Plenty of Spark left in former satchel swinger

Three-year-old Flying Sparks (Rock n Roll Heaven), who made an impressive winning debut at Kilmore last Thursday, is a member of a line Melbourne bookmaker turned breeder/owner John Dorrington founded almost 40 years ago.

“I bought a filly called Rineen as an unraced two-year-old for $15,000 in the mid 1980s,” Dorrington said.

“She was out of the top racemare Purple Para, a good winner at the Melbourne Showgrounds for Ray Long.”

Rineen won nine races, including three at Moonee Valley. At stud she left five winners, including the What’s Next mare Pareen, a useful racemare and later a very good broodmare.

Pareen produced seven winners from eight live foals, with the best being the Group/listed winners Smokey Quartz and Come Cullect, who both earned more than $200,000 in stakes.

Another of Pareen’s offspring, Bay Torrent, a 1:56 Moonee Valley winner, ranks as the dam of the Melton and Menangle trotting winner Pharisee, the handy pacer Flaming Lucky and the unraced Receiver, dam of Flying Sparks.

Dorrington estimates that he has won more than 175 races, of which 106 were descendants of Rineen.

“The best two from this breed have been Smokey Quartz and Come Cullect. I won 26 races with Smokey Quartz,” he said.

Sweet Louise, Ben Chifley and the Victoria Youthful Stakes winner Joe Louis have been other winners raced by the nonagenarian.

“Sweet Louise would have been the best I’ve had but she broke down. She was going to be anything,” he said.

Runner-up in the $200,000 Breeders Crown final at three, Sweet Louise is now being bred from by Dorrington and is the only mare he owns. She is carrying a positive test to Art Major.

“I’ve been lucky enough to have won a race at every track in the state,” he said.

Besides Flying Sparks, Dorrington owns two yearling colts who he bought at the recent Nutrien Equine Melbourne sale; one an American Ideal colt out of the smart racemare Starburst Girl and the other a Volstead half-brother to the Inter Dominion trotting heat winner Ofortuna.

They are both being trained by respected Parwan mentor Philip Chircop, who puts the polish on Flying Sparks.

Born in Western Australia, Dorrington, a son of renowned horse breaker and trainer ‘Paddy’ Dorrington, first plied his trade as a bookmaker at Gloucester Park in 1959.

“In those days bookmakers could work at the trots or the gallops but not both. There were no dogs in Perth,” Dorrington said.

Later moving with his young family to Melbourne, Dorrington was granted a bookmarker’s licence by the then Victorian Trotting Control Board in 1966.

“There were over 100 bookmakers fielding at the Showgrounds. There were six rings of bookies. I started in the ledger and eventually got promoted to the coveted rails,” he said.

Dorrington worked at all three Melbourne trotting tracks – the Showgrounds, Moonee Valley and Melton. He also fielded at metropolitan galloping and dogs meetings and country trots meetings.

“I worked everywhere,” he laughed.

Dorrington carried the satchel for 57 years.

We Can Have It All, the winner of the inaugural $36,500 Young Guns Trotting Series 2YO Final at the premier meeting at Alexandra Park, Auckland, was bred by well known Victorian breeder Pat Driscoll.

The filly is by the first crop sire Volstead out of the multiple Group placegetter Duchess Ella ($126,934), a member of the same family as top trotters Temporale, Galleon’s Assassin, Thedonsson and Wilma’s Mate.

We Can Have It All is the first live foal from Duchess Ella.

Alabar Bloodstock flagship Art Major is the leading Victorian sire this season to May 23. His stock has earned $929,790, a lead of almost $300,000 over the second placed Rock N Roll Heaven.

Art Major is also the premier three-year-old sire, while Sweet Lou leads all two-year-old sires.

Majestic Son, another of the Alabar team, again heads the trotting sires’ list in all categories, while Bettor’s Delight and Sundon lead the pacing and trotting broodmare sire tables respectively.

Prominent Melbourne breeder-owner Jim Connelly had a red-letter week with his young trotters.

The homebred three-year-old Kyvalley Amanda started the ball rolling with a smart win at Kilmore, while Kyvalley Michael NZ finished brilliantly to win on debut at Ballarat.

To cap off a great weekend, Kyvalley Maven took out the $50,000 Vicbred Platinum Home Grown Classic for two-year-old colts and geldings at Melton.

by Peter Wharton, for Harness Racing Victoria