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 16th of October.

Leading Pacing Sire: Bettor’s Delight | 5 winners

Leading Pacing Broodmare Sire: Bettor’s Delight & Christian Cullen | 5 winners

Leading Trotting Sire: Muscle Hill | 4 winners

Leading Trotting Broodmare Sire: Sundon | 3 winners

Spring racing invariably leads to the cream rising to the top, and that is reflected in the leading stallions this week with all the major players taking top honours.

Bettor’s Delight sired the first Group One winner of the Spring with Akuta taking out the Vero Flying Stakes at Addington Raceway. ‘The King’ has sired eight of the last 11 winners of the feature race for three-year-old colts and geldings, including twice siring the trifecta (2022 & 2013).

For all the records he has set in various parts of the world, Bettor’s Delight’s latest achievement is one that is on par with Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points in a single NBA game. Some records will never be broken, and on Thursday night, the progeny of Bettor’s Delight reached a remarkable $500 million in earnings.

Global progeny earnings of Bettor’s Delight:

North America: $304,951,876
Australia: $123,092,797 (includes $63,931,221 by New Zealand breds)
New Zealand: $72,096,929

And at the ripe old age of 24, with his progeny showing no signs of slowing down, the legacy of his daughters is quickly building momentum.

Bettor’s Delight is the damsire of just under 1000 fewer foals then Christian Cullen who currently holds the throne as the six-time reigning broodmare sire champion of pacers.

Bettor’s is coming for his crown, and as the damsire of two 2YO Harness Millions winners over the weekend in Millwood Nike (Captaintreacherous) and Merlin (Art Major), he is now just under a million in stakes behind ‘Cullen’ for leading broodmare sire honours.

While it may not happen this season, it mightn’t take very long, and should he achieve the deed while still the leading pacing stallion, he would become only the second stallion in New Zealand history to achieve both honours in the same year. The only stallion to have achieved this milestone is the great U Scott in 1958, 1963 and 1965.

Muscle Hill continues to slowly eat into the leading trotting stallion buffer held by Majestic Son and looks to have a huge hand in some of the feature trotting races yet to be held.

With the lesser stakes on offer across the board and only a quarter of the starters on the track, I’d say it’s a mountain he is unlikely to climb.

Still, he has 24 winners from his 31 starters this season for a 77% strike rate. When you consider a trotter of the quality of Five Wise Men is one of the 7 Muscle Hill starters to have not won a race this year, you start to get an idea of how otherworldly his achievements are from such limited numbers.

And while we are speaking of incredible achievements, with $1.5 million back to second on the leading trotting broodmare sires list, you can give Sundon the crown now.

It would mark his 12th straight BM Sire crown and supersede the great Game Pride (11) as the most of any trotting stallion in the history of the studbook.

Leading Breeder: Charles Robers & John Purvis, Graeme McMaster & David Lawn | 2 Winners

The late great Charles Roberts and his legacy was always going to be a profound one and with wins to Perfect Bet (Bettor’s Delight) in the Nevele R Fillies heat at Cambridge and Darling Me (Sweet Lou) in the feature F&M pace at Addington Raceway, his breeding excellence was at the fore yet again.

DARLING ME REPLAY

For good measure he also bred two second place getters in Casino Action (Bettor’s Delight) and The Conqueror (American Ideal) at Oamaru.

He was also the breeder of the dam of 2YO Harness Million C&G final winner, Merlin (Art Major), with the unbeaten colt being out of Imaginary Bet, a Bettor’s Delight daughter of Imagine Me.

Aside from the breeding success with progeny for which he has been recognised four times as the countries Breeder of the Year, lets not forget his association with Woodlands Stud and his association with the stallion aforementioned at the top of the article.

John Purvis, Graeme McMaster & David Lawn have been breeding from the Fake Left mare, Left In The Dark for well over a decade now, and this proved the foundation for their dual breeding successes over the weekend.

Matt Purvis, son of co-breeder and owner, John Purvis, trained both juveniles to clear maidens with Smoke On The Water (Art Major) successful at Wyndham on Thursday and Dancing With The Boss (Bettor’s Delight) successful at Oamaru on Sunday.

The latter is the second foal out of an American Ideal daughter of Left In The Dark, while the former is out the now 20-year-old mare herself.

For Graeme McMaster, the association with the breed extends even further, back to 1989 when he bred the Scottish Hanover mare, Kirriemuir, who is the 4th and 5th dam of the two winners respectively.

3: The number of distinct breeding crosses to achieve success over the weekend of racing.

Bettor’s Delight x American Ideal provided two winners with Perfect Bet and Dancing With The Boss victorious.

Bettor’s Delight x Christian Cullen provided three winners thanks to Akuta, Maid Of Money & Lighting Baby.

Finally, an interesting one, being the cross of He’s Watching x In The Pocket produced a double on the card at Oamaru, with Star Magic and Bubba Scrub both looking progressively talented pacers.

There are 15 horses bred on this cross who are three years old or older. 12 of them are qualified, 9 have started at the races, and six of them are winners. A small sample size, but enough of an indication to say this cross has produced above average results!

1: The number of winners for fledgling colonial sire, Sky Major, after the win of Helium at Oamaru yesterday.

The son of Art Major is well known for his deeds as the only ever winner of three Harness Jewels. Something no other horse will ever lay claim too with the three- and four-year-old versions of those features now defunct.

He was brought back by co-owner Trevor Casey after his North American campaign and given his opportunity to be a stallion, something as we all know is never easy for any locally bred horse in a market dominated by the best North American genetics.

His progeny have impressed at the trials with a couple of winners which have resulted in some being exported to Australia, with HRA not showing any to have officially started at the races just yet.

It was fitting however that Casey would share in the ownership of yesterday’s first NZ win for Sky Major, with Helium posting a sharp mile rate of 1:57.9 to score easily by three lengths.

HELIUM REPLAY

The two-year-old gelding has a bit of breeding on his side being out of the Bettor’s Delight mare, Cooking With Gas. She is a full sister to the smart All Star’s trained three-year-old filly, Chambray, and traces back to Classic Blue Jeans. Having Bettor’s Delight, Christian Cullen and Western Hanover in your maternal pedigree is about as good as it gets!

99: It’s not a breeding result from the weekend, but it’s one to keep an eye should either Star Casino or Self Assured salute victorious in the weekend.

Their now deceased dam, Star Of Venus (Christian Cullen) has been stranded on 99 wins for her progeny.

The mother of eight foals, six of whom are by embryo transfer, have all won races, with four of the eight winning at Group level, with Self Assured and Caviar Star G1 winners.

One of the things that stands out about the quality of Star Of Venus as a producer is she was able to produce four group winners from four sires of varying credentials. Bettor’s Delight, Rock N Roll Heaven and American Ideal are well known for their deeds. Probably lesser so is the sire of G1 Freemantle Cup winner, Caviar Star. Betterthancheddar did a great job from limited opportunity, but aside from Sweetchilliphilly in Australia, nothing else has won at G1 level out of an NZ mare.

Peter Craig has previously written a series detailing all of the NZ bred broodmare centurions, but I can’t reference them all to confidently state how many there have been. Cracking the ton would undeniably be rarified air, especially given the prolific nature in which her progeny has achieved them.

1: The number of winners in 2022 for the once leading stallion, Badlands Hanover, after Bugalugs upset them in the eighth at Cambridge on Thursday night.

We all know the quality that Badlands Hanover was capable of producing with the likes of Beaudiene Bad Babe, Nearea Franco, Western Dream and Badlands Bute all stars of the track well over a decade ago.

Badlands Hanover hasn’t served a mare in New Zealand since 2016 with his final crop of now five-year-olds producing just the five foals. One of the five, Sweet Nothings, had its first start for Craig Ferguson late last month.

Besides Bugalugs, that is his only starter for the 2022 season showing how quickly the breeding season moves on from one great thing to the next.

For Bugalugs, it was win number five from start 88, and unless he is to find some more magic in those old legs of his, could well be the last bastion of a bygone era.

10: The number of stakes winners stemming from 2019 NZSBA Broodmare of Excellence winner, Niamey (Chiola Hanover), after the win of Southern Diamond (Creatine) in the NZB Harness Million 2YO Final for trotters.

Niamey herself is 8 wins shy from becoming a broodmare centurion in her own right. She has produced three individual Group One winners in Pocaro (Sundon), Sun Of Anarchy (Sundon) and Daenareys Targaryen (Majestic Son).

Southern Diamond is out of the Earl mare, Ugly Betty, who joins Pocaro as one of two daughters of Niamey to have bred on and left a stakes winner of her own. Pocaro produced G1 winner, Missandei (Angus Hall), along with Listed winner, Kings Landing (Muscle Hill) and the ill-fated G1 winner, Mexicana (Muscle Mass).

Benny And The Jets (Quaker Jet) has an opportunity to add the list this weekend when he lines up in the G3 Hambletonian at Ashburton Raceway on Labour Day. The three-year-old is a half-brother to Southern Diamond and while he will be at a juicy quote, has a fair motor, albeit unproven in stakes company.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink