New Zealand weekly breeding round up

Once again, we highlight some of the harness racing breeding successes from around the country for the week ending the 11^th of September.

Leading Pacing Sire: Bettor’s Delight | 6 winners

Leading Trotting Sire: Love You & Muscle Hill | 3 winners

Leading Pacing Broodmare Sire: Christian Cullen | 6 winners

Leading Trotting Broodmare Sire: Sundon | 3 winners

The cream rose to the top over the weekend with the big gun stallions taking top honours across the board in all four categories mentioned above.

Bettor’s Delight is gunning for a record-breaking 11^th successive leading pacing sire by stake money won, a record he currently shares jointly with Vance Hanover.

Love You was the leading sire of trotters in 2017 which was a remarkable effort given he had never served a book of more than 42 mares in the years prior.

Muscle Hill is in the same boat numbers-wise and was last year rewarded for his excellence by being named the Trotting Stallion of the Year despite finishing second to Majestic Son in stake money won.

This year he will get his chance at the crown being only a couple of hundred thousand dollars behind Majestic Son with three and a half months left in the season.

Muscle Hill’s hopes will sit squarely on the shoulders of Bolt For Brilliance and Muscle Mountain who would have to fittingly dethrone the champ, Sundees Son, in the feature trots for their sire to be any hope of capturing the trotting stallion crown fair and square.

Christian Cullen is looking for his seventh successive leading pacing broodmare sire title which would take him within one of the current record held by Light Brigade. He is well clear at this stage but will need his daughters to continue to step up in coming years with daughters of Bettor’s Delight starting to pour into the breeding shed in big numbers.

Sundon is in a class of his own when it comes to the leading trotting broodmare sire ranks and could be declared the winner today for all intents and purposes. It will be his 12^th successive crown in this respect, 4 more than Light Brigade and with nearly six and seven times as many foals from his daughters than any of his nearest rivals, I’d be prepared to make a bold claim and say he could quite easily win this feature for the rest of the decade.

Click here to see the leading NZ Sires table.

Leading Breeder: Tony Dickinson (Alta Lodge), Spreydon Lodge, Alabar Stud | 2 winners

Tony Dickinson recorded a race-to-race double on Friday night at headquarters in Christchurch when two of his ‘Alta’ progeny saluted victorious in the space of 30 minutes.

Alta Meteor, a two-year-old son of Art Major made it three wins on end from just four starts when proving far too good for a quality field of juveniles. Being forced to sit without cover for the last lap would have given favourite backers a few testing moments, particularly given he started at the microscopic odds of $1.20.

Despite the tough run he was able to grind down another smart son of Art Major, Charlie Brown, in a 55 last half showing some of the ability that has made his older full sister, Alta Louisa, a Group 3 winner in Australia already.

ALTA METEOR REPLAY

He is the fourth foal from the smart Mach Three mare, Alchemist, who was the winner of 16 races and over $300,000 in stakes.

Alta Wiseguy (Mach Three) punched his ticket for the New Zealand Cup by winning the 72^nd instalment of the time-honoured Avon City Ford Cup (previously run as the New Brighton Cup).

It was the four-year-old son of Mach Three’s first run of his new campaign and stepped well to find himself handy and eventually in front with just under two circuits to go. Alta Wiseguy is probably better known for his sharp turn of foot and with no serious pressure applied, other than the now customary park out from Laver, was able to dash clear at the top of the straight and fend off his stablemate, B D Joe.

ALTA WISEGUY REPLAY

Alta Wiseguy is bred on the reverse cross of his fellow Alta winner being by Mach Three out of an Art Major mare in Princess Arts. He is only the second foal from the mare who looks to have a big future with her next three foals being by American Ideal, Always B Miki and Captain Crunch.

14: The number of breeders in the ownership of winners from the 35 races around the country last week in New Zealand.

3: The number of siring quinellas this weekend with Art Major doing the deed at each of the Canterbury meetings and his arch nemesis Bettor’s Delight securing one at Cambridge.

Alta Meteor and Charlie Brown were with a half neck of each other in the juvenile feature at Addington as alluded too above for their sire Art Major.

Im’ Your Huckleberry and Michael Caine were the same margin from each other in the third on the card at Methven for Art Major also. I’m Your Huckleberry is bred to be good being out of A Legend, a Changeover half-sister from the millionaire pacer and now North American sire, Bit Of A Legend N.

The other siring quinella featured another half-sister to a promising stallion with Sky Delight edging out Holyrood in the last at Cambridge.

The winner is a Bettor’s Delight half-sister to Sky Major who is receiving great support from his base at Wai Eyre farm. His younger sister is no star but has won five races now to go with 13 placings which will set her up nicely for a broodmare career at Alabar Stud where she is owned.

9: The number of progeny by the one-and-done stallion, Racing Hill. The son of Roll With Joe only served small numbers is his sole season shuttling down under but had two runners across the weekend, with Joes Rock and Apatchofgold, both of whom are fillies, finishing second in their respective races.

2: The number of distinct breeding crosses producing winners over the weekend. In the month we have been covering the weekend breeding review in New Zealand, this is the first time it has happened.

No chocolate fish for the first cross with the smart guess being a short-priced favourite in Bettor’s Delight over a Christian Cullen mare. It’s a cross that has provided many champion pacers and high-priced yearlings over the last decade.

Both Bettorlini and Mayson Shard produced winning runs with the latter coming on debut and being out of the Group One winner Pemberton Shard, looks like the first of many for the Mark Jones-trained filly.

The second cross might be a little outside the square and occurred twice within the hour at Addington Friday night.

Muscle Hill could serve a cow and produce a champion but with his semen expensive and in limited supply, the chances of that happening are thin.

His two sons, Aardiebythehill and Muscle Mountain are both out of Pegasus Spur mares, a cross that has produced six winners from just seven foals of racing age.

4: The number of winners sired by the 2008 New Zealand Cup hero, Changeover.

The son of In The Pocket does his stallion duties in the sunshine state of Queensland these days but continues to throw bread and butter winners across the country from all sorts of different types of broodmare sires.

His four winners included broodmare sires such as Armbro Kojak and Knight Rainbow, both of whom are far from renowned for being champion producers with only 19 and 7-lifetime broodmare sire credits to each of their names.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink