Weekly spotlight on breeding

Breeding authority Peter Wharton presents all the harness racing news on breeding from Australia, New Zealand and North America every week brought to you by Garrard’s Horse & Hound.

Miracle Mile field 

Champion harness racing sires Bettor’s Delight and Captaintreacherous are the only stallions dually represented in the $1million Garrard’s Miracle Mile to be run at Menangle on Saturday night. 

Bettor’s Delight, the sire of Miracle Mile winners Spankem (2019), Have Faith In Me (2016) and Beautide (2013), ranks as the sire of Hurricane Harley and Braeview Kelly and the damsire of Mach Dan, while Captaintreacherous also has two runners in Catch A Wave and Captain Ravishing. 

Sweet Lou (Spirit Of St Louis), Somebeachsomewhere (Honolua Bay), Mach Three (Mach Dan) and Rock N Roll Heaven (Expensive Ego) each are singly represented. 

Christian Cullen, the 1998 Miracle Mile champion, figures as the damsire of Hurricane Harley and Catch A Wave. 

Hurricane Harley and Honolua Bay, who were both bred by Lauriston Bloodstock’s Bill and Anne Anderson, along with Catch A Wave and Mach Dan were all foaled in Victoria, Spirit Of St Louis and Braeview Kelly were born in NZ, while Captain Ravishing and Expensive Ego were foaled in NSW and Queensland respectively. 

Half of the eight-horse field in Spirit Of St Louis, Braeview Kelly, Mach Dan and Captain Ravishing are the second foals of their dams, Hurricane Harley and Catch A Wave are third foals, Honolua Bay (fourth) and Expensive Ego (fifth). 

Braeview Kelly and Mach Dan both belong to the prized Jessie Pepper family which includes earlier Miracle Mile winners in King Of Swing (2020, 2021 and 2022) and Master Mood (1986). 

Lady Antrim, who founded the family to which Honolua Bay belongs, was responsible for the 2019 winner Spankem, while The Brat, the ancestress of Expensive Ego, numbers the 1975 Miracle Mile winner Young Quinn among her members. 

Interestingly, all eight finalists boast at least one strain of Artsplace blood with Spirit Of St Louis, Captain Ravishing and Expensive Ego each carrying a double dose. 

Braeview Kelly in 1:49.5 

The NZ mare Braeview Kelly, who is Miracle Mile bound, is the latest member of the ‘1:50 Club’ in Australia. She recorded 1:49.5 when she was successful in the Group 1 $200,000 Queen Elizabeth II Mile at Menangle last Saturday. 

By the Cam’s Card Shark horse Bettor’s Delight, Braeview Kelly is a five-year-old from Idolise, by American Ideal (grandson of Western Hanover) from Imprint, by the Abercrombie horse Life Sign, a Little Brown Jug winner and later a leading sire in both America and Australia. 

Idolise, a winner herself, is also the dam of the NSW provincial winner Cut N Run (1:56.1) and the unbeaten Ohoka Connor, a winner at Addington recently. She is a sister to the WA Listed winner Idealindiamonds (1:56.2) and a half-sister to the NZ Southland Oaks and Premier Mares Championship winner Dibaba 1:51.6 ($282,754) and the Caduceus Club Classic winner Am Opulent 1:54.9 ($269,515), dam of the dual-gaited Bitcoin 1:52.6 ($171,024). 

 Braeview Kelly was bred by Katie Carville. 

NSW Oaks winner 

New South Wales’ premier race for three-year-old fillies, the $200,000 NSW Oaks, run at Menangle, proved a triumph for the Bettor’s Delight horse Betting Line as the sire of the winner Windy Hill Tara and runner-up Soho Seraphine. 

Windy Hill Tara, who was bred by Kevin Hayes, has won three of her six starts and $144,872 in stakes, a worthwhile return for the $21,000 paid for her at the Bathurst Gold Crown Yearling Sale in 2021. 

Windy Hill Tara is the first produce of the Artistic Fella mare Miss Artistic Tara, who won 12 races and $78,983 and took a record of 1:52.3. She was a half-sister to the smart NSW performers Yesnomaybeso 1:53.9 ($128,618) and Three Mugs In 1:52.9 ($109,536), being out of the Harold Park winner Taralinger, by D M Dilinger from Spirit Of Tara, by Southern Gentleman from Miss Jaykaye, by Hilarious Way. 

This is the family which produced the Edgar Tatlow and Shirley Turnbull Memorial winner Smooth Dixie, Renegade Mob (NSW Spring Championship), the Group 3 winner Morior Invictus, Glasscutterspirit and others. 

Lux Aeterna unbeaten two-year-old 

The Captaintreacherous filly Lux Aeterna, who may be tilted at the Bathurst Gold Tiara, won the $50,000 NSW Pink Bonnet at Menangle to mark her first Group success with a good deal to spare. 

She covered the mile in 1:54.3 – the fastest time put up by a two-year-old filly in Australia this season – and is unbeaten in two attempts. 

An unusually well developed youngster, possessing both speed and stamina, Lux Aeterna is a particularly ‘easy going’ juvenile and is the first Pink Bonnet winner trained by Rickie Alchin, who brought out the top trotter Tough Monarch. 

Lux Aeterna’s dam, The Arch Nemesis (1:55.4), won eight races and was a smart racemare in her own right, being by Jereme’s Jet from Reacquainted, who was unraced, and by champion sire Bettor’s Delight. 

Reacquainted was out of the grand producer Willing Greek, by Golden Greek (a free-legged son of Abercrombie) from Willing Whiz, by Armbro Whiz. 

Lux Aerterna, who was bred by Brooklyn Lodge and Alf La Spina, ranks as a sister to the Group 2 winner Captain Crusader 1:50.5 ($237,322) and a three-quarter sister to the Group 3 victor Crunch Time, who took a record of 1:49.6 in America. 

Well related three-year-old 

Alta Meteor (Art Major), who won the opening heat of the NSW Derby at Menangle, showed ability as a two-year-old last season when he finished third to Don’t Stop Dreaming in the NZ Sires Series Final. 

He opened his Australian three-year-old campaign on a winning note in the Derby heat and will be one of the leading fancies for Saturday’s $200,000 Final. 

He is a gelding by the Artsplace horse Art Major from the Group 3 winner Famous Alchemist 1:53 ($322,869), the best of whose several progeny has been the WA Listed winner Alta Louisa (1:57). 

Famous Alchemist, who won 16 races, was a Mach Three mare from Alcheringa, a Dream Away half-sister to the exported Pulse (1:50), the prolific Perth winner Extreme Prince 1:53.3 ($177,751) and to the dam of the promising Brisbane pacer Bonnie Prince Louis 1:52.3 (nine wins to date). 

Noted family of trotters 

Ima Destroyer (Im Stately), who won the Lyn McPherson Memorial Breed For Speed Bronze Series at Melton and has won her way back to an NR56 mark, is raced by her breeder Brent Thomson, and is a member of a prominent Victorian trotting family. 

A five-year-old, she was sired by the Majestic Son horse Im Stately, an outstanding colt trotter who won eight races as a two-year-old including three at Group level. From restricted stud chances he has sired such winners as Marengo Bay, a Melton winner and Group placegetter, the Vicbred heat winner Hide And Seek, Im Miss Royalty, Gee Cee Calder and others. 

Strike Destroyer, the dam of Ima Destroyer, was by Malhana Gindin, also a successful sire of trotters from Seek And Destroy, from Seek And Destroy, by Red Coach Glory, the eight-time premier trotting sire from Hanover Polly, by Jeb Hanover from Grand Polly, winner of 1983 NSW Trotters Derby. 

This has been a most successful family, as Nico Serrano, a half-sister to Strike Destroyer, won the Kapunda Trotters Cup and races at Melton and Gloucester Park. 

Promising sire’s absence a loss 

The results of the early two-year-old racing in Western Australia has further demonstrate of Rock N Roll World to breeders. 

With only a few representatives racing, he sired the Albany winners Maximum Rock and Worlds Above and four placegetters from 15 starters to date. 

In all, the Rocknroll Hanover horse has 83 foals from his initial WA crop. 

ASBA seek changes for Group racing for mares 

The Australian Standardbred Breeders Association has written to Harness Racing Australia seeking a review of stakes levels for group racing for mares. 

The comminique states that “to be fair to mares they require the same Group levels as has been allocated to the trotters, given the stakes levels of the top mares’ races in Australia.  

“A classic example of this was run on Hunter Cup night with the Ladyship Cup being downgraded to a Group 2 because of the new Group stakemoney policy.” 

ASBA points out that “bringing the Group status qualification back to a more logical level would encourage owners and trainers to keep their good quality mares racing rather than early retirement to the breeding barn or sale overseas.” 

It is felt that an upgrading of the Group levels for mares will result in an increase in their residual value and stem the steady export of quality mares to North America. 

by Peter Wharton, for Harnesslink