Francent – West Coast Princess

West Coasters love their racehorses and they’ve recently uncovered another harness racing star to follow and rightly claim as theirs.

Francent (Vincent) is from a family from which the Higgins family have been breeding  for over seventy years and it began with Frank Higgins, the grandfather of the mare’s breeder Bob Higgins.

“The story goes that originally the great great grandam, a mare called Red Queen was acquired from Wes Butt years ago. Whether that’s a 100 percent I don’t know,” Bob said.

Red Queen was by Jack Potts and won two races – one at Westport and the other at Greymouth.

At stud she left Pitterpat (King Cobra) which also won two and when mated with Honest Master she left Coolit, the dam of Patsy Marie (Schell Hanover).

“At the time she (Patsy Marie) was the best we’d bred even though she only won three races. She was good enough to win a Group One. She got a virus quite bad and she was never the same after. I trained her with Bob Negus at the time. He was my mentor,” Bob said.

Higgins recalls that with only one filly left in the Red Queen line, they nearly lost the breed.

“We were down to one mare. The late Trevor Craddock bought a filly out of Patsy Marie at the sales called Patsy McCreedy (Bo Scots Blue Chip). My cousin (the late John Higgins) got involved with Patsy McCreedy and that’s how we rejuvenated the breed.”

One of Patsy McCreedy’s foals was Lyse Doucet (Holmes Hanover) which had two starts for Murray Brown. John bred numerous winners out her including Eilis Rose (10), Booster (7) and Mary Niven (Courage Under Fire).

“After being out of it (harness racing) for twenty two years milking cows, John got me involved and I got Mary Niven and carried on.”

For the first four seasons, John and Bob successfully bred Mary Niven to either Rock N Roll Heaven or A Rocknroll Dance and the resulting foals were Rocknroll Nevin (3), Queenofdance (7), Songbird (4) and Killarney Dance (3).

The following breeding cycle Robert decided to go to Art Major stallion Vincent and Francent was the resulting foal.

“Every one of her foals have been winners and obviously the best of them is Francent,” Higgins said.

So how did she acquire her name?

“A friend of mine back in the 80s, Fran McDonald, used to follow my horses and is passionate about harness racing. She’s in her nineties now so that’s where the ‘Fran’ comes from and the ‘ent’ comes from Vincent. She follows the horse of course and is ringing me all the time.”

As a young horse Francent was broken in by Mark Jones.

“Initially he was sending me these texts saying he couldn’t fault her. As a yearling and rising two year old she did everything dead right,” Bob said.

But in her next preparation things started to go wrong.

“As a two year old we nearly got rid of her. We thought she wasn’t going to make a racehorse. Luckily Bob gave her a bit of time and she just got better and better. It just shows you what horses can do when they have time. It’s been a pleasant surprise and you’d think she would only get better,” Jones said.

He added “I liken it to a young girl from the country going off to boarding school and not liking it (laughter). So she did everything she could to be sent home.”

Higgins says Francent also had a stint at Woodend Beach with Bob Butt.

“He thought a change of scenery might help her. Bob had her for a week to ten days. With due respect to Bob, he told me she’d be fine and to give her a good six months off.” Higgins appreciated the advice and took it.

“I worked her early on and I always thought she was a good horse. She’s a very bossy horse. I’d put her in with three or four other horses and she was always the boss.”

But when she came back for her next prep there were further issues.

“When I was bringing her up she had a slight wind problem. We took her over to Mark’s to get her scoped and they couldn’t actually find anything. Initially they couldn’t make her flip her pallet. They did say there was a problem there and that we could either get a tie back or laser treatment. The laser treatment was a cheaper option and we did give her that. We brought her home and we thought we had the same sort of problem. One day she wouldn’t work that good and then she would. But then she seemed to get over it.”

Francent qualified for Jones at Rangiora in April 2023 as a two year old. She only had one start at three for Robert Higgins, winning first up at Westport in December 2024 – a win that didn’t surprise her trainer.

“I had Stevie Little here at the time. He trained for us in the late seventies early eighties – a horse called Paddy Holiday. He arrived down at the track pre-Christmas. He was a great help. He sort of figured her out and he told me that she was a good horse,” Higgins said.

Fortuitously Francent was on her way and after winning four races for Higgins she headed back to Jones where in ten starts she’s won a further five, including her last three in Group company.

She tends not to win her races by much. Her biggest winning margin has been in the Woodlands Mares Spring Sprint Classic when she beat Ruby Roe by one and three quarter lengths. Three of her wins have been by a head, one by a neck and one by a nose.

“Early on she didn’t know how to win. Mentally she’s getting better and Bob’s breed does get better with time. She’s quite a big filly who doesn’t carry a lot of condition so with another twelve months she should get stronger,” Jones said.

One trait that hasn’t gone away is her dislike of grit, so she wears a full visor and a chin guard.

Higgins says there’s a good brain inside the talented mare’s head.

“She’s a pretty smart horse. When you watch her doing her prelim she’s looking at everything. When I worked her she would always stop to survey what was going on around the place. You just had to let her do that,” he said.

Jones rates last week’s success at Alexandra Park as her best.

“To sit outside a good filly in Arafura and do it the tough way the Auckland way round first up, was a big ask. She rose to the challenge.”

And she came through her run well.

“She’s great. She licked the bowl and was rushing around her paddock on Sunday. That’s one great thing about her. She’s got a great constitution.”

Friday nights $100,000 Queen of Diamonds at Alexandra Park is her next big test and could well decide who wins the Four Year Old Mares title at the upcoming New Zealand Harness Awards.

“She has a great attitude and only does what she has to at this stage. For a big horse she’s quite fast and could run a pretty good quarter. She’s quite tough and doesn’t take a lot out of herself,” Mark said.

Raced by the Patsy Marie Syndicate which is named after the horse’s fourth dam, the Syndicate is made up of members of the wider Higgins family.

Since Francent, Mary Niven has left two Downbytheseaside fillies. Mattie Niven qualified for Jones and has had one start and Seaside Niven is entered in February’s NZB Standardbred Yearling Sales (Lot 313), being prepared by Gael Murray.

A few members of the Patsy Marie Syndicate will be heading to the big smoke on Friday night. Her most ardent fan Fran McDonald, will be watching the tele while others will be cramming the pubs in Westport hoping Francent can get the big prize.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink