Broodmare band has Ray loving life!

Farming has been Ray Moore’s life for the past 30 years, but in semi-retirement he now lives and breathes for the breeding of his 14 harness racing broodmares.

Moore has leased out most of his substantial grain-growing property near West Wyalong in the Riverina of southern NSW, but his passion for breeding and bloodlines is now coming to the fore – and bringing results.

One of Moore’s broodmares, Loving You (Art Major) recently provided him with one of his biggest thrills in the sport through her four-year-old son, Brooklyn Bridge (Sweet Lou), trained by Ellen Bartley, in the $100,000 NSW Regional Championship at Wagga Wagga’s Riverina Paceway (May 19).

Bartley’s partner, reinsman Blake Jones was caught three wide early but drove a confident race to get Brooklyn Bridge to the front and from there controlled the race – sprinting home in 56.4 for an exhilarating victory.

It was just the tenth career start for Brooklyn Bridge and his seventh victory in a dream start to a horse’s career – with already $103,431 banked.

Moore is undoubtedly looking forward to an exciting ride, after a lifetime of involvement in harness racing.

“My mother was one of the Turner Family in Junee – a family heavily involved in harness racing then and still are today,” he said.

“She used to take us to trots meetings in Junee and I’ve always remembered those days fondly.”

In the 1960s and 70s, Junee and nearby Temora, were the hub of harness racing in Australia with horses of the calibre of Welcome Advice, Paleface Adios, Just Too Good and Adios Victor being owned and trained in the towns.

In fact, on March 23, 1974, just a month after the Inter Dominion Final at Gloucester Park in Perth (won by Hondo Grattan) those four horses (after returning from competing in WA) raced in a Free For All at Junee, won by another star of that era in Reichman.

Mr Inter Dominion himself, Brian Hancock, and his brother Richard, also called Junee home, as did three times Inter Dominion winner Our Sir Vancelot in those magnificent days of harness racing.

But despite the blue-blood harness racing talent in the area, Moore doesn’t have to think twice about his favorite racehorse.

“Most people will raise their eyebrows at my choice, but it is a horse called Barwen Bill (Tarport Bill),” he said.

“He was owned by some friends of mine at Wagga – Barry and Wendy Robinson. I used to travel up to Harold Park with them in the mid-1980s and Barwen Bill won 10 races at Harold Park, many with Brian Hancock in the gig. Many a time we came home with our pockets lined so I have a lot of sweet memories of old Bill.”

Moore has been a long and loyal servant of the sport, devoting many hours to his West Wyalong Harness Racing Club as well as representing the NSW Riverina Clubs on the NSW HRIG Forum.

Many of his spare hours are now devoted to caring for his mares, weanlings and to investigating suitable stallion matches for his mares – a labor of love that’s bringing results and presented him with Brooklyn Bridge.

Moore owned a mare called Daisey Chain and had bred a nice horse called Manhattan Island (six wins) from her. So, when a full sister to Daisey Chain in Loving You 1.55.7 was offered for sale, he parted with $15,000 to buy her.

The mare was in foal to Sweet Lou and on October 18, 2018, she foaled a colt, later to be named Brooklyn Bridge, after one of New York city’s major landmarks.

The gelding is bred on similar lines to the richest male of Sweet Lou’s progeny in the world, Spirit of St Louis (1.48.2 $1,152,976), who is also from an Art Major mare and then from an In The Pocket mare. Brooklyn Bridge’s granddam is by Christian Cullen, a son of In The Pocket.

Ray Moore’s favorite stallion:

“There’s so much to admire about Art Major and Bettors Delight but I will choose American Ideal. I personally haven’t had much luck in breeding to him but just love his pedigree. His granddam Three Diamonds and the dam of his sire, Leah Almahurst, were both champions on the track in the 1980s and, amazingly, are closely related. The third dam of Western Ideal and the third dam of American Ideal are full sisters, so I believe this strong inbreeding to champion females has been instrumental in the success of American Ideal as a racehorse and sire.”

Favourite Broodmare sire:

“That is a hands-down easy answer – Artsplace. I don’t think there is a stallion alive or deceased that compares to him.” (Author’s note – In North America, Artsplace is the leading broodmare sire ever, with progeny earnings of $494 million to Dec 31, 2022. He is $43 million ahead of second placed Albatross and $122 million ahead of Abercrombie.)

What’s one thing we could do to improve harness racing?

“In a nutshell – lift our standards and image in dress code and on track catering!”

by John Coffey, for Harnesslink