Weekly spotlight on breeding

Harnesslink 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.

Along the way Driscoll formed friendships with many of Europe’s leading owners and breeder.

Intercontinental success for Australian great

A Swedish-bred son of a ‘Maori’ girl born in Australia realising success in North America sounds like the beginning of some shrewd joke.

However Duncan McPherson, Fred Crews and their race partners were the ones laughing all the way to the bank when the first foal of Australia’s former top trotting mare, Maori Time (Pegasus Spur), won his three-year-old season opener at Oak Grove last Sunday.

Generallyspeaking S (Readly Xpress) was born in Sweden at the conclusion of Maori Time’s Elitloppet campaign having stayed in the Northern Hemisphere with the ultimate goal of producing elite level trotters.

Trained by Jonas Czernyson, the first product of the Australasian mile record holder was unplaced in two juvenile starts where his manners subsequently let him down in each of his two official races.

Having run a quiet qualifier in April finishing second of three in a mile rate of 2:00.4, Generallyspeaking S was overlooked by punters in his first official race for 2024 starting at the lucrative odds of $37-1.

Powering home with a 28.3 final quarter in cool conditions, the blue-blooded gelding secured a one and quarter-length victory in a 1:57.4 mile rate in what is well and truly a breeding success entrenched with international flavour.

McPherson who has a two-year-old full brother out of the mare along with a foal at foot by Fourth Dimension has confirmed that Maori Time will arrive back in Australia in and around June this year. She is in foal to exciting Swedish product, Calgary Games (Readly Xpress), a two time European G1 winner.

Pride of the south

One of South Australian harness racing’s more prolific families produced a notable achievement on Sunday afternoon at Launceston with the victories of Herakles (He’s Watching) and Lunchtime Lass (Downbytheseaside).

The Kirsty Butler trained pacers are both out of the Bettor’s Delight mare, Itz Gemmas Delight and were victorious in consecutive races no less with the pair both partnered by Rohan Hillier.

For Herakles, it was the third win from 14 starts for the four-year-old gelding while his younger sister Lunchtime Lass cleared maidens at just her second attempt.

The two Tasmanian pacers both trace to a fine South Australian producer in the unraced What’s Next mare, Draw Card, who despite being unraced produced the winners of 146 races from her 12 foals at stud, 10 of them race starters for nine individual winners.

Among them and their tail lines are a number of South Australian feature race winners.

Draw Card produced four winners of the now discontinued Crystal Stakes for juvenile pacers. Bettor Draw (Bettor’s Delight), Special Chance (Soky’s Atom), King Carey (Walton Hanover) and Gueneverelancelot (Our Sir Vancelot), the grand dam of Sunday afternoon’s winning duo, all won the feature which originated back in 1983.

One of the best branches of this family is from another feature race winning daughter of Draw Card in Queen Carey (Walton Hanover). Among her 18 victories were wins in the Hobert FFA and two Launceston FFA’s as well as a Victorian feature in the Blossom Lady. She was also second to Foreal in the 2005 Ladyship Mile at Harold Park at G1 level.

Among the three foals produced by Queen Carey were 29 race winner, Devendra (Bettor’s Delight), a winner of two Interdom Pacing heats in 2015 and his full sister, Benediction, a three time G3 winner among her 19 career victories. Benediction has produced the 11 race winner, Nyack (Sweet Lou), who last year won the G3 Globe Derby Final, a race won by his full brother Kohanah in 2020. The pair were also victorious in their respective finals of the 2YO Tas Sweepstakes!

Just Believe surpasses greats on the money list

Quietly going under the radar with the G1 National Trot victory by the eight-year-old Orlando Vici gelding, Just Believe, was the fact he has now surpassed Sundees Son and Lyell Creek for the record of most money won by a trotter in Australasia.

Just Believe has earned $1,402,953 of his $1,572,318 on either side of the Tasman while Lyell Creek earnt $1,347,503 of his $2,961,137 racing in Australasia. Mind you adjusted for inflation in 2024 ‘the freak’ would be sitting well above $2.1 million!

Wedged between them both is Sundees Son who remarkably never left New Zealand in amassing his $1,401,248 in prize money.

As incredible as Just Believe has been, he would need to virtually go unbeaten for another two seasons at elite level to eclipse the near $3million won by Lyell Creek which just seems absurd to even entertain, however the form he is currently in, it’s not without some possibility!

The eagles nest

The late Aldebaran Eagle continues to impress as a top-producing trotting stallion despite the fact he has just 53 live foals of racing age.

To date, he is the producer of 20 race winners, headlined by the Australian 2 & 3YO Filly of the Year, Rockinwithattitude (17 wins) and 16 race winner, Aldebaran Dexta.

This week he has produced two juvenile winners with El Tornado at Shepparton and picking up his second win in a row from just three starts, while debutante filly, Gatesys Gem was an easy winner at Cranbourne yesterday.

The two two-year-old winners have Aldebaran Eagle second equal with Father Patrick on the 2YO Trotting Stallion list for individual winners with only Volstead (3) ahead of him.

Of his nine individual winners this term across all ages, on Sunday at Bankstown, his four-year-old son Aquilla Castello picked up the second win of his career.

The outlier here is that of his 30 career starts, 36 of them have come as a pacer!

The Troy Williams trained pacer began his career with two unplaced starts as a juvenile square gaiter, even attempting to qualify for the Breeders Crown Final before switching gait in his three-year-old season.

His dam, Meredith Castle (Village Jasper) won seven races from her 38 starts exclusively as a pacer, and has been bred to a mixture of both pacing and trotting stallions for good results and with good reason also.

She is a half-sister to six time Group One winning superstar trotter, La Coocaracha (Safely Kept)!

Her first three foals by Art Major, Christian Cullen and Western Terror all won races as pacers. 22 between them in fact.

Then the experimental breeding if you could even call it that given the bloodlines produced the likes of Iona Grinner who started 210 times for 23 wins including two at Group Level. Ironically, he was a son of Grinfromeartoear!

Garland Greene, a son of Julius Ceaser, a pacing full brother to Christian Cullen was a 19-race winner exclusively as a trotter.

Since 2016, Meredith Castle has been bred exclusively to trotting stallions with Berriesandcherries (Crazed) a ten-race winner, Dream Inception (Dream Vacation) a six race winner while progeny of Bacardi Lindy and Wishing Stone have yet to materialise into trotting success at this stage.

In the 13 foals produced by Meredith Castle, not one of them is a full brother or sister with as eclectic of a range of stallion choices as you are like to see. This fails to account for the five stallions she missed to in various seasons at stud, all of whom were completely unique and would have only furthered the string of different siring choices.

If you ever needed proof that there are no rules in breeding, it’s a fun family to try and navigate!

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink