Over the last six weeks we've seen some terrific wins in Group and feature races, but none better than from these ladies, all bred by Harness Breeders Victoria members, and all on their way up.
GROUP 2 BREEDERS CROWN 4YO MARES CHAMPIONSHIP
Multiple-Group 1 winner No Win No Feed continued her winning ways with victory in the Group 2 Breeders Crown Mares Championship at Tabcorp Park Melton, the daughter of Alabar's A Rocknroll Dance now sitting on $387,000 in earnings.
She immediately headed to Brisbane where she secured the Group 3 Forever Gold Mares Final in 1:54.4, adding to a sensational preparation where she has been placed in a further two Group races.
It was her second success in the Breeders Crown series, having taken the Group 1 3YO Fillies Final last season, a year when she also won the Group 1 NSW Breeders Challenge 3YO Fillies Final and Group 1 Bathurst Gold Bracelet.
WATCH NO WIN NO FEED'S BREEDERS CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP WIN:
No Win No Feed's dam Designer Rose (Art Major) had one win from 14 starts, with six placings, and her bloodlines made it worthwhile for breeder, Dr Reg Walsh, to pursue a breeding program; Designer Rose is a sister to nine living foals (from Koros Legacy by JJs Cornell), eight of whom raced and won, including Group 2 winner Denises Legacy (Modern Art, $74,000) and 100 per cent producers Centennial Rose (Art Major, $25,000) and Shes Irish (Jennas Beach Boy, $33,000).
Designer Rose was firstly bred to Courage Under Fire, which produced filly Shes Gorgeous, followed by two offspring to A Rocknroll Dance – No Win No Feed and winning gelding, Fire And Sword.
A Rocknroll Dance over this Art Major mare shows no duplication in the first four generations, with multiple crosses only appearing from the fifth, and impressive crosses they are – a 4x5 to Albatross, a 5x5x4 to Abercrombie and a 5x5 to Meadow Skipper (through Albatross and Nero). We can’t wait to see what impact No Win No Feed will have in the breeding barn when the time comes!
GROUP 2 GRAEME LANG TROTTING MILE
Any breeder of a 2YO filly would be rapt to see her post a time of 1:55.7, but even more so when that filly is a trotter! Marking herself due for a HBV Time Excellence Pin for season 2019-20, Aldebaran Ursula posting the sizzling time at Bendigo this month when she secured the inaugural Group 3 Graeme Lang Trotting Mile for 2YO Fillies. It smashed the previous Australasian record for 2YOs and was nearly a full two seconds quicker than the colts division, the Gavin Lang Mile. It was her fifth win from ten starts overall, and has had a further two outings, for a 4th at Tabcorp Park Melton in the Group 2 Tatlow, and a third in her heat of the Vicbred Super Series for 2YO Trotting Fillies at Maryborough. She lines up in the Finals on New Years Eve from barrier eleven at 10:27PM.
Bred by Aldebaran Lodge from Continentalman mare, Ushaka Bromac, Aldebaran Ursula (by Aldebaran's Yield Boko) is the first of the mare’s three foals to race. An older sister by Skyvalley, Tiny Haka, has yet to race and her third foal is an Up And Quick filly born in early October this year. Ushaka Bromac was herself a talented racehorse, amassing over $144,000 in earnings and securing 16 wins, many at the metropolitan Gloucester Park meetings. Though she raced as a trotter, her dam line is largely pacing blood with Ursula Bromac by Live or Die from a Holmes Hanover mare.
This gives Aldebaran Ursula an interesting pedigree, with 4x4x5 to Super Bowl through her sire and maternal sire, and 4x4 to Valley Victory through the same lines but her maternal granddam introduces sires not seen in the other three streams – Bo Scots Blue Chip, Albatross and No Nukes. That granddam – Ursula Bromac – was unraced but her half-sister Ulrica Bromac (Union Guy) raced throughout the first decade of the 20th century and banked over $250,000 eventually being sent to race in the US, where she clocked a best time of 1:49.6. Interestingly, her full sister, Una Bromac (Live Or Die), was a winner in the trotting gait, and has successfully bred trotting progeny, including My Escapee (Sundon, $263,000), Needle (Muscle Mass, $122,000) and the multiple-Group 1 winning Winterfell (Majestic Son, $429,000).
Ursula Bromac did not race in her native New Zealand but has produced nine foals, all named and five to race for four winners, with Ushaka Bromac the most successful of them and one of only two to be bred so far. Her half-sister Sunny Avenue (Sundon) was last bred to Majestic Son in 2019.
GROUP 2 IRT MATRIARCH TROT
Bred by the Newbound Family Trust, 2020 Group 2 Matriarch Trot winner Keayang Livana continues to build an impressive record that will make her an attractive breeding proposition when she’s done adding to her $75,000 bank. The daughter of Imperial Count is a sister to nine other live foals from unraced Sundon dam Poignant, three of which have similarly raced, and one other joining Keayang Livana on the winners list – Angustine, though Jade Nien (Skyvalley) is surely not far off, having collected 11 placings from his 17 starts this season!
Most recently bred by Michael Taylor, Poignant has unnamed youngsters on the ground by Great Success, Centuiron ATM and Pegasus Spur though her older progeny have started to breed on themselves – Soliloquize (Majestic Son, unraced) is the dam of Mont Sally, an unraced Peak 3YO, and an unnamed Great Success yearling.
The family is solid all the way through, with Poignant a sister to six winners, including Posimistic (SJ’s Photo, $136,000), Exuberant (Extrovert, $108,000), Got It Show It (Extrovert, $61,000) and producer Positive Logic (Yankee Paco), dam of Yankee Redback (Yankee Spider, $64,000). Granddam Be Positive (Game Pride) is a half-sister to well-known matriarch, Thunder Thighs (Chiola Hanover), the dam of Gluteus Maximus (Muscles Yankee, $104,000) of the Utopia and Derrie Aire family.
Keayang Livana’s sire Imperial Count is a son of the great Angus Hall, giving her a 5x5 cross to Speedy Crown on his line, a 5x5 for Star’s Pride on Poignant’s line, and one on each for Speedy Scot (5x5), and Be Positive’s ancestry made of some quite early breeders, including 1939 trotting sire, Bill Gallon.
2020 YOUTHFUL STAKES - FILLIES
Musical Delight (Bettors Delight) continues a brilliant broodmare career that trends strongly through this incredible family. Having earnt $248,000 herself on the track, she has now produced five live foals, three of which are named with two to race and both winners. Winner of the 2020 Youthful Stakes for fillies at Tabcorp Park Melton, Beach Music (Somebeachsomewhere) now sits at $30,000 and is gaining fast on her half-brother, Young Rooster (Well Said) who has banked $72,000. A full-sister yearling has now been named – Ripp – and the mare has a further 2018 Captaintreacherous colt on the ground, and was served in early 2020 by Art Major. The colt appears in the 2021 Nutrien Yearling Sale catalogue (#88).
Of course, Top Tempo (In The Pocket) set the standard in the barn as well as being another high performer with $225,000 as a racehorse, her post-career record is outstanding with eleven live foals, all nine named have raced and all have won, with five with earnings in excess of $100,000! Musical Delight’s siblings – who as with her progeny have all been bred by Lauriston Park – include geldings Countdown (Art Major, $135,000) and That’s How Weroll (Rock N Roll Heaven, $135,000) but of more interest to breeding pundits, successful mares Speak No Evil (Well Said, $354,000 and winner of the recent GR1 Queen of the Pacific) and Queen of Pop (Art Major, $204,000).
Speak No Evil has two foals on the ground as a result of embryo transfer – a filly and colt by Captaintreacherous (the filly goes through the 2021 Nutrien Yearling Sale, #157) – while Queen of Pop has one filly named but yet to race (Just Hope by Bettors Delight), a 2019 Well Said filly (#122 in the Nutrien Sale) and this September just gone, a Captaintreacherous colt.
Unfortunately Top Tempo passed away following the 2019 crop, in which she produced a Well Said filly and along with a 2YO American Ideal filly, remain unraced but no doubt welcome additions to a family of champion fillies both during and after their racing careers.
Beach Music’s pedigree features gold standard bloodlines – a 4x4 for both Direct Scooter and Cam Fella, one each from the paternal and maternal line in each instance, plus 5x5 for Albatross (maternal line) and for Meadow Skipper (maternal line). The addition of the Worldly Treasure line in her Captaintreacherous siblings will be interesting to note, with an additional cross to Abercrombie via Artsplace, and the introduction of Niatross to the cross.
GROUP 3 LENIN TROTTERS FFA
An undoubted star of not just the trotting ranks but in her own right is Muscle Hill mare Dance Craze who this month secured the Group 3 Lenin Trotters FFA recently to take her earnings past $529,000 bettering her dam’s bank by a full $100,000 – that mare of course being the superstar of her own time, the Group 1-winning La Coocaracha (Safely Kept, $428,000). Dance Craze was the first of La Coocaracha’s progeny to be bred by Yabby Dam Farms, followed by full sister La Grange (TR1:54.2, $163,000), Mataderos (Dream Vacation, $23,000) and youngsters Webster Hall (Andover Hall, unraced), an unnamed Quaker Jet filly and unnamed Muscle Mass yearling colt.
Of La Coocaracha’s ten foals old enough to race, all have raced, and nine have won, including pacer Hunzarella (Live Or Die), now the dam of a 2018 Peak colt. Other Dance Craze sisters to have bred are Reina Danzante (Armbro Invasion, $97,000) who has a 2019 Muscle Mass filly on the ground, and Coco Cullen (Christian Cullen) the dam of Cocosfella (Artistic Fella, $122,000). The barn isn’t just for the mares in this family, with half brother Louey Louey Louey (CR Commando, $41,000) now at stud, with five winners from nine starters for just 43 foals on the ground so far, and average earnings of almost $20,000.
The eldest of La Coocaracha’s progeny, La Biscuit (CR Commando) threw Nieta (Muscle Mass, $76,000) who is now the mother of a 2019 Orlando Vici filly, and GR1 winner Royal Treat, dam of unnamed colts by Father Patrick (2020), Orlando Vici (2019) and Used To Me (2017). La Coocaracha’s 2019 colt by Muscle Mass goes through the 2021 Nutrien Equine Yearling Sale in April (#41), as does the 2019 colt by Used To Me from La Biscuit (#40).
Of course with La Coocaracha bred more or less on pacing lines – although Safely Kept was known for throwing good trotters with seventeen to earn over $100,000s alongside his slew of pacing champions – there is little inbreeding on Dance Craze’s lines, the only duplication appearing through Muscle Mass with his 4x4 to Speedy Somali.
GROUP 3 VICBRED PLATINUM PACE
Another mare having a brilliant 2019-20 season is Enchanted Stride, a daughter of the late Bettor’s Delight and Christian Cullen mare, Lenola Stride bred by Emilio and Maria Rosati. Most recently she has secured a Vicbred Super Series 4YO Mares heat, and took second in the Semi Final to be due to line up in the Group 1 final on NYE, ready to improve on her Group 3 best in 2020. That victory was courtesy of the Vicbred Platinum Mares Sprint Championship at Tabcorp Park Melton, the first of back-to-back wins along with her heat win.
That didn’t top her earlier feat of five consecutive wins across the earlier part of 2020, and a second in the Regional Challenge at Tabcorp Park Melton back in July, all contributing to over $66,000 in earnings this year and taking her overall bank to $169,000. Her dam, Lenola Stride (Our Serene Highness in NZ) was a winning mare, but has had little luck in the breeding barn – despite several attempts her only living foal to race is Enchanted Stride, though she now has a 2017 full brother to Enchanted Stride and a 2019 Art Major filly on the ground, and was last served in December last year by A Rocknroll Dance.
The cross of the Christian Cullen mare with Bettor’s Delight creates a pedigree full of the gold standard siring lines, including a 5x5x5x5 to Most Happy Fella, 5x4x4 to Albatross (through BGs Bunny, Sokys Atom, and Bettor’s Delight’s granddam, Best of the Best) and 5x5 to Overtrick.
Enchanted Stride’s granddam, the multiple-Group 2 winning Champagne Princess (Sokys Atom), collected $143,000 in her racing career and has produced four other winners in addition to Lenola Stride, and only one other mare – a full sister to Lenola Stride who has yet to produce foals.