b4breeding

What a great year Bit Of A Legend N is having in North America. In April he won the Levy Final, then had a break late May and since winning a trial in early July he’s been highly consistent with two more wins and three seconds, mainly in $45,000 open handicaps at Yonkers. All in all, his North American winnings now total $610,950, which is almost exactly the same as his earnings down under before he was sold over there. So his total stakes are $1,270,636, and his record 1.51. As a 7yo, he still has another good season in him at least. That must rank him right up there with our most successful harness racing exports.

I was always a fan of his back here when Cran Dalgety trained him – a smallish horse with a big heart, and bred by Brian West from the family of Skipper’s Romance, who is a full sister to the very good racehorse and sire Nero. (And one of her sons is Seahawk Hanover who stood for many years in Australia.)

When I visited Brian in Christchurch back in 2013 I fell in love with a yearling filly from Bit Of A Legend’s half sister, A Legend. She was a dark, long bodied, leggy lass, with a tough nut head. The fact the filly was by Tintin In America, whom I bred, was another big plus of course. Read about that in a previous blog here. I bought a half share in her, and we named her Be A Legend.

She had a couple of preps and showed enough to keep us interested but was quite headstrong and needed a bit of time and patience. A year on, and after a long spell, she just wasn’t making much progress so we made a decision to change tack. I now have a racing lease with Craig (Spud) Crosse and we’ve brought her up to Arna Donnelly’s training stable in Cambridge.  She has thrived under Arna’s care, and over the last couple of months Arna has identified and improved quite a few issues she arrived with. I have to say the now 4yo mare is looking once again like the big, long bodied lovely individual I fell in love with three years ago! She’s also looking like a happy and settled horse, which is really important to me.

Be A Legend at Arna Donnelly’s barn after the workouts last Saturday 8 October

Last Saturday was her second look at the Cambridge workouts and after playing up behind the mobile arm, she flew off wide from the gate and showed gate speed to get from last to first in the first 200m. She bowled along nicely in front, handed up and then trucked home well for second behind an impressive Art Major 3yo filly called Artanne. The time was nothing, but they came home the last 400m in 28.1. Arna says she is still “a work in progress” but if we can keep finding improvement in her she will hopefully make an enjoyable race horse – and later provide a super platform to breed from.

Home straight at the Cambridge workouts 8 October 2016, with winner Artanne, followed by Be A Legend well ahead of the rest of the field.