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.

Along the way Driscoll formed friendships with many of Europe’s leading owners and breeder.

Free Thinker bred to be good

Free Thinker (Hurrikane Kingcole), who won the $207,000 The Hayden at Albion Park and is Eureka bound, is a four-year-old expected to graduate far beyond his present rating.

Bred and raced by Kevin and Kay Seymour, Free Thinker has a good deal in his favour on the score of blood than most. By the deceased Hurrikane Kingcole, who sired the Group 1 winners Cat King Cole and Talent To Spare, Free Thinker is out of the Art Major mare French Charm, whose dam was a useful racemare in Faith Prevails (1:58.1), a winner of seven races and the dam of horses the calibre of Fame Assured 1:50.8 ($318,537), Frankie Rocks 1:52.2 ($264,648) and Feel The Faith (1:53.1).

Fail Prevails was a sister to the brilliant but ill-fated Famous Forever and a half-sister to the Triad winners Guitarzan and Forever After, being out of the dual Group winner Girl From Ipanema, by Vanston Hanover from the Queensland Oaks winner Goldrush Girl, who founded a very successful branch of the Trixie Milne family.

From the Goldrush Girl branch of it and to who Free Thinker belongs, others in the NSW Ladyship Mile winner Good Lookin Girl, the dual Triad winner Leo’s Best, Fond Memories, Tay Tay and the Be Good Johnny Sprint victor Future Assured (1:50.9) are also members.

Eye Keep Smiling the new Golden Girl

When she won the $150,000 Group 1 Garrard’s The Golden Girl at Albion Park, Eye Keep Smiling (Sweet Lou) scored her fifth success for the season, and is entitled to be rated the top four-year-old mare of her year.

Earlier in the season she finished runner-up in the Robin Dundee Stakes and Riverina Championship.

From 20 lifetime starts, the daughter of Sweet Lou has won 13 and been four times placed for $290,849.

Eye Keep Smiling ranks as a half-sister to the dual Listed winner Private Eye (1:50.3), being a mare by the Yankee Cruiser horse Sweet Lou from the Listed winner Oh Eye See 1:54.5 ($101,705), by Armbro Operative from the Perfect Art mare Grace Robinson, who established a great winning line for one of Australia’s leading studmasters, the late John Gibson.

Paleface Adios Classic to Sweet On Lexy

One of Queensland’s premier races for two-year-olds, the $52,000 Paleface Adios Classic, run at Albion Park, was won by Sweet On Lexy (Sweet Lou), and although Bittersweet, rated the top NSW filly of her year, finished a close third, nothing could detract from the merit of Sweet On Lexy’s success.

He has now won four of his seven starts; Bittersweet has won four out of six.

Sweet On Lexy was bred and is raced by Eugowra (NSW) enthusiast Lex Crosby, who has bred from her family extensively over four generations.

Her sire, Sweet Lou, was one of the best performed sires to come to NZ, being by Yankee Cruiser, a grandson of Artsplace. Sweet Lou had a record of 1:47 and was one of America’s greatest free-for-all pacers. His oldest stock in Australasia are seven-year-olds and include Spirit Of St Louis, Never Ending, Cantfindabettorman, Water Lou and others, and in America he sired over 60 in the 1:50 list including Confederate (1:46.2).

Im With Lexy (1:54.7), the dam of Sweet On Lexy, was a Roll With Joe mare from Lexy’s Laughing, by Grinfromeartoear from Lexy Lobell, by Jeremy Lobell from Aunty Alice, by Cash Asset.

Im With Lexy, a winner of 14 races including the NSW Canola Cup and $130,688, was a half-sister to a fine racemare in Read About Lexy 1:53.5 ($153,718), a thrice Group winner of 11 races, the Group 2 winner Write About Lexy 1:55.9 ($111,587) and Somethingaboutlexy (1:54.5).

Sweet On Lexy was one of three winners sired by Sweet Lou on the night, the others being Eye Keep Smiling and Duke Of Scotland.

