Weekly spotlight on breeding

Breeding authority Peter Wharton presents all the harness racing news on breeding from Australia, New Zealand and North America every week brought to you by Garrard’s Horse & Hound.

Three-year-old mile record reduced

The current light harness season is proving a vintage year for three-year-old pacers on both sides of the Tasman.

Republican Party (Bettor’s Delight) set a fresh record for 1700 metres of 1:59.9 (mile rate 1:53.5) at Ashburton in June.

Last Saturday Leap To Fame (also by Bettor’s Delight) hoisted a new Australasian three-year-old mile record of 1:49 winning the Group 1 $150,000 NSW Breeders Challenge Final at Menangle. Leap To Fame was followed home by My Ultimate Ronnie who paced the mile in 1:49.3 and Teddy Disco who recorded 1:49.9.

Leap To Fame, who was bred by Redbank Lodge Standardbreds, of Wagga, is without question the cream of his crop. From 12 starts this season he has won nine – including four at Group 1 level – and has been three times placed for $451,231 in stakes.

Lettucereason, the dam of Leap To Fame, took a mile record of 1:55.9, being by Art Major from the great broodmare Left For Me, by Fake Left from the Lordship mare Our Lady Delwin, whose family is extensively represented in Australia. It includes top horses such as For A Reason (Victoria Cup and successful sire), the current top two-year-old filly Jewel Melody, Maximus Red, Waldenburg (NSW Simpson Sprint), Montana Moonlite, Hot Shot Woman and many others.

NSW Breeders Challenge to Capt Me

The NSW Breeders Challenge Final, for three-year-old fillies, one of the features on the calendar at Menangle, was won by Captn Me, a little fancied filly by Captaintreacherous from Glenferrie Elect.

Captaintreacherous, a son of Somebeachsomewhere, has been one of the world’s leading sires since the outset of his career. In Australia he has sired such winners as the Vicbred champion Tough Tilly, the Breeders Crown winners Encipher and Catch A Wave, Jewel Melody (Bathurst Gold Tiara), Captain Crusader and Treachery.

Glenferrie Elect, the dam of Captn Me, was an unraced mare by Christian Cullen, who also distinguished himself as a sire, from Elect To Live, a Live Or Die mare who was the champion racemare of her day.

This has been a most successful family, as Gotta Go Harmony, a sister to Glenferrie Elect, won the Harness Jewels at two and a brother in Gotta Go Cullect was a top juvenile and later a successful colonial-bred sire.

The latest NSW Breeders Challenge filly winner, Captn Me, has certainly a wealth of successful blood on both sides of her pedigree.

Siring feat to Bettor’s Delight

Rather a notable siring feat was credited to the Cam’s Card Shark horse Bettor’s Delight at Menangle last Saturday, when he left three winners of the NSW Breeders Challenge finals.

The Woodlands Stud flagship sired the quinella pair, Leap To Fame and My Ultimate Ronnie, in the Group 1 $150,000 race for three-year-old colts and geldings.

Major Delight, who is unbeaten in six starts, took out the Group 1 $150,000 final for two-year-old fillies, while Bettor Isolate won the Group 2 $50,000 event for four-year-old entires and geldings.

Leap To Fame and Major Delight are both out of Art Major mares and Bettor Isolate is from a mare by Armbro Operative.

Captaintreacherous, a member of the Empire Stallions’ frozen semen roster, sired two Group 1 $150,000 Breeders Challenge Final winners in Captain’s Knock (2YO colt) and Captn Me (3YO filly). Both are out of Direct Scooter line mares.

Alabar Bloodstock sire Rock N Roll Heaven left the winner of the remaining $50,000 Breeders Challenge final in the brilliant four-year-old mare Tay Tay.

Captain’s Knock wins two-year-old Challenge

Captain’s Knock, the season’s latest two-year-old classic winner, in beating a smart field in the $150,000 NSW Breeders Challenge at Menangle, gives the impression that he could develop into one of nest season’s top three-year-olds.

Bred by John Rutter, Captain’s Knock, who was sold for $36,000 at the APG Sydney sale in 2021, is a well developed colt by Captaintreacherous from Scarlett Finn, the dam of the Tasmanian country cups winner Finn Mac Kee (1:58.3) and Albion Park winner Whata Challenge (1:55.5).

Their dam, Scarlett Finn (1:59.1), was an In The Pocket mare from Went Motoring, by New York Motoring from Went Overboard, by Butler B G from the grand producer Zenover, by Bachelor Hanover. It is an interesting fact that there is a double strain of Direct Scooter blood in Captain’s Knock, through both Captainreacherous and his maternal sire In The Pocket and a strain of Artsplace blood also through Captaintreacherous. It was the Artsplace line that gave Australia one of its greatest sires in recent years in Art Major.

