b4breeding

Dean Baring and his colleagues in Australia have pulled off a very good website that builds on their Facebook page/forum as a place to go for thoughtful, intelligent and independent views on the harness racing industry and breeding.

harnessbred website a new place to find good stuff about harness racing “downunder”

Congratulations! Well worth checking this out at www.harnessbred.com

Love the low key videos making chatty announcements that have a really nice positive flow to them, without being the “PR-speak” of any organisation. However I would like to see a bit more transparency about who the website team is and how they got here – for those who don’t know the story.

Two news articles that attracted my attention for starters:

• Peter Craig is acting as the NZ link for the website – this is someone who knows the detailed analysis of breeding
• About the sires that “cross the lines” between pacing and trotting – and an interesting example of a pacing-bred horse (On Thunder Road) being a natural and very good trotter (by Bettor’s Delight) – we’ve looked at these crossovers on my blog too and it is always a good reminder to let a horse tell us what they can do best. Realmein, Blitzthemcalder and many others – and a few Bettor’s Delights and Elsus are going around as square gaiters at the moment. I like the way Harnessbred is developing this into a series, and will follow with interest.

And also a series of well produced video clips that show their approach to stallion profiling, which is a mix of pedigree and performance, nicely wrapped up, perhaps lacking in a bit a back up re the mare’s pedigree and other factors that would best suit a sire.  That is easy to fix – a link to the website that might provide some more detailed analysis of the breeding and other factors that your mare might add, but not canvas the whole spectrum of mares as many of the studs’ websites tend to do, just to make sure your mare is somehow on the list!!

Their first sire analysis is on Western Terror.

The best thing about Dean’s website and Facebook page is that it is determined to find a good future for harness racing. It’s committed, and some frustration with the current industry has not stopped his team coming up with a very active and independent news site.

It complements Harnesslink and from the USA Harness Racing Update newsheet as good places to go when you want independent, interesting, sometimes opinionated but always thoughtful, articles about our beloved industry. None of the nitpicking, point-scoring forums of old, or the paid-for-advertising promotions.

I’ve found myself lately needing a renewal of energy to keep coming up with a positive and fresh approach to the industry, having just had the “soft looking brick wall” reaction to my latest efforts in New Zealand by those who control these debates. So I am delighted to see Dean’s website adding to the mix of people pushing constructive ideas and views across the industry and across countries.

Stimulating. Interesting. Informative. We are unstoppable! (I’m tempted to invent a super hero called Harness Man, but I think that might attract websites we don’t want as sponsors lol.)

Subscribe to www.harnessbred.com

It has my warm recommendation.

Meanwhile don’t forget to tune into www.b4breeding.com now and then to get that quirky, in depth, and definitely independent view of harness racing breeding – and an encouragement personally for those who want to get into breeding.

You are welcome to contact me direct as many do, on bee.raglan@xtra.co.nz

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Nostalgic means looking back with yearning affection to the past. But my new mare Nostalgic Franco is all about me looking to the future with interest.

I managed to tie my hands behind my back and not buy a weanling at the recent Weanling and All Aged sales in Auckland and Christchurch….but I couldn’t resist this mare.

Nostalgic Franco

She’s from a family that has been well regarded and has produced some classy horses. Her dam’s half sister Nevermore was a very good 2yo filly whose career went through to 4yo and ended up with $124,712. Other good ones from the close family are Franco Nester, Chancellor Cullen, and Natal Franco (who is the dam of the 3yo Art Major filly Princess Arts).

As Don Wright wrote in the Southland Times in 2012 in an article about Franco Nelson, who is from a branch of the wider family:

If bloodlines count for anything, the boom youngster has much to live up to, being out of Notafella Franco, a Falcon Seelster mare from the stout branch of the Trilby taproot that produced two New Zealand Cup winners in world harness racing’s first millionaire Cardigan Bay and Globe Bay.

Franco Nelson has gone on to win over half a million, including a second to Adore Me in last year’s New Zealand Cup.

The family has become quite sprawling in its branches, and as usual not all of them will fire consistently. Many seem to produce just one really good one, but there is enough in the deeper and wider family to catch my interest. Will this branch throw up some really top horses? That’s my challenge.

Nostalgic Franco is a 13yo mare by Rustler Hanover out of a Falcon Seelster mare. Rustler Hanover is a son of the great mare Rich N Elegant and with bloodlines to die for as a damsire. He has clicked well with Falcon Seelster mares in America (of the 16 foals on that cross, 25% of them have won $100,000+).

Nostalgic Franco had a win and a couple of placings from just 8 races and showed a bit of ability before she threw herself on the track one day and hurt her back. She was put aside to heal, and with the numbers of new ones coming along at Spreydon Lodge, she never was a priority to get back to the races and ended up being bred from. She’s had 7 foals, 5 of racing age, for 3 to race and 2 winners to date, including 7-win Franco Nadal (although he is an accumulator rather than a brilliant horse). Franco Nikau (Lis Mara) won his first three races for Steven Reid and Simon McMullan, but he struggled a bit since going up in the grades or maybe he has some niggles. There are some potentially nice ones in the pipeline like the Bettor’s Delight 4yo mare who qualified very well late last year, a couple of Changover fillies, and a Gotta Go Cullen weanling. So apart from the Bettor’s Delight, it is very much a Nevele R/Spreydon Lodge pedigree.

What really sold me on Nostalgic Franco is that she’s in foal to Tintin In America, and if you look at that match you can see why I might be interested. Normally I don’t go for simplistic double-ups, but these are very nice ones and beautifully structured. I have already bred a Rustler Hanover mare Sophie’s Choice to Tintin In America and we’ve got a strong, well conformed weanling colt (ownership shared with Lynda Mellsop and Ann Claridge).

So for just $1,150 I’ve got a well-bred mare in foal to a sire that I think will really suit. She’s based at Macca Lodge with my other mare Dreamy Romance, who is due to foal to Big Jim.

Where to with Nostalgic Franco this coming season? I’m taking a close look at the newcomer Sunshine Beach as a match – I’d be interested in what you think.

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