australia but repurchased by Spreydon Lodge.

Malabella’s dam, Mala, was a brilliant but erratic filly originally trained by Maurice Holmes and later Ken Chapman in the early days of his training career. Her manners proved just too much of a challenge in the long run.

But her dam, a grey of uncertain history  called Krina, owned and trained by then famous horseman,Nelson Price, was an outstanding racemare running 2.13 on the grass at Ashburton when that was one quick race mile.

She left a number of good fillies as well as  a colt, Sprayman, who was the best two year old of his year. But if you have an option with this family you would go with a filly.

Just to show how long the thread of this female family stretches back  the only thing known about Krina was that her sire was the Australian -bred Jewel Chimes who later came to New Zealand.

His dam however, Jewel’s Heiress, a free legged pacer, was imported from the United States and at one stage came over to race at Addington more than a century ago. She started from a long mark in a big field and set an Australasian record for an unhoppled pacing mare.

It was her second start of the day. Two races previously she had taken on the best male pacers in Australasia in the Champion Handicap.

No wonder this family is “Girl Power” in capital letters. Princess Tiffany is here to remind us.  

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OVER TO YOU SWEET LOU

There’s always a keen sense of anticipation when the first crop of a horse like Sweet Lou go to the races.

Sweet Lou was a freakish champion pacer (1.47, no fractions!) and his stud career has started well in North America. In fact he is the first sire in history there to have both a filly and a colt in the 1.50 list as two year olds, even if one is suffering from the name of Warrawee Ubeaut-true though that  name is proving to be. He had 80 starters last year and left 30 in the 1.55 list including two year old of the year. Not surprising perhaps given what a champion he was at 2 himself, but encouraging.

Now it starts here with his two year olds and again there is a strong sense of optimism. Trainers like them-always a very good sign- and Woodlands marketing expert  Stacey Markham tells me he had a very strong full book of mares this year.

That is important because this is the year when a lot of breeders pause and think “Well, I will just see how they go at the races before I go back there” - a challenge for any first season pacing stallion.

Sweet on Me, the daughter of Adore Me, is a lovely filly who makes her debut in Auckland this week  and Virgil, who only came out of the sale ring last May, made a big impression on his debut at Addington and his second up run this week will attract a lot of interest.

So if you were principals of Woodlands Stud and it looked very much like you had scored another pacing sire triumph following Bettor’s Delight and American Ideal  you would be feeling on good terms with yourself.

This is a big deal for Woodlands. It owns a big band of broodmares, many by Bettor’s Delight and American Ideal and finding an outcross of similar class is crucial to its future. 55 of the mares who have produced offspring to Sweet Lou so far are by Bettor’s Delight.

The elephant in the room for a number of breeders with Sweet Lou is his pedigree . But is it any problem really ?

Sure, his sire Yankee Cruiser, who you can breed to in Ohio this season for $US3000, is not a household name or a game changer.

He stood for several years at Hanover Farms but has been  at various Ohio studs in recent years. A number of Kiwi breeders will recall the deeds of his sire Artiscape in this country  with suspicion considering his great success everywhere else-though there were mitigating factors.

And yes, he is from a mare by another unknown quantity in this part of the world in Falcon’s Future -a son of Falcon Seelster-followed by  a mare by Nero , an erratic horse whose stock did not have much success Down Under. Then came quite a successful stallion called Fly Fly Byrd. Hardly  Hall of Fame material you could say.

But there are two sides to every story.

PS I should have noted here that Sweet Future the dam of Sweet Lou was twice Pacing Broodmare of the Year (2011,2012) thru the deeds of Sweet Lou and her Bettor’s Delight son Bettor’s Future a top older horse. I was referring only to fashion (Sweet Lou was a $38,000 yearling) which is not always the same as performance and hence the importance of outcross stallions.

“Outcross” stallions are not new to New Zealand and not new to success. It’s all in the timing and Sweet Lou’s timing looks spot on

New Zealand studs got away with some real doozies in earlier eras  when it came to unfashionable pedigrees. Logan Pointer one of the most successful sires of the 20th century in spite of dying at 9, was by the stud failure Star Pointer who was the first horse to run two minutes but whose controversial (read unfashionable) pedigree meant his fame stopped right there.

Dillon Hall, another famous stallion of last century, had a sire (The Laurel Hall) whom the Americans passed on to Italy  which tells you why Dillon Hall, a 2 minute performer, came to New Zealand. Vance Hanover was a virtual orphan when he arrived in New Zealand unraced, the sons of Albatross being a mixed bag everywhere after a brilliant start and his sire line already fading. Vance Hanover won 9 premierships. There are other examples.

Some leading American breeders regard Somebeachsomewhere and even Albatross as outcross sires largely because of the families they came from (Somebeachsomewhere was from a mare who cost $6000) but wisely point out that whenever the standardbred seems bred into a corner a suitable outcross always comes along. So it has been for about 200 years.

Yankee Cruiser was a champion two year old and a hard hitting three year old whose season was saved by winning the North American Cup a $1m Canadian feature. Beside Sweet Lou he has sired a 1.47.4 pacer, Dancin Yankee,who was still winning good races aged 8.

Yankee Cruiser’s female line were a mixed bag and largely shone in Sires Stakes races. His dam was by Jate Lobell,a great racehorse and very successful sire though only really  influential now through his daughters who did great things. His sons did well in Australia through Safely Kept and Village Jasper, both, incidentally, from Abercrombie mares.

Mares by Abercrombie’s son Artsplace have crossed well with Bettor’s Delight (Border Control; Carabella) and he is of course the sire of Art Major a favourite to combine well with Bettor’s Delight mares in some quarters though it still has work to do.

The very popular Vincent is by Art Major from a a mare by Safely Kept so on a similar if next generation cross to Yankee Cruiser

Artiscape, sire of Yankee Cruiser and who is still available to breeders, has left 40 in 1.50 and 8 millionaires. His dam by the super tough On the Road Again was a world champion fiilly and the best racehorse he left. Also a fine broodmare. On the Road Again won  44 of 61 starts and 18 of 26 at three when Pacer of the year. He was phenomenally tough for that era.

Artiscape’s  New Zealand experience was not as bad as sometimes painted.

He had frozen semen available at a high price ($8500 in 2001!) but had only 13 takers in his first season and then 84 and 77 mares in the next two seasons.

Shuttled for two years from 2005 he left in all only 218 foals here. Only two won more than $100,000 -both, Fight Fire With Fire and Steve McQueen  trained at All Stars-but he did leave 90 winners in all. His foals here tended to be light boned according the the good judges. But he has been a lot better stallion than he showed here.

Artsplace scarcely needs an introduction but his race career is worth consideration because like Sweet Lou he was a champion two year old and also like Sweet Lou while his three year old career was  successful (10 of 15) setbacks affected him in the big ones and dulled his image.

His owners decided to race him again at 4 when he won all 16 starts at the highest level (Breeders Crown, US Pacing Championship) and took his earnings to over $US3m being 1992 Horse of the Year.

His 1.49.4 in the Breeders Crown was the fastest race mile ever run His grandson Art Official (Art Major) ran 1.47 in 2008 (at 3) then the fastest ever for one of his age. The old Adios speed had survived well.

After that sensational year Artsplace   was voted by experts the 10th greatest pacer of all time (the fans voted him 12th,still memorable considering). Sweet Lou’s later career echoed this routine to a remarkable degree. As comparisons go its a nice one to have.

Always B Miki, the other supremely fast American pacer at stud in New Zealand currently, is from an Artsplace mare. He fills the same role with Captain Treacherous, Rock n Roll Heaven, Sunshine Beach and others. Artsplace mares have been especially successful with Somebeachsomewhere and a Abercrombie mare left Mach Three

Artsplace’s biggest achievement though was further restoring the Adios line through Abercrombie.

It is worth knowing about Sweet Lou that Abercrombie , a freakish speed horse, was by a relative failure as a stallion in Silent Majority who was by another mediocre stallion Henry T Adios. As the US experts say something always comes up when breeding options seem to have been cornered.

With that in mind Sweet Lou is on his way to proving there is nothing new under the sun.

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ANOTHER MASTERPIECE. A FAMILIAR STORY-BUT WITH A NOTABLE TWIST

I can almost hear the sighs. Oh no, not this again.

Another Masterpiece, champion two year old of 2018, is by Bettor’s Delight from a Christian Cullen mare. Like Lazarus. Like-well nearly every youngster popular at the sales and in big races  these days. Nothing to see here ?

Not  quite.

Because once you get past that oh so fashionable cross ,things get a bit interesting.

Another Masterpiece’s dam Elegant Art is the last Kiwi bred mare in the family. After that it is all USA. Like a surprising number of top buys by All Stars over the years.

And that USA family is not one of ordinary performers. In fact Another Masterpiece’s third dam TOWN PRO was the champion American two year old filly of 1989 and the champion three year old  filly of 1990 as well as being a Canadian Horse of the Year and the first to win back to back Breeder’s Crowns filly finals.

In 2004 she was elected to the Hall of Fame. She lived until 2014.

Town Pro won 12 of her 13 starts at two and 14 of 17 starts at three. Beside her ability she was extraordinarily tough.

How tough ? Well Steve Williams who managed White Birch Farm where Town Pro spent her breeding days after being bought by Joe Parisi when she retired, recalled she had had three serious colic attacks all of which required surgery and in two of of them she was carrying a foal at the time. In both cases she safely delivered the foal. Williams reckoned she just didn’t show pain.Except toward him.

Her outstanding winner was Darlins Delight who won over $US2.9m but she left  12 winners from 17 foals altogether. Some tough.

Williams, and other handlers, also recalled how Town Pro was a “madam” with her immediate custodians, ready to kick bite and be hostile whenever they appeared. They thought it was because she associated them with pain while casual visitors were usually treated with respect. Maybe she just wanted to be left alone like Greta Garbo.

Town Pro had been bought by trainer Stew Firlotte for $US60,000 as a yearling because Firlotte had had considerable success with her dam Programmed.

Programmed developed into the champion aged pacing mare  in Canada and retired the highest earning daughter of the great Bret Hanover, no less.

Town Pro in turn was the richest racehorse by her sire Big Towner.

Big Towner was an outcross horse once hailed as the saviour of the breed. A $5,700 buy as a yearling he was handy at two, good at three and outstanding as an older horse.

Having no Meadow Skipper blood and from the Bert Abbe sireline through Gene Abbe he was hailed as the most likely outcross horse of his generation at a time when Hal Dale blood overkill was starting to worry many breeders.

He was certainly successful though he fell short of the expectations overall, even after topping some broodmare sire lists. Programmed was out of a Meadow Skipper mare.

The family owes a lot to Tallulah Hanover whose influence in New Zealand was extended by her sons, Morris Eden and Good Time Eden both imported by Noel Simpson. She was also the granddam of Columbia George a champion US  racehorse, notably brave under fire, but not of great influence at stud.

Apart from the trotter Dupreez,Good Time Eden did not make a great impression . But Morris Eden, whose stock could be erratic  but had the famous Adios speed, will always be remembered for leaving MOUNT EDEN, a horse of such sensational speed his performances have been, relatively speaking, rarely matched in Australasia.

When horses of much superior racing records are almost forgotten nobody who saw Mount Eden will ever forgot him.

The 1971 Miracle Mile winner caused a sensation at Addington that year when he was the star of the Inter Dominion series -without even making the final !

After doing 1.58.8 for a mile in training at Addington -a time which would have won  any mile race in Australasia at that time -and making some sensational recoveries with phenomenal sectionals from bad starts in the heats, trainer Jack Miles sent him against time, hoping to get an invite to the Miracle Mile.

The attempt was delayed five hours because of a waterlogged track and then the galloping pacemaker was not up to the task. Mount Eden still ran the mile in 1.56.8 on a wet surface, close to Cardigan Bay’s NZ record at the time (1.56.6) and just sensational for a four year old in that era in those conditions.

Even when winning the Miracle Mile he earned the invitation to he lost around 40m at the start and beat stars like Stella Frost pointlessly. His starts were always his problem. Not all Morris Eden’s fault by the way. Mount Eden’s  damline, largely developed by Allan Holmes, were horses of great speed who could also be horses with a mind of their own.

Mount Eden was sold to the US for the then sensational price of $300,000.  In his heyday he could pull a crowd of 5000 in Perth to watch him perform.

Not at the races. At trials !.

Morris Eden stock never shook the reputation for being a little unpredictable though one of his daughters left Final Curtain, a big winner for the Purdon stable.

Another Masterpiece on the other hand is utterly reliable as his record of being only once out of the top four in his life indicates.

Maybe when the chips are down that essential toughness of Town Pro pops up in the genes and is the  factor that makes the difference.

Heredity can be a wonderful thing.

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FUNATTHEBEACH-THAT CULVERDEN EFFECT

Though not hogging the headlines like some of his stablemates the successful summer of Funatthebeach is significant in a number of ways.

Firstly he has now topped $100,000 in earnings for current owners, Trevor Casey and Peter Hailes. And of course he would have added to a glorious summer for  Neil Pilcher a late owner of Funatthebeach, and of course also of Turn it Up.

Perhaps even more notably Funatthebeach was bred by Braeden and Caroline Whitelock  of Princess Tiffany, O Baby etc fame. Not only that but he descends from the Gamble mare Margaret Gamble whose fortunes became essential to the Whitelock’s great success as breeders and owners- in more ways than one.

Given the age group wins that have underpinned that success what follows is especially interesting.

The tradition stems from Caroline Whitelock’s father,Nelson Dalzell, a Pacific War veteran (wounded) and an All Back in the tradition of the great New Zealand ironman forwards from the country. Farming at Culverden he was also to become a hobby trainer and breeder.-more or less by accident.

He was grazing a 1 win (at Reefton) mare Margaret Gamble, served by Fallacy, for Jim Donnithorne and Noel Foulkes and bought her from them for $10- though Donnithorne came into a partnership with him.

The first foal, Moose (Fallacy), started a trend, rather sensationally  winning the inaugural Rangiora Raceway Stakes for two year olds, first up for trainer Lester Frost at 30/1. As an older mare she became Dalzell’s first training success winning five races in all and placing behind some high quality horses.

Nelson  kept the ball rolling so to speak, retaining her for breeding on his own account while Donnithorne took on  some of the subsequent foals of the tribe. Phillmark (7 wins) was one of the last horses trained by Ron Donald who had once been one of New Zealand’s leading horsemen. Aufleem,trained by Nelson Dalzell to win the Rangiora Handicap in her racing days,was another.

Donnithorne, who died in 1983, raced some notable youngsters from this family even though Margaret Gamble lacked any speed herself.Perhaps it came from Gamble who also features in the Good Chase and Chase Auckland stories.

Kiwi Hostess, a Yankee Express daughter of Aufleem, won the then highly anticipated first two year old feature of the season at the  NZ Cup meeting, the Springtime Stakes. Phillmark won the Golden Slipper Stakes at Waimate; ran second in the Timaru Nursery Stakes and won the Sapling Stakes. At three she won the  Charles Cross Stakes at Addington-all major features in that era. Lomondu Host, a brother to Prime Hostess-both from Kiwi Hostess and both by Noodlum- won the Timaru Nursery Stakes, and Prime Hostess the Golden Slipper, then a highly featured race.

Remarkably Moose’s first raced foal (by Dalzell) , Golden Moose, then became the  leading juvenile of his year winning five races in the 1972-73 season, a rare feat in those days. At three he won the Champion Stakes. Yet Dalzell needed some luck to get him.

Moose had earlier produced Lady Moose to Lordship but she never raced. Then she had twins who died and missed again before producing Golden Moose. She died foaling the following year.

But what Lady Moose missed out on on the racetrack she more than made up for at stud,

Her outstanding list of foals -most by  El Patron-included a filly called Lady El, one of the most brilliant mares of the mid 1980’s whose ability far outshone even her outstanding record.

Trained by Robin Butt she was could be quite erratic at times, and a real handful. At one stage she was banned from even mobile starts. But boy, did she have a motor !

Raced on lease by Butt and Peter Andrews, she was just stunning on Cup Day 1985, when  stablemate Camelot won the big one. Set alight by Robin over 2600m she ran her first mile in a then sensational 2.00.4, causing havoc among the clockers in the Press Box, and  led all the way in n 3.15.2 beating the national all comers record held by Bonnies Chance and Steel Jaw, no less-and in a supporting race !

She was the four year old Mare of the Year and later ran with distinction in the Inter Dominion Championships in Australia against some of the toughest male pacers of the time.

She might have also won a Pan Am Mile given the chance.She only made the Consolation which she won easily by three lengths in 1.58.4. Norton won the Final in 1.58 and by a lot less than three lengths. Her brother, Diamond Moose (two Kaikoura Cups, 2nd Easter Cup, a giant of a horse) was brought down in Camelot’s Cup and Lord Moose (Play Bill) reached the verge of Cup class.

Magic Moose, Lady El’s best race foal, began an  association with the Purdon stable (Mark was her driver) and time trialled in 1.58.3. She  had a lot of bad luck in the breeding field but left Minnie Moose, who didn’t win at two but ran a mighty fourth to Bettor Cover Lover in the Harness Jewels that season. Three years later she would run second to the same horse in the Harness Jewels for 5yo + mares

Unlike some mares Minnie Moose, tough and fast, relished racing against the males and many of the earlier family traits developed by Nelson Dalzell are still with her.

Minnie Moose has a half -brother to Funatthebeach offered through Breckon Farms at the upcoming sales by Art Major. That old Moose two year old magic should shine from that mating,

The Moose tribe has looked like fading into history several times and at one stage Nelson Dalzell tried mating Golden Moose with his close relations without success,  but Nelson’s daughters, Caroline Whitelock,and Jo Higginson have kept it alive in various partnerships over the years, sometimes with little reward but always with determination. That has brought its own reward.

We can add that Funatthebeach is bred on the same Somebeachsomewhere-Bettor’s Delight cross as the first star of such a mating, Waikiki Beach, and that he was also raced in partnership by Trevor Casey and Neil Pilcher. But that is a sidelight to this story.

Like the Whitelock /Higginson sporting triumphs, the story of the enduring Moose family is all about the  DNA-human and equine

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MASSIVE CAREER ONCE HANGING BY A THREAD

ENHANCE YOU CALM has always been good. Gavin Smith knew he was good when he placed him on the market with a 6 figure tag and Mark Purdon knew he was good when he drove him in a trial and paid it. Since then Enhance Your Calm has had five starts and five wins. And now back from a spell he looks ready for an even more impressive three year old campaign for Danny and Joanne Davitzanos having filled into his frame in outstanding fashion during his spell.

But it wasn’t that long ago Enhance You Calm’s legacy hung by a very slender thread indeed in spite of the best efforts of Roydon Lodge, Dr Gunn and that trotting man of letters, Philip Iggo.

Back in the 1990’s a mare called Rebecca Bret, a rare trotter by Knowing Bret (even though he was bred on a Worthy Boy-Guy Abbey cross that suggested it was on he didn’t leave trotters) ) , was making her mark just below the top level. Her dam, not raced and not bred to trot, was by the unfashionable pacer Blue Morano from a daughter of a mare whose dam had an Australasian pedigree through Globe Derby having been returned to New Zealand. Cross County’s third dam, Auriaga, would be best known as a sister to the outstanding-near great considering his problems-pacer, Young Charles, who excelled as a sire. But not of trotters. Back in the early days there had been top trotters in this family but not recently. Famous Sydney horseman Jack Watts bred from this mare and the Noel Simpson stepped in returning her to Yendarra Stud Otahuhu

Bred from by Dr Gunn. Rebecca Bret’s first foal was her best, being Evander Bret a good winner, but her chances of being an influential producer then took several severe knocks. Her second foal went to the US and her next filly, Sooty, died at three. Then the next, Joffra Girl only had one foal, a colt,who never raced. What price history ?

By this time Phillip Iggo, who stood Gee Whiz at stud, was breeding from Rebecca Bret and he had a change of luck (or expertise).He bred the mare to the Rona and Clive McKay -imported trotting stallion Holdonmyheart a lot better racehorse than his record says. What is more when he went to stud he had the advantage of being by Valley Victory the at times troubled but superb son of Baltic Speed who sired Muscles Yankee. Even this season Holdonmyheart has a respectable place on the broodmare sires list.

The rest of the team were not so lucky. Eight subsequent matings produced no further produce.

Phillip named the foal ,rather colourfully, as Shimmie Shook Shook and it was a predictive title. Ok so 2 wins from 45 didn’t set the world alight but it is what happened next that counted.

After that it switched to Roydon Lodge and Trish Dunell. Roydon Lodge bred five foals from Shimmie Shook Shook. The first , All Shook Up, owned by Dunell, won five races but her produce record has been somewhat disastrous. The second foal died at two, the 4th never bred;the 5th has a close blood relation to Enhance Your Calm in Karolina. Nothing since has raced. The joys of breeding

In between was All Settled Down, maybe not quite as relaxed as her name suggested, but owned and trained by Gavin Smith and a good performer for that astute trainer. His wife Sarah went on record to breed her to Majestic Son ,combining lines of Speedy Scot with some local outcrosses. But there was something different in between.

It was only after a one race career All Settled Down went to the breeding shed, returning to racing in 2016. The resulting foal was Enhance Your Calm like Rebecca Bret and Evander Bret a first foal. So far he is the only foal but as a Sundon mare with so many options that should not last long

ONE FAMOUS HARNESS FAMILY REVIVES ANOTHER

It is  not rare   for one human family to be responsible for the making of the reputation of one equine one. There are countless examples of one stud making an entire breed popular for several eras.

But it is when that era ends that things can go pear shaped. Unless another human family comes along with faith in the equine one.

In this story that is Tony and Anne Parker of Auckland, breeders of Chase Auckland(and of course his sire Auckland Reactor) restored an almost forgotten family to the headlines.

Chase Auckland was not only the star three year old last season he was the best horse to race from his family in a long time. A family that was once a household word in New Zealand standardbred breeding . It was run by run by honourable and popular people but they could not prevent it gradually slipping into obscurity.

The equine family concerned was virtually made by the Gamble mare  Rosewood, who never raced and for some time wasn’t even in the Stud Book. Oscar Watson and his sons John and Dennis from Annat were responsible for fixing that.

Oscar bought a mare Peggywood cheaply from Alby Rushton then based at Addington. She was by Parkwood a smart Ribbonwood line horse that came over to Addington from Australia with Peter Riddle in the 1920’s  along with the NZ Cup winner Sheik.

Peggywood’s dam line was  obscure and not qualified for the  Stud Book but there were some very strong stallions in the pedigree notably Wildwood and an old -time popular stallion Viking, also an import from Australia. .  Peggy Wood’s first foal, Lady Ngaio, went well enough to be granted admission to the Stud Book after posting standard time. Unhappily she died in an accident before breeding. So it was all over to her full sister Rosewood to do the right thing.

Her sire was all-American bred,Gamble, a horse so handsome his stable used to  parade him just for inspection as a yearling to satisfy demand even though already sold. He could be a little tricky, but his Hollywood looks took him to a win in the NZ Derby and a NZ Cup placing.He never  quite lived up to the hype on the track ,probably because of soundness issues from an injury. He did very well at stud.

Oscar Watson then cashed in on the U Scott-Light Brigade cross, a key to his success being sticking to certain theories and not being afraid to invest in the best horses.

Rosewood responded by leaving  8 winners from 12 named foals, nine of them fillies, starting with Red Chase (Light Brigade) then Rosy Morn, who left the very good pacer, Bluff, Twig, Spring Chat  etc.

But of her two most famous daughters, Torlesse and Wee Doll, the former never raced and the latter might as well not have bothered. At stud it was a different story altogether

Wee Doll really hit it off with Light Brigade’s son Forward who had no U Scott blood and nothing of Gamble’s sire Jack Potts. Her first foal, topliner Avante, won 12 and the third, Adorato, won 7 when 10 was cup class. Soldato matched that. Others were also good.

However it was another Rosewood daughter, by U Scott, Torlesse,  who topped the family feats by producing Good Chase to Light Brigade ,a three quarter brother to Red Chase and the supreme three year old of his era trained and driven by Dennis Watson for his father. He matched  Gamble’s Derby win against a high class field. A half- brother set a Wrightson Sales record for a colt (a whole $9500) Oscar Watson having refused to take less than $2000 for the handsome black Good Chase himself as a yearling taking him home instead. Good judgement

Good Chase was leased to America at 4 as the boom pacer in the country and over there  he was also up with the very best. Before leaving NZ he served 20 mares and left 11 winners including stars like Hardcraft and Willie Win classic winners both of whom had success as sires. When he returned to Rosewood Stud it seemed another glorious chapter in the relatively short history of that establishment  would be written.

Already the Rosewood tribe, rated 232 among successful families in NZ when the statistics were compiled in the 1940’s had risen to 57 when a similar compilation was made in Australia in the 1970’s.

But it didn’t happen.

There were fewer stars by Good Chase than expected (though still several good ones, Armbro Wings, Kintyre, James Hadley etc) The stud also tried mating Good Chase with mares also from the Rosewood  tribe and it generally didn’t go well.

As a broodmare sire Good Chase claimed Starship, Millies Brother and Unique Blue Chip. Starship had a double cross of U Scott through Lordship and Morano of whom more later. Millie Chase’s dam was bred on the Light Brigade-U Scott cross also.

Even though the stud was still producing track stars like Watbro, Rosewood Dale etc retaining fillies and trying to make things work economically with a stallion when smaller studs were under pressure from  places like Nevele R became a struggle.

A number of smaller studs did not survive the change and Rosewood became one of them.

John (deceased)  and especially Dennis Watson remained close to racing, breeding and administration but no longer in a professional capacity

There were various explanations forthcoming for Good Chase’s anti climactic career some of them critical of  American methods (though nobody could explain why so many similarly trained stallions from there  are wildly successful at stud here ). In reality the oversimplified one was that a breeding era (Volomite over Scotland with Jack Potts and Globe Derby lines as sidelights)  was simply at an end and the industry was headed in new directions. Those directions required the major investment in higher grade imports and big breeding numbers to justify it. Smaller studs were out on a limb and the limb was being chopped off.

In a relatively short time the Rosewood family lapsed almost into obscurity. In 2018 not one horse from the family was offered at the sales- but it didn’t give in so easily.

Appropriately enough it was the potency  the Light Brigade /U Scott cross that had made it  years before which was to play a crucial role in the return of the Rosewood line.

One of Rosewood’s filly foals, Suntrap (Light Brigade), a good winner, was sold by the stud to Sir Roy McKenzie for $3000, a considerable sum in those days even though it was before Good Chase raced.  She was in foal to the brilliant if erratic U Scott horse Morano. Sir Roy was unimpressed with the foal and virtually gave it away.

Some years later, as Sunshine Boy, he became a sensation winning nine races in his first 12 starts. Roydon Lodge bred one other foal from Suntrap, who was a shy breeder, called Floral Barmin also by Morano by U Scott . Roydon Lodge then called time on  the Rosewood breed.

From there the Chase Auckland trail comes very much through the efforts of the Parkers. Floral Barmin went first to Puketutu Island stud but the Scotland line (it stood a grandson, Royal Scotchman) was fading rapidly. However  the Parkers took her over and found a way back.

They bred Floral Barmin to Tay Bridge. Talk about U Scott. Tay Bridge was by Lordship (who was from a U Scott mare) and from ace broodmare Black Watch who was by the U Scott horse Scottish Command -added to another U Scott strain in  Morano through Floral Barmin of course. Who said you could have too much of a good thing ?

From a New York Motoring mating the resulting foal, Border Coral, left  Danse de Feu who won four and was the dam of Dreaming Spires who was to play a more important role in the Rosewood comeback.

She is the dam of Hug the Wind a high class performer for All Stars and no doubt a good reason for Mark and Natalie to be encouraged to look at the yearling by the Parker-bred Auckland Reactor out of Hug the Wind’s half-sister Delica.

And so Chase Auckland came to Rolleston-and the Rosewood breed came home to the top rung of three year olds where Good Chase had ruled so long ago. And if Chase Auckland can equal his ancestor as a four year old there is a lot more to come.

The breeding maxim “never knock a horse until it is dead-and even then quietly ” never rang so true.

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JOSTLERS TO JEWELS WINNERS- ONE FAMILY’S LONG WAY BACK

Setting up matings for pacers these days seems a cinch. Either breed something to Bettor’s Delight or Art Major or select from the short list of top credentialled newcomers. With trotting matings ?- not so easy.

There are at times an almost bewildering list of horses to choose from, many of the top ones by frozen semen only and therefore expensive and to the casual observer trotting stallions seem to go in and out of fashion (and back in) rapidly. Most of them are from the USA; have pedigrees full of familiar names but such a host of “crosses” remembering them all is not easy.

Since  they all trace to  Volomite or Scotland way back when, the easiest way to appear an expert is to refer to the value of this ancient cross - and hope nobody starts asking questions!

There  used to be a lot of “Axworthy’s” in the mix but not now as a male line.

Developing top trotting breeding lines is a long and patient task -take a random look at the stud book matings and you will see what we mean- and finding the right formula tricky, especially now the days of Sundon have passed.

All the more remarkable then that the able Sundon mare Pocaro should leave three winners for breeder Trevor Casey in virtually two weeks-all by different sires.

Missandei, outstanding as a young trotter (Harness Jewels) , is by Angus Hall; Westeros. a later developer but with potential, by  Muscles Yankee; and Kings Landing, potentially the best of all, by the latter’s son Muscle Hill.

The unusual treble caps off  a great decade for what was once a fairly weak branch of a very strong  family.

It was  restored first by Dr Cliff Irvine and his then wife Faye, who tried a daring breeding cross and came up trumps ; and latterly Casey, with  long time breeding partner, Gary Allan, have given the family a big kick along with their many partnerships.

The family had produced the odd nice trotter over many years without beating drums before the Irvines went for a close up double cross  (always a tad risky temperament wise) putting the speedy but highly erratic U Scott mare, Ailsa Craig, whose raceday antics riled many a punter; to Cliff’s own Cup class horse Light Mood who was from the high class  U Scott mare, In the Mood, ironically a Billy Doyle- trained pacer.

The result, Kimmer, was the dam of Tussle, who after a slow start dominated the trotting of her era. Another of Kimmer’s foals, Sure Thing, was Gary Allan’s starting point in the family with a host of well performed “Galleons” to follow.

But Kimmer was also  a half-sister to Flying Ailsa a smart pacing mare who, mated to the Australian pacing star, Bay Foyle, left Flying Bay. Unraced like her daughter Game Flyer, the latter produced Trevor Casey’s first headline horse Africa, winner of nearly $250,000 trotting.Bay Foyle, incidentally, also  left the freakish NZ Trotting Stakes winner, Kotare Gunner from a pacing bred mare but as he was a Volomite line horse the blood was there.

Fortunately Trevor had taken the precaution of buying a lightly raced sister to Africa from breeders Ernie and Jenny Knight in Niamey. “Lightly raced” is an euphemism for a short and disastrous mid-winter campaign at Addington as a five year old. But Trevor’s thinking was  spot on in the breeding department and along with Ken Barron (who later opted out of the breeding side) and Allan set about proving the point.

Just as well. Africa never left a foal.

But Niamey has left star trotter Pocaro (bred on the same cross as Allegro Agitato, Martina H, Sundofthedon, Waterloo Sunset etc and raced by Trevor in partnership) as her second foal. Pocaro added to the family Harness Jewels record winning as a three year old.

Multi  Jewels placegetter and multiple G1 placed Springbank Sam was next; then  Australian soldier Sun of Anarchy, and Daenerys Targaryen, a three quarter sister to Missandei  who won the Redwood Classic for Trevor.More recently Sam Galleon has done well.

Now Pocaro in turn has a 100 per cent strike rate as a broodmare. Good business. Since Kings Landing she has had two fillies, Mercandante (Majestic Son) whose trials last season (3yo) were not encouraging to be fair, and Mexicali a yearling by Muscle Mass.

Tussle left some smart trotters but only one filly, who was the dam of De Gaulle. Horses like Heyzeal, The Widowmaker etc have come along in later generations but it has been hard work.

The family is distantly connected to that of  Trevor’s other current star, Winterfell, who is from Una Bromac. A first foal and only trotter from her dam there was no trotter  in 4 generations of her pedigree but she has left six of them herself so far including the brilliant Escapee.

She appeared to be the first tried trotter in her immediate family since Billy Bunter an Out to Win  duffer of 1976 who was tried trotting in poor company and never placed in 9 appearances. This branch of the NO 1 family was made famous by pacers like Christian Cullen. We doubt even Trevor or Gary could have got him to trot.

But you see what we mean about trotting’s mysterious ways. At the moment Trevor Casey seems the Pied Piper -but many including he will tell you -it is a difficult role.

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FULL BROTHERS and SISTERS AS G1 WINNERS-NOT UNHEARD OF BUT UNUSUAL-SOME STATS

Ultimate Machete and Ultimate Sniper being full brothers as Sires Stakes (G1) winners raises the usual talking points about full brothers, or brothers/sisters as racehorses.

The more cynical reaction goes back to the old sporting line about full brothers in any field of sport made famous by the 1930’s line “(Olympic champion) Johnny Weismuller’s brother couldn’t swim” in relation to the man who later played Tarzan in the movies. It was also once fashionable to pour scorn on the several brothers to Phar Lap all of moderate quality. One media wit claimed one of them, called Friday Night, could win this weekend -if he started at that time

Generally speaking people are wary of full brothers in racing. But they do work.

Mark does not often select yearlings who have been full brothers of his stars but he will make an exception if he is impressed with the horse as a type. That has paid off with Ultimate Sniper.

However as many would realise it is nothing new for All Stars.

It’s most famous example is the HAVE FAITH IN ME and ADORE ME duo at one stage the two fastest milers New Zealand had ever seen and homebred at Woodlands. That followed another “dream” combination of CHRISTEN ME and DREAM ABOUT ME both outstanding G1 winners an honour shared with HANDS CHRISTIAN (Easter Cup) to produce a trio whose feats would be hard to pass for any sire and broodmare. All the more remarkably their dam was a a daughter of Scuse Me the dam of the earlier two.

It was however first achieved away back in the late 1920’s when the regular matings of Wrack and NZ Cup winner Trix Pointer produced Wracker (NZ Derby, NZ Cup, Dominion Handicap) Arethusa (NZ Oaks) and Aldershot (NZ Derby)

The most notable track performing full brothers in the earlier days of racing here were Peter Bingen and Great Bingen. Peter Bingen won two NZ Cups and while Great Bingen never did it was generally put down to the cruel handicaps he had to suffer in that era.

Great Bingen was a superstar in the Lazarus /Johnny Globe/Christian Cullen tradition and his stake earnings record lasted for nearly two decades.

Later in the 1930’s came the classic winners and Cup class pacers Horse Power and Pacing Power both trained by Roy Berry and among the stars of the 1940’s were champion pacer Highland Fling and Dominion Trotting Handicap winner, Highland Kilt his full brother

Three American trotting brothers Angus Hall, Andover Hall and Conway Hall were all champions on the track (as well as off it) also set a high stand for full relations and American racing has a number of at least dual G1 equivalent winners.

In the 1970’s here, another great broodmare, Adio Star, produced multiple G1 winners including brothers Main Star and Bachelor Star who both won the NZ Derby. In the last decade of course this has become rather more common.

The probable reason is the dominance of Bettor’s Delight as a sire. He produces the best so the best mares are more likely to return to a dominating stallion where in other eras there was more variety of appeal. Dominating stallions account for most of the most successful full siblings and Bettor’s Delight leaving fillies as good as his colts is another huge plus.

A very interesting study into full brothers was conducted by the thoroughbred publication Bloodhorse some time ago. It studied 60 modern champion gallopers in the US. 16 had no full brothers/sisters, and the other 44 had 120 full siblings (fillies and colts) and, in total, 434 half siblings. The conclusions from the racing results of these were interesting.

For a start a higher percentage of full siblings won races compared to half siblings. 65.8 per cent won and included a remarkable stat - 23.8 per cent were stakes races.

The half siblings won just 60 per cent and only 13 per cent were stakes races. So full brothers and sisters were clear winners

The study noted that on average full brothers might actually share only 50 per cent of common genes- a conclusion many may find interesting.

There are of course a huge number of full brothers who have been poles apart on the racecourse and that is to be expected. But the US study did produce some very interesting talking point.

Don’t know what Johnny Weissmuller would have thought

HITTING FASHION FOR 6-SPANKEM

Last week we looked at Bettors Delight stars from a mare that was not from the fashionable “golden cross” of Bettor’s Delight-Direct Scooter line mares and SPANKEM, a likely star of the upcoming Cup week is from another less well known cross.

By Bettor’s Delight he is from the Holmes Hanover mare Crushem,from a Lordship mare Elizabeth Denover who, along with her dam, Miss Denover, can take a lot of the credit for reviving this branch of a once famous family.

It is a family which has hung by a thread yet at least one mare in each generation has always managed to save the day. Not really surprising. On raceday at one stage the females in the family easily outstarred the boys.

The first was Lady Antrim who battled around the smalls for a lot of her career though she had ability. Her dam was unknown and unregistered but by the influential Wildwood. Before that is all mystery. But at stud she left some useful sorts the best known being the NZ Derby winner, Croughton. He was known to be a horse of moods and had little success at stud though his daughters left good sorts like Swartz Pete and Terri Lee

It was her daughter Lady Milne, a first foal, who set the tone. She was astutely placed at times often running in and winning saddle trots for her various trainers, the last and most successful being Howie Smith then based at Addington. Yet she beat the American horse Josedale Grattan one day at Addington and Josedale Grattan would soon wipe the floor with the best Kiwis in the New Zealand Cup in genuine world record time

Lady Milne’s first foal, Trixie Milne, and two other high class pacers for the day in Bobby Brigade and Black Douglas who starred at several Addington carnivals, set the standard and on the female side it was Trixie Milne, winner of 7 who kept things going for a small family. She was even better when she went to stud leaving several good class pacers. But her best known was another filly, Ar Miss, who won the 1972 NZ Oaks with Jack Carmichael in the cart and 8 of 35 for Howie Smith, training her then for his brother Vic. Another brother, Ossie Smith, bred her.

Her most famous foal was also a filly, named Armalight, one of the greatest mares to have raced in New Zealand. She had been bred by Vic Smith but raced for his son Brent, and trained by him to win and unforgettable NZ Cup and a legendary NZ FFA. She was a star for the Good Time stallion Timely Knight while Ar Miss was by the less brilliant Armbro Del bred on the Tar Heel -Adios cross- then the dream US combination but not known as outright speed horses

At stud Armalight was not a prolific breeder early in her natural breeding career, not producing a live foal in four of her first 6 years of breeding.Having reached such a huge standard of course it was not likely she would be able to produce one as good as herself as her forebears always did. The family gradually eased out of the limelight as the filly race record wilted. The offspring were often solid just none had the Armalight touch breeders were looking for.

However her first foal, a dream mating with the champion pacer and sire Lordship, while not immediately successful, was in the long run. The filly foal, Chrisarma, was the granddam of Millwood Minisota, bred on owner Dave Carville’s favourite cross of Christian Cullen over Falcon Seelster. Her first foal was the Bettor’s Delight colt Ohoka Punter a genuine topliner who might have been much more but for having to come back from two tendon operations which he did to win Group One races in Australia, one of them for young Nathan Purdon. Horses very rarely come back from such adversity to prove themselves at the elite level like the Tony Herlihy- trained ( for Katie Carville ) Ohoka Punter,

Yet it was another of Ar Miss’s foals, Miss Denover (Boyden Hanover) who has kicked a goal with the Spankem line.

It didn’t look like it for quite a while. Her first three foals were unraced. But she left 12 in all and one of them, Elizabeth Denover, seemed to hit it off with Holmes Hanover the tough Albatross horse who won several stallion and broodmare sire championships and was the sheet anchor for Nevele R for years.

Among her foals was Bruzem who won the Superstars; there was Cruzem, Crushem and Lilly Laingtree up there with the best fillies of her time. But it was Crushem who was the factor in the breeding barn.

She left as her first foal (that trend with the family again), Thumpem, an outstanding performer and Sluggem, a smart if not brilliant former All Stars runner by Christian Cullen before Spankem made his entrance.

Two things of significance. Spankem is the first foal from a Bettor’s Delight mating with Crushem. Secondly, while there are good reasons, the Bettor’s Delight /Holmes Hanover cross has not set the breeding world alight like the Direct Scooter line mares did for him.

Maybe it was opportunity, a generational thing. Holmes Hanover and Bettor’s Delight are from different eras and Holmes Hanover’s best daughter Kate’s First was only able to access Bettor’s Delight later in her career and earlier in his. One of the results of the cross in Maverick was a smart performer.Still for all that the eldest Delights are now 16 and considering the titles won by the Albatross stallion and the number of mares he had at stud his mare’s impact with Bettor’s Delight has not matched that of the Direct Scooter line stallions (In the Pocket, Christian Cullen etc) even if the numbers were not a match.

Which just goes to show that breeding theories are fascinating but just that. Theories.

Spankem has all the skills to win a major race in the next 12 months. Nobody will really care when he does who sired his dam, but fans and connections of the Lady Antrim family which relies on slim lines for its greatest successes will know it has been a feat of note

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3x3 Equals a 10 for brothers Ultimate Machete and Sniper

The first surprise you get in the pedigree of these two stars is that they are Bettor’s Delight’s but not from Christian Cullen or In the Pocket mares, the so called “golden cross” In fact it would not be unfair to say that their damsire Armbro Operative wouldn’t increase the pace of many pulses on the pedigree page.

In fact as was pointed out when he died in Australia, he left 7 individual Oaks winners and it should not be forgotten that included Kept for Pleasure dam of the near champion Vincent.

In fact Armbro Operative is one of two surprising influences in the pedigree of these brothers, because Armbro Operative was from a mare by B G’s Bunny,a stallion written off when he was alive who is now recognised as a stallion of influence. These two stallions have helped restore the family of Rustic Maid once untouched as the most famous in New Zealand but lately-not so much.

In fact unlikely sources play crucial roles in these pedigrees.

A reminder that B G’s Bunny is the sire of the current broodmare legend, Scuse Me. He was a sensational performer in the Meadowlands Pace of his year winning his heat in a world record 1.54. Unfortunately he broke down irretrievably in that race. At stud he did ok by American standards (Precious Bunny) but when he came to NZ he was swamped by breeders serving a huge book of mares. It took its toll. He died in the off season and that was that. And it was not that good, to be fair. Scuse Me was a star but most of the rest of those foals were relative failures. But as we so often find, blood can move in mysterious ways. B G’s Bunny has had indelible presence in this country as the sire of the dam of Cam’s Card Shark the Cam Fella sire of Bettor’s Delight

Unusually perhaps these days Sniper/Machete are bred 3x3 to Cam’s Fella, grandsire of Bettor’s Delight and sire of Armbro Operative (who won the Little Brown Jug and, unusually, both the 3yo and all aged Breeder’s Crowns).

What is more unusual perhaps is that Cam Fella was himself bred 3x3 (to Most Happy Fella) and Most Happy Fella was also 3x3 -to Dale Frost the rough going but tough sire of Meadow Skipper whose damsire was the double gaited Raider at one stage the most expensive stallion ever imported to Australasia and a very successful one.

This is known as line breeding to many (though it used to be labelled in-breeding to critics of the practice) and was widely practiced in the earlier days of standardbred breeding when standardbreds weren’t exactly roaming the planet.

But it is the restoration of the Rustic Maid line that is a standout in this pedigree. She was a sensational broodmare leaving 17 foals 15 of them winners and at least six of them what would now be known as G1 winners. The best known was Chamfer winner of the 1950 NZ Cup but before then came three year old stars like Highland Scott (as mad as a hatter but the first foal left by U Scott and the best two year old of his year), Free Fight, Gallant Maid (dam of top pacer Crimea and Reality 5th dam of these two subjects); Free Fight and Slavonic, both top juveniles, Yare and Congruent. This family was hugely popular with Australian studs. Chamfer was Australia’s champion sire seven times and damsire of Stanley Rio. Free Fight, Yare, Highland Scott and Slavonic all stood there. As a result the male side of the pedigree declined in this country. A daughter of Rustic Maid left the Derby winner, Student Prince also a successul sire in Australia. The family was prolific over three decades.

Rustic Maid was bred in the purple being a daughter of the NZ Cup winner, Country Belle, a lovely pacing mare who also left the champion trotter Escapade, the granddam of a fair horse called Fallacy.

The family then did not lose its way but lost its lustre. That has now been restored by another unlikely factor, a mare called Mains Lady who ran nearly last in the NZ Oaks apparently on debut and never actually won a race her total earnings from 33 starts being $70. But she was by Light Brigade and managed to leave in Tuapeka Dream a very good winning mare by Lumber Dream who, like her dam trained by Ali Malcolmson reached the top intermediate rankings at Addington. She went one better at stud leaving Tuapeka Knight who wasn’t a bad sort, and Maureen’s Dream an unruly but sensationally fast mare by Lordship who was bred 3x4 to the great U Scott, a popular double up at the time.

Trained by Dan Cummings she nearly caused an upset in the Triple Crown Fillies Final in her debut at Addington and on Show Day 1985 in her debut for Richard Brosnan she was given her head and ran a then sensational 2.27.7 for 2000m in a supporting race less than 2 seconds slower than Preux Chevalier clocked in his great NZFFA win some hours later. It was the talk of the day until then.

Reality Check, the dam of the Ultimates, was her 10th named foal and a notable filly for Geoff Small. Though she won only four one was the Delightful Lady Classic, and two of the others PGG Wrightson Sales filly finals.

The only other branch of the Rustic Maid family present in the latest sale catalogues is that represented by former top filly Collectable. Once they would have been a dominant presence. It is good to see the old blood back in the winning frame.

courage Under Fire and Neil Pilcher-Turn It Up’s Last Tribute

Courage Under Fire is probably mostly well remembered for three things. A great two and three year old race career-maybe  the best ever in southern hemisphere- Smolda; and Australia’s only official white foal - which unfortunately died of colic not long after landing.

Now some time  after his own death he has Turn It Up, proving if If you want a super talented Courage Under Fire, to buy or train, Mark Purdon is your man.

He is already on record as buying the richest stake winner left by the “Mighty Mouse” -n Smolda of recent renown.

He  had too  a lot of success with Courage Under Fire’s close relation , Advance Attack. Then also Mark  trained arguably the sire’s two best fillies in New Zealand, Lancome and Secret Potion. And he  produced Sleepy Tripp to win a NZ Derby and an Easter Cup. Eric’s Legend was another, somewhat underrated, graduate from All Stars in recent years and the late Neil Pilcher sold several out of the stable at a profit. One of his, Alta Orlando, raced with Jim and Ann Gibbs, was a rather unruly customer as a young horse, but a  Sales Series Final winner for All Stars before going amiss.

While Courage himself was a lovely horse to handle, some of his stock, tough as they were one once on the track, could also be “hard cases”  to educate about the right things to do on the way there.

Before and after Smolda, Courage Under Fire stock in the Australian sale ring (Smolda was bought after being passed in) were more about courage than fire  This was partly because his early crops in Australia were small. Smolda, at present the richest APG sale graduate ever (heading Shakamaker who famously went down to Courage Under Fire vying for Australasian three year old honours) , was one of the more expensive Courage Under Fire’s  (he didn’t have a $50,000 auction bid for one of his stock in Australia until 2016) and a number of the higher priced ones were not successful. Carlas Pixel was one success story going for $20,000 and winning over $300,000 and Bulldozer was, beside Smolda,one of the few to earn more than $100,000 so far. There were a lot more to do it in New Zealand of course.

Turn It Up, promising enough to be nominated for the Inter Dominions and another Mark  bought for his old mate Pilcher who always liked to race with partners.

Turn It Up may well be the only foal from an imported American mare Courage Under Fire got to sire.

O Narutac Bella, a hard hitting, Meadowlands -performed  daughter of Western Ideal , was imported by Bruce Edward of Durham Lodge Victoria and his wife Vicki.  Tragedy struck Durham Park just before Turn It Up’s appearance at the 2016 Melbourne sale, many of the essential buildings being destroyed by fire which Bruce committed to rebuild.

Amazingly none of the horses were injured and all made the sale ring thanks to great assistance from  the harness community especially Alabar Farms

Another Durham Lodge product, Slingshot, was also purchased by Mark and races/raced at Addington on Thursday.

The Edwards have specialised in importing mares from America and Mark and Natalie have had success buying the progeny of American -bred mares in Australia among them  Border Control and Follow the Stars.

O Narutac Bella took a 1.51.4 time at the Meadowlands and earned over $200,000, An earlier foal, Perfect Sense won over $150,000 in Australia though to be fair nearly half was in one hit, a second in the APG final  as a juvenile filly.

Neither of O Narutac Bella’s first two dams were stars  but by Life Sign and Direct Scooter respectively, Courage Under Fire being a grandson of Direct Scooter also. The 3rd dam, Adored Yankee (Nero) was a smart performer The next two dams were unraced but then came the successful broodmare Gardenia Hanover. The family has left its share of top horses  and a lot of good ones. What is more it has high- powered stallion names right through the pedigree.

Courage Under Fire’s story was, for much of its span, a fairy tale. He won his first 24 races and with six Derby’s to his credit. While there were outstanding performers in his pedigree it was not fashionable and he had a much harder row to hoe than say, Christian Cullen, even if becoming the first New Zealand bred stallion to commence his career at the famed Nevele R stud. Any progress Courage made at stud after its initial burst of enthusiasm (600 mares in first four seasons) was of his own doing.

Nobody had taken much notice of  his family until the advent of a mare called Queen Wrack in the  mid 1930’s. She left the tough, talented mare Democrat who could post up to 30 starts in any one season and when mares had to race the boys on even terms went close to Cup class.

Her younger half-brother was Vedette the 1951 Inter Dominion champion at Addington. By Light Brigade  he was a reluctant pacer being driven regularly on the nearby roads to learn the gait and he also took a long time to reach his peak. He was noted for a sensational final sprint and with trainer  Maurice Holmes in the cart he often landed such a finish. Another foal, Scott Wrack, was also a high class performer and Queen Wrack would have been a strong hope to be a Broodmare of the Year had such a thing then existed.

Then Allan Holmes, owner of the brilliant but erratic Aksarben, a half-brother to yearling pacing sensation, Blue,  bred a half sister to Vedette, Venus,by another of his stallions, Gold Bar, to Aksarben and the first foal, Loving, became the dam of  Deborah Dundee.

Aksarben had an odd stud career being lightly patronised and of little overall account but siring the dams of  the champions Bonnie’s Chance and Mount Eden from small foal crops. Not bad.

A talented racemare who would have won the initial West Coast bonus but for the presence of a then unknown Our Mana, she was Loving’s only successful breeder and by Dundee Adios a little horse by Adios Vic from New Zealand champion, Robin Dundee, who had chased Cardigan Bay around New Zealand, Australia and the US, being in the race where he topped the million.

Deborah Dundee was a star at stud leaving exceptional two year old Adios Dream, whose grandson, Jesse Duke, a resident at All Stars, was the top priced sale colt of  his year. Another of her foals was Advance Debra who after only winning one race -but it was a $70,000 Sires Stakes feature- left Advance Attack, an outstanding two year old for All Stars and a durable campaigner in Australia. She finally achieved the Broodmare of the Year status for the family Queen Wrack might have made in her time.

Courage Under Fire did a fine job at stud considering regular shifts around Australia in his later years. In New Zealand, horses like Pembrook Benny, Choise Achiever, Franco Jamar, Flem n Em and Itz Cherry Ripe are just some of the horses who have pushed his lifetime earnings close to $100m from about 800 winners.

On the other hand some of his percentage returns were not up to the standard of the leading stallions of the time and his fortunes in terms of  getting the best mares tended to fluctuate which probably explains those percentages.

To show how stats can mislead, as his foal numbers dropped his percentages rose accordingly as he continued to leave good horses.

Neil Pilcher,the stallions greatest fan, raced Courage Under Fire’s greatest son. Who’s to say he won’t be looking down cheering on with Mark, Lee Pilcher and Jim and Ann Gibbs, while another one possibly again hits the high spots ?

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CRUZ BROMAC-DEAD HORSES DO TELL TALES!

When Cruz Bromac was foaled in November 2011 his sire Falcon Seelster was already dead at the ripe old age of 30. And Cruz Bromac was not from his last crop by any means. Frozen semen from Falcon Seelster is still available from Bromac Lodge seven years later. What is even more amazing is that while his total of services is now down to less than a dozen, at one stage several years after his passing his semen was applied to more than 50 mares in a season. Shows what reputation and having Bob McArdle as the enthusastic-some would say relentless-sales “team” can do. But Cruz Bromac will probably rate as his last Group One winner having taken out the Len Smith Mile at odds this year in 1.50.5.

That, and at least one other reason, had All Stars patron Danny Zavitsanos, a co-owner now of Cruz Bromac, eyeing the rich New Zealand Cup. If he wins that seven years after his sire died it will be a record of amazing proportions not having occurred for decades.

Falcon Seelster was able to come to Nevele R Stud in 1995 because of the closure of the famous Castleton Farm. A world record holding three year old himself (1.51 on a half mile track,away back in 1986, going faster on the same day than Nihilator did in the Little Brown Jug !) and winner of over $1m he had done ok in the US but had not set the world alight, hence his availability.

Partly that might have been because he was from the then rather unfashionable Adios line looking for a superstar stallion to rejuvenate it (which came in the form of Abercrombie) and also because his own sire Warm Breeze the fastest race miler in standardbred history (as a four year old in 1.53.2) did not have much success at stud even though he was syndicated by Hanover Shoe Farms.

Perhaps in turn that was because while his world record was a genuine effort it was set in California whose very fast mile times relied strongly on climatic conditions and were not rated as highly in the East in much the same way as Perth times used to be regarded in Sydney and Melbourne-or NZ come to that

It was no help that his time was set not in a top line race but in a $US15,000 FFA. He was raced by a colourful American, Lloyd Arnold who gave a then huge $US72,000 for him as a yearling for no reason apparent to anyone else. Arnold, a story in himself, ran big farms, owned race tracks in California, ran a big private stable and also had the world’s fastest racemare, Tender Loving Care in his barn at the same time as Warm Breeze. Horses were for racing for Lloyd.

Falcon Seelster came from a weaker line of a great family (Jessie Pepper); his first 3 dams were moderate performers by good sires (dam by Overtrick) and he was a grumpy customer at any time reportedly treated as “potentially dangerous” at Nevele R where there were incidents. A stud associate once recalled that when Wayne Francis inspected the stallion in America, he was knocked to the ground. Wayne must have taken that as an encouraging sign and certainly subsequent events backed his judgement. Not many Nevele R stallions were more successful than Falcon Seelster. Very few in fact.

He shuttled to the US until an EVA condition kept him here for four years before resuming a shuttle in 2003.His statistics look a lot better than his American reputation which was mixed, his stock overall still winning over $120m. However 8 in 1.50 and five millionaires were less impressive by his own standards. He was a hard hitting racehorse winning 36 of 51 starts and unplaced only three times. As with many of top American colts he was a busy 3yo having over 30 starts at that age.

He was outstanding in this country for three major reasons. He left champion pacers like Elsu ($2m) and Falcon Strike (a Perth-based Australian millionaire and Grand Circuit champion) and a host of other top winners being the leading sire in 2003. His daughters such as AllStar Blue Jean, (1.48.8 in the US some years ago), De Lovely etc. were very quick and his stock were outstanding over the mile as he had been He also sired horses especially suited to American racing, three of his 10 fastest horses being foaled in New Zealand. His best son, McArdle, named after Bob, has left some top performers in both America (McWicked) and New Zealand but the line is struggling to hang on. A son, Tintin In America, is the sire of New Zealand export mare sensation,Shartin, for much of the year to date the leading stake earner in America.

His other claim to breeding fame perhaps was Falcon Seelster mares nick with Christian Cullen that produced a long list of outstanding horses (Franco Nelson and Lauraella were notables). The fact that his frozen semen fee is still $2500 so long after he passed on shows how his blood was prized as an outcross. Bob McArdle’s daughter Lisa Fabri would still be pleased to hear from you !

Cruz Bromac’s maternal line is all about the arrival in New Zealand of the Albatross mare, Oh Please in foal to Camluck, the resulting filly being the cleverly named Classic Blue Jeans. Imported by Steve Jones she later passed into a partnership of Bob McCardle and Malcolm Shinn and her first foal (1999) Attorney General underlined the Falcon Seelster ability to generate mile speed.He became for some time the fastest pacer ever bred in New Zealand running 1.48.4 in the US. Here he had been a Franklin Cup winner but like so many of the breed, thrived on US mile racing. He later came back to NZ to stand at stud. Oh Please also left Falcon’s Blue Jean which broke 1.52 in the States.

Classic Blue Jeans ,not mated to Falcon Seelster for five years after Attorney General, left a number of successful offspring and her 2009 foal, Casanova Bromac (renamed Mink Stride) was the top colt at the 2011 National sale at $135,000. Unhappily it took him over 60 starts to win $25,000 in Australia. A full brother Cullen Bromac, after winning five on the trot in Australia was brought over to Addington for the PGG Wrightson Sales final in 2010 though he struggled in that company. Another, Crown Bromac, was G1 placed in Perth.

Classic Blue Jeans had an Adios strain through Camluck’s damsire, Striking Image, the first 1.55 two year old pacer in history and Shinn and McArdle added another when they sent her daughter Crown Defender to Life Sign to add some Abercrombie blood to the line. Life Sign set world heat and final records winning the 1993 Little Brown Jug and was most successful in Australia as an older horse. He added another Albatross cross to the breed. Crown Defender, sold to Australia in later years, had a mixed stud record but Cruz Bromac her 5th foal was very much her best.

The Bromac title was the Bob McArdle version (brothers McArdle) of partner Wayne Francis (Franco) in continuing an American modern tradition of including stud names -Hanover, Armbro (Armstrong brothers) for example- in horse titles. The tradition, at times confusing, seems to be fading as a brand name. “Maguire” and “Arden” are just two currently popular however if on a smaller scale.

Cruz Bromac was a surprise winner of the Len Smith Mile and it may well turn out he is not a true 3200m stayer (he has yet to be tried past 2700m) in a race whose distance proved somewhat frustrating for his sire even though Elsu nearly won the race. Perhaps the less testing Auckland Cup could be his best target. But how he adapts to NZ racing and how the All Stars magic wand waves over him makes for a very interesting spring.

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SMOOTH DEAL- ONE FOR THE AUSSIES

It could be seen as most appropriate that the top lot of the 2018 Yearling sales at $230,000 went to Australian owner, Jean Feiss.

Australians were responsible for the establishment of the foundation of Smooth Deal’s family long ago and it can safely be bet that he is the only standardbred sale topper with a Melbourne Cup winner in his pedigree. And of course, his co-trainer also hails from across the sea.

Smooth Deal traces to Verity rated the last time such an exercise was undertaken as the third most successful family founder in Australasia (up from no 20 when the NZ figures were first compiled). Verity was from an unregistered mare by the Melbourne Cup dual winner, The Barb, and was brought to New Zealand by her breeder John Buckland at the turn of the 20th century.

She was the result of the worst decision probably in the history of New Zealand breeding and made by none other than Robert Wilkin the founder of harness breeding here with his imports from America.

He brought three stallions in the early 1880’s but leased one out to Australia and later sold him. That horse, Vancleve, was easily the greatest sire of the three and Buckland, who had purchased him some years before, became the only Australian ever to be the leading owner in New Zealand- through the stock of Vancleve belting Kiwi horse’s heads in during spring raids on this country.

Fortunately he sold Verity to Harry Nicoll of Ashburton then just expanding his trotting interests. From the same owner Nicoll bought Durbar who won the 1908 NZ Cup for him.

According to the late Ted Lowe, a mine of information on early trotting in Canterbury, Verity was an outstanding racemare but a renowned road horse, who could go from Ashburton to Mt Somers faster than any other of the era and also travel longer distances to Peel Forest at consistently high road speeds.

At stud she founded a family too successful to go into detail here but by her death in 1921 it was already established and through the next two decades in particular would almost dominate many of the best age group races. One of the more recent of the top level pacers was Sapling,

The Smooth Deal branch reflects a recent resurgence in his part of the tree. Most would have expected a Bettor’s Delight sale topper to be from a Christian Cullen mare but Jean Feiss’s youngster goes one step back in being from a mare by CC’s sire In the Pocket who kick started a resurgence in track speed among New Zealand pacers in the 1990’s.

His dam, Linda Grace, has already left serious speed fillies, Linda Lovegrace and Gina Grace and her dam, Jessie Grace by the many times champion sire Vance Hanover, whose mares were not quite so successful at stud, has bucked the trend leaving Pacing Grace (8 wins and a sister to Linda Grace) whose son Pacing Major did a great job for All Stars as a two and three year old before being sold to America where he is racing well.

Pacing Grace has also left All U Need is Faith (like Pacing Major by Art Major) a hard hitter for All Stars now ready to trial and Grace Way the dam of Three Ways and Forgotten Highway, Three Ways now racing well in Australia. There are numerous other smart winners tracking to Jessie Grace in recent times when the family has been nurtured by Woodlands Stud, her owner.

Until then this was one of the lesser known branches of the Verity tribe but Jessie Grace’s dam, Ollies Chance, made her mark even if it was far from the lush fields of Woodlands.

She was raced and trained by Barney Tisdall of Dunback (no we haven’t been there either), often driven by Stu Allcock. Her best effort in a 7 win career was her third to standouts Gina Rosa and Michele Bromac in the DB (now Nevele R) Filly final.The genial Barney also trained the high class mare Idolmite.

Ollies Chance was by Colonel Kenton a 3x3 Volomite full brother to champion filly Golden Oriole, sold for then mouth watering “set you up for life” money by Murray Butt to America in the early 1960’s. A full sister, Mia Mocca, established a successful breed for another All Stars owner, Phil Creighton and his wife Margaret.

Ollie’s Chance’s untried dam Take a Chance, and her untried dam and moderate stud performer, Glen Russ, had the family fading but Glen Russ was from Sahara Queen a high class racemare for Charlie Isaccson and Mary Bourner at Addington in the days when there were no races for fillies and mares and they had to compete with the boys. Further back in the pedigree is Verity’s granddaugher Childe Pointer who beat the boys in the Sapling Stakes and then beat them again in the NZ Derby, so the age group potential has always been hovering.

What the future holds for Smooth Deal we are yet to know but if strains of “Aussie Aussie Aussie oi ! oi! oi!” are heard after he wins a big race it will be no surprise

**More breeding profiles below

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THEFIXER-ONE FOR THE BOYS 

When the Kennards wrote their name down for Thefixer as a yearling they weren't going just by what was in front of them. They had already had race and sales success with Sir Tosti Mach, his half brother by Mach Three. Sir Tosti Mach ran second to Alta Christiano  in a Sales Graduate race and ran 4th in a very strong final that year. He later was a durable racehorse in Australia. So a version by Bettor's Delight was certainly no option from hell

Seven wins from 12 starts later-plus a lot of patience as Mark and Natalie told them "Tosti" was a good horse in the making but needing time-showed that the trainers knew what they were talking about. Surprise, surprise.

But what might be termed a surprise is not that Thefixer is good but that he is male.

This is a family that has left useful colts and geldings and the odd case even better than that. But it is a filly family by any measure.

Thefixer's dam Tosti Girl was a high bar perfomer earning nearly $200,000 in age group events. And her dam, Delightful Paula by the brilliant track performer but disappointing stallion, Jaguar Spur-once so fashionable he  had a yearing passed in at $100,000 at Christchurch when the average was less than $20,000-connected spectacularly with Christian Cullen to produce another outstanding filly, Delightful Christian, who won over $200,000 and ran 1.52. Her record would have been even better had she not returned a controversial positive to arsenic after winning a Harness Jewels 2yo Filly and being disqualified-a penalty legal action could not shake.

Not only that but the next dam, Aristocratic, left another high class filly Paula Michelle who won the filly version of the Sires Stakes both at two and three. Colts anyone ? Why?

At that stage this branch of the family, nurtured for many years by the Harrison family of Methven, had moved north after Central Standardbreds bought Patrician from Tom Harrison. Brian Hughes and John Green had considerable success breeding most of the above stars from her descendants. 

We need hardly add that Patrician's dam, Undaunted, bred on the Light Brigade-U Scott cross more fashionable then than even the Bettor's Delight-Christian Cullen one today, left a very smart mare in the days before so many rich filly races in Ulight who won seven and granddam also of Local View. She did also leave a smart male pacer in Onassis.

Just to balance the books also,so to speak, Ulight left a top male pacer for the time in Deeside who went to Cup class ;and Local View left In to View one of the best pacers Tom Harrison bred who easily could have done.

The War Maid tribe this family belongs to is also responsible in another branch for smart  maies Walk Alone Stroll Away and Royal Walk and to her family also belongs the tough stayer Enterprise (23 wins;Auckland Cup) a grandson of Loyal Nurse. 

But it doesn't add up to a long list of outstanding colts over a long period. It certainly adds up to  a long list of outstanding fillies- and that may not be surprising.

Undaunted was a daughter of Loyal Nurse the last mare to win a New Zealand Cup (in 1949) until Armalight in 1982 up to and including which time you could always get good odds on a mare in the race. Every year Loyal Nurse got a mention from the pundits to underline how long it was since a mare had won and how little the chances of it being repeated.

Loyal Nurse was bred and raced by "old" Tom Harrison and was leased in her earlier career to Clarrie May while the Harrison boys were away at the war. Clarrie won an Auckland Cup and many other good races with her.

After his lease expired Harrison made the bold move to hand her to Colin Berkett to set for the NZ Cup. She had had 16 starts the previous season for May  without paying a dividend and Berkett was reluctant. Perhaps the rather bland Cup lineup without Highland Fling encouraged him.

He outdid All Stars in his Cup preparation giving Loyal Nurse, who had gained a reputation for not always giving of her best in a race, just one start before the Cup a dead-heat for fourth in the Hannon Memorial at Labour weekend that perked up his confidence considerably. He had tried to vary her work as much as possible and it seemed to work. Few could set a horse for a staying race better than Colin. On Cup day she was three wide for much of the way but beat Captain Sandy in a world record time for a mare at the distance and at 22/1. She was last in the Ollivier on the second day and never won again.

Her toughness came on both sides of her pedigree. Her sire Grattan Loyal produced  horses of legendary durability, even for the era, while her damsire Man O War was also the stuff of legend. It was from him that Loyal Nurse inherited her black colouring.

Bought out of Australia as an aged horse he won two Auckland Cups and numerous other races for Methven's Tom McGirr. A noted mudlark he left some outstanding pacing males (War Buoy; Marsceres etc) but as a broodmare sire he was prolific and actually topped the Broodmare sires list one season against the likes of Jack Potts etc having left only a fraction of the foals of his main rivals. Our first two minute racehorse, Tactician, was from one of his mares as were a number of stars of the era like Soangetaha, Trixie Milne the ancestress of Armalight etc etc. His offspring  had a particular liking for the Auckland Cup winning on several occasions.

Now it seems it is back to the boys to maintain the family profile. But they have a job in front of them to equal the feats of the girls.

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TAILOR MADE TO TROT -OR NOT >

A promising young trotter at All Stars currently is Tailored Elegance the first filly foal of Classic Armbro, an Armbro Invasion mare,by Muscle Hill one of the world's best sires of trotters.  And Classic Armbro of course is a daughter of the outstanding trotting mare Merinai. And therein lies a story.

In very few families does one horse define an era  but in this case it comes very close. When Merinai came along nobody thought of her immediate family as trotters. With good reason.

But Merinai, winner of 19 races from various stables (the last with Mark) changed all that. Included in her wins were the Rowe Memorial Gold Cup and the Dominion Handicap that made her the Horse of the Year in 1998 a rare feat for a trotter with only names like No Response and Sir Castleton before her. Once she was established her reputation there was a rush to mate her dam and her descendants to trotting sires and the result has been an ongoing succession of smart trotters (Miss Pegasus. Sunny Elegant, Wingsonhai etc)  from a  family pre-Merinai which was considered a pacing line- at least in this country.

Merinai was by Tuff Choice a pacing stallion by Windshield Wiper from a Bret Hanover mare -not a cross with much trotting interest. However further back there was a a lot of Volomite blood around and pacing sires from the family who  came to New Zealand-notably Flying Song-left high class trotting horses. Tuff Choice left several other other trotters in what was basically a lacklustre  stud career and after Merinai's success her dam Meriden, Blossom Lady's sire Farm Timer,  was mated with trotting stallions like Sundon and Chiola Hanover.

Meriden's dam Merinda was by the pacing star Lochgair who traced to the Ted Lowe family of Jesse B. It was  prized by her breeders because she was a pacer by a pacing stallion something very rare back in the 1880's. Merinda's  dam Thunderina, a useful pacing mare (7 wins), was never bred to a trotting sire (10 foals) by the Johnson family of Doyleston and was closely related to a pacing star in Single Direct and Inter Dominion champion. 

However there were a few trotting clues around the in the pedigree. Thunderina's sire, Thunder On, a thundering failure at stud here in spite of (or perhaps because of) being by U Scott's sire from the dam of Light Brigade whose daughters dominated the era. However Thunder On did leave a record breaking young trotter in Spark Gap and Thunderina's dam was by Medoro, a converted trotter imported by Noel Simpson from Italy to circumvent the then tough international finance rules applying to buying horses in America (basically you couldn't). Medoro sired  Single Medoro-a brother to Thunderina's dam, Singlena, a smart pacing mare - who dead heated in the NZ Derby so the emphasis on breeding pacers was understandable.

Medoro, whose dam, Alma Lee, was once a world record holding trotter over a mile (the first trotter driven by a female driver in 2.00) was a successful sire of broodmares too and some including Paulette and Princess Pat became valuable breeders. He was by the same sire as Dillon Hall a highly successful pacing stallion in this country.

The trotting seeds were there it could be said. But it took a long while for the crop to ripen!

(More features below)

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SHEZ ALL ROCK-A freak on and off the track

We don't see many fillies more brilliant than Shez All Rock but there are some cautionary tales for breeding theorists in her emergence as a racehorse of special abilities.

The first is for those who delve deep into pedigrees to explain a superstar performer. You don't want to delve too deeply into this filly's background. About two generations looks far enough. 

After all of her first three dams one (her dam Irish Loch) was unraced; the second,Lady Loch, had one start and finished 13th in a poor  maiden race and her third dam, Heather Lady did not win, her connections giving up after  8 starts. Her fourth dam, Heatherloch, did win 6 of 57 races but didn't win the first until she was a four year old and though under the expert guidance of George Noble, won most of her races at places like Kurow and Hutt Park -though she posted one win each at Addington and Alexandra Park.

Certainly the Heatherloch  family had its moments, one winning the Sapling Stakes (Black Loch) though he was not a factor in following seasons. The best known of her foals, Yankee Loch, was a trotter and therein lies another tale. She also left stout staying horses like Scottish Loch but brilliance was never something the family sought or was famous for. For more than 60 years-until now-nearly all the stars of the branch of this family were strong staying  trotters. 

Heatherloch was one of the few odd ones out and that is no surprise. Her dam Cloudy Horizon, a dual gaited performer, spent the first 11 years of her breeding career visiting owner Bill Lochhead's own stallion Super Note,  a trotting bred winner of two races. Bill, who also stood Super Note's damsire Sonoma Harvester at Mt Somers before shifting to Ashburton, had a strong input into this pedigree.

There were some sharp performers from this cross, which produced a foal every year for a decade. Almost all were  trotters, including the high class Supervise. But when Super Note's time had come Cloudy Horizon was sent to free legged pacer, Lumber Dream, and Heatherloch, a 12th and last  foal, was the result.

Cloudy Horizon was by Black Globe, a Globe Derby horse standing at Mataura Island  in Southland  whose career as a stallion was ill starred after a promising start. But, quite remarkably in view of that, he not only appears in the pedigree of Shez All Rock but also as the damsire of the famous Black Watch, whose family just keeps on keeping on.

There have always been solid performers from this breed but one with the brilliance of Shez All Rock is a novelty. It can be explained in two names, sire Rock n Roll Heaven and damsire Mach Three. The evidence is overwhelming  they have played the chief role in this production.

Shez All Rock is finely made, almost a thoroughbred in appearance In fact Paul Kenny   co-owner of Adore Me etc made the observation one night at Addington that he has bred thoroughbreds not as fine as this filly.

Rock n Roll Heaven was a sensational three year old in the United States being at that age the first horse in history to pace two sub 1.50 miles on the same day as he did to win the Little Brown Jug. He paced 11 sub 1.50 miles that year winning 16 of his 21 starts and was the Horse of the Year.

His stud career has not been as spectacular but there are good reasons.

Firstly, and this is relevant to this story, his best produce  have been fillies and his inability to so far leave a star colt has affected his reputation in the US. Secondly his connections, having established him in New York (originally Blue Chip Farms) , shifted him to New Jersey for the  2016 breeding season  for good reasons but poor results. He is now back in New York. In New Zealand horses like Heaven Rocks and Let It Ride have done well but his fillies are still strongest in demand. They also seem to have a more relaxed attitude than the males though  temperament is not perhaps always their strong point and the sire himself had some issues in that regard. Shez All Rock appears to have missed that gene.

Rock n Roll Heaven is not a majestic stallion in looks and in fact his owner recalls when he was shown him in his box as a yearling thought he did not compare in appearance with a second horse he was buying much more cheaply that did not amount to much. However Rock n Roll Heaven has enjoyed a stellar season especially in Australia. 

It would be fair to say some of his stock have not developed as well as  early promise indicated. Benecio (bred on the same cross as Shez All Rock) was one who showed early  though he has taken a 1.54 mile mark ;and another All Stars performer, MacKenzie an impressive two year old filly didn't quite live up to  expectations later though she has done well in America in winter racing winning major stakes.  Heaven Rocks and Let it Ride were both males who were later developers and that may be the key to his male stock. 

The speed of the stallion and the speed potency of Mach Three (sire of Somebeachsomewhere lest we forget) has certainly been a lethal combination to produce an amazing filly like this one. She has a well balanced pedigree internationally The earlier ancestors ? not so much.

Perhaps the speed aspect is best summed up by Mark when asked to compare Shez All Rock with Adore Me, comparing horses not being Mark's favourite thing.

"Both obviously terrific fillies. If there is a difference it might be you could train Adore Me up for any distance as her record shows. Once Shez All Rock got up to the longer distances I think she would be more vulnerable. But still very special"

Special indeed. And as far as this stamina favouring family is concerned, one out of the box.

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SWEET ON ME

Sweet on Me is a strikingly handsome filly of size and substance. Just as well. She carries the hopes of many for the future on her young shoulders.

By a champion racehorse, Sweet Lou from a champion mare Adore Me the critics will be expecting something special from this mating and  the principals of Woodlands Stud where Sweet Lou has kicked off his stud career with highly positive reviews will be as anxious as anybody.

Sweet on Me is likely to be one of the first performers by the new stallion from a Bettor's Delight mare. Given the number of Bettor's Delight mares there are in the country an early successful cross with Sweet Lou could be crucial. On paper and in theory it looks an ideal cross but as always in breeding the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Sweet Lou has, to the casual New Zealand breeding fan, a collection of no names in his pedigree. The total ability of those names produced one of the greats, a horse who won it all from two year old Breeder's Crown (world record of 1.49 that still stands) to a sensational older horse career which at one stage featured 10 successive wins all around  his career best 1.47. Wow !

Adore Me, first second or third in 33 of her 36 starts and the last mare raced in this country who could beat the males at any distance from one mile to 3200m was clearly a superstar member of a superstar family.

She did not race at two but Sweet Lou has already shown he can throw early speed so that should not be a concern. Most discussion will be around the Sweet Lou pedigree: the survival of the Adios sireline  and the ability of champion racemares to leave superstar pacers especially with a first foal.

Sweet Lou's sire Yankee Cruiser was what is called a "hard hitter" who won over $US$1m and was the son and grandson of two stars of the Abercrombie line, Artsplace and Artiscape . He was from a Jate Lobell mare. Jate Lobell, the 2yo and 3yo champion of his era and syndicated for a then remarkable $US12m was a successful sire but not a breed shaper. However as a sire of brood mares the son of No Nukes has been a huge success.

