b4breeding

It is a big deal for me (as a small time breeder) to take on a new mare. However I couldn’t resist this opportunity that I stumbled across when checking out the Canterbury Standardbred Mixed Sale results after I got back from holiday.

One of the many mares passed in at the sale was Dreamy Romance, a 12yo big (16h) Dream Away mare who never raced and has progeny by Julius Caesar, Tuapeka Knight and Klondike Kid. Her damsire is No Nukes.

It’s only when I looked deeper into her pedigree and her progeny that I saw something that was very appealing and, as they say, worth a wee punt.

Fifth on her maternal line is the great mare Romola Hal – she sits in the same spot on Art Major’s maternal line and appears in the pedigree of many top horses. Read here a Harnesslink article from 2008 that provides an overview of the Romola Hal/Romola Hanover family. Romola Hanover also pops up in the maternal pedigree of Live Or Die and others via her son Romeo Hanover. It’s a classic family now, one that was famous in its day and is coming alive again thanks largely to the efforts of Romola Hanover’s grand-daughter Rodine Hanover. See a previous blog of mine here

Dreamy Romance’s fourth dam is Romantic Hanover, a full sister (by Tar Heel) to Romola Hanover.

I have got my work cut out to bring this branch of the great family alight, but there is more hope than it looks like at first glance.  Dreamy Romance’s dam is Romantic II so that makes her a half sister to the good racehorse Roymark and to Rachel Romance, the dam of the tough under-rated Beyond The Silence, winner of the The Air Vanuatu Holmes DG Handicap Pace on Friday night (beating Pembroke Benny and Easy On The Eye) and also winner of the Auckland Spring Cup in September.

Also the mare’s two Tuapeka Knight colt foals both qualified at 2yo, and trainer Kirsten Barlcay likes what she sees in the big Klondike Kid 3yo filly who is coming up to qualify. Owner/breeder Bill Keeler last sent Dreamy Romance to American Ideal for a 2yo filly that he is jogging up currently and really likes.

Bill got Dreamy Romance from Sir Roy McKenzie when he was tidying up his estate and cutting back on his stock. Although unraced, she had jogged up well and was a good pacer herself, but hopes of qualifying and racing were dashed by a re-occurring hoof abscess.

This season I hope to get her in foal to Big Jim (see pedigree match below). There are many compatibilities in the match that I really like, apart from the obvious double ups. Sonsam (4×5) is interesting and sent me to John Bradley’s wonderful book Modern Pacing Sires Lines to find out more about that horse.  The obvious danger is that both the mare and sire are tall horses, but from what I’ve seen Big Jim is leaving athletic types and not heavy boned types. In the years ahead I would like to try some quality smaller sires that match well with her pedigree, including Bettor’s Delight who seems to be crossing well with Dream Away mares (e.g. Tiger Tara) and Rock N Roll Heaven who is a very nice match with this mare.

Dreams are free – well, this one was not expensive at all and will be a new adventure for me as a breeder.

The mare will be at Macca Lodge, not far from her present home.