Addington debutant set to continue the Bagrie legacy

Taking well-bred horses to Addington is nothing new for the Bagrie family.

An industry involvement that spans 70 years and three generations of harness racing license holders will invariably lead to the odd good horse coming through the gates.

The Bagrie family however have had most of their success with a breed that has been developed in their own backyard and Friday night’s first starter, Valiant Angel (Rock N Roll Heaven), is no different.

Valiant Angel is out of their broodmare gem, Valiant Heart (Soky’s Atom – Margaret Fields), whose legacy extends well beyond the three generations of Bagrie trainers.

While Peter and his wife Anne are excited to line another daughter up from a family that has seen them travel to North America on numerous occasions and winning Group One races across the ditch, they do so with a heavy heart having put her mother to rest only a few weeks earlier.

“She was 26 and just got to the stage where she was having small strokes. It was causing her to lie down and be really uncomfortable. The blood clot would itself and she would get up and start eating grass again. When she started to have two or three close together, we had no option but to do the right thing,” said Bagrie.

The Soky’s Atom mare has been the grand producer of the Bagrie broodmare band for the last 15 years, but it could have played out very differently had it not been for the dedication to ensuring she was retained.

“She won four races here and we got an approach to sell her. We thought we could do with the sale but didn’t want to lose the mare. We had an agreement signed with the purchaser in Melbourne and our lawyer to return her to us at the end of her racing career. It was a good agreement for both parties as they had no ambition to breed from her,” he said.

Valiant Heart won 10 races across the ditch racing at an elite level that saw her contesting many of the Group One mare’s features. She was there for just over a year until suddenly, she wasn’t.

“Someone said to me one day, I see your mare won a race in America. I said she can’t have because she is racing in Australia,” said Bagrie.

“The new ownership group had sold her which they weren’t allowed to do. At that time Barry Kitto was the racehorse detective and he made some approaches to the Australian authorities on our behalf, but it was a dead end. The owners owed money all over Australia and we had no option but to sit back and watch her race in America.

“I called the bloke who trained her and told him the story and that we would like to get her back one day to breed from. The person that owned her was an elderly lady and she raced her the whole time, and thankfully never put her in a claiming race.

“He rang me back a couple of years later to tell me the mare was going to the Harrisburg horse sales and that I would probably get her for $50,000 if I was still keen. We ended up buying her at the auction and shipped her back home which wasn’t a cheap exercise and that’s where we ended up,” he said.

Bagrie estimates the exercise to have cost near on $100,000 by the time Valiant Heart returned to Ohoka. She arrived back the winner of 33 races with 51 placings including $433,729 in stakes and a mile rate of 1:50.6 which at the time made her one of the country’s elite broodmares.

The Bagrie family couldn’t wait to get her in foal but that was to be a challenge in itself.

“The first three years we couldn’t get her in foal which didn’t help. We sent her to Christian Cullen each of the first three years before going to Bettor’s Delight who was a young sire at the time, and we didn’t know much about him, but she produced a tiny little filly called Little Big Heart.

“Valiant Heart wasn’t a big mare by any means but this foal by Bettor’s Delight was just ridiculously small. She qualified at Ashburton, which was a big effort given her size, but it was as far as she could go. She is so small it’s touch and go whether you should be breeding from her, but we’ve qualified her third foal by Art Major who is a nice horse, and she is in foal to American Ideal,” he said.

They may have had some reservations in sending the mare back to Bettor’s Delight but by 2013 he was well established as the hottest commodity at stud, and it paid off in spades with the third foal from Valiant Heart producing a doozy by the name of Bettor’s Heart.

The mare was a much better size proportionately and was taken along quietly before being given her first race day start as a late three-year-old.

“Our breed doesn’t seem to come early, and we don’t seem to get them up as two-year-olds. She just came along quietly at her own pace and eventually got there. As she got more experience she just got better and better,” he said.

After winning two of her first three starts, the bonny mare found herself in Group One company at just her tenth race day start where she finished sixth behind Utmost Delight in the NZ Standardbred Breeders Stakes.