Sweet Lou is a big hope for the Adios line of sires which has hung by slight threads for years. Adios, not an especially well bred horse, was just a sensation as a sire notably of fillies and especially as his books of mares were tiny compared to modern times. However each generation continues to produce one Adios line horse to carry on the breed. The most potent, Abercrombie, was by a top racehorse but major siring disappointment in Silent Majority whose own sire Henry T Adios was rather scorned at stud partly because of his lack of scope -yet Abercrombie rejuvenated the line.

Sweet Lou traces to Adios in both paternal and maternal line. The maternal line is carried through Falcon's Future sire of his dam. A world champion two year old by time and performance, he was regarded as a disappointment at stud and the next sire in the pedigree, Nero, had his critics too. He could however produce juvenile speed (as his sons like  Clever Innocence could in NZ) and his less desirable traits, mainly around racing manners, certainly didn't appear with Sweet Lou. 

Adore Me's most potent Adios influence is through Bret Hanover the sire of B G's Bunny the sire of her dam Scuse Me, though she gets  lesser strains also through Bettor's Delight. His sire Cam's Card Shark was from B G's Bunny mare and Bettor's Delight's dam is by a son of Abercrombie.

It is all a complicated mixture and so far it is showing signs of paying big dividends. Lancewood Lizzie is one of the several top Bettor's Delight mares to visit Sweet Lou and Adore me returned to him and produced another filly. She has since been to Somebeachsomewhere.

DINA BOLT 

One of the last purchases for the late Neil Pilcher at the 2018 Yearling Sales, Dina Bolt has a long way to go to match some of Pilch's super buys but he is shaping well enough at this stage at All Stars.

He is now raced by Mark and Natalie with Peter Baken as a new partner. He is having little trouble matching the mile times being asked of the youngsters at this stage.

One of Pilch's contributions to the stable was that he was not bound by fashion and bought several good performers without notably commercial appeal to match some of the glamour buys for the stable.

Dina Bolt, while by sire of the decade Bettor's Delight, comes somewhat into that category at least on pedigree.

But his dam, Pullover Brown, was a great racetrack performer for Geoff Small and usually driven by Anthony Butt,  winning the New Zealand Oaks, the Victoria Oaks and the Moonee Valley Australian Oaks also a G1 race, as well as a Sires Stakes Final here.  Her brother Montecito was also successful and took a 1.49.4 time in the United States.

However Pullover Brown  has been somewhat disappointing at stud in more ways than one. She missed in three of her first five years and her best performer, Runaway Brown, while he has posted a fast time in Australia has been only a fair performer there before moving on to the US where he has gone 1.52.6.

She was largely kept to Volomite line stallions such as Christian Cullen, Mach Three and Elsu and Dina Bolt is only her second foal by Bettor's Delight.

That makes him line bred to Cam Fella, the grandsire of Bettor's Delight and sire of Armbro Operative the sire of Pullover Brown.   Both Armbro Operative and Cam's Card Shark were bred on a Cam Fella-B G Bunny cross.

Cam Fella is the greatest stallion descendant of Most Happy Fella  and twice the US champion stallion as well as twice Horse of the Year. His son Cam's Card Shark (sire of Bettor's Delight)   was also very successful. 

Cam Fella's success was a reminder that statistics can be misleading. He came from a weak branch of a top family which had left only 3 classic winners in 80 years yet triumphed above all that on his own ability and the potency of Most Happy Fella.   His son Cambest has a time trial of 1.46.2  which has been the world's fastest time for 20 years.

He was closely bred to Dale Frost the sire of Meadow Skipper and the line (Most Happy Fella one) has a strong presence in  Dina Bolt's pedigree. However he has a double cross of the Adios line stallion Abercrombie, sire of Art Major, and a strong influence for size and speed.

Armbro Operative was a Little Brown Jug winner who left over 1000 winners. He left a $1m winner Fleur De Lil in Australia but his best here was Awesome Armbro who later posted a fast time in America. But notably he is also the damsire of Ultimate Machete and bred on the same cross . 

Two interesting stallions closer to home in Dina Bolt's pedigree are Fitch II and Mercedes.  Fitch II was by Abercrombie  and a smart racehorse tho he had a mixed career here at a time when the country was flooded with American stallions.  His best son was Giovonetto a real star in his younger days in particular. Fitch II sired Dinavinetto ( 1 win from 43 starts but the dam of Pullover Brown and Montecito )

Her dam Precious Dina was by the Meadow Skipper stallion Mercedes and raced by Ted and Richard Hooper who stood that stallion at the former Nandina Stud in Auckland. Mercedes was a horse of most uncertain temperament whose stock were not highly regarded in some quarters but then he produced some topliners notably Luxury Liner the best stayer Roy and Barry Purdon trained and a super durable horse of the outstanding late 1980's era of  stars. Roy Purdon recalls that Luxury Liner in most situations was a sensible horse even though his sire could strike fear in the uninitiated even from behind stout fencing

Bettor's Delight has not been matched with many Armbro Operative mares but one, Bettor Be Gold raced out of All Stars. The best one out of the stable however has been Ultimate Machete and there is no greateer recommendation for this youngster than his record to date

PUR DAN

Pur Dan might seem at first glance an unusual name for a younger pacer but on closer inspection it is not hard to agree that the yearling sold for $62,500 at the last PGG sale as Big Art has quite an appropriate moniker.

Mark purchased him for Victorian owner, Danny Zavitsanos nearly all of whose horses have Dan in their name War Dan Delight being another example at All Stars.

Given the success Danny and Mark/Natalie have enjoyed  in recent times the name seems most appropriate.

There is another reason.  Pur Dan is the first live foal of the Mach Three mare  Collectable, a Group Three winner for All Stars in 2010 notable for the driving success of Nicole Molander who won the Delightful Lady Classic with her.  All Stars having its usual bevy of female stars that season and many drivers were rostered.

Oddly, though Collectable won her first three starts,she did not win again. However she ran some grand races including a 4th in the Caduceus Classic and 4th again in the Nevele R Fillies Final at three, the year of Carabella when everyone else was struggling to compete. That filly won 10 of her 11 starts and was second in the other to completely dominate the season.

Pur Dan is her first live foal after two dead foals and failing to get in foal at her other service

Her sire Mach Three has not struck up any special relationship to Art Major as yet though there is time for that to develop and the cross has produced some useful types. Collectable was the only foal from her dam Stage Talent by Mach Three, who has had a notable contribution to New Zealand breeding, especially with his ability to leave early speed and notably with fillies. Ironically his best in New Zealand, Auckland Reactor, did not race at two but he more than made up for it at three. 

Mach Three was among the notable descendants of the Direct Scooter (Volomite) pacing line to carry everything before it in New Zealand for a decade beginning with the importation of In the Pocket who left A string of top horses and whose great son Christian Cullen reshaped the breed before the Abbedale line was restored at the top by Bettor's Delight. 

The Direct Scooter line emerged from virtually nowhere his sire and grandsire not being memorable racehorses and the Volomite pacing line going out of fashion but the speed element of the line crossed nicely with the tougher but rougher Meadow Skipper paces

Mach Threes sire Matt's Scooter, a $US17,000 yearling purchase, was an extremely fast son of Direct Scooter who overcame some handicaps to establish his reputation. He was hard to handle at two but at three, though ineligible for both the Little Brown Jug and the Cane Pace he won over $2m including the Meadowlands Pace and the Messenger. He wasn't spared, running in 20 races and he had more at four winning 23 of his 30 starts. He was Harness Horse of the Year at 3 and Pacer of the Year at 4. Mach Three (1.49.2) was one of his fastest his fastest sons though Royal Mattjesty who also came Down Under, ran 1.48 and  change was faster. Mach Three's brother  Extreme Three also came to New Zealand while Matt's Scooter's son Mattuity, a smart pacer, did as well though he failed to build on the early promise of Ken Barron's smart youngster Mattnamara's Band.

The Bonnie Barbara branch of Collectable's family has left some very good sorts on the track though not many standouts in recent times. Her dam, Stage Talent was by Soky;s Atom from the Stampede mare Stage Queen.

This where the most notable performer of recent times comes into the picture as Stage Queen was a sister to the outstanding pacer, Defoe who won the Superstars Final (a bigger race then than now) and the Lion Red Mile at Alexandra Park for the Robert Dunn stable. He was from the Lumber Dream mare Secure Bel.

Pur Dan's family has several genuine speed influences over a tough old Kiwi source and with the speed capability of Art Major youngsters he could be a formidable performer-whatever his name is.

       
        
PREVIOUSLY:

MAJOR COO

Major Coo is raced by a tried and true Kennard syndicate who also race Tennyson Bromac and as his name suggests he tracks back to the prolific mare Coo Doo the dam of Palestine, Stereo Light and Barbara Del (dam of Ruthless) and 11 winners in all. Another of her foals, Anna Pavlova (unraced) left the young flier Derby who set a record for the time by qualifying for the NZ Cup after just 12 starts

This has been a very successful family over a long period but it has bred in large numbers and getting the right end of the strike rate is not a simple task. Some of the fillies have been indifferent breeders in terms of racing success. Major Coo looks to be one of the many  exceptions.

The reason there are so many foals from the breed is not hard to trace. Coo Doo (1960) who did not race, had a live foal every year from 1967 until 1984 and was nearly 25 years oid when she first missed. Eight of them were fillies.

Coo Doo was by Morano who brought two gifts to an old Mid Canterbury family. The first was the high speed which was reflected in his own career especially as a younger horse. The second was the influence by the great U Scott which was not quite so welcome. Some of his offspring among the colts could be temperamental if not downright difficult just as he was. Some of the Coo Doo tribe were somewhat problematical to handle especially among the colts as the late Jack Smolenski would have been able to testify. But Morano brought a lot more good than bad.

Major Coo traces to Entrancing (Mark Lobell) one of Coo Doo's least successful daughters. She had 46 starts for John Noble and never won a race. Her first foal (1986) by Holmes Hanover won four minor races and so did her last to race but the rest were unsuccessful including the Soky's Atom filly Infante Elana. Her sister, Conchita, also unraced, later left the smart pacer Tennis Ball, but the rest of her breeding career was ill fated.

Infante Elana has left Nonno Stride winner of $117,000 so far from 116 starts in Australia almost all in moderate company. Ruato Bay has had a similar career there with $94,000 won from 116 starts his biggest winning stake being $5000. However both horses have the innate toughness in their makeup which has made the Coo Doo breed so long lasting in the industry. Ruato Bay is a three parts brother to Major Coo.

Long Live Lana (In the Pocket)was the only filly from Infante Elana to win a race, winning twice at three for John McKenzie trained by Phil Burrows wining at Blenheim and Addington.

The influence of In the Pocket was a bonus for the filly and she got another boost when she was mated with Bettor's Delight for her first foal the smart Delightful Lana (1.55.9) who won 7 races from 15 starts in New Zealand. She was Group One placed from Cran Dalgety's stable when she beat all but Fight for Glory in the PGG Wrightons sales series for 3yo fillies.

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