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.

Siring feat to Sweet Lou

Rather a notable siring feat was credited to the Yankee Cruiser horse Sweet Lou at Gloucester Park last weekend, when he sired the winners of both Group 1 $215,000 Westbred Classics for two-year-olds in Never Ending and Zephyra.

Never Ending, a two-year-old gelding, is out of Endless Journey, a lightly raced Die Laughing mare who earlier produced the Pearl winner Isaiah Artois 1:58.3 ($117,351), the Gloucester Park winners Mandy Joan 1:54.9 ($168,564) and Dibaba 1:54.1 ($112,846) and the Art Major mare Janet Gai (1:58.6), dam of a capable pacer in Otis (1:55), the winner of nine races to date.

Endless Journey was a half-sister to the WA 2YO Sales Classic winner Fake Embrace 1:53.4 ($240,249), the Moonee Valley winner Go By Jet (1:58.3) and to Like A Dame, the dam of millionaire pacer David Hercules (1:52.7), the Group 3 winner Hugh Victor 1:54.9 ($144,034) and the exported Kerrin Joseph 1:52 ($169,216), Gaetana Nicol (dam of Major Martini 1:54.8 – $322,483), Heather Mary (dam of Group 3 winner Know When To Run) and Hotniten Georgia, who left the WA 2YO Sires Stakes champion Supreme Royalty.

Never Ending, a product of the Australian Pacing Gold sale in Perth in 2021, was bred by Steve Johnson.

Zephyra, who has won six of her eight starts and $204,709, is the first foal of the former top racemare Tricky Styx 1:54.1 ($460,548), a Jereme’s Jet mare from Pocket Rain, by In The Pocket from the grand producer Cosmic Rain (1:58.7), by Soky’s Atom from the Group 1 winner Rain Girl (1:59.6), who has founded an outstanding family of winners.

Others descending from Rain Girl have been Atitagain (Aust. Horse of the Year), Rain Again, Listen To The Rhythm, My Willow and the WA Pearl winner Go West U Terror.

Sweet Lou’s oldest stock are five-year-olds, and they include Spirit Of St Louis (one of the star pacers on the Grand Circuit), Double Expresso, Aladdin, Virgil, Steno, Fire Fox, etc.

Sweet Lou is the first son of Yankee Cruiser imported ‘down under’, and his early crops have been most impressive. A close relative of fully booked Alabar sire Captain Crunch, Sweet Lou stands at Woodlands Stud near Auckland.

Breeding of NSW Carousel winner

Port Au Prince, who won his second race from three starts on Australian soil in the $50,000 Carousel at Menangle, is a four-year-old gelding expected to graduate far beyond his present rating.

A member of KerryAnn and Robbie Morris’s Camden team, he has a good deal more in his favour on the score of blood than most.

By Somebeachsomewhere, and one of his second last commercial crop, Port Au Prince is out of the Christian Cullen mare Maheer Princess (1:58.8), whose dam was a crack juvenile in Fern Glen 1:59 ($125,235), the winner of 10 races, was a New York Motoring mare who left horses of the calibre of Maheer Lord 1:53 ($515,470), a winner of 34 races including the WA Pacing Cup and NZ Sires Stakes 3YO Championship and Lavros Glen 1:54.4 ($122,984).

Fern Glen was a half-sister to the exported Hawera 1:51.2 ($179,799), being out of Chateau Margaux, a trotting mare by Goodray (son of Goodland) from Ann Hanover, by Bachelor Hanover from the Whipster mare Sure Drive, a sister to the dam of the great Australian pacer Lucky Creed, who won the Carousel himself in 1969.

Port Au Prince ranks as a brother to the Tasmanian Mother Of Pearl victor Feel The Burn (1:52) and a half-brother to the cups winner Full Speed Ahead 1:57.1 ($171,632) and the multiple Gloucester Park victor Good Times Ahead 1:57.8 ($134,517).

Seventh win on end

When she won the Argent Classic at Melton last Saturday, Soho Historia scored her seventh success in a row, and she is entitled to be rated as one of the season’s top three-year-old fillies.

Earlier in the season, Soho Historia won the Queensland Oaks at Albion Park and from 10 starts this year she has won seven and has been twice placed for $116,597 in stakes.

Bred by prominent Perth breeder Robert Watson, Soho Historia is a filly by the In The Pocket horse Courage Under Fire from the multiple Group placegetter Soho Tokyo 1:54.2 ($176,316), by Bettor’s Delight from the Panorama mare Pelicanrama, one of the best racemares ever produced in this country and dam of the Listed winners Soho Leviathan and Soho Highroller.