She continued to race with distinction and by her five-year-old season was giving Group One company a serious shake finishing second on two occasions behind elite Bettor’s Delight mares in Belle of Montana and Wainui Creek.

A decision was made to send the mare to Shane and Lauren Tritton and give her a shot at achieving a mile rate time like that of her mothers.

“It was 50/50 whether we would go over there but we knew how good she had been racing. She had been getting second and third to Mark and Barry’s good mares but nobody else really rated her. She always seemed to draw worse than them and do a little more work and be breathing down their neck at the finish.

“We just figured that we would take the gamble and head over there and hope for a decent draw and just have a crack,” he said.

“She had to run in the first three of the Robin Dundee which was her first start over there to get a spot in the Ladyship Mile. She finished second behind Mark’s good mare (Princess Tiffany) and was three wide from the 600m going 49 and change.”

After a stellar second first up on Aussie soil, she had earned her place in the Ladyship Mile, a race her mum had contested some 20 years earlier. She didn’t let them down and produced a career-best performance to get over the top of a stellar field in 1:49.7.

BETTOR’S HEART LADYSHIP MILE REPLAY

“To come back a week later and win the big one was unreal. To have Johnny fly over and drive her just made it really special,” said Bagrie.

In winning the Ladyship Mile the mare gave the family another career highlight in being invited to the Miracle Mile won by King Of Swing (Rocknroll Hanover). The ability she was showing from the mile hatched another plan which was to see the daughter of Valiant Heart follow in her mother’s footsteps yet again, traveling to North America to continue her race career.

She was trusted in the care of New Zealand ex-pat, Nifty Norman, and after showing some zip in her first two starts, had grandiose ideas of contesting some of North America’s major mare’s races. While it hasn’t quite eventuated that way, it hasn’t been a disaster either.

“She has never really regained the ability we saw down here. We thought she might go over there and get a really good record and be able to race against the top mares, but it hasn’t happened. She did start off with a couple of nice wins, but she did get really sick at one stage. Not long after she bled. So, she didn’t have a smooth run by any means, but she still tries hard, and we are looking to book her on a plane any time now,” he said.

When arriving back on these shores, the now eight-year-old mare will join her full sister and some close relatives in becoming the sixth generation of a breed that extends back to the very good race mare, Margaret Hall (Dillon Hall).

She was from the super producer in Tondeleyo (1930 – Wrack) who in turn was from the hall of fame tail lines of Estella Amos which need no introduction.

Peter’s father, Bill, has an incredible legacy of his in own not only with horses but farming and business which are detailed at length in the 1986 New Zealand Trotting Calendar article featured here.

The article chronicles the move from Southland to Christchurch in the 1950s which saw Bill Bagrie in need of a career change and deciding to get involved with horses. His first purchase would prove to be life-changing.

“Dad was always really keen on the horses and when he came up to Christchurch, he decided to get a horse, and knowing the man he was he would have read the stud book long and hard before making a decision. He came up with a breed and when to the sales and bought Margaret Hall.

“She was in foal to U Scott and produced Kinsella who was a wonderful race mare of her time, but the next foal was even better,” he said.

Orbiter (1959) won a New Brighton Cup and a Hannon Memorial en route to running second in the 1964 New Zealand Trotting Cup behind Cairnbrae. He was second to Lordship in the NZ FFA three days later and continued to feature prominently in our greatest races at the time running third in another NZ FFA and an Auckland Cup a year later.

“I was in high school when he was racing. We didn’t know much about what we were doing, and we enjoyed it. But when you get a few more years on you and you’ve been in the game a while you realise how extraordinary it was. Winning Group races were great, but in hindsight, we didn’t appreciate how special it was and how hard it is to get one good enough to be in races like he was,” he said.

The son of U Scott didn’t just put the Bagrie family on the map as horse people, his sale for $120,000 which adjusted for inflation would equate to $1.1 million in 2022, secured the family farm the Bagrie’s operate from in Ohoka today. It also took Bill and his wife Elaine on a trip to North America.

“Dad got a really good offer for him in America, and they bought him to race in the International Series at Yonkers which included the likes of Cardigan Bay and Caduceus. Dad went over with him and got him settled in, but he got crook and wasn’t well, but they still carried on and raced him. Dad would have scratched him, but the Americans liked doing things their own way.

