Lovely Lot 128 Alta Leonie looks me in the eye at the 2015 yearling sales.
Let me first take you back to the 2015 Karaka yearling sales – and one of the fillies that really caught my eye was the sole Big Jim representative, Lot 128 Alta Leonie (breeder Tony Dickinson) out of the Road Machine mare Thanks Anita. Big, black and beautiful, in my blog at the time I wrote “..the Big Jim filly was huge but will have an exceptional reach if you are willing to wait just a year”.
She sold for just $7000 to Dave Higgins who, with his good friend David Marshall (Cambridge trainer and father of Kyle) picked out two yearlings and got them both. The other was a colt Lot 94, an Art Official son of Okay Matao, and again the only representative of his sire in that sale. That colt, called G B Maverick (breeder Mr J I G and Mrs S G Taylor) was bought for just $8000.
What would the odds be that two “cheapie” yearlings would be showing up as talented 2yos with enough ability to go 8 seconds under qualifying time at the workouts today?
G B Maverick, 2yo Art Official colt at the Cambridge workouts 18 June 2016
Alta Leonie, 2yo Big Jim filly at the Cambridge workouts 18 June 2016
Yes, what a difference a year can make.
While neither won the workout, that’s not the point. They both ran very well, with the colt showing more race nous and the filly a bit green. Both finished off their race really nicely.
Afterwards I caught up with Dave Higgins, who has a close personal association with Cambridge Raceway and harness racing, even though his current role is as the president of Racing Te Aroha and in recent years most of his runners have been gallopers. He’s just got out of his last galloper, as the cost of racing them is just too high. Back in 2015 he had seen how David Marshall was making a good go of improving tried racehorses brought up from the South Island, and he reckoned Marshall deserved a chance with something younger and better. Hence the hand was raised at the yearling sale auction. Now, with a few of his mates brought in on ownership, the filly and colt look to have been very astute buys and will provide a heap of enjoyment.
Watching the Big Jim filly bowl around this morning, you could see she has grown even bigger, but Marshall points out the the growing has been really even. She would be closing in on 16hh as a late 2yo, and the length of her stride is impressive. With a bit more strength and experience, she’s definitely going to develop into a lovely 3yo and later a big, bold mare. She takes after her sire Big Jim in her dark good looks and, like him, although she is tall and long-legged there is nothing heavy boned about her.
Dave lost his wife to cancer, and is proudly sentimental in giving Alta Leonie her name as a stable name.
The Art Official colt is medium sized and had a very professional attitude in his race. Art Official is gone as a sire, at least in any truly commercial sense. His offspring here were all over the place in terms of size and type and ability. Probably the best of the NZ-bred Art Officials is Grump Possum, now racing in Australia as Ima Grumpy Possum and has 7 wins and 9 places from 29 starts and just over $40,000 in stakes. G B Maverick comes from a good family – Pat Hanover/Miss Burnside/Okay Matao (herself a really nice race filly, and the half sister of Missy Matao who is the dam of Carpenters Daughter).
Alta Leonie as a yearling – already tall and has grown since.
Tony and Val Dickinson of Alta Breeding are very astute breeders as I have often noted, so I dived into Alta Leonie’s pedigree to see what the fit with Big Jim looks like from a pedigree matching perspective – and it is interesting. Thanks Anita’s sire Road Machine brings in the line of Vacation Time which I’ve already mentioned in my blog on my match of Big Jim and my mare Dreamy Romance. Different descending lines from Vacation Time (who is from the U7 family) are in both Big Jim’s and Road Machine’s maternal line. There’s a different strain of U7 coming in from Thanks Anita’s great-grandam Big Softie who is by Nevele Bigshot, a son of Romola Hanover.
Thanks Anita’s grandam is Kind Hearted (dam of NZ Cup winner Gracious Knight), and her sire Rashad brings in my old mate Shadow Wave and also another influence of the U2 family (in particular the Spinster/Old Maid links). It is interesting to track back the influence of the great U2/U4 cross in Thanks Anita’s dam Kind Martar, as there are a stack of them in the background, and it comes in again with Road Machine via Warm Breeze.
On the face of it, it is quite an outcross, but digging deeper there are very nice elements in the match.
All the best to Dave Higgins, his co-owners and to David Marshall’s team with these nice youngsters.
b4breeding 
we have a very nice Art Official yearling from a Bettors Delight 1/2 sister to Sweet Talking Man that we brought at the yearling sales this year for $3000 and it broke in extremely well. It has the head space of a four year old is so sensible and quick to learn and is home for six weeks before it goes back to Jay’s for its second prep
Just out of interest Art Official is leaving a winner each week in Aussie at present
Yes, but in terms of making a mark commercially it is not adding up. I checked the Aussie bred Art Official stats and from his 4yo crop (his oldest) he had 3 from 7 named foals that have done ok (earning around 50k, 45k, and 30k to date), from his 3yo crop of 17 named foals only one has got to 15k to date, and he has just one winner from his 2yo crop. So although he may be leaving winners, in Australia very few are doing so at top tracks or in a consistent fashion. Like many sires who cannot stamp there foals, there are always a few that will make it and many that will give owners some degree of satisfaction. But commercial? No, he is not a commercial sire now. That is not bagging him – he was a beautiful, very fast racehorse with a nice pedigree that might have suited down under mares.
Just looked at the USTA stats and what successful crosses Art Official has had – and in terms of consistency his best results have been with Jate Lobell and Western Ideal and Western Hanover mares.
Hell unless you are talking about the yearling sales what is commercial – commercial is winning races and getting good money for up and going horses.
We are two pre-occupied in NZ with the next fad rather than what works.
Just out of interest I have had one offer to date for this yearling gelding of $20k but if I can get him running along a 1/2 in 60 1/4 in 30 I will get double that to NSW through bloodstock agent contacts I have over there
Good on you for breeding what sounds like a really nice yearling. Would love the name of your agent! Obviously he/she knows the market over there and what type of horse will be attractive to buyers.
If you read my response, you will have noted that I was talking about the sire being commercial, not some of his individual talented progeny. A commercial sire is one that the market (i.e. many buyers) are willing to pay a premium on, because of the proven (sometimes potential) record of the sire. Although this applies mainly at yearling sales, it does also apply to many other horses sold elsewhere, and of course to the service fees that any breeder is willing to pay. Most buyers of up and running horses will pay on potential ability that is shown, and are less concerned about the parentage. An example of that was the big price paid for Tintin In America’s son, the late Zee Dana. We sold a mare over to America and she was by Sutter Hanover, but she won 5 races and proved she had ability so she was “commercial” – but that doesn’t make Sutter Hanover a commercially successful sire.
I disagree about “fads”. Actually I wish buyers were more interested in the next fad, because many of them are content to stick with proven sires for ages, thus taking away the chance for new sires to have a go with decent mares or a good number of suitable mares.
Again, I am not dissing Art Official or the good ones he has left. Or those breeders who have tried him and perhaps found a good match for their mare.
We didn’t breed it we purchased it solely on spec at the sales as it was such a nice walker and was not fattened up so you could see what you were getting and Jay checked it out for us.
Check out the pedigree page
art major is not a sire of sires more a broodmare sire like his brother perfect art
[…] Impressive result from Alta Leonie to go 8 seconds under the qualifying time at the Cambridge workouts on 18 June. Bee Pears writes ” Watching the Big Jim filly bowl around this morning, you could see she has grown even bigger, but Marshall points out the the growing has been really even. She would be closing in on 16hh as a late 2yo, and the length of her stride is impressive. With a bit more strength and experience, she’s definitely going to develop into a lovely 3yo and later a big, bold mare.” Read more on Bee’s blog here. […]