Pelicanrama, a sister to a cup class pacer in Mustang Fighter 1:57.8 ($292,566), was out of Beauteous, by the Kilmore Cup winner Globe Score from Royal Blend, by Golden Adios from Jennifer Scott, by Grand Scott from the King Oro mare Stormy Oro and tracing to the taproot Linton, who founded a large and very successful family.

From the Jennifer Scott branch of it and to which Soho Historia belongs, others in Bag Limit, a dual Victoria Winfield Gold Cup winner, Yarracoola (WA Golden Nugget), Gotanedge (Mildura Cup), Albert Terrill (Bathurst Gold Crown), Whale Of A Tale (Ballarat Cup), Jilliby Generator (1:49.8), Armchair Ride and the top SA pacer Come On Frank also belong.

Princess Tiffany’s sister

Tiff’s Little Sister, a two-year-old sister to the millionairess Princess Tiffany, won at her first start on Australian soil at Bendigo recently. She had been placed twice from four starts in NZ.

Tiff’s Little Sister was bought as a future broodmare by Benstud Standardbreds, and in this field the Art Major filly will be one of the most valuable in the country.

A half-brother to Tiff’s Little Sister in Rock Diamonds (1:50), won several Group races in WA and is now competing successfully in America.

Their dam, Dancing Diamonds (by Bettor’s Delight), won three races at Group/Listed level and was the highest stakes earning two-year-old of her year in NZ.

From family of Changeover

Focus Stride, who won the opening race on Carousel night at Menangle, is an Art Major entire from the same family as that which produced the NZ Cup winners Changeover, now at Burwood Stud in Queensland, and Chokin.

Focus Stride, who won the Bathurst Gold Chalice in 2020, has not done a great deal of racing but he has shown up as a very useful pacer, and it was a handy field he beat at Menangle.

Bred by Emilio and Mary Rosati, who also raced him, Focus Stride is from the NZ bred mare Sparkling Stride, by Christian Cullen from Bhutan (2:00.2), by Falcon Seelster from a fine racemare in Chaangerr (1:58.7), by Vance Hanover from the broodmare gem Nell’s Pride, by Tuft.

Bhutan, who won eight races, became the dam of the NZ Marlborough Cup winner Joey Maguire and Chokin Hanover (1:58) and the grand-dam of the NZ Messenger and Jewels winner Eamon Maguire 1:51.9 ($312,202) and the Albion Park winner Lavra Bhutan (1:54).

Bhutan was a half-sister to 10 winners including Changeover, a six-time Group 1 winner of $2.3 million and a very successful sire and, to a lesser extent, Change Stride 1:50 ($593,743)   and Change Gear 1:52.8 ($190,884), both good metropolitan winners.

Siblings win in three States

Three of Australia’s most promising trotters at present, and all recent winners are Sheza Pleasure (Bacardi Lindy), a double winner at Melton, and Milly’s Magic and Lizzie’s Son (both by Majestic Son), who scored at Globe Derby Park and Ballarat respectively.

All bred by Goulburn horseman Dennis Paton are out of the unraced Sheza Comment, who left other straight-out trotting winners in Lord Lohki (1:56.3) and Sheza Amason (1:59.5) and the lightly raced Sheza Chenille, dam of the NSW Trot Foundation winner Jessie’s Son.

Sheza Comment was a half-sister to the dual Trotters Derby winner Arizona Blue 1:56.9 ($236,465), being by Sierra Kosmos from Sheza Cop (12 trotting wins), by Keystone Gondola from the good producer Arctic Fox, by North Pole.

Perth winner from good broodmare

Louie The Lip, an American Ideal four-year-old and a winner of four of his past five starts at Gloucester Park, is out of Blistering Belle, a capable racemare with a record of 2:00 and who is proving a successful broodmare.

Blistering Belle is also the dam of Five Card Draw 1:50.4 ($680,534), the former NZ 2YO Colt of the Year and Queensland 4YO Championship victor, the NZ Oaks winner Ideal Belle 1:54 ($204,316) and Elite Belle (1:54.6), dam of Bill Haley, who took a mile mark of 1:49.4 in America.

Blistering Belle was a Butler B G mare from Soky’s Belle, by Soky’s Atom from Hi Lo Bell, by Mark Lobell from the Garrison Hanover mare Garrison Pride. Blistering Belle was a half-sister to the Menangle winners Henrik Zetterberg (1:56.1) and Jack That’s Gold (1:57.1) and the Albion Park victor Curlew Bay (1:58.9).

Their dam, Soky’s Belle, won six races and left five sub 2:00 winners. She was a sister to the Gloucester Park and Globe Derby Park winner Reaction Time, who won 17 races.

Other members of this family, which was founded in NZ by Bonnie Belle, were Platinum Roulette (1:51.7), the top NSW square-gaiter Drop The Hammer and Game Set Major (1:52.7).

by Peter Wharton, for Harnesslink