APG to unveil Palomino in a world first

“Eye-catching” is a description readily bandied about at harness racing yearling sales – but it’s undoubtedly most applicable to the world’s only registered pacing-bred Palomino, lot 136 at the upcoming APG Melbourne sale.

In a sea of Standardbred bay and brown, “Milky” as he’s known, is not only impossible to miss, he’s a stunning looking colt, with a gentle temperament to boot, and the product of 20 years of dedicated work by his breeder, Tasmanian based Tourello Standardbreds.

“He’s a little miracle! The result of three generations of breeding, and we believe he’s the first palomino colt ever offered at a Standardbred sale anywhere in the world,” studmaster Kerrie Hymers said.

“There’s been terrific interest in him, from Ireland, where there are a lot of Skewbald Standardbreds, but we even had a person from the USA in touch because they just don’t have any colored horses at all bred up there,” she said.

“That’s been one of the great things. He’s making people take notice and that means more people take an interest in the sport. Something different always brings people to the races – and this boy we think is quite promising.”

Lot 136 at the Neds APG Melbourne Sale on Sunday week (Arctic Cat – Rainbow Banner (Live Or Die) is officially listed as “roan”, and with no “palomino” box to tick, that’s as close as harness racing officials could come to an accurate description of the colt.

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Although there were some cream horses racing in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s, Kerrie said they had been bred out by the time she set her sights on putting some color back into the sport.

“We had a lot of interest last year with our first Skewbald through the sales – that was a first ever in Australia, and now we’ve gone on with this fellow,” Kerrie said.

“We’ve been breeding a long time and stand well-credentialled stallions in the traditional colors (Tourello’s roster includes Dawn Ofa New Day, Lincoln Royal and Tell All) but this has been a passion project,” she said.

“I guess for me it was a little girl’s dream to breed coloured and palomino horses and I’ve gone from dreaming about it to having paddocks full – we collect them like handbags!” she laughed.

Formerly based at Clunes, in Victoria, Tourello Standardbreds moved its operation to Tasmania in 2019. The journey towards breeding the striking-looking colt began when the stud purchased the Buckskin stallion A Bit of Bling from New Zealand in 2010 and bred him to a chestnut mare Van Goddess.

“The resulting colt was Arctic Cat, a cream horse. Then we bred Arctic Cat with a chestnut mare Rainbow Banner and that’s how we got the Palomino. We had to ensure that the foal would have a cream gene and two chestnut genes,” Kerrie said.

“It’s taken three generations, but we have finally got him!”

Although the stud retains colored broodmares, Kerrie said a lot of its standardbred skewbalds and buckskins had finished up in Ireland, rather than raced in Australia.

“We’ve had a lot of interest from the Irish market, but we’re hoping by putting him and our Skewbald filly (Lot 195 Dawn Ofa New Day – Calico Cat (Command A Dance) through the sales, someone here will buy them and keep them. Certainly if the colt goes on to win, there will be interest in breeding on from him.”

Kerrie said owners keen to breed non-traditional color standardbreds were a small but passionate sector.

“There is always some interest in A Bit of Bling and Arctic Cat who we stand. It is a limited market, so we have frozen their semen and they have been gelded and rehomed to show homes and done an amazing job.

“We’re very excited to see what interest this one brings. He’s one of a kind, but he does have breeding behind him and there will certainly be interest around him.”

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink