Weekly spotlight on breeding

Breeding authority Peter Wharton presents harness racing news on breeding from Australia, New Zealand and North America brought to you by Yabby Dam Farms & Racing!

Yabby Dam Racing, principal Pat Driscoll’s dream to breed and race world class trotters was born after seeing a billboard on the Champs Elysees in Paris advertising the famous trotting race the Prix d’Amerique. Driscoll attended the Prix d’Amerique and immediately a love affair with the trotter was formed.

Driscoll spent the next five years visiting world class trotting establishments in Europe before embarking on his own venture here in Australia where he has lead the charge in the significant advancement of Southern Hemisphere trotting.

Always Hot unbeaten three-year-old

The Always B Miki colt Always Hot, who made a clean sweep of the Vicbred Super Series last year, stretched his unbeaten winning sequence to five when he won the $30,000 VHRC Caduceus 3YO Classic at Melton.

Despite being absent for four months, Always Hot rated a slick 1:50.9 for 1720 metres from the mobile barrier. It was a fresh track record for a three-year-old, bettering the previous mark by 0.1.

It was Always Hot’s first success for the season and his mile in 1:50.9 was put up when he had nothing in his favour, drawing wide on the front row and racing without a trail from almost the outset. He is a very good youngster.

By the Western Hanover line horse Always B Miki, Always Hot is out of the Group 2 winner Our Celebrity (1:55.1), by the champion Canadian horse Mach Three. Our Celebrity left others in the Tasmanian Derby winner Celebrity Royal (1:53.1) and the Listed winner Our Rocker (1:53).

Our Celebrity was out of Celebrity Ball, by Presidential Ball from Larrakeyah Lady, a Windshield Wiper mare from the prized Trix Pointer family. 

Our Celebrity was a half-sister to the Listed winners Major Celebrity (1:53.3) and Starburst Girl (1:53.6), Runaway Celebrity (1:53.5) and the Live Or Die mare All The Magic, dam of boom pacer Ride High 1:49 ($289,427), the top flight racemare Rocknroll Magic 1:54.5 ($466,183) and The Eureka placegetter High Above 1:52.5 ($236,530).

Their dam, Celebrity Ball, was a half-sister to the Hunter Cup winner Safe And Sound, The Good Times, Gold Rocket, Massarua and others. The Trix Pointer family had a terrific influence on NZ and Australian breeding through several branches.

Hunter Cup hopeful

Max Delight (Bettor’s Delight), the brilliant winner of the Free-for-all at Menangle – Captain’s Knock and Don Hugo filled the placings behind him – is on target for a third tilt at the $250,000 A. G. Hunter Cup on Saturday night.

The nine-year-old gelding ran a close third to Leap To Fame in last year’s Cup and finished 12th in the 2023 edition. 

Max Delight has now won 32 races including four Group 1’s and more than $1.2 million in a career spanning eight seasons.

By a champion sire in Bettor’s Delight, Max Delight is out of a top flight racemare in Lady Euthenia ($461,285), dam also of the multiple Group 1 winning filly Major Delight 1:50.3 ($729,122).

Lady Euthenia had a record of 1:53.3 and was an Art Major mare from Reggae Miss, a Group 1 winner by Maple Lane’s Strike from Girl Next Door, by What’s Next.

Max Delight was bred by NSW horseman Peter Lewis, who also bred and raced Lady Euthenia.

Supa American’s Golden Guitar

Supa American (American Ideal), who won the Group 3 $51,800 Golden Guitar Final at Tamworth, after leading from the outset, has now won four of his six starts and is rated one of the brightest prospects in his class.

He ranks as a four-year-old brother by American Ideal to the brilliant but ill-fated Centenario 1:53.4 ($332,520) and a half-brother to a fine racemare in Tough Tilly 1:51.1 ($618,333).

Beninjurd, the dam of Supa American, was an Art Major mare from the Group 2 winner My Liberty Belle (1:57.5), by Fake Left from Sweet Liberty, and has proved a most successful broodmare. She is also the dam of the APG Gold Bullion winner Lightning Dan 1:51.7 ($205,847) and Somedan 1:55.9 ($217,355).

Beninjurd, who was unraced, was a sister to the Vicbred champion and dual Inter Dominion heat winner Philadelphia Man 1:52.6 ($559,135) and The Red Opal (1:58).

A Downbytheseaside half-brother to Supa American will be offered by Benstud Standardbreds as Lot 350 at the Nutrien Equine Melbourne Yearling Sale on April 13.

Sweetnikkilou is well bred

Sweetnikkilou (Sweet Lou), who has won at her last three outings at Melton and has graduated to an NR 90 mark, is regarded as one of the best young mares in Victoria.

She is a four-year-old sired by the Yankee Cruiser horse Sweet Lou, who topped the two and three-year-old sire’s list in Australia last season. She is out of the Group 3 winner Nikkibadwagon (1:53.2), a Shadow Play mare from Miss Potential, by Panorama from She’s Cool, a blind mare by Glen Almahurst.

This is the family which produced top horses the calibre of the dual Derby winner Menin Gate, Smooth Showgirl, the triple QBred Triad winner For Real Life, Kasey John, Nightn Georgia (Vic. Sapling) and others.

WA Nights of Thunder winner

One of the most capable young pacers racing in WA at present is Spicey Major (Art Major), who is quickly working his way to the top flight. He won a heat and the $50,000 final of the Nights Of Thunder at Gloucester Park this month.

Spicey Major has a background of blood to back up his claims to further promotion, being by Art Major from the crack racemare Ima Spicey Lombo 1:55.1 ($483,686), by Pacific Fella from Sexy Lexy Whitby, by Mystical Prince from the champion WA racemare Whitby’s Miss Penny.

Ima Spicey Lombo, who won five Group races, left earlier winners in Animal 1:55.6 (SA Southern Cross 2YO), Keayang Wasabi (1:53.9) and Dukkah (1:56.2). She was a half-sister to the exported Majorly Sexy (1:52.6), the Menangle winner Black Caprice (1:53.1), Itsallaboutex (1:55), Modern Whitby (1:55) and others.

The first three dams of Spicey Major have left 27 foals for 18 winners with 14 in 2:00.

Lost 40 metres….and won!

The highlight of the Melton meeting last Saturday was turned on by Keayang Chucky (Love You), who broke in the score-up and gave the leaders 40 metres start in the Dullard Trotters Cup.

With a lap to run he was still 30 metres from the leaders, and his chance could have been written off. But Keayang Chucky peeled four deep in the back straight, moved up within striking distance rounding the home turn and finally won by half a length. 

Keayang Chucky’s performance was an amazing one in every respect. He is a son of the Coktail Jet horse Love You, a top trotter himself and who was later a leading sire in Europe.

The Sun Goddess, the dam of Keayang Chucky, was a Sundon mare from Elgin Princess, by Paul Evander from Elgin Lady, by Tuft from the Light Brigade mare Tronso, a champion trotter of her day who won the Dominion Handicap and the Banks Peninsula Trotting Cup.

Bred by Pat Driscoll’s Yabby Dam Farms, Keayang Chucky ranks as a brother to the NZ Listed winner Dieu De L’Amour (Tr 1:57.4) and a half-brother to the dual Derby winner The Bohemian.

First two-year-old winners 

The first two-year-old races for the season were held at Pinjarra (WA) and both were won by progeny of colonial bred sires.

Cease To React, the winner of the colts and geldings’ division, is a son of the WA Pacing Cup winner Soho Tribeca (Llowalong Farms), while the fillies’ race was won by the Fly Like An Eagle filly Little China Girl.

Both were bred by Serpentine breeder Mike Howie’s Copper Lodge and sold at last year’s Australian Pacing Gold Perth sale.

by Peter Wharton, for Harnesslink