Smooth Deal sensational in Young Guns

Bettor's Delight colt Smooth Deal was sensational in winning the first harness racing heat of the Breckon Farms Young Guns series at Alexandra Park tonight.

Driven aggressively by trainer Mark Purdon the showy two-year-old headed forward off the mobile gate and finally made the lead with a lap to go. You could tell at the 400m Purdon had a handful of horse and when his major opposition and favourite Perfect Stride paced roughly at the turn the race was all but over and Smooth Deal cruised to the line still full of running. 

The time for the mobile 1700m was 2-02.9 which equated to an impressive mile rate of 1-56.3 with the last 800m cut out in 56.5 and the final quarter in 27.1 seconds.

Smooth Deal is by champion sire Bettor's Delight from the In The Pocket mare Linda Grace. Bred and sold by Woodlands Stud, Smooth Deal was a $230,000 yearling at last year's Australasian Classic Sale selling as Lot 57 and purchased by Jean Feiss and what a judge Jean Feiss is proving to be.

Some years ago she went to six figures at an Australian sale – not usual then – to buy an Art Major colt. His name was Vincent. She topped the NZ sale two years ago paying over $200,000 for a colt known as Jesse Duke – a Group One winner as a two year old. The next year she came back and paid another top price $230,000 for the best colt in the sale, named Smooth Deal.

Bettor's Delight showed once again how dominant he is as a sire with the first and third placing sired by him and the second placing was by Woodlands Stud new stallion Sweet Lou, but from a Bettor's Delight mare.

Smooth Deal is the fourth foal and fourth winner (all by Bettor's Delight) from the In The Pocket mare Linda Grace, a super record for any mare and makes Linda Grace now, one of the best producing mares in New Zealand.

Her first foal is the Group One winning race mare Linda Lovegrace (1:51.4 placed with earnings of $265,433) who incidentally has a first foal entered in the inaugural National Standardbred Yearling Sale at Karaka, Auckland on the 18th of February 2019. Entered by Breckon Farms, this Somebeachsomewhere colt from Linda Lovegrace named Lovesomewhere, is sure to be a most sort after yearling.

Somebeachsomewhere (now deceased) is one of the world's greatest producing sires. With only seven crops racing in North America he is rewriting the record book with outstanding numbers. He is already the sire of over $110 million in progeny earnings in North America with average earnings per live foal of an astounding $139,441. Yes that is right, every foal born of racing age has an average earning record of $139,441, simply hard to believe. Somebeachsomewhere (by Mach Three) is the current leading sire of three-year-olds in North America with progeny earnings of $8,643,963. The next best producing sire is American Ideal with earnings of $4,314,519. Somebeachsomewhere has double the earnings of the next best producing sire.

Here is the list of leading three-year-old sires in North America for 2018 as at the 14th of December;                                                     

                         Starters
Sire                      in 2018            Money
====                     ========            =====
SOMEBEACHSOMEWHERE            107       $8,643,963
AMERICAN IDEAL                 84       $4,314,519
BETTORS DELIGHT                90       $3,838,824
SHADOW PLAY                    83       $3,628,952
SPORTSWRITER                  110       $3,409,798
MACH THREE                     84       $3,292,133
ART MAJOR                      78       $3,148,482
ROCK N ROLL HEAVEN             70       $2,861,999
WELL SAID                      75       $2,423,241
A ROCKNROLL DANCE              56       $2,005,508
ALWAYS A VIRGIN                59       $1,974,872
BETTERTHANCHEDDAR              35       $1,900,758
PET ROCK                       74       $1,885,744
ROCKIN IMAGE                   75       $1,821,298
DRAGON AGAIN                   60       $1,683,899
IM GORGEOUS                    15       $1,264,305
ROLL WITH JOE                  48       $1,175,035
SO SURREAL                     36       $1,045,256
MCARDLE                        43       $1,019,792
BIG BAD JOHN                   39         $916,737

For a full catalogue reference of this Somebeachsomewhere colt Lot 47 Lovesomewhere click here. 

Her second foal is another Group placed mare called Gina Grace who has raced in three Countries, New Zealand and Australia and now in North America. Gina Grace paced a winning time of 1:51.8 in Australia and has won $320,825 to date still racing in North America.

Her third foal is the gelding (He) Bettor Step Aside 1:54.5 ($59,000)

Harnesslink Media

Smooth Deal winning the first two-year-old race in New Zealand for 2018/2019

BRECKON FARMS YOUNG GUNS SERIES (HEAT 1) MOBILE PACE, $23,500, 2YO, 1700m    (Qualifying Time: 2-13.4)
	For 2-year-old pacers. Preferential Barrier Draw Based on: Sex (fillies drawn inside colts and geldings) using the track grid. Refer series conditions.
Video	Weather: Fine     Track: Fast