Posted in Harness racing, Horses, Pedigree matching, Standardbred breeding, tagged Grinfromeartoear, Pure Power on October 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »
No fairy-tale ending for Pure Power’s career. The Methven Cup today saw him compete as usual but not finish off his race. The big boy’s career had already been signalled as probably over. (You have to ignore the sub editor who calls him a trotter in the headline. Sigh.)
He was, of course, a huge pacer by the sire Grinfromeartoear.
A gentle giant.
I am sure he will have a lovely retirement and give the kids many enjoyable rides.
Posted in Harness racing, Pedigree matching, Standardbred breeding, tagged Art Official, Live Or Die, Romola Hal on October 19, 2014| 2 Comments »
One of the best things about writing this blog is the sharing of information and experiences.
Blog followers Brian Cowley and Mike Finlayson both emailed me following my blog about Dreamy Romance, my newly acquired broodmare who has Romola Hal’s Tar Heel daughter Romantic Hanover in her maternal line (4th generation).
Brian and Mike have both bred from Light Of The South (Live Or Die x Natural Talker) who has Romantic Hanover’s full sister in her maternal line (6th generation). And of course through Live Or Die she has yet another connection to Romola Hal, as Live Or Die’s grandam Miss Romeo Waverly is a daughter of the sire Romeo Hanover, a son of Romola Hanover.
First some comments from Brian, who currently owns and breeds from Light Of The South:
I read your blog about Dreamy Romance with great interest. As I’ve mentioned previously, I have a colt (Articulight) by Art Official out of Light of the South that is rich in Romola Hal blood, too. I’ve attached his pedigree. The mare has just foaled a colt to Ohoka Arizona. The Ohoka Arizona colt out of Light of the South looks like he might grow into a tall individual though it’s hard to tell from a photo taken when he was only a day old. She is going back to Art Official. Articulight is nearing the end of his first preparation with Dean Taylor and he is pleased him. Articulight has some size about him and was quite headstrong at first but Dean worked patiently with him and he is much more responsive now. It would be nice to have qualifying behind him when he goes out but at this age time is the important factor. Dreamy Romance is beautifully bred. It’s almost too good to be true to have a full sister to Romola Hanover so close to the mare. You are going to have an enjoyable time matching her with appropriate sires.
Light of the South with Ohoka Arizona colt Oct 8 2014 – photo provided by Brian Cowley
Articulight with trainer Dean Taylor – photo provided by Brian Cowley
The PDF of Articulight’s pedigree can be viewed here: Articulight pedigree
Then I heard from Mike, who bred Light Of The South’s first foal, a filly by Art Major – which puts the cross to Romola Hanover at 5×6.
As Mike explains:
Have a look at Lyra Finn (Art Major – Light of the South) which I bred a few years ago. Was passed in at the Sales for $9K so I sent her to Ross Pike in Aussie to get her going. Didn’t amount to much so we gave her away as a hack. Could have brought her back to NZ and bred from her but we had too many mares……Interesting pedigree though. Bred back into the herd via a set of full sisters.This was just another experiment based on genetics rather than matching on type.. Let’s Talk Art is similarly bred and she did OK.
Lyra Finn as a yearling
Let’s Talk Art is the half sister to Light Of The South. She’s a 6-win ($48,525) 8yo mare by Art Major from Natural Talker. She is owned and bred by Mrs M E O’Brien and S A O’Brien. The O’Briens initially put her to Panspacificflight (slipped) and then to Bettor’s Delight. The Panspacificflight match would have been a return to more of the Romola Hal blood, as Panspacificflight shares a very similar maternal line to mare’s sire Art Major.
It is tempting to return to such fabulous genes. My breeding with Dreamy Romance will go in a slightly different direction, as I am more interested in finding genetic elements that click well with the Romola Hal line and with each other rather than duplicating the line itself.
But breeding back to great maternal lines is not to be scoffed at, even if all attempts don’t work out. It is a practice that has underpinned many of the most successful results in standardbred breeding over many years, just as much as line breeding to sires and outcrossing have played a role. As Mike Finlayson says, it reflects nature’s way of the top stallion breeding back into the herd.
Comments, other examples and ideas welcomed.
