Each month, Harness Breeders Victoria will profile the breeding of a member-bred horse who has claimed their $7000 Vicbred First Win Bonus and our Wednesday Winner for December is Whata Journey.
Then a 3YO filly, Whata Journey (Rock N Roll Heaven) was bred by Norm and Margaret McCloy of Bendigo, the second foal from Art Major mare, Whata Avenue.
Whata Journey broke her maiden in just her third start, clocking 1:58.3 for a 2240m race at Tabcorp Park Melton.
She has since had a further three starts, winning two of them (Shepparton and Bendigo) and taking a close second at Shepparton.
Whata Avenue was a successful mare herself, banking $92,000 from her 90 starts, 12 of which were winning runs. Her first foal, bred by the McCloys, was Whata Roller (Roll With Joe), who continues to race, having recorded four wins and secured $24,000 in stakes. She has a 3YO full sister to Whata Journey on the ground (currently unnamed) and was last served by Ultimate Machete.
She is one of just two foals from unraced What’s Next mare Paris Avenue, along with an unraced Aces N Sevens mare. Paris Avenue died with her 2009 Ponder foal. She was a sister to Caesars Astrum (Julius Caesar, $104,000) and Reckon Ya Ready (Safely Kept, $69,000), and was the only of six mares in the family to breed on.
Whata Journey has a 3 x 3 cross to Artsplace – just like Wolf Stride (Rock N Roll Heaven, damsire Art Major, $518,000) and Expensive Ego (damsire Perfect Art, $757,000). HRA’s Gold Crosses Report for Rock N Roll Heaven shows that progeny of Art Major and Perfect Art mares are the top two all stakes earners at $2.48 million and $1.64 million respectively. Runners with Perfect Art as their damsire top the list of average earnings per starter at a whopping $177,663.
Rock N Roll Heaven has had 498 starters in Australia who have secured over $25.28 million in stakes for an average of $50,773 each at time of writing.