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.

Mister Smartee leading four-year-old

When he won $125,000 4YO Classic at Gloucester Park last Friday Mister Smartee (Always B Miki) proved himself the top Western Australian four-year-old of the current season.

It was his ninth success from 10th success from 11 starts – he ran second to Minstrel in the WA Pacing Cup in the other – and he outsprinted the best four-year-olds in the Group 2 after enjoying a sweet passage.

From 18 lifetime starts Mister Smartee has now won 15 and been once placed for $511,986 in stakes.

Mister Smartee is by the Always A Virgin horse Always B Miki from the unraced Luna Danza and is her first produce to win. Luna Danza was by the Artsplace horse Stonebridge Regal from a fine racemare in Lento 1:56.4 ($272,110), dam of the Nevele R Filly Series winner Whanau and others in Strauss, Vivaldi (1:53.8) and Future Assets.

This is a long established New Zealand family and an earlier top pacer belonging to it was Vintage Cheddar, who won a string of country cups.

Mister Smartee was bred by the Famularo family’s Dancingonmoonlight Farm near Christchurch.

Crack colt by Sportswriter

A two-year-old to take a high ranking in Victoria was Hesitate, one of the last crop of Sportswriter, who is now at stud in Canada.

He won six two-year-old races and was three times placed for $77,823. He won the Victoria Youthful Stakes at Melton last Saturday and earlier in the season the Tatlow Memorial and Premiere Stakes.

Bred and part-owned by Damien Burns, who also trains him, Hesitate is out of Village Tango (1:56.9), by Village Jasper from Unique Tango, by The Unicorn (son of Vance Hanover) and tracing back to the noted foundation mare Pride Of Lincoln.

Captain’s Knock on top

Captain’s Knock, a NSW Breeders Challenge winner and recently at heat winner of the Inter Dominion, is one of the best four-year-olds in NSW at present.

He has won $511,976 in stakes, a significant return for the $36,000 paid for him as a yearling. By the Somebeachsomewhere horse Captaintreacherous, he is out of the NZ bred mare Scarlett Finn, by In The Pocket from Went Motoring, by New York Motoring from Went Overboard, by Butler B G from Zenover.

This is the family which produced the Inter Dominion champion Elsu, and a string of top ranking pacers tracing back to Bell Aurore. 

Captain’s Knock was bred by NSW enthusiast John Rutter.

Inter Dominion winning line

The Inter Dominion Trotting heat winner The Locomotive (Muscle Mass) is a son of the grand Safely Kept mare La Coocaracha, who won two heats of the Inter Dominion and finished runner-up in the Final at Harold Park in 2002.

The Locomotive’s heat win was his fifth success on end.

“His best attribute is rolling along. I didn’t want to knock him around and wanted to have as soft run as possible,” his trainer-driver Brad Hewitt said.

The Muscle Mass entire won seven races as a two-year-old and six at three. He has now won 19 races and been five times placed from 32 starts for $386,958.

Bred by Pat Driscoll’s Yabby Dam Farms, The Locomotive ranks as a three-quarter brother to the multiple Group 1 winner Dance Craze and La Grange and a half-brother to the Breeders Crown winner Reina Danzante and the Group winner Mataderos.

Elusive top SA three-year-old

The Million Dollar Cam filly Elusive firmly established herself as the top South Australian three-year-old of the season when she won the $35,000 Southern Cross at Globe Derby Park.

Elusive, who banked $92,798 from six wins and eight placings, was bred and is raced by David and Glenda Battye, of Buckland Park Homestead.

Elusive is by the Cam’s Card Shark horse Million Dollar Cam (sire of Ameretto, etc.) from Endeared, a dual Southern Cross champion herself and who took a record of 1:56.7. She produced earlier winners in Enrolled (Vicbred 4YO Trot Final), Star Crossed, The Dapper Don and Flirting.

Endeared was by the American import Albert Albert from Tuapeka Reign, by Vance Hanover from Out To Reign, a half-sister by Out To Win to the NZ Group 2 winner Surmo’s Reign and to Be All Franco, dam of the triple Derby winner The Sentry.

Breeding double

Prominent Adelaide breeder-owner Geoff Easom stole the show on Southern Cross Finals night at Globe Derby Park.

He brought out the quinella pair, Honeybun (by Always B Miki) and Big Black Betty (by Betting Line), in the Open Mares’ Final and the gifted Reoffender (by Aldebaran Eagle) in the $20,000 two-year-old trotters’ decider.

Honeybun and Big Black Betty both belong to the same family. Honeybun is out of Damselfly, by Art Major from a fine racemare in Feisty, by Classic Garry from the American-bred mare Julialba, while Big Black Betty is from Preponderance, by Ponder from the dual Southern Cross winner Leftem For Dead, a half-sister by Fake Left to Damselfly.

Reoffender, who has won six of his seven starts, is from Maori Mischief (8 wins), by Dream Vacation from Maori Acacia, by Smooth Fella from Maori Trump, by Overtrick from Maori Miss and thus a member of the same family as the great Maori’s Idol, Noopy Kiosk, Danny Bouchea and Maori Time.

Custom Harley is well bred

Custom Harley, the winner of the $60,000 Globe Derby for three-year-olds at Launceston, and has now won seven races and $93,000 in stakes, has a pedigree of more than usual interest in that he traces directly to Baby Butler, a mare imported by Noel Simpson from Wales more than half a century ago.

Baby Butler left four winners and four winner-producers from 11 foals including Karamea Baby (by Tarport Paul), the fourth dam of Custom Harley. Baby Butler, who was foaled in America, belongs to a top ranking family whose members include the world champion and highly influential NZ sire Hi Lo’s Forbes.

Custom Harley, a gelding by A Rocknroll Dance (who stands at Somerset Farms in Queensland), is out of Paris Art, a Victorian bred mare by Perfect Art from Manwarra Bindi, by Bookmaker from the Jef’s Blurrr mare Triple Socks.

Southern Cross winner

Brighton, who won the $35,000 Southern Cross Final for two-year-old fillies at Globe Derby Park, is a Downbytheseaside filly from the same family as that which produced a top NZ pacer in Il Vicolo.

Brighton, who was a Vicbred and Breeders Crown finalist, had been winless in five attempts before crossing the border, but she has shown up as a very useful pacer, and it was a handy field she beat in Adelaide.

Bred by leading SA identity Mark Carey, who also races her, Brighton is out of Sign Logic, a Life Sign mare from Sandelera, a half-sister by Soky’s Atom to the outstanding pacer and dual NZ Cup winner Il Vicolo and a close relative of the million dollar winners Gotta Go Cullen and Stunin Cullen.

By Major Secret

The three-year-old Bay Jim Major is proving a splendid advertisement for the Art Major horse Major Secret, a grand pacer himself and who stands at the Allenby Lodge stud, of Steve Norman, who bred Bay Jim Major.

Bay Jim Major took out the $35,000 Southern Cross Final at Globe Derby Park beating the best three-year-olds in the State. It was his ninth success and his mile rating of 1:57.5 was put up when he had nothing in his favour, drawing inside the back row and being several lengths from the leaders at one stage. He is a very good youngster.

Jimbaran Bay, the dam of Bay Jim Major, won six races and was a Getting It Right mare from Ensure, dam of the Southern Cross winner Direct Cindy and the cups winner Equity ($110,605).

A star from Shez Ryleymak

Winner of a heat of the Sweepstakes as a two-year-old last season, Moveslikealady downed the top three-year-old fillies in the $60,000 Bandbox at Launceston, including a top ranking filly in Swiatek Leis.

A filly by Art Major, she is out of a top flight racemare in Shez Ryleymak 1:56.2 ($270,688), dam of the Tasmanian Cup and Derby Ryley Major 1:54.5 ($416,873) and the Granny Smith victor Baby You A Song.

Moveslikealady streeted her rivals in the Bandbox and looks a three-year-old with the potential one would expect of her breeding.

by Peter Wharton, for Harnesslink