“He had the one-mile race in New Zealand at Cambridge where he won the Waikato Flying Mile and went 1:58.4 which was the record at the time until Lordship broke it a couple of weeks later, but he never went under two minutes in America, yet he won $400,000 and raced until he was 14 without ever regaining the speed he used to have,” he said.

Other family highlights with the breed include the rare distinction of winning a race on all four days of the New Zealand Cup meeting with the same horse.

A young Peter Bagrie who had limited driving opportunities at the time was given the steer behind Gentle George over Cup Week in 1978. The son of Bachelor Hanover was out of a half-sister to the Orbiter in Orbette.

“She was a Hal Tryax mare and she never left anything else, but George was a top horse, he just had beautiful manners and was just one of those perfect racehorses who bounced away from a stand and would lead for fun when we wanted to, and they couldn’t catch him.

“A bloke down in Chertsey stood him at stud but he got appendicitis after two years serving mares and passed away,” he said.

Five years later, a different branch of the family was to provide Peter with his first win as a trainer.

Dalrae Star (Sir Dalrae – Gariselle) was the grandson of Gypsy Belle, the final foal from Tondeleyo which Bill had gone back and purchased some years later when the family had begun firing.

“He bought her at a sale because she was from the same family, but it was a weaker branch and didn’t fire much. Dad sold one of her daughters to Dave Carville who was looking to get into the industry, and she produced Genesis (Out To Win – Shelanne) as her first foal for him.

“I went up to Blenheim with my brother and law, Robert Dunn, as they had the two-day meeting on the grass. He didn’t do much good the first day and hopped and skipped around. We pulled his gear up the second day and he went really well, and I think he won six for me in the end,” he said.

There are a host of other good performers both past and present from the breed, too many to name in detail without writing an extended novel. It hasn’t been a factory line of champions however almost once in every generation, the cream will rise to the top and produce the Bagrie’s a horse worth getting out of bed for!

“I don’t know why it is. There have been a few ordinary ones along the way as well. They haven’t all been outstanding but every now and again there is a nice one that comes out of the breed and the good blood comes to the surface,” he said.

Valiant Angel makes her debut in the third race at Addington tonight (Friday) and may have some ways to go in living up to the family legacy. The daughter of Rock N Roll Heaven has drawn rather awkwardly in barrier seven in the eight-horse field, but given the recent loss of her remarkable dam, it will be a welcome tonic to see her at headquarters.

“It’s hard to know how she is going to go. She’s had a few trials and qualified ok. She came back this time in and had a couple of runs that weren’t that exciting, but she went a bit better a few weeks ago. She always feels like a nice enough filly at home but hasn’t really impressed us at the trials. We will see what happens, rather than take her back to the trials again we thought we would head to a different track at Addington. Johnny is able to drive her which is great so we will see how we get on.

The Bagrie’s also have a two-year-old from Valiant Heart by Art Major in work and showing some promising signs.

“She had to have chips taken out of her hocks which blew her away for quite a while but last time in she was going really well, but we decided to tip her out with our other two-year-olds. We weren’t in a hurry because we know the breed takes a bit more time. She’s looking a million dollars and is ready for the hobbles shortly,” he said.

Last season at the ripe old age of 25, Valiant Heart produced a cracking full brother to Bettor’s Heart, a sensational colt on type and one the family will no doubt be looking forward to getting in the cart.

“He’s a colt of real quality and probably the nicest colt she has had. We haven’t done anything with him yet as he wasn’t long weaned, but he has some presence to him that’s for sure.”

With Bettor’s Heart returning shortly and a handful of close relatives in foal to commercial stallions, the future is looking bright for Team Bagrie.

“We love it, it’s a family thing for us. We are all into it, and the kids all love it. You hope you’re going to make a bit of money along the way, but the satisfaction is getting that foal on the ground and weaning it, breaking it in, and going along to Rangiora or somewhere and winning a race. It’s just what we do, you know,” he said.

For complete Addington race entries, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink