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.

Major Delight top three-year-old filly

There was never much doubt that Major Delight (Bettor’s Delight) was the season’s top rating three-year-old filly as she was the previous season at two years, and she duly confirmed her class by winning the $150,000 Breeders Crown at Melton.

Actually she was a class above her rivals, and, despite facing the breeze for most of the 2240 metres trip, she put up a mile rating of 1:54.9 on the rain dampened track.

Her sire, Bettor’s Delight, has now sired four Breeders Crown three-year-old filly champions – Bella’s Delight (2011), Cheer The Lady (2012) and The Pantheist (2020). 

Major Delight is out of the former top juvenile Lady Euthenia 1:53.3 ($461,285), by Art Major from Reggae Miss, also a smart racemare by Maple Lane’s Strike (a son of Strike Out) from Girl Next Door, by What’s Next from Lady Ex, by Express Byrd.

Lady Euthenia, a winner of five Group 1’s, left five winners including the Victoria Cup winner and Breeders Crown champion Max Delight 1:50 ($851,794), a brother to Major Delight.

Major Delight was bred and is raced by NSW horseman Peter Lewis, who developed and trained Lady Euthenia.

From Larrakeyah Lady family

The newly crowned Breeders Crown champions, the two-year-old filly Very Pretty (American Ideal) and the three-year-old colt Perfect Class (Captaintreacherous) both belong the same family.

Both bred and part-owned by Maryborough enthusiast Peter Gleeson trace to the Windshield Wiper mare Larrakeyah Lady, a smart racemare herself and who has been the ancestress of six Breeders Crown Final winners.

Very Pretty, who is unbeaten in five attempts, is out of Larrakeyah Lady’s best daughter in The Good Times (1:54.4), a Live Or Die mare who won 17 races including the Tatlow Memorial and Melton Mares Championship and $201,024 in stakes. 

Besides Very Pretty, The Good Times left the Bunbury Cup and Victorian Tontine winner Major Times 1:53.5 ($314,755) and the Melton winner Rock Classic (1:55.4).

Perfect Class, the winner of eight races and $252,230, is from Perfect Life (1:58), by Live Or 

Die from Secret Life (1:58.6), by Safely Kept from the Classic Garry mare Lifeline, a half-sister to The Good Times, dam of Very Pretty.

Perfect Life has proved a very successful broodmare. She is also the dam of the Perth Group winner Perfect Major 1:53.4 ($295,691), the SA Southern Cross victors That’s Perfect 1:52.1 ($167,078) and Perfect Look (1:53), the Listed winner Rogue Wave 1:52.3 ($140,385) and the Crown and Vicbred heat winner Sounds Perfect (1:55.7).

This family has consistently produced a number of good winners over the years including the A. G. Hunter Cup winner Safe And Sound, the sensational Ride High, Rocknroll Magic, the NSW Derby winner Major Secret, Beauty Secret, Starburst Girl, and so on.

Siring feat to Volstead

Rather a notable siring feat was credited to the Cantab Hall horse Volstead at the Breeders Crown meeting at Melton, when he sired the winners of both $100,000 Finals of the two-year-old trotting division in Val Thorens and Nordic Reign.

He was represented by five runners in the Finals.

Val Thorens, a good type of gelding, is out of the multiple Group 1 placegetter Courchevel 1:56.5 ($105,878) and the first of her produce. Courchevel ranked as a sister to the NZ Listed winner Thebestlove and a half-sister to the NZ Trotting Oaks winner Chevron Express (1:57), being by Love You from Kathy Galleon, by Sundon from the Chiola Hanover mare Galleon’s Dream, dam of the 2008 Inter Dominion Trotting champion Galleon’s Sunset.

Val Thorens was bred and is raced by Ballarat identity Pat Driscoll.

Nordic Reign, a winner of five of her nine starts, is from the unraced Sundon mare Tricia Powell whose dam, Ella Powell, a NZ Trotters Oaks winner, was a sister to the dual Breeders Crown champion Earl Of Mot 1:56.2 ($535,756) and a half-sister to the NSW Group 1 winner Amore Stride.

Bred by Erin Craven and a graduate of the APG Melbourne sale in 2022, Nordic Reign is a half-sister to the Victorian country cups winner Travel Bug 1:59.6 ($172,591).

Volstead was the first son of Cantab imported to Australia, and his first crop have been most impressive. They include the Vicbred champion Violet Stanford (who is unbeaten in five starts) Pinnie (QBred 2YO Trot Classic), Empire City (NZ Sires Stakes Classique) and the NZ Young Guns victor We Can Have It All.

Mares Classic to Simply Shaz

When she won the $150,000 Westral Mares Classic at Gloucester Park, the American Ideal mare Simply Shaz scored her second Group success, and she is entitled to be rated as the season’s top racemare in WA.

Earlier in the season Simply Shaz won the $75,000 Empress Stakes at Gloucester Park and from 40 starts she has won seven and been eight times placed for $190,748 in stakes.

Simply Shaz ranks as a sister to one of last season’s leading three-year-olds in Simply Sam (1:56.4) and a half-sister to the promising Always B Stunning (1:54.4), being a five-year-old by the Western Ideal horse American Ideal from Simply Stunning (1:56.5), an Art Major mare from Sabelle, by Tuapeka Knight from Birdie’s Belle, by Berry Hanover from the noted producer Birdie.

Sabelle, who was unraced, left eight winners including the WA Easter Cup winner Total Defiance 1:52.6 ($550,295) and the exported Lavros Odysseus (1:54.4).

This is the family which produced the NZ Derby winner Dillon Dean, the NZ 2YO of the Year Dillon Dale, the Victoria Cup winner Dillon Dave, Two Under,

Plutonium, and many others.

Bettor’s Delight, Majestic Son lead Breeders Crown sires

The Woodlands Stud flagship Bettor’s Delight is clearly the leader on the Breeders Crown sires’ list with 17 winners.

Next on the list are Art Major, Mach Three and Somebeachsomewhere on 11, followed by Captaintreacherous and Christian Cullen on seven and American Ideal five.

On the trotting side, Majestic Son has sired 12 Breeders Crown champions including eight two and three-year-olds.

Muscles Yankee (9), Sundon (8), Father Patrick (6) and Pegasus Spur (5) round out the top five.

Rockinwithattitude’s Crowning glory

When she won the $75,000 Breeders Crown Final at Melton, Rockinwithattitude (Aldebaran Eagle) scored her fifth Group success for the season and she is entitled to be ranked as the season’s top three-year-old trotting filly.

Earlier in the year she won the NSW Trotters Derby and Oaks and the Queensland Trotters Derby and Oaks and from 12 starts this season, she has won eight times and been twice placed for $203,940 in stakes.

Rockinwithattitude, by the deceased Muscle Hill horse Aldebaran Eagle and one of his second crop, is out of the handy racemare Rockin Shiraz (1:58.8) and the first of her produce to race.

Rockin Shiraz, a thrice Melton trotting winner, has a pure pacing breeding background and one which has been most successful. By Rock N Roll Heaven (son of Rocknroll Hanover), she is out of the Grinfromeartoear mare Elite Shiraz, whose dam, Cindy Shiraz, was a half-sister to the dams of the Victoria Derby winner Tanabi Bromac 1:55.8 ($465,928) and the VHRC 3YO Cup winner Singasongasixpence.

There is a hint of square-gaiting blood in the back removes of Rockinwithattitude’s pedigree through her seventh dam Debate, a daughter of the twice leading NZ trotting sire Court Martial.

Art Major influence at Menangle

The Alabar Bloodstock flagship sire Art Major exerted a profound influence at Menangle last weekend, featuring in the pedigrees of five of the eight winners.

He sired a winning treble in the Inter Dominion aspirant Hi Manameisjeff, comeback pacer Denis William and I’m In Trouble and figured as the damsire of Brooklyn Bridge (by Sweet Lou) and Dance And Deliver (by A Rocknroll Dance).

by Peter Wharton, for Harnesslink