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Posts Tagged ‘Somebeachsomewhere’

Crosses with Bettor’s Delight mares – Dot continues the sharing on this subject

Posted in Standardbred breeding, tagged , on December 10, 2015| 4 Comments »

Hi everyone, I am still working on a few blogs but the day job, spring jobs after work and a “mobile broadband” that behaves like dial-up are conspiring against timely delivery. So thankfully Dot Schmidt from Australia has come to my rescue with further observations on the interesting discussion we’ve had about Bettor’s Delight as a future damsire, which was originally kicked off by David Sinclair:

I think you’ll find and we will continue to find that Somebeachsomewhere (SBSW) will hold pride of place over Bettor’s Delight (BD) mares. Of course it’s easy enough to nominate a leading sire, but BDs pedigree, being a Cam Fella grandson, with a dam by an Abercrombie/Most Happy Fella horse (MHF), second dam by Albatross is well suited to SBSW. SBSWs sire Mach Three’s dam is Abercrombie over MHF over Bret Hanover, and SBSW second dam is by Cam Fella who is MHF over Bret Hanover.

Only a small sample (9) still in the U.S. so more needed to validate but 89% $50k, 1:55 winners, and 67% 100k winners.

Downunder I can only find 4 live foals older then current 2yos and one of those is (Our) Waikiki Beach $510k, 153:7. Of course it’s not all about being out of a Bettor’s Delight mare; his second dam is by Albert Albert, a cross with Bettor’s Delight that enjoys plenty of success and he is from a female family that has produced stars such as Chandon and Salinger in the past.

Although not in the class of SBSW and unproven as a sire as yet Sir Lincoln with his very similar pedigree and presumably good access in NZ wouldn’t surprise if he succeeded with BD mares which for many people would be a much more affordable option to breed or buy. (Bee’s comment: 5 yearlings to date on the Sir Lincoln x Bettor’s Delight cross, you can check this out on the HRNZ website, search on Sir Lincoln and filter his progeny on damsires).

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Some sons somewhere

Posted in Harness racing, Pedigree matching, Standardbred breeding, tagged , , , , , on May 24, 2015| 1 Comment »

It’s an interesting development just how quickly sons of Somebeachsomewhere have appeared on the scene – and especially interesting here in New Zealand where the sire himself is still struggling to get any long-term traction. His mares/live foals statistics to date here are: 2010 16/4; 2011 13/4; 2012 1/1; 2013 75/56; 2014 88/34 (but “no returns” yet); and last season he served 35 mares. There have been reasons for these figures including some issues with his frozen semen. However they also reflect a “stand back and see” attitude that happens with some top new sires but not others, and it isn’t always easy to pick why. Art Major has had the same battle, but overcoming it now. There’s also been reports from “across the ditch” (i.e. Australia) that his progeny have been quite hard to get going. Of course rumours are always a challenge for sires and can be the final straw in some cases. But there was some indication that, with our different style of racing and training, and different breeds of mares, Somebeachsomewhere was not a “given”.

As can happen, it is likely a son of Somebeachsomewhere may pick up support and breeders’ interest skip over a “puzzle” in favour of one of his sons who is more readily available and perhaps has a maternal pedigree that appeals more with our mares.

So far it looks like we may have access to three sons (although I have not heard anything yet to confirm Captain Treacherous’ availability downunder).

The others are Alabar’s Sunshine Beach, and Macca Lodge’s Net Ten EOM. The latter is less proven, although obviously had a heap of talent. The other two raced at the top end for a couple of years at least, and Captain Treacherous was magnificent as a 3yo.

What these three have in common is a very strong maternal pedigree that offers some real potential in matching with our mares. And perhaps this is the area that Somebeachsomewhere found trickiest with us – Beach Towel and Cam Fella are both highly respected here, but are not seen as types that have worked particularly well with our types of mares.

Captain Treacherous is from the stunning Romola Hal family, and one of its most brilliant branches. He’s closely related to Art Major, Perfect Art and Panspacificflight. His damsire is Artsplace and his grandamsire is Nihilator, one of the toughest high-speed machines we have seen. My favourite engine-room sires are stacked in his bottom lines – Big Towner, Shadow Wave, Tar Heel. I’ve blogged about Captain Treacherous as a sire and his maternal line previously – check it out here

I covered Net Ten EOM in that same blog – his maternal line is a less spectacular but extremely solid one. He was a very quick horse himself but retired from injury before making his mark on the big stage. His damsire is Artsplace and his grandamsire is Matt’s Scooter. It is the same maternal line as Well Said ($2.5m), and it is a family that has crossed well with Artsplace (and then to the Western Hanover line in the case of Well Said). In his first season here as frozen semen at Macca Lodge he got 32 mares. I’m impressed by his credentials and the ability of Brent McIntyre to suss out a very interesting and well-bred sire who could work well here (as Panspacificflight is looking like he will be).

Sunshine Beach is the latest announcement from Alabar.  Sunshine Beach is also from an Artsplace mare. It is interesting how all of them are from an Artsplace mare – and you may recall the link I made to Ray Chaplin’s theory that this was not necessarily the “rainbow” match it appeared to be. Must see how his research is progressing… But for now, it is just interesting to note – and not all that surprising since North America is awash with nice Artsplace mares whose owners are looking for the pot of gold.

Sunshine Beach also has a really lovely maternal line in terms of producers and performers. His second dam Lights On was a damn good 2yo filly by Jate Lobell – and that adds another interesting element to this sire’s pedigree, and one which will resonate with downunder breeders, particularly in Australia. What’s extra interesting for me is that Sunshine Beach’s maternal line is that of Golden Miss, in this case the amazing Shifting Sands/Shifting Scene line through a daughter of Shifting Scene called Blue Gingham. This line is a hugely successful maternal line producing sires and females that breed on. Blue Gingham’s best foal by far was the very good filly Enroute, who won $753, 658, and she also had a decent son by Jate Lobell called Armbro Khaki. One of her daughters called Armbro Invite had a super son called Armbro Proposal who went 1.48.2 and earned over $1m. Those of you who are interested in pedigrees will see some very interesting double ups in Armbro Proposal’s pedigree (thanks to Classic Families) with the reintroduction of Golden Miss and also Shadow Wave.

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Remarkable maternal family recognised in US awards

Posted in Harness racing, Pedigree matching, Standardbred breeding, tagged , , , on December 27, 2013| 2 Comments »

Among the awards presented today by the United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA) is a 2013 Broodmare of the Year award to Worldly Treasure:

The pacing broodmare of the year, Worldly Treasure, is the dam of world champion Captaintreacherous p,3,1:47.1 ($2,973,286). Worldly Treasure herself was no slouch on the track, taking a 2-year-old mark of 1:53.1 en route to earning $97,923. She hails from a strong maternal family, as her full sister is the outstanding pacing mare Worldly Beauty, who was a two-time Dan Patch Award winner with nearly $2 million in career earnings.
They are both out of World Order p,3,1:53 ($267,205), whose dam was Rodine Hanover p,2,1:54 ($231,630)-the dam of Real Artist p,3,Q1:51 ($424,94) and the grand-dam of Art Major p,4,1:48.4 ($2,727,224), Perfect Art p,3,1:51 ($629,122) and Panspacificflight p,3,1:50.3 ($368,843). She is also owned by White Birch Farm of Allentown, NJ.

See here for full report on all the awards

This is a maternal line (Romola Hal) which, for me, is really ranking up there with the all-time greats like Golden Miss, Spinster/Old Maid and Roya McKinney and her sisters. I’m talking about “engine room” power that endures and adds value.

Check out also my blog about Somebeachsomewhere crosses of gold and Captain Treacherous (the section down the end titled “Credit should go to strong maternal lines”. Often sires/sirelines get most of the credit for a great horse (“the brilliant son of …..”) whereas the maternal line may not get much of a mention. And yet, think how many shots a good sire has at leaving great progeny compared to a maternal family through broodmares – foal by foal, year by year.

This is one maternal line that is popping up in so many top-level cross-references that it is getting the recognition it richly deserves. Yet another branch of it leads to Sands A Flyin, which makes for some interesting crosses with Sands A Flyin mares and some of the very good sires from the same family, although it hasn’t been tried much as yet – more breeders are trying for a connection via the Mach Three-Beach Towel cross (Sands A Flyin being the son of Beach Towel of course), and are patronising Mach Three and his full brother Extreme Three in significant numbers. It’s an interesting thing to ponder on – which my blog on the Somebeachsomewhere crosses of gold canvases. Comments from readers and breeders welcome!

Other links

Worldly Beauty – Odds On Racing’s Legend Horse of the Month for September 2013

Comments from breeder White Birch Farm on World Order, their “foundation mare”

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Somebeachsomewhere and crosses of gold

Posted in Standardbred breeding, tagged , , , , on June 16, 2013| 6 Comments »

This blog is a tripler – all connected to Somebeachsomewhere and what maternal lines bring (or don’t bring) to the table, and whether sire/damsire crosses are all they are cracked up to be. It doesn’t offer nice and simple solutions but is really trying to keep our “breeders minds” open, to keep us thinking.

Where to for Artsplace mares? Equineexcellence does some research.

Ray Chaplin of equineexcellence.biz has once again produced a thought provoking article challenging a simplistic interpretation of “Breed the best to the best and hope for the best”. I mentioned this in my last blog and will explain a bit more now.

He asks:

If the “go to” sire for Artsplace mares was Rocknroll Hanover, with the tragic death of that horse, should breeders with Artsplace mares switch to Somebeachsomewhere as the next best thing on the block – after all, Captaintreacherous is out of an Artsplace mare (Worldly Treasure).

He also looks at whether the Somebeachsomewhere cross with Artsplace mares is all that Captaintreacherous makes it appear.

Check out Ray’s take on this match, and why he advises caution:

The contribution of broodmare sires is often over estimated in valuable breeding tools such as the USTA and HRNZ “Crosses of Gold” publications. Whilst they can often provide a good lead as to which stallion to breed a mare to, they can just as often mislead breeders.

What I like about Ray’s approach is that he does the homework to back up his observations. This is good thought-provoking stuff for breeders.

I recommend you order a free copy of this report by emailing contact@equineexcellence.biz

Can you duplicate success by following the same cross?

Now I want to look more closely at SBSW’s maternal pedigree. The focus has been on the Mach Three cross with a Beach Towel mare. But I believe a quick glance at his pedigree raises some interesting things. His maternal greatgrandam is The Booger Lady, who got 12 wins herself and was the dam of the very good Cam Terrific (by Cam Fella) and some other well performed racehorses.  The descendant families have had very mixed results, with a couple of very nice horses popping up in several of the branches but nothing consistent.

The best performed branch is his granddam’s Where’s Sarah (by Cam Fella) who has had two by Artsplace who earned over $300,000.

SBSW’s dam Where’s The Beach (by Beach Towel) has had 9 foals for 6 winners including SBSW and 2 others that have won over $100,000 – the rest just average. Four of her foals were by Astreos which indicates perhaps a belief that a top performing son of Artsplace would nick well with the mare given Where’s Sarah’s results with Artsplace.  The mare has had two other foals by Mach Three (as well as SBSW) but to date the results are not mimicking the success of Somebeachsomewhere. But the faith is strong: In 2011 a full brother yearling Some Of The Beach sold for $430,000 – the highest price ever paid for an Ontario-sired yearling.

With these results it is quite a long bow to draw that the Mach Three x Beach Towel cross is the major factor in the family’s recent results.

A 7 win Astreos half sister to Somebeachsomewhere, named Child From The Sea,was bought off the track and exported to Australia and bred (almost inevitably) to Mach Three for a filly who is now a 3yo called Mariquita Amor.  She  has had only two starts this season for 1 win and just over $11,000. A Mach Three colt and another Mach Three filly have followed before a switch in breeding was made last season to Courage Under Fire. These matches of course put Beach Towel further back in the pedigree and bring in another totally different maternal line via Astreous (and one that at first glance doesn’t look particularly strong but it’s not a family I’m familiar with). It will be interesting to see what eventuates!

Overall, Somebeachsomewhere has a very nice family but not an outstanding one. You could argue the Beach Towel x Cam Fella mare cross (same as Jenna’s Beach Boy) and now the Mach Three x Beach Towel mare cross (Somebeachsomewhere and Sir Lincoln) are really underpinning the family’s success – but I think the family picture is more complex and less certain than that.

If you want up-to-date information about SBSW’s siring career, follow enthusiastic supporter blog for Somebeachsomewhere here

Somebeachsomewhere had tremendous speed aided by a sensational gait and willpower. In my view his ability to stamp those mental and physical attributes may be more important for breeders to consider than what he brings to the table via his maternal pedigree.

Credit should go to strong maternal lines

Let’s have a look now at Somebeachsomewhere’s outstanding son Captaintreacherous, and another instance where it is tempting to grab hold of a potential golden cross (Somebeachsomewhere x Artplace mare).

Captaintreacherous’s dam, Worldly Treasure, is a full sister to pacing mare Worldly Beauty, who was a two-time Dan Patch Award winner and earned nearly $2 million lifetime. Their dam was World Order (1:53 $267,205) and her dam was Rodine Hanover.

Yes, that’s the Rodine Hanover who is grandam of Art Major, Perfect Art, and Panspacificflight as well as being the dam of Real Artist and other very good racehorses from a range of sires.

Suddenly we are getting into such a strong maternal line that we need to take more into consideration than a simplistic click between a sire and damsire which sort of ignores the tremendous wealth of genetic talent along the maternal bottom line.

Here is a very interesting quote from Hickory Lane’s  Harness Racing Update 3 February this year about Captaintreacherous:

(Brittany racing manager) Myron Bell likes to say that any horse can be a great 2-year-old but it takes pedigree to be a great 3-year-old. Great 2-year-olds that come back to be great 3-year-olds have to have the maternal pedigree to carry them through the 3-year-old year. Any horse can get away with just having speed at two. This horse has a star pedigree and that is why we paid what we paid for him (Captaintreacherous) as yearling.

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