b4breeding

Many names that breeders and owners find in their horses’ pedigrees trace back to the American mare Shy Ann. She was born around the same time as Old Maid, On Time and Lady Scotland, all of whom have a higher profile.
However her family is held in high regard. She has a special place ‘down under’ where over many generations members of Shy Ann’s family have become frequent flyers and appear in many different ways in our standardbred pedigrees.
She may be shy, but she gets around a bit.

Urgent Need, descended from Adios Betty’s daughter Tarport Karen. At 27 years old Urgent Need is still in great condition.

Let me mention some of the very diverse pedigrees she can be found in (in alphabetical order): Alleluia, Beach Towel, Buster Hanover, Caressable, Exotic Earl, Flashing Red, Itsonlyforyou, Kiwi Ingenuity, Miles McCool, Mr Molly, Noodlum, Nearea Franco, Pure Power, Real Desire, Scotch Notch…. to name but a few.
She straddles time, geography and even gait. Her strength lies in some key branches of her producing daughters, and some of those are experiencing a great revival recently in New Zealand. At the end of this article I list several that are in the 2014 New Zealand Sales of the Stars yearling catalogue. You can’t get more current than that.
Shy Ann was born in USA in 1943. She was a daughter of Cardinal Prince from a mare called Bid Hanover, neither of them names that stand out in lights, although Cardinal Prince was a very well regarded racehorse who also appears in the maternal pedigree of Presidential Ball and Camluck. Bid Hanover’s sire Sandy Flash is a son of the great mare Miss Bertha Dillon, the founder of one of the all-time best producing families.
Shy Ann is special more for the family she foundered, than her own background. Technically, she is part of the Lida family (and family U24), but in modern times it is really the Shy Ann family. She has done all the hard work and deserves the credit.
It is an inheritance of early and high speed, strong male racehorses, fast fillies and some great producing mares.
Her most obvious claim to fame is as the dam of Adios Betty (by Adios) who was the first 2yo filly ever to go under two minutes for a mile. In turn, Adios Betty went on to produce some very successful racehorses and broodmares.
However Shy Ann did more than produce Adios Betty. Shy Ann had 12 foals including seven daughters. The most significant branches in the longer term have been through her daughters, in particular Suave Hanover and Adios Betty, but we also know two of her sons (Captain Adios and Dick Adios) and several of her grandsons, and many of her descendants as sires ‘down under’.

The girls

Shy Annie and her 2013 foal, an Art Major colt, so full brother to Alleluia. Shy Annie is a 10 yo half sister to Urgent Need, and was Sudden Urge II’s last foal.

Shy Ann’s daughters are the engine room of this family.

Suave Hanover’s grand-daughter Sunburn is the dam of Beach Towel, and Sunburn also had No Paba, imported to New Zealand and the dam of the very good Nearea Franco ($441,405).
Adios Betty, Shy Ann’s sensational daughter, left some fine colts who were later tried as sires, but longer term it is the families of Adios Betty’s daughters that resonate down the years, the best being:

• Tarport Martha (and her daughters Racing Date and Dateable).
• Tarport Karen (and her daughters Tempted and Caressable, the latter a champion mare winning over a million dollars, while the former leads to the Sudden Urge II family we are familiar with in New Zealand, mainly through the patient breeding efforts of Chris and Tina Barlow and the producing mare Urgent Need).
• And to a lesser extent Tarport Lib (1:56.2 $144,146) who was a very good racehorse herself.

Many daughters of Shy Ann and their descendants have contributed in one way or another, with the female lines usually throwing up a few $100,000-plus stakes winning horses in the first couple of generations and $400,000-plus ones in the first four or five generations in different parts of the world. Shy Ann’s daughter Sheena Hanover, for example, is the fourth dam of Mr Molly ($265,980), Spirit of Zeus’s very good son, and is the third dam of American racehorse and Australian sire Exotic Earl ($412,165).
An article like this cannot hope to present a clear picture of such a wide-ranging family. To get the full scope of this family I strongly recommend using the Classic Families free software programme available on Peppertree Farm’s website. This is a brilliant way to get an overall picture of any producing family, with key performers clearly identified. Simply enter “Shy Ann” in the search and explore the family in detail using the Descendants tab.

The boys

Shy Ann’s family has produced many really good male racehorses – I’m talking about million dollar earners Magical Mike and Historic, 2yo Breeder’s Crown winner Digger Almahurst, and world champion Trenton, for example, as well as many others winning in the $100,000 to $500,000 stakes range. Some have been well-regarded sires, however none have converted their racetrack success or pedigree into outstanding siring success or established a siring line yet. The best would probably be Magical Mike, North American sire of the $4 million dollar champion Gallo Blue Chip and many other very good horses in the late 1990s and 2000s.
The family’s siring endeavours started through two of Shy Ann’s sons – Dick Adios and Captain Adios. They both stood ‘down under’ as sires in the 1950s and 1960s.
Dick Adios, had 42 winners as a sire and 108 as a damsire in New Zealand. He was at stud in Australia from the early 1960s to 1975, and had just over 400 foals there for 164 winners as a sire and 235 winners as a damsire, one of the best being Rockleigh Victory ($368,303) from the good producer Rockleigh Gal. He wasn’t a top sire by any means, but he sired enough winners consistently to earn a reasonable reputation. Many of his progeny found a good market in America. There will still be many families in Australia where Shy Ann pops up via this son.
Captain Adios stood in New Zealand only. He was rated highly by Royden Stud – he was the last American horse targeted for siring duties by Sir John McKenzie before he died and the first one bought by his son Roy soon after. Captain Adios had been trained and driven by Delvin Miller and was a top two-year-old of his season, winning two major stakes races. Just a few years before his sister Adios Betty had broken the two minute mark for a mile, and of course his own sire Adios was really popular at that stage, so all the portents looked good. Unfortunately Captain Adios was injured and died after only three years at Royden Stud, but in that time he sired the good Jay Ar and Garcon D’Or, and Adio Star (dam of Bionic Star), and Deft (dam of Noodlum). He was also the sire of Spike Darling whose only real claim to fame is as the sire of Buster Hanover’s dam – that’s Broomfield Ann, a trotting family is still going well through Cipollini, Mercx and Schleck. Captain Adios’ record in this country as a sire was 14 winners in his three years at stud, and 77 winners as a damsire. It’s really hard to tell from those statistics whether his potential on paper and pedigree would have become a reality.
Noodlum’s popularity as a sire and damsire ensures Captain Adios’ name pops up in the ‘back story’ pedigrees of some of our good performers and good producers such as Miss Piggy (dam of Homin Hosed), Burgundy Lass (dam of Il Vicolo, family of Stunin Cullen, Coburg) and of course Kahlum (dam of Lyell Creek).

Other sires from the family

The family has continued to be a source of second tier sires ‘down under’.
Smooth Hanover was a foal from Shy Ann’s daughter Suave Hanover. He was imported by Des Baynes and stood in Southland in the late 1970s/early 1980s and later moved to Australia. He is the sire of Happy Hooker (the “Wicklow” family) and damsire of the very good Comedy Lad.
Adios Betty’s son Tarport Coulter (one of the lesser performed of her sons) was standing in New Zealand around the same time. Other sons of Adios Betty to stand at stud (mainly in Australia) were Tarport Kid and Tarport Adios. One of Tarport Kid’s best credits as a damsire is the outstanding trotting mare Scotch Notch who won the Inter-Dominion Trotters Final and the Group 1 Dominion Trot in 1983 in New Zealand.

$2.5million dollar earner We Will See, who is now standing at Warwick Farm, Australia, is from the Adios Betty line.

Miles McCool, who traces back to Adios Betty’s daughter Tarport Martha, stood here from the mid 1990s and then moved to Australia in 2001. He was a full brother to Magical Mike, and sired a few fast ones here like Hunka Hickling and Napolean, and has got some good credits as a damsire including the Oaks, Breeders Stakes and Queen Of Hearts winner Kiwi Ingenuity. His sons in particular seemed to get better with age and found a good market in Australia and considerable success in North America.
As mentioned earlier Australian sire Exotic Earl, who was quite prominent in the mid 1990s and early 2000s, traces back to Shy Ann’s daughter Sheena Hanover. There have been other sires, too, like Wingspread and Sharvid Adios (who were both descended from Adios Betty’s daughter Tarport Rose), Knightly Urge (descended from Adios Betty’s daughter Tarport Karen), and Motu Mister Smooth whose second dam Cirrus, a daughter of Dick Adios, was a Southland Broodmare of the Year. In Australia sire Digger Almahurst was a grandson of Tarport Martha.
Trenton, son of Tempted and grandson of Tarport Karen, pops up in the maternal line of Real Desire. And Courvoisier, the damsire of the great Flashing Red, is a son of Tarport Lib. Tarport Lib was a very good race mare herself, and her line in New Zealand also traces down to the Send Me An Angel / Angel In New York family.
Many of these male horses had earned plenty of respect and stake money on the racetrack, but would fairly be described as second-tier sires. None have really impacted on the breed and our pedigrees in the same way that Bachelor Hanover and Dancer Hanover did for The Old Maid, or Good Time did for On Time, or Storm Damage and Race Time have done for Lady Scotland. Yes, Beach Towel and sons Jenna’s Beach Boy and Sands A Flyin have had moderate success as sires, and as a damsire sire Beach Towel has become part of the family of Somebeachsomewhere and many other top performers. Real Desire is a successful sire in America although under-rated and still finding his feet ‘down under’, and he has a top son Tell All ($1,568,183) standing at Empire Stallions in Victoria, but I would say the Golden Miss maternal line is a stronger influence in both father and son from a pedigree perspective.
More recently, two other well-bred and race-proven sires with Shy Ann connections are having a shot at success in Australia – BGs Folly (by Artsplace) is now standing as a sire at Mountain View Stud in Victoria, and is descended from Tarport Lib. Also in Victoria, the very good We Will See ($2,549,409) by Western Hanover, arrived at Warwick Stud mid-2013. He traces back through Racing Date to Tarport Martha.
Through the years there have been some attempts to breed back to the family through sires/damsires and maternal lines, but there appears to be no magic nick in that respect. For those interested, check out the mares Inspiration (dam of Lot 109, Karaka) and River Towel (dam of Lot 8, Karaka) as two that have successfully duplicated the family connection.

The Kiwi connections today

16yo Gentle Audrey (Artsplace x Caressable) with her current filly foal by Rocknroll Hanover, a half sister to the Lot 113 Bettor’s Delight yearling.

As you can see, New Zealand has had plenty of connection with this family over the years (and
Australia maybe more so), including imported mares from America who have founded families here.
Shy Ann’s descendants are leaving left top quality current racehorses. Perhaps the most recent star is Alleluia, the son of Shy Annie (a tip o’ the hat to Shy Ann), who is a daughter of Sudden Urge II. Another current success is Pure Power. Yet another is the very good filly (Its)Onlyforyou.
Let’s bring this family right up to date, by looking at the 2014 yearling sales in New Zealand. The catalogue includes (through sire, damsire or maternal line connection) a significant number of yearlings with Shy Ann in their blood.
For space reasons, I haven’t included the many with Noodlum appearing as a damsire somewhere along the line, or where Real Desire appears as a sire.

Australasian Classic at Karaka

• Lot 7 Eyes On The Money (via Send Me An Angel/Tarport Lib)
• Lot 8 River Max (via Smooth Hanover and Beach Towel)
• Lot 15 Alta Valencia (via Beach Towel)
• Lot 24 She’s An Angel (via Sudden Urge II)
• Lot 31 Wicklow Star (via Smooth Hanover)
• Lot 67 Lemod (via Broomfield Ann)
• Lot 76 Zadaka (via Beach Towel)
• Lot 85 Onceinabluemoon (via Urgent Need)
• Lot 93 Angel Of Destiny (via Urgent Need)
• Lot 103 Sophisticated Lady (via Caressable)
• Lot 109 Almighty (via Urgent Need)
• Lot 113 Big Girl Betty (via Caressable)
• Lot 131 Bartali (via Broomfield Ann)
• Lot 137 Soulmate (via Urgent Need)
• Lot 141 Boss Man (via No Paba)

Premier at Christchurch

• Lot 151 Willie Smith (via Beach Towel)
• Lot 199 Don’t Pass I’m Fast (via Wingspread)
• Lot 202 Milehigh Magic (via Tarport Coulter)
• Lot 230 Hi Delight (via Captain Adios)
• Lot 280 Motu Romper Stomper (via Motu Mister Smooth), by Real Desire
• Lot 320 Motu Great Sensation (via Motu Mister Smooth)
• Lot 343 Michelangelo (via Wingspread)

This is not a complete list by any means. The point is: many horses of the future (in the yearling sale or not) will have Shy Ann running through their veins.
Maternal lines are like a river. Some tributaries are consistent in their flow, others soon dry up, some are never given a real chance, and others go underground for a while and wait for someone to tap into the aquifer.
Frank Marrion has published a good article in the New Zealand Harness Weekly of November 7, 2013 which tracks Highfields Bloodstock’s (Chris and Tina Barlow) commitment to this family, which is well worth a read, in terms of the patience, belief and thought required to see quality come through.
If you strike it right, you may tap into this family and find a well of quality that has its head water back in the 1940s with a wonderful mare called Shy Ann.