Weekly spotlight on breeding

Breeding authority Peter Wharton presents harness racing news on breeding from Australia, New Zealand and North America brought to you by Yabby Dam Farms & Racing!

Yabby Dam Racing, principal Pat Driscoll’s dream to breed and race world class trotters was born after seeing a billboard on the Champs Elysees in Paris advertising the famous trotting race the Prix d’Amerique. Driscoll attended the Prix d’Amerique and immediately a love affair with the trotter was formed.

Driscoll spent the next five years visiting world class trotting establishments in Europe before embarking on his own venture here in Australia where he has lead the charge in the significant advancement of Southern Hemisphere trotting.

Breeding of The Rising Sun winner

Fate Awaits, who downed a class field in the $300,000 The Rising Sun, main event of the opening night of the Inter Dominion carnival at Albion Park, is a three-year-old Always B Miki colt from the same family as that which produced a champion New Zealand racemare in Under Cover Lover.

Fate Awaits, who won the NSW Breeders Challenge Final in an Australasian two-year-old colts’ mile record of 1:50 and the inaugural $500,000 The Protostar, has earned a massive $621,126 from nine wins and six placings in 17 starts.

The colt was bred by Forbes (NSW) breeders Phil and Denise Thurston and was knocked down for a modest $24,000 at the Nutrien Equine Sydney sale in 2023.

He is the first foal out of the Melton and Albion Park winner and Group 1 placegetter For All We Know (1:54.2), an Art Major half-sister to the QBred For Life winner Chamonix 1:53.8 ($214,911).

Their dam, the NZ bred mare Tout Le Monde, was by Art Major from the Mach Three mare Front Cover Lover, the unraced dam of the six-time Group 1 winner and millionairess Bettor Cover Lover (1:53.8).

Since producing Fate Awaits in 2021, All We Know has produced a yearling filly by King Of Swing and is carrying a positive test to Always B Miki.

Its Confidential is Derby material

Its Confidential, who comfortably defeated older rivals at Melton and is regarded as Derby material of the highest order, is a three-year-old colt by Poster Boy from Speak No Evil, a thrice Group 1 winner who had a record of 1:50.9.

He is a member of an old-time NZ family, which was represented by the Inter Dominion heat winner at Albion Park in Sure Thing Captain on the same night as Its Confidential won.

Speak No Evil was a Well Said mare from the smart racemare Top Tempo 1:56.5 ($225,513), by In The Pocket from Kliklite (1:56.7), also a good winner and by Holmes Hanover from Jessica MacFaber, a mare by El Patron.

Top Tempo won 11 races – including a Group 2 – and left 10 sub 2:00 winners from 11 foals. Besides Speak No Evil, who banked $354,300, she was the dam of the Australian Pacing Gold winners Musical Delight 1:53.1 ($248,910) and Queen Of Pop 1:55.6 ($204,527), the good Albion Park victors That’s How Weroll (1:52.9) and Countdown (1:53.1).

Top Tempo is the second dam of the APG Gold Bullion and Bathurst Gold Chalice winner Ripp 1:50.4 ($301,825), the NSW Oaks winner Just Hope 1:52.5 ($367,527), the Bathurst Gold Crown victor Chart Topper (1:51.4), the dual Oaks heat winner Beach Music (1:54.5), the Listed winner Young Rooster 1:58 ($219,269) and Sure Thing Captain 1:52.1 ($272,759).

Its Confidential was bred by Bill and Anne Anderson’s Lauriston Bloodstock.                                   

Won Paleface Adios Classic

Fire And Passion, a good looking Always B Miki colt, is rated Queensland’s top two-year-old colt this season, particularly after his success in the $52,000 Paleface Adios Classic, one of the season’s major juvenile features.

He has won five of his six for $103,687 in stakes.

In the Paleface Adios Classic, he was never really extended in running out the 1660 metres at a 1:54.1 rating, the last 800 in 55.1 and the final quarter in 26.2.

Bred by Kevin and Kay Seymour, Fire And Passion is from the good Albion Park winner Fire One (1:53.7), who produced earlier winners in Fire Raiser (1:52.5), winner of last year’s QBred Trial 2YO Final, the QBred For Life victor Firebolt (1:55.3) and Feistynfearless (1:59.7).

Fire One, the winner of eight races, was a Mach Three sister to the exported Burning 1:53.2 ($201,717) and a half-sister to the Melton and Menangle victor Major Fire (1:51.6) and the NZ Northland South Cup winner Ears Burning (1:56.2).

This is the family that produced the NSW Oaks and NZ DB Fillies Series winner Sparks A Flyin 1:52 ($510,133), the Inter Dominion heat winner and millionaire Bettor’s Fire (1:50.2), Alpha Rock (1:49.5), the Southland Oaks winner Safedra (1:56.3) and the Victoria Derby heat winner Art Union (1:55.6).

Well related three-year-old

Seathestars (Captaintreacherous), who won the South East Derby at Albion Park, showed ability as a two-year-old last season when he won at Melton and qualified for the Vicbred Final.

He has opened his three-year-old season in top form, winning four races including three at Melton and +placing in the Nutrien Equine Classic and Bathurst Gold Chalice. He is a very smart youngster.

Seathestars is a gelding by the Somebeachsomewhere horse Captaintreacherous from the dual Group winner Bamako Mali 1:55.6 ($259,309), the best of whose several progeny has been the APG Gold Bullion winner Perpetuity (1:52.9).

Bamako Mali ranks as a sister to the APG winner Sheezallattitude 1:55.1 ($252,834) and a half-sister to the exported Redbank Blaze 1:50.6 ($519,815), being by Art Major from African Dancer (1:57), by Safely Kept from the smart racemare Queen Of Peace, by Adios Vic.

Seathestars was bred by the leading nursery Benstud Standardbreds.

Siring feat to Captaintreacherous

Rather a notable siring feat was credited to the Somebeachsomewhere horse Captaintreacherous on the first night of the Inter Dominion carnival at Albion Park, when he sired a winning treble.

They were Sure Thing Captain, who won the opening heat of the Inter Dominion beating Catch A Wave (also by Captaintreacherous), Captain’s Mistress, the winner of the Rising Sun Consolation, and Seathestars, who took out the South East Derby.

Sure Thing Captain and Captain’s Mistress are both out of mares by Bettor’s Delight, the sire of the winner of the winner of the third Interdom heat, Leap To Fame.

Another of the Captaintreacherous progeny in Captain’s Knock finished runner-up in the second Interdom heat.

Captaintreacherous was the second son of Somebeachsomewhere to become available to ‘down under’ breeders. Other sons of ‘Beach’ to make an impact on the Australasian breeding scene have been Downbytheseaside, Stay Hungry, Huntsville, Poster Boy and Sunshine Beach.

NSW Foundation Trot winning line

The $50,000 NSW Foundation 2YO Trot winner Gladiatrix is a daughter of the Muscle Hill horse Elite Stride, who won the Foundation series as a three-year-old, and Maximiser, winner of the Group 2 classic in 2014.

The winner of five of her six starts, Gladiatrix ranks as a half-sister to Maximus Meridius (1:56.3), who captured the Foundation Trot in 2023.

They were both bred and are by the McDowell family of Bankstown.

Their dam, Maximiser, a winner of 13 races, was a sister to the Menangle victor Daimyo (1:58.6) and half-sister to the Victoria Trotters Derby heat winner Fortheloveofmoney (1:59.9), being by Majestic Son from Frozen Funds, a NZ bred mare by Pine Chip from the NZ 3YO Trotting Filly of the Year Inda Bank (1:58.9), by Chiola Hanover from Indette, one of NZ’s best trotting mares of the 1980’s.

Elite Stride, the sire of Gladiatrix, is making a real impact with his first crop as two-year-olds. They include the Melton winners Elle Perfecto (3 wins from 7 starts) and Vance Lane and the colt Who’s Ya Daddy, a winner and dual Group placegetter in NZ.

by Peter Wharton, for Harnesslink