Hearn happy to keep hold of The Pearl winner

Goulburn Valley horsewoman Jane Hearn has good reason to feel pleased that she retained the quaintly named Dun Me Up Francy (Four Starzzz Shark) after offering her at the Nutrien Equine Melbourne Yearling Sale in 2021.

At Melton Entertainment Park last Saturday, the Four Starzzz Shark harness racing four-year-old sprinted brilliantly on the passing lane to notch her fourth and most important success in the inaugural Angelique Club-sponsored The Pearl Final.

“We set a price that we were comfortable with. She was passed in at $15,000,” Jane stated.

“We were quite happy to go home with her.”

A few months after the sale Dun Me Up Francy’s dam Frances Lombo died as the result of a ruptured uterine artery when heavily in foal in foal to Betting Line.

“We were really happy that we had retained Dun Me Up Francy because we didn’t have a filly out of that line. She is the last foal out of Frances Lombo,” Hearn, who conducts Dunroamin Standardbreds with partner John Nalder, said.

Frances Lombo was bought by Hearn and Nalder from an online clearance sale of stock owned by champion Perth breeder Mick Lombardo.

“We actually hadn’t seen her, we bought her secondarily. We bought Lombo Brite Eyes at the same sale,” Jane stated.

“John was looking through the catalogue and he told me this mare (Frances Lombo) looked a really nice buy as she was from an American family, so we purchased her.”

The couple have had a close association with Dun Me Up Francy’s trainer Ellen Jones for a decade or so.

“Ellen worked for us with the yearling prep for a couple of years after she left school,” Jane said. “She prepped Rollnlombo, a half-sister to Dun Me Up Francy and is now breeding from her.”

Hearn, a qualified reproductive equine technician, breeds from a few mares and looks after a number of outside mares on Helen Head’s former Grenada Park at Congupna, near Shepparton.

She recently began working with the foaling team at the thoroughbred breeding conglomerate Yulong Stud at Nagambie.

“We foaled down 380 mares for the southern hemisphere and we are just finishing the northern hemisphere drop of around 60 mares,” Jane said.

“We will still run Dunroamin Standardbreds but we will probably scale back and concentrate on breeding and producing our own horses for the sale as well as racing.”

Dunroamin Standardbreds will offer four superbly bred colts at the Nutrien Equine Melbourne Yearling Sale at Oaklands Junction on April 13 and 14.

The draft includes a colt by Stay Hungry from the former smart racemare Bettor Downunder (Lot 198), a Tall Dark Stranger half-brother to Common Courtesy (Lot 243) and a stunning Sweet Lou colt from Topsies Delight (Lot 348).

Ararat breeder Lyndon Turner landed a double at Maryborough with the two-year-old debutant Artist (He’s Watching-Pastels) and Wichita Dance (A Rocknroll Dance-She’s In Vogue)

Dieing Art, an Art Major mare bred by Rochester couple Mark and Sue-Ellen Thompson, made a clean sweep of the Harness Breeders NSW Go Girlfriend Series at Menangle

Ian Kitchin, the former secretary of the Breeders Association, is the joint breeder and owner of promising three-year-old filly Writteninthesky (Sportswriter-Wya Mya Macray), a runaway winner at Yarra Valley when having only her second start

by Peter Wharton, for Harness Racing Victoria