Posted in Harness racing, Pedigree matching, Standardbred breeding, tagged Driving The Dragon on October 18, 2014| 3 Comments »
Blog followers may remember Driving The Dragon (“Sam”) from previous blogs. She is now a 5yo mare but qualified as a 2yo and has always shown a lot of potential. She has only 9 race day starts. We had her on the market in April but a deal fell through at the last moment, so we decided to change tack – put her out for a good break and then jogged her up and sent her to Geoffrey Small so we could get a real line on her.
Things look good – this morning was only her second workout, and she has won both times. This morning’s win was a very clear cut 3 lengths (see photo) and she did is easily in 2.47.7, 58.5 last half and 28.1 last quarter. Both trainer Geoff and driver David Butcher were very happy with the run and like the mare. She’s matured into a lovely strong type with a good attitude.
She is on the market again, same price $15,000. Contact me on 027 2806569 or Kym Kearns, the owner, on 07 8274925. No lease agreements please.
She’s a good sized, talented maiden mare that will pay that back quickly and go on with it.
Driving The Dragon wins by 3 lengths at the Cambridge workouts today.
Driving The Dragon 5yo mare at Cambridge workouts 18 October.
Posted in Harness racing, Pedigree matching, Standardbred breeding, tagged Mr Feelgood on October 15, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Hola! Mr Feelgood is finally available in New Zealand, and after a few years when I would have loved to put a mare to him, right now I have nothing to offer.
But what a deal…very generous, if rather out-of-left-field, so if you do have a suitable mare, grab him, because
1. He is so well bred, his maternal line is classic.
2, He is so proven at all distances, all environments, here, Australia, America. A true world pacing champion.
3. He is a medium sized athletic sire, and a great outcross to many of our mares.
I would have put my best mare Zenterfold to him if this had been my turn at breeding, just on his own merits as much as the cross, regardless of the commercial appeal. That’s how much I like what he offers and what he proved on the track.
Check out my series about him by searching on Mr Feelgood or this blog which focuses on him as a potential sire.
Posted in Harness racing, Pedigree matching, Standardbred breeding, tagged Big Jim, Romola Hal on October 12, 2014| 1 Comment »
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.
Posted in Harness racing, Standardbred breeding on October 12, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The first of our foals was born on 14 September – a lovely filly from Kym’s 3-win trotting mare Toggle. Toggle is a half-sister to Sun Isa and at 9 years old this is her first foal, by Majestic Son. Photo taken when she is three weeks old.
She carries an unusual 6 x 4 cross to the sister and brother Baynie and Ayres, both by Star’s Pride from the great mare Arpege.
First foal from trotting mare Toggle
Posted in Harness racing, Pedigree matching, Standardbred breeding, tagged Destination Moon on October 11, 2014| 1 Comment »
I’m rapt – another win at Harrah’s Philadephia for Destination Moon (Grinfromeartoear-Zenterfold). A full brother to my nice mare The Blue Lotus.
This time in Destination Moon N went 1.52 flat, which is a personal best. He led pretty much from the start and set a good clip, and was not seriously threatened at any stage, and never switching off even though a times a couple of lengths clear of the field.
Apparently he did get the usual bugs when he first arrived in USA, and again just recently after his first couple of wins. They backed off him and he is obviously back to good health. He looks great.
Win number three for Destination Moon N at Harrah’s Philly on 9 October 2014, in 1.52.
Read one of my blogs about Destination Moon and his breeding here
Posted in Harness racing, Pedigree matching, Standardbred breeding, tagged Standardbred sires New Zealand on October 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Firstly, congratulations to the team that produce the annual Register of Standardbred Sires of New Zealand; it’s a great publication with a stack of information, not just for New Zealand sires. You can access it online here. (The other great source of information about sires, mares and progeny in New Zealand is the HRNZ Info Horse webpages here.)
I got back from holiday to find a copy of the Register in my letterbox – and one of the things that struck me most strongly was that almost every other page I turned was featuring a trotting sire. What a huge change we have seen in New Zealand over the past 5 or so years.
The main change for trotting is in the marketing (I won’t say “demand” because that is less proven at this stage) of European lines here, through frozen semen. There has always been a few, now and then. But “European bred trotting sires” is the new “black”, it seems. So everyone wants to have them in their shop window.
Let me do an overview of numbers, using the index of the Registrar as my “quick guide” to compare this season with five years ago:
Total number available 23
Frozen semen 11
Over $5000 service fee 4
Top service fee $US$22,500 for Muscles Yankee
Majestic Son parading at Alabar (Photo: Bee Pears)
Total number available 36
Frozen semen 26
Over $5000 service fee 7
Top service fee $NZ12,000 Muscle Hill
Total number available 54
NZ bred pacing sires 11
Frozen semen 4
Over $5000 service fee 14
Top service fee $NZ25,000 for Christian Cullen; $US17,000 for Rocknroll Hanover; $AUS15,000 for Somebeachsomewhere
American Ideal at Woodlands Stud. (Photo Bee Pears)
Total number available 44
NZ bred pacing sires: 17
Frozen semen 8
Over $5000 service fee 14
Top service fee $NZ12,000 for Bettor’s Delight
For many ordinary breeders, including myself, the new vast range of trotting sires on offer is a bit bewildering. Especially the European sires – we get better information now on what is happening in Europe, but you have to be a real trotting junkie with great broadband access (I fail on that count) to really keep well informed and familiar with the European trends. Where can we go for objective advice on what is a reasonable punt and what is a high risk option?
And then there is the familiar question: How well does a sire’s success in a totally different environment and breeding pool translate to our country? There are some interesting links to several of these newly available trotting sires through old classic and well proven bloodlines – I see Workaholic in several of them, whose dam Ah So is by Speedy Count who is quite an influential damsire in the pedigree of European trotters. And of course his sire Speedy Crown, and Super Bowl and his sire Star’s Pride appear regularly as well in the European/American mixed bred trotters.
Overall, you can probably quote the sports saying: Class is permanent, and form is temporary. The very best sires will probably succeed anywhere. (Although that has not always been the case with some top sires Downunder, as even Somebeachsomewhere is having a struggle getting traction as a sire in Australia, and a great sire like Life Sign didn’t seem to work with our mares!)
There is a wealth of choice out there this season. Go for it!
Posted in Harness racing, Pedigree matching, Standardbred breeding, tagged Captaintreacherous, Net Ten EOM, Panspacificflight, Romola Hal on September 30, 2014| 3 Comments »
The news that Captaintreacherous is retiring to stand at stud will create a lot of interest among breeders and studs in Australasia. I imagine there is already a lot of action behind the scenes to negotiate rights to him “downunder”. You would imagine Empire Stallions might have the inside draw for that race, as they stand his sire Somebeachsomewhere, and of course both father and son are standing at Hanover Farms in America.
For me, the most appealing thing about Captaintreacherous (in terms of his pedigree) is that he is a son of Worldly Treasure, rather than that he is a son of Somebeachsomewhere. See my previous blog about his maternal family which is an exciting branch of the great Romola Hal clan.
Another son of Somebeachsomewhere with an outstanding maternal line is the new kid on the block at Macca Lodge in New Zealand, Net Ten EOM (which translated means “payment ten days after end of month”). He shares his maternal line with the excellent sire Well Said, and it has class all over it. Many top performing fillies like his dam Glowing Report and her dam Grand Lady struggle to duplicate their success in the breeding barn, but this maternal line is one where performance in both departments is deep. He is available for just $3000, and although he only raced 17 times, almost entirely as a 3yo, he took a record of 1.49.4 and raced under 1.50 three times, before retiring with an injury. Definitely worth a look.
Of course Macca Lodge also stands Panspacificflight, who like Captaintreacherous is from a branch of Romola Hal, in fact from a full sister to Art Major’s dam.
Posted in Harness racing, Pedigree matching, Standardbred breeding on September 22, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Many of you will already know Harness Racing Update – the online newsletter that covers news and views of US standardbred racing at the main tracks.
If not, it is well worth a read.
Although the emphasis is on racing, there is plenty of interest for breeders such as the breeding of the winners and place getters in current racing, and some good interviews with owners and trainers about specific horses, as well as insights into the controversies and issues in the northern hemisphere.
The link is here and subscribing is free.
b4breeding 