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The beautifully bred and stakes performed, Ambassador Hanover (Chapter Seven), will be saying ‘ciao’ to North America in the not too distant future with a deal reached between connections of the former Ake Svanstedt pupil to assume stallion duties on the shores of Italy for the 2024 breeding season.
The 2021 Tomkin Geers winner will head to Allevamento Folli in Mordano which is situated 20 minutes from Bologna in Northwestern Italy on behalf of Italian breeder, Marco Folli and his sons Manuele and Matteo.
Ambassador Hanover joins a group of stallions that include the likes of North American export, Resolve, in the exciting and growing Italian domestic breeding scene in a move that on paper appears to be a win-win for everyone involved.
Speaking exclusively to Harnesslink, European breeding consultant, Lars Nordin, who bears a trotting pedigree as rich as some of the stallions he is associated with as a son and grandson of legendary Swedish horseman, Soren and Jan Nordin, spoke about the newly minted deal which sees the first son of Chapter Seven standing on Italian shores.
“Marco and I have been friends for a long time now and a few years back Marco asked me for some assistance with getting in contact with some American owners. We talked things through and came to an accord for me to start consulting for him with trotting stallions for his stud farm,” said Nordin.
“Marco is very well known in the breeding game and has been running his stud farm successfully for the past 40 years and he asked me to help him out. I got in contact with a few people around Ola Yoder (Kountry Lane Standardbreds), and we actually distributed a little bit of semen for one of his stallions, Enterprise.
“We had been a little bit in discussion about some of the latest stallions he acquired, and then we met up in Harrisburg this year and Ambassador Hanover came up.
“The trotting market in North America is pretty saturated with Chapter Seven blood just now, and the interest for him locally didn’t seem that high. So I came up with a proposal to maybe take him over to Italy where there is no son of Chapter Seven currently standing stud and felt that if we priced him right, the market would react well and give him a better position to attract a bigger book of mares,” he said.
Very rarely does a stallion prospect live up to their maternal pedigree, and while the regally bred Ambassador Hanover had the misfortune of running into some champions of the track in a crop that included the likes of Venerate, Jujubee and Captain Corey, the striking son of Chapter Seven carved out a career his connections can be proud of.
The former Ake Svanstedt (and latterly Linda Toscano) trained entire fashioned a race record of 10 wins and 14 placings from 41 starts while almost exclusively racing at the highest level of North American trotting.
Ambassador Hanover’s lifetime mark of 1:51.2 when wiring the field in an elimination of the 3YO Breeders Crown at The Meadowlands sees him retire as the 10th fastest son of world champion sire Chapter Seven, while his $746,916 places him as the 4th richest.
AMBASSADOR HANOVER | TOMPKIN GEERS REPLAY
You don’t earn three quarters of a million dollars without being a very good horse, and when you look at the pedigree of Ambassador Hanover, it’s easy to establish why the son of Chapter Seven was competitive at the highest level of the sport being by a world champion trotter and producer and a great grandson of the Hall Of Fame mare, Amour Angus.
Ambassador Hanover’s dam, Angel Eye’s Hanover is also by the world champion producing sire and broodmare sire in the late Cantab Hall.
Ambassador Hanover was a $100,000 yearling sales purchase at Harrisburg in the fall of 2019. He is the 4th foal from the lightly raced Cantab Hall mare, Angel Eyes Hanover (t3,1:57.3 – $53,791), a 4 time placegetter at two before taking her lifetime mark in winning at Mohwak as a three-year-old.
At stud, she has produced seven foals of racing age for five winners and two $100,000 earners.
Her maternal family is comprised of arguably the best North American trotting bloodlines in the studbook. Angel Eyes Hanover in turn is out of Angelina Hall, a Striking Sahbra half-sister to the vaunted Hall trio of siring brothers in Andover, Angus and Conway Hall as well as Emilie Cas El, the dam of world champion, Trixton.
The unraced Angelina Hall is the producer of seven winners from eight living foals, including the 2010 Breeders Crown 2YO Fillies Final runner up, Yankee Glide mare, Angelette Hanover (t2,1:56.3 – $317,892) and Like A Prayer mare, Annie Hall who was second in the $300,000 Kentucky Sires Stakes Final at three.
Ambassador Hanover’s third dam is the USA Hall Of Fame Immortal (2009) and Canadian Hall Of Fame (2020) inductee, Amour Angus. She needs little to no introduction with the aforementioned progeny having earned over $3.5million and her three siring sons producing the winners of nearly $300million in North America alone.
This is where the pedigree of Ambassador Hanover becomes otherworldly, littered with Rasmussen factor thanks to the duplications of champion producers and full siblings.
Through Chapter Seven, Ambassador Hanover’s grandsire is the great Conway Hall, the producer of over $100million in North American progeny earnings.
With his grand dam being a half-sister to Conway Hall, Ambassador Hanover is bred on a 4×3 reverse sex cross to Amour Angus.
Better yet, with his damsire being the great Cantab Hall, Ambassador Hanover is bred 4x4x3 to full sisters with Canne Angus, a full sister to Amour Angus, the grand dam of Cantab Hall.
He is also bred 5×5 to full siblings Victory Dream, the sire of Self Possessed and Dream On Victory, the dam of Dream Vacation showcasing the rare genetic mix of double copy mares and large heart sires pedigree buffs salivate over.
“There’s a big American influence in Italy and the Italian breeders have for quite some time been very good at importing some of the best modern bloodlines to Italy. Occasionally they will mix it up with the French blood, but at this point in time I would say the market is leaning more towards the American market,” said Nordin.
“I think his chances of succeeding in Europe and here in Italy are much higher than what they would have been in the United States and we plan on standing him for $4000 pay on live foal.
“They can breed 150 mares in Italy, but then of course you have the rest of Europe. However, given how late we are in securing the deal, we haven’t had time to test him for freezing in that respect but the early indications are his semen is very good,” he said.
He won’t be able to come over here until Christmas time at the earliest if we are lucky, which won’t give us much time to freeze him for other markets. Scandinavia primarily, Sweden, Finland, Denmark. But it’s all so new we haven’t considered that side of things much,” he said.
The Italian trotting market is going through a bit of a renaissance period at the moment with growing breeding numbers belying the stagnant nature of stake money in the region. However, International success has been in abundance with Vivid Wise As winning this year’s International Trot at Yonkers, while his stablemate Bengurion Jet was a strong third in the same race.
“Italian trotting has produced some great trotters over the years,” said Nordin.
“Varenne needs little introduction, Viking Kronos, the list goes on. They have had good horses on the international stage for quite some time. The betting hasn’t been great, but overall you still have a group of very enthusiastic breeders who are still supporting the game. Even though the purse money isn’t quite where it needs to be, the enthusiasts are still supporting the industry and the breed is going from strength to strength,” he said.
Kountry Lane Standardbreds principal, Ola Yoder, was delighted with the outcome for his former star and believes it to be in the best interests of all concerned.
“I am thrilled for the horse to be getting the opportunity he deserves, especially with such great people involved, and I just know he is going to be well looked after and accommodated which was very important to me,” said Yoder.
“Hopefully the Italian market receives him well, they should, after all he is beautifully bred and was a monster in the age group and open class trotting ranks in what were some very talented and deep racing crops over the last few seasons,” he said.
Nordin agrees and is looking forward to the horse arriving some time before Christmas if all goes to plan.
“I think Ambassador Hanover is going to be well received domestically and will do great job at stud and at the very least get a great shot at serving quality books and then it’s up to his progeny to perform,” he said.
by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink
