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.

Eye Keep Smiling in 1:49.3 Mile

Eye Keep Smiling, a grand looking Sweet Lou mare, is rated Australia’s top mare of the season, particularly after her success in the $200,000 Queen Elizabeth 11 Mile, one of the season’s major mare classics. 

It was Eye Keep Smiling’s seventh success for the season – the last six on end – and her mile in 1:49.3 was put up when she had nothing in her favour, drawing near the outside and having to race without cover from the start. She is a very smart mare.

Bred and raced by Success Stud, Eye Keep Smiling is out of the good racemare Oh Eye See (1:54.5), by the Cam Fella import Armbro Operative. Oh Eye See left others in the dual Listed winner Private Eye (1:50.3), Parfait Amour (1:59.9) and Yes Eye See.

Oh Eye See was from Grace Robinson, by Perfect Art (son of Artsplace) from the outstanding juvenile Jasmarilla 1:55.2 ($503,000), a Tarport Low mare from the grand producer Shu Fly and tracing eventually to the foundation mare Topsy.

Oh Eye See was a sister to the Seymour Nursery winner Two Eye See 1:52.4 ($306,703) and a half-sister to the NSW Breeders Challenge winners Eye See Diamonds 1:51.6 ($284,875) and Hardhitter (1:51.4).

The Topsy family had a terrific influence on NZ and Australian breeding through several branches.

Cool And Classy’s family background

Cool And Classy (Captaintreacherous), who won the $200,000 NSW Oaks, is a Queensland bred filly with an interesting and successful family background.

Bred by Kevin and Kay Seymour, of Brisbane, she was got by Captaintreacherous from Charming Allie 1:53.9 ($266,329), by the Grinfromeartoear horse Mr Feelgood. Cool And Classy took a record of 1:53.7 as a two-year-old at which age she ran up a tidy score of seven wins from eight starts for $232,648 in stakes.

Cool And Classy’s dam, Charming Allie, was a four-time Group winner by Mr Feelgood, an Inter Dominion and Little Brown Jug winner from the Miss Duvall family, and who proved a successful sire in Queensland.

Charming Allie was out of the lightly raced Charm Personified, a Perfect Art half-sister to the dual Oaks winner Cherry Cheer 1:56.7 ($278,372), dam of the Group 3 winner Cherish The Moment (1:53.1) and the Seymour Nursery victor Rhapsody In Red (1:56.8), who left the Triad winners Rani Major 1:55.7 ($246,434) and Red Charmer (1:55.2) and the Group 3 winners Raring To Go 1:56.1 ($217,988) and Rich Heritage (1:56.3).

Other winners from this family have been the millionaire pacer Colt Thirty One, Racy Roxy, Goldrush Girl (Queensland Oaks), Girl From Ipanema, Fame Assured, Good Lookin Girl, Free Thinker, Tay Tay and Leo’s Best, all Group 1 winners.

Penny Black star WA mare

The Sweet Lou mare Penny Black advanced strong claims to being the best female pacer in Western Australia today when she scored an authoritative win in the $50,000 WASBA Breeders Stakes at Gloucester Park.

Earlier in the season she won the Group 3 $50,000 The Lombardo and the Listed Race For Roses and from seven starts this year she has won four and been once placed for $99,646 in stakes.

Penny Black is by the Yankee Cruiser horse Sweet Lou from the unraced NZ bred mare Tessa Rocks, the dam of this year’s Nelson Cup winner Xlendi (1:56.2).

Tessa Rocks was by Rocknroll Hanover from Taylor Kate, by Artsplace from Black Maire (1:59.8), by Falcon Seelster from Corbie, by Vance Hanover from Black Watch, who founded a most successful branch of the prized Regina family.

Penny Black was bred by Martin Pierson, the executive officer of the NZ Sires’ Stakes Board.

Bred four winners on the night

Brisbane breeder-owner Kevin Seymour bred four winners on the same night at Albion Park last Friday.

The winning quartet were Call To Order (by American Ideal), Go The Red (by Gotta Go Cullect) and the half-brothers Firebolt (by Ohoka Punter) and Fire Raiser (by Bettor’s Delight).

Firebolt and Fire Raiser are both out of the Mach Three mare Fire One (1:53.7), a sister to the exported Burning 1:53.2 ($201,717) and a half-sister to the NZ Group 3 winner Ears Burning.

Call To Order and Go The Red both trace directly to the Tempest Hanover mare Call Girl. Call To Order, a winner of eight races, is from Charming Allie (1:53.9), by Mr Feelgood from Charm Personified, by Perfect Art from Charming Reminder, while Go The Red, also the winner of eight, is out of Go The Gold, by Mach Three from the top racemare Good Lookin Girl, by Perfect Art from Goldrush Girl, a Transport Chip half-sister to Charming Reminder.

Group 3 WA Championship winner by Alta Christiano

Alta Tribute, the winner of the $50,000 4&5YO Championship at Gloucester Park, is one of the last commercial crop of the Christian Cullen horse Alta Christiano, who died a few years ago when at the height of his stud career.

It was his third successive win. At his previous two starts he had won decisively in intermediate grade at Pinjarra. 

Alta Tribute has not done a great deal of racing, having averaged five starts a season. In two seasons of racing Alta Tribute has won seven races and has been once placed from 10 starts for $79,662.

By Alta Christiano, he is out of Harriet Price NZ, by Grinfromeartoear (an Artsplace horse from the Golden Miss family), from the NSW bred Miss C S D, by Christian Cullen from a fine racemare in Ladybird, by Panorama.

Alta Tribute is a brother to the prolific Perth winner High Price (1:55.1).

It is an interesting fact that there is a double strain of Christian Cullen blood in Alta Tribute’s pedigree, through both his sire Alta Christiano and grand-dam Miss C S D. 

Won NSW Trotters Oaks

Winner of the Tatlow Stakes as a two-year-old last season, Gatesys Gem (Aldebaran Eagle) downed the top three-year-olds in the $75,000 Haras Des Trotteurs NSW Trotters Oaks at Menangle, including a top ranking three-year-old in Tracy The Jet.

The Aldebaran Eagle filly has been a model of consistency in a brief career and has proved herself a young trotter of great ability. By Aldebaran Eagle, and one of the second last commercial crop of the American horse to race in Australia, Gatesys Gme is out of Gatesys Girl, by Conch Deville (grandson of Speedy Crown) from Glamor Lough, by Red Coach Glory from the Maori’s Idol mare Glamorean.

Gatesys Gem ranks as a half-sister to the Listed winner Gatesys Alley (1:59.5) and the Melton winner Gatesys Gift.

Pink Bonnet winner from top family

Quatro Moth, a Rock N Roll Heaven two-year-old filly and the winner of the $50,000 Pink Bonnet when having only her second start, is out of Flying Moth (1:53.1), a Group winner who is proving a successful broodmare.

Flying Moth is also the dam of Meteor Moth (1:55.4), winner of last year’s SA Derby, and his full sister Ideal Moth (1:54.4), a winner of three races this season.

Fling Moth was a half-sister to the Vicbred champion Lively Moth 1:53.1 ($232,585), being by Art Major from Moody Moth, by Classic Garry from Mystic Moth, by Jerry Adios from the Kudos mare Moon Moth, a smart racemare in the Melbourne Showgrounds era.

Quatro Moth was bred and is raced by Len and Irene Park, of Maryborough (Vic.).

by Peter Wharton, for Harnesslink