Raider Stakes winning line

The $60,000 Raider Stakes winner Nyack is a Sweet Lou four-year-old from the same family as that which produced Devendra, the winner of the 2014 Raider Stakes and who carried on to win two heats of the Inter Dominion.

Nyack’s win was his third success on end. He has now won 14 races and been eight times placed from 25 starts for $196,629 in stakes.                                                          

The entire was bred and is part-owned by the Rattray family and ranks as a brother to the Globe Derby winner Kohanah 

Their dam, the good Bettor’s Delight mare Benediction 1:57.8 ($161,235), was a sister to Devendra 1:52 ($483,544) and a half-sister to the Group placegetter Estevao (1:55.2).

Granny Smith winner

The Huntsville mare Spot Ruler gave a taste of her class when she easily won the $60,000 Granny Smith, Tasmania’s premier event for four-year-old mares at Launceston.

She was not in danger of defeat over the last 800 metres.

Spot Ruler, who was bred and is raced by Larry Nichols, of Latrobe, was sired by Huntsville from the Jet Laag mare High Flying Ruler, a Tasmanian Oaks winner who left earlier winners in Agouda Ruler 1:58 (Dandy Patch Stakes) and Resolute Ruler.

High Flying Ruler, a winner of eight races, was a half-sister to the Belmont winner Spirited Ruler, being out of a useful racemare in Northern Ruler (2:00), by Northern Lights from Lombo Boucheron, by Windshield Wiper from the Toliver Hanover mare Trunkey Gold, whose family today is one of the best in the Australian stud book.

It includes the Australian Pacing Gold winners Smooth Sensation and Lethal Lombo, the dual Vicbred champion Mazzini Magic, and others such as Joanna (Bathurst Gold Tiara), Repelem (SA Southern Cross), Valhalla Miss, Allamerican Queen and Luminous Lombo.

NZ influence on Trotters  Queensland Derby, Oaks winners                                       

There is a strong New Zealand influence about the breeding of the Queensland Trotters Derby winner My Ultimate Sunny and the Oaks winner Lucky Mum.

My Ultimate Sunny, a NSW Foundation Trot winner, is a three-year-old Majestic Son colt from the Bacardi Lindy mare Ultimate Daiquiri (1:59.7) and is her first produce to race.

Ultimate Daiquiri, who won seven races, was a half-sister to a champion trotter and Grand Prix winner in Majestic Man 1:53.5 ($855,545), being out of Love Hate Revenge, by Holdonmyheart from Gee’s Pride, a former NZ 2YO Trotter of the Year, by Pernod Eden from the Rowe Cup winner Gee Du Jour.

Lucky Mum, who was bred in NZ, is a three-year-old Father Patrick filly out of Girls On Film, by Muscle Hill from the American-bred mare Regal Volo, the dam of High Gait 1:57.5 ($322,914), Our Twentyten 1:58.6 ($372,236) and Regal Attire 1:55.8 ($212,285), all trotters of some worth.

 In the back removes of Lucky Mum’s pedigree are trotters the calibre of the Swedish Breeders Crown champion Facile Boko, the Canadian Trotter of the Year Stiletto, Royal Jewel (Zweig Memorial) and Diamond Goal ($$586,074).                                                                                                                                 

First winner by Soho Lanikai

The Somebeachsomewhere horse Soho Lanikai, a winner of the Victoria Premiere Stakes at his only start and standing at the stud in Victoria, was represented by his first winner when the two-year-old Captain Moore was successful recently at Kilmore.

Captain Moore had been placed at his previous start at Cranbourne.

Raced and trained by his breeder Michael Stanley, who also trained Soho Lanikai, Captain Moore is out of the Bettor’s Delight mare Our Chelsea Girl NZ, whose dam, Its Showtime was by Falcon’s Future from the Alba Byrd mare Mrs Simpson, who left several useful winners including a top class pacer in Ouch, who won the Waikato Flying Mile and the NZ Spring Cup.

by Peter Wharton, for Harnesslink