Scarlett Finn, who won five races, was a half-sister to the prolific Perth winner Little Sonny Bill 1:56.7 ($201,435) and the Menangle victor Essbee Doubleyou 1:52 ($155,687).

A champion pacer in Elsu belongs to this family. He won 27 races including the Inter Dominion Final, the A. G. Hunter Cup and two Auckland Cups and $2,030,796 in stakes. The dual Oaks winners De Lovely and Copper Beach, Catch A Wave, Revonez and Motoring Magic are among many good winning members of Captain Knock’s tribe.

I Cast No Shadow in 1:48.8

I Cast No Shadow, who won the $100,000 Len Smith Mile in 1:48.8 – Honolua Bay, Zeuss Bromac and Max Delight filled the placings behind him – advanced strong claims to being one of the best sprinters in NSW today.

It was his third sub 1:50 winning performance. Earlier in the year he clocked 1:49.3 and 1:49.7 at the Sydney headquarters’ track.

By The Panderosa horse Shadow Play (now standing stud in Canada), he is out of Ragazza Bromac, by Falcon Seelster from the American-bred mare Red Delite, an American bred mare by the Albatross horse Fame.

I Cast No Shadow is a half-brother to the NZ Southern Supremacy winner Ragazzo Mach 1:54.7 ($118,735), now racing successfully in WA, and RR Sand Dollar (1:55.5).

NSW Breeders Challenge winning line

The NSW Breeders Challenge two-year-old fillies’ winner, Major Delight, is a daughter of the Cam’s Card Shark horse Bettor’s Delight and the Art Major mare Lady Euthenia, who won the race 13 years earlier.

Furthermore, Major Delight’s grand-dam, Reggae Miss, won the NSW Sires Stakes 4YO Final (now the Breeders Challenge) in 1998.

Major Delight’s success was her sixth from as many starts. She covered the mile in 1:50.3, the third fastest time ever put up by a two-year-old filly.

“When everything clicks she’s really going to be something special to watch. She’s a lovely big filly who will be better again leading into three-year-old season,” her driver Mark Pitt said.

Major Delight was bred and is raced by NSW enthusiast Peter Lewis, who also bred and trained his dam, Lady Euthenia, a former 2YO Filly of the Year and NSW Oaks winner.

This family has consistently produced a number of good winners over the years. A brother to Major Delight in Max Delight won the Victoria Cup and NSW Derby and a close relative in Gracie Taljuice annexed the NSW Breeders Challenge Regional Championship.

Queen of the Pacific winner

Victoria’s top race for mares, the $100,000 Queen of the Pacific, was won by the champion Mach Three mare Ladies In Red, who is Miracle Mile bound.

Ladies In Red was back in the field in the early running but raced to the front 1400 metres from home and finally won decisively from Tough Tilly and Braeview Kelly.

Bred and raced by Anne and Bill Anderson’s Lauriston Bloodstock, Ladies In Red has won 21 of her 26 starts and $868,020 in stakes. She is a four-year-old by Mach Three, a Matt’s Scooter horse who is a leading sire and broodmare sire, from the American-bred Kabbalah Karen B (1:52.8), by Western Terror from the Tyler B mare Mib Hanover, a tracing to the taproot Venus (by American Star).

Kabbalah Karen B, a winner in North America and Victoria, is also the dam of the Victoria Derby and dual Breeders Crown champion Our Little General 1:49.8 ($765,566), Kasbah Kid 1:53.1 ($185,520) and the recent APG Gold Sovereign winner Our Little Jet (1:55.9).

Won the Graduate

Winner of the Breeders Crown Silver as a two-year-old last season, Khafaji downed the top three-year-olds in The Graduate at Melton, including a top ranking three-year-old in Heza Son Of Agun, who finished second.

Khafaji has only been lightly raced, but has proved himself a young pacer of great ability. By Somebeachsomewhere, and one of the last commercial crop of the American horse to race in Australia, Khafaji is out of Treble Trebla (1:58.5), by Albert Albert (son of Abercrombie) from the New York Motoring mare Norwood Topsie, who left a capable pacer in Dash Of Class 1:55.8 ($175,997).

Khafaji ranks as a half-brother to the Ararat Cup winner Bettor Downunder 1:53.2 ($134,067) and the exported Ideal Lifestyle 1:50.3 ($320,318).

by Peter Wharton, for Harnesslink