Holmes Hanover mares continue to produce winners

Anyone who has studied breeding was confident about one thing when it came to Holmes Hanover and that was that he would do a great job in the brood mare barn.

His fillies were tough hard wearing types who if anything lacked an ounce of high end speed but were wide open on the breeding front to all the Direct Scooter blood prevalent in New Zealand and Western Hanover and his sons.

The clincher for a lot of people was the dam of Holmes Hanover in Hazel Hanover was the best Tar Heel race mare of her time. 

Hazel Hanover did just as good a job at stud as she did on the track so confidence was high that Holmes Hanover would equal or better what he did as a sire in the brood mare ranks.

And that confidence was not misplaced as Holmes Hanover has already passed what he earned as a sire with his brood mare earnings recently topping the $26,000,000 mark. 

As you would expect there are a lot of progeny in this years sales from Holmes Hanover mares and by a lot of speed sires that we think would suit Holmes Hanover mares.

One of the lots that we think looks well matched is Lot 113 at the Australasian Classic sale at Auckland.

Named Thunderbolt Kid, he is a son of noted speed sire American Ideal from the Holmes Hanover mare, Spirit Of Spring.

She is already the dam of three winners including the very talented Umoja 1:51.1 ($264,620)

The grand dam is the Lordship mare Spirit Of Venus who left the smart racehorse Nketia 1:52.4 ($394,035) and Ciccio Star 1:58.4 ($102,499) as well as the dams of a string of big earners such as Jinni's Fantasy 1:51.4 ($457,586)  Fake Spirit 1:59.8 ($184,368)  Waltzing With Cullen 1:51.7 ($152,131) and Zenthura 1:56.5 ($117,705) to mention just a few.

Spirit Of Venus ia also a half sister to Burgundy Lass, the dam of the dual New Zealand Cup winner IL Vicolo 1:56.7 ($1,580,948) while a half sister to IL Vicolo in Sparkling Burgundy is the dam of the millionaire pace Gotta Go Cullen 1:55.5 ($1,173,343).

This is the other side of the Black Watch family that Sandy Yarndley had so much success with and Thunderbolt Kid looks just the type to add to that legacy.

Harnesslink Media