New Zealand weekly breeding round up

American Ideal was the broodmare sire of two Sires Stakes heat winners as well as the listed Sopphomore Classic winner. The Winton partnership of John and Katrina Price had a hand in all three as the breeders of full siblings Advance Party and Republican Party (Bettor’s Delight x Republican Party), as well as having bred the dam of Sherlock (Vincent – After Party), who is a full sister to dam of the two aforementioned winners.

MANHATTAN REPLAY

The grand blood in the pedigree of American Ideal who hails from the famed Three Diamonds has already seen his daughters having huge success in North America with the siring full brothers, Capt Midnight and Captain Trevor (Captaintreacheous), as well as another sire in Racing Hill (Roll with Joe) all being out of American Ideal mares.

Rockyroad Hanover (Captaintreacherous) and Handlelikeaporsche (Lazarus) are two more fine examples stateside.

Closer to home, Dont Stop Dreaming, Braeview Kelly and Kahlua Flybye are all group race winners by Bettor’s Delight out of American Ideal daughters.

Majestic Son and Love You were the leading trotting sires for the week and interestingly, two of the winners for the great French product were out of Majestic Son mares.

They currently find themselves first and third in the leading trotting stallion race for the season and a win in the South Bay Trotting Cup for Sundees Son would all but guarantee the decision of that title. His full sister in blood, Sunny’s Sister is well worth keeping an eye on in the back end of the season as she looks to be a major player in the two 2YO fillies features.

The Colin & Nancy Hair bred filly has inherited the family ability and has shown some serious speed on race day and at the trials and would not be without her chance should she be on her best behaviour.

Sundon leading the broodmare sire ranks for trotters is about as sure as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west.

On Monday afternoon he was the damsire of the Hambletonian Classic winner, Mystic Max (Village Mystic x Lady Robinson), a feat he has achieved six times now in a race that he not only won himself as a three-year-old in 1989 but sired the winner of on seven occasions. His greatness knows no bounds!

Leading Breeder: Brian West & Woodlands Stud | 3 winners

Brian West and Woodlands Stud are featuring in this column as regularly as Bettor’s Delight and Sundon!

Nevertheless, they both had fantastic results over the weekend that weren’t limited to winners, but placegetters also.

West was recently featured by Harnesslink’s very own, Amanda Rando, for having co-bred four winners over the weekend out of the Mach Three mare, Wat A Woman. For the purposes of research, the results in this column are limited to New Zealand results but having the first four foals from the same mare all salute victorious in the same weekend is an incredible result.

The two New Zealand bred winners occurred when Manhattan (Bettor’s Delight) and No Matter Wat (A Rocknroll Dance) won the penultimate and final races on the Magic Monday card at Ashburton for a race to race double.

Wot A Woman’s dam, Tricky Woman, is an In The Pocket half-sister to the hall of fame bound broodmare, Scuse Me. Both Tricky Woman and Scuse Me were bred by no other than future hall of fame reinsman, Mark Purdon. They say iron sharpens iron and, in this case, excellence has produced more excellence.

West’s other winner came from Rockin Va Va (A Rocknroll Dance) at the Palmerstorn North meeting which was the four-year-old geldings fourth win in his last five starts. He is out of the Village Jasper mare, Va Va Voom who is a half-sister to the In The Pocket mare, Simply Devine. The latter is the dam of the very good race mare, Start Dreaming (American Ideal) who is the dam of Don’t Stop Dreaming (Bettor’s Delight). Simply Devine is also the dam of My Style (McArdle) who was the dam of 2nd placegetter in Monday’s 2YO Sires Stakes heat, With Style (Bettor’s Delight).

Woodlands Stud kicked off their three winners with a huge return to New Zealand racing by the reigning New Zealand Cup champion, Copy That (American Ideal). The win came at Alexandra Park off the huge handicap of 55m over the 2200m journey and after the Flying Stakes result on Monday flipped the Cup market on its head, Copy That now finds himself as the $4.60 joint favourite to repeat the dose.

A race later they had a son of Downbytheseaside winning on debut in the North Island’s 2yo Sires Stakes heat in Beach Flybye. The upset victory was the third New Zealand bred winner for Downbytheseaside with the son of Somebeachsomewhere off to a solid start with his debut crop of juveniles in this country. He has 22 qualifiers and 10 starters from his 70 NZ Bred foals and continues to perform strongly in North America as the leading sire of three-year-old’s and third in the two-year-old list.

The third Woodlands bred winner was actually a horse my father has a share in being Tabasco (Bettor’s Delight) at Ascot Park on Saturday. The Brad Williamson trained juvenile had a baptism of fire with his first three starts coming in the age group features against some of the best in his crop, so it was a deserved maiden success at the Tuapeka meeting.

He is out of the Christian Cullen mare, Saucycullen, making him a full brother to the highly talented Stonewall trained three-year-old, Chimmichurri. With the pair being her first two foals of racing age, Saucycullen has two more full brothers waiting in the wings to continue what has been a solid start to her broodmare career.

1: The number of breeding quinellas over the weekend with Bev Williamson doing the deed with two closely related two-year-old fillies.

Aroha Kenny (Love You) smacked a maiden field by seven and a half lengths to show that she will be a serious player in the innaugral $100,000 G1 2YO Fillies Ace Of Hearts on the 4th of December.

She is the first foal from Royal Kenny (Majestic Son) who is a half-sister to Queen Kenny (Monarchy), dam of Australia’s up and coming open-class mare, Queen Elida.

The pair of broodmare gems are out of a full sister to millionaire and group one producer, One Over Kenny (Sundon), with Nice One Kenny also being the dam of the second-place getter at the Tuapeka meeting and other half to the Bev Williamson quinella, Kenny’s Charm (Muscle Mass).

It was a nice debut effort from her and continues a family legacy from the great Frances Jay Bee which is hard pressed for competition when it comes to trotting royalty in our stud book. Topping off a great weekend for the breed was One Over The Line (Majestic Son) winning the Sires Stakes Prelude at Addington on Friday. The blue-blooded juvenile is out of One Over Kenny herself, making him a full brother to G1 winner and now stallion, One Ova Da Moon.

3: The number of dams to produce two winners in the weekend at New Zealand race meetings.

As alluded to earlier, Democrat Party produced both Republican Party and Advance Party to win races at Ashburton and Alexandra Park respectively.

Wot A Woman had both Manhattan and No Matter Wot win on the Ashburton card also.

The third mare to achieve the deed was the Badlands Hanover mare, Sheza Grunter

Peter & Pauline Molloy co-bred Bettor Grunter (Bettor’s Delight) in partnership with Ray Seebeck, with the five-year-old winning his fifth race at the Manawatu meeting on Labour Day for local trainer, Stephen Doody.

Peter has since assumed sole ownership of the mare and bred her back to Bettor’s Delight to produce Sister Cherie, a two-year-old filly who cleared maidens at the Tuapeka meeting on Saturday at start number three.

She is the fourth winner for Sheza Grunter from five foals of racing age with a He’s Watching three-year-old filly in Spandal the only maiden from the mare. She has had just the four starts and has been racing without much luck in the early stages of her career, but it wouldn’t surprise if she was to make it five from five in the win column.

9: The race number for two trotting races across the weekend with very contrasting breeding among the first three home.

Race 9 at Auckland was a maiden trot won by a son of Sebastian K in Valegro. He beat home another two runners sired with European flavour in Eye Love You (Love You) and Quik Sharnie (Quaker Jet). The first four could have been mistaken for being a race at Solvalla in Sweden with Taylad To Use being a son of French bred sire, Used To Me. None of the aforementioned sires have ever set foot in New Zealand, which was in stark contrast to the ninth on the card at Addington.

The first three trotters’ home in the R55 or faster trot were all progeny of trotting stallions that physically stood at stud in the Canterbury region.

The winner of the race was The Bloss who is now a 14-win daughter of The Pres who stood at Noel Kennards property in West Melton before his untimely demise a few seasons ago.

Second home was Tweedledee who is a nine-win son of Superfast Stuart with that sire standing at the Rakaia property of Mike & Diane Heenan.

Bringing up the trifecta was Royal Del, a six-win son of Royal Aspirations who stands at the Broadfield property of Grant and Dianne Beckett, with the stud masters telling me last week their trotting stallion is close to eclipsing the three-figure mark for bookings. A wonderful achievement for a locally bred trotting stallion.

2: The number of winners for the ill-fated Southland stallion, Franco Ledger, with the win of Fitzthebill in the first at Ashburton on Monday.

FITZTHEBILL REPLAY

The G1 winning son of Falcon Seelster was a war horse of the open class ranks and was stood at Southland’s Macca Lodge with a free service fee for those that supported him.

Before his passing, he was able to produce 38 live foals with the oldest of those crops being now three-year-olds.

Of the 38 he has one other qualifier by the name of Ezra the Scribe who looks to be a little above average and has run fourth from his only race day start.

Monday afternoon’s winner, Fitzthebill, showed he had inherited some of his father’s attributes by sitting outside the leader for the majority of the 2400m race and grinding his opposition into the dust.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink