Weekly spotlight on breeding

Breeding authority Peter Wharton presents all the harness racing news on breeding from Australia, New Zealand and North America every week brought to you by Garrard’s Horse & Hound.

Better Eclipse wins Kilmore Cup

The most important race on the Victorian Cups Cup circuit, the $75,000 Kilmore Pacing Cup, was won by the Betterthancheddar gelding Better Eclipse, who downed Beyond Delight and the favourite Act Now in a tight finish.

A Chariots of Fire winner, Better Eclipse has won four races this season and $235,000 in stakes and he will be one of the leading fancies for the Brisbane Inter Dominion.

Better Eclipse, a gelding by the Bettor’s Delight horse Betterthancheddar (now standing in Canada), is a five-year-old from the Northern Luck mare Power Of Eclipse, whose dam, Cammag Girl, was by Windshield Wiper from Starting Out, by Salvation from Backward Lands, by Gary Rowan from the grand producer Gay Debutane.

Better Eclipse is the first produce of Power Of Eclipse, whose family includes horses the calibre of the Vicbred champion Hexham Heartbeat, Stroke Of Luck ($256,196), Sports Dancer, the former Australian 2YO of the Year Royal Verdict, The Defiant (Vic. HRSC 3YO Cup), Modern Girl (Vic. Sapling) and cup class trotters in Nephew Of Sonoko and Son Of Sonoko.

Argent Classic winner

Keayang Blue Jeans (Sweet Lou) is proving herself a smart three-year-old filly – she has won seven of her seven starts this year including the Argent Classic at Melton – and could develop into one of the best her age and sex this season.

A filly by Sweet Lou (son of Yankee Cruiser), she is out of the Vicbred semi-finalist The Heat Is On (1:59.1), who ranks as a half-sister the Vicbred champion and Tatlow Memorial winner Im Smouldering 1:55.3 ($327,967) and the Western Crown winner Red Hot Major (1:55.1).

Their dam, Red Hot Rita (1:58.7), a winner of 11 races, was by Holmes Hanover from Raunchy Rita, by Hilarious Way from the Victoria Oaks winner Racy Rita, by Gallagher from a talented racemare in Meadow Rita.

This family has been bred from extensively over four generations by Doreen (near Melbourne) couple John and Christine Yeomans and includes the Kapunda Cup winner Make Your Own Luck 1:54 ($221,952), the Group 3 winner Shesmybaby (1:55.9) and Badge Of Honour 1:56.3 ($105,469).

Perfect Class is well bred

Perfect Class (Captaintreacherous), who won the Reg Withers Classic at the Kilmore Cup meeting and has won six of his 16 starts to date, is a three-year-old colt expected to graduate far beyond his present rating.

Bred by Peter Gleeson, who part-owns him, he has a good deal more in his favour on the score of blood than most. By Captaintreacherous, Australia’s leading sire of three-year-old and the progenitor of four of this season’s top ranking sophomores, Perfect Class is out of the Live Or Die mare Perfect Life (1:58), whose dam was a fine racemare in Secret Life (1:58.6), who ranked as the dam of the NSW Derby winner Major Secret and the Victoria Oaks and Breeders Crown winner Beauty Secret.

This family was founded in Victoria by the Windshield Wiper mare Larrakeyah Lady. From the Lifeline branch of it and to which Perfect Class belongs, others in the Vicbred champions Petracca and Out To Play, Treachery, He’s Ideal (Hobart Pacing Cup) and the Withers Classic winner’s siblings Perfect Major, That’s Perfect and Rogue Wave – all Group or Listed winners – are also members.

Vegas Strip’s family background

Vegas Strip (American Ideal), who won the $150,000 WA Golden Slipper, is a NZ bred two-year-old with an interesting and successful family background.

Bred by Les and Barbara Pettifer, of Kumeu he was got by American Ideal from Vegas Delight (1:59.9), a winning daughter of the Cam’s Card Shark horse Bettor’s Delight. Vegas Strip, who holds a mark of 1:57.3, has run up the tidy score of three wins and two placings from six starts for $110,134 in stakes.

Vegas Strip’s dam, Vegas Delight, a winner of five races, left earlier winners in Double Up 1:52.3 ($199,289) and Ilovelucy (1:55.4), both multiple winners at Gloucester Park, and then Victorian provincial winner Troubador (1:57.1).

Vegas Delight was out of a capable racemare in Pocket Queen, who took a record of 1:59, won two Group 2 races and $64,530 and became the dam of winners in Lightning Ridge 1:54.2 ($286,552), Three Kings 1:55.5 ($183,255), Jetsetgo (1:57.3) and Vegas Delight, dam of Vegas Strip.

Pocket Queen was an In The Pocket mare from Flight Queen, by Vance Hanover from Jetsetter, by Lordship. Besides Pocket Queen, Flight Queen, a winner of three races, left the exported King’s Flight 1:54 ($222,198), Riding Shotgun (1:57.9), the Menangle victor Cullen’s Queen (1:59.8) and the Mach Three mare Annie Mach, the dam of the NSW Listed winner Delilaah (1:53.2) and the exciting three-year-old Cotton On (1:55), who won his first seven starts in WA.

The family traces eventually to the American mare Laura Logan (by American Clay). Johnny Globe, one of the greatest pacers ever produced in NZ and later a champion sire and broodmare sire, belongs to this tribe.

Siblings win on same night

It was no mean feat for the siblings Cee Oh Dee (Roll With Joe) and Gottahaveahobbie (by Well Said) to win in different States on the same night recently.

Cee Oh Dee, a five-year-old mare, won the Ladyship Final at Penrith, while the seven-year-old Gottahaveahobbie scored in restricted company at Shepparton.

Both bred by Peter and Beat Salathiel are out of Ay Tee Em 1:58 ($117,865), a Victoria Sapling Stakes winner and who has left other winners in Cee Vee Vee (1:55.9), Dream Asset (1:56), Pin Code (1:57.1) and Seemeshineyheels(1:58.9).

Ay Tee Em was a half-sister to the Menangle winners Art Tutor 1:51.5 ($215,691) and Giggling Girl 1:52.4 ($136,219), being by the Matt’s Scooter horse Mach Three from Atomic Fusion, by Nuke Of Earl from the Soky’s Atom mare Russet Storm, a sister to the NSW Breeders Plate victor Our New Life.

SA Sapling quinella

The SA Sapling Stakes was a triumph for the Art Major horse Major Secret as the sire of the winner Star Man and the runner-up Bay Jim Major – rather a notable siring feat.

Both were bred by Allenby Lodge stud, who stand Major Secret and are from his second crop.

Star Man, a winner of four of his seven starts, is a rig being out of the multiple Albion Park winner Kash (1:55.8) and the first of her produce to race. Kash was an Elsu mare from Visa Girl, by Miles McCool from Final Cheque, by Vance Hanover from Bayswater, by Quiet Water from Milford Haven, a half-sister by My Chief to the immortal Cardigan Bay.

Star trotter by Orlando Vici

Ollivici, a brilliant straightout trotter by Orlando Vici from Belle Galleon (a member of the same maternal line as the top NZ trotter Sundowner Bay), overcame a 30 metre handicap and a wide passage to win the Kilmore Trotters Cup.

The winner of $165,900, Ollivici was bred by Amberley (NZ) horseman Kevin Chapman and is trained by Sonia Mahar and Chris Lang, who has been an expert in the training and educating of trotters.

Orlando Vici, a French bred stallion, has been one of Australia’s top sires of trotters in recent years. His progeny include the champion Just Believe, who won the Kilmore Cup in 2022, the Vicbred Final winners Cravache Dor and Visionary, Brandlo Prince, Adelle and other smart trotters.

Belle Galleon ($116,144), the dam of Ollivici, was by Sundon, who distinguished himself as a champion sire of trotters, from Viola Chiola, a Chiola Hanover mare who left a top trotter in Mistercool Sea Eyre 1:55.4 ($475,660), a Group 2 winner in NSW and who is still racing successfully in America.

This has been a most successful family, as Ollivici ranks as a half-brother to the millionaire trotter Stent, the Australian 2YO and 3YO Trotting Filly of the Year Arya and the Tontine winner Izmok.

The latest Kilmore Trotters Cup winner Ollivici has certainly a wealth of successful trotting blood on both sides of his pedigree.

by Peter Wharton, for Harnesslink