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RACING HISTORY

HORSES

The Aussies have sent shockwaves through the Australasian trotting ranks with a dominant one-two in today's Commodore Airport Hotel Free For All.

Tough Monarch led all-the-way to salute in the $100,000 Group 1 in track record time, with Rickie Alchin's New South Wales trotter narrowly holding off fast-finishing Victorian McLovin, who was a clear second for Andy and Kate Gath.



Winning reinsman Anthony Butt, who arrived on track only minutes before the big race owing to a delayed flight, said he "could feel (McLovin) coming up the straight" but held on to win narrowly.

“It’s a big thing for an Aussie horse to win a Group 1 over here, it doesn’t happen very often," Butt said. "Good on them for giving it a go and getting the result.

“(Tough Monarch) has come on in leaps and bounds the last 12 months. Big credit to Rickie, he’s handled it beautifully and I’m very lucky to be on it."

The result will only further fuel speculation, revealed pre-race by Adam Hamilton, that McLovin's on-again off-again tilt at the forthcoming Inter Dominion may be back on again. More is expected to be known at weeks end, Hamilton said on the Sky Racing Active coverage.

For the victor, the win is enormous reward for Alchin, who invested great patience into Tough Monarch.

Starting his life in Queensland, the young colt looked set to be a case of a talented horse who went off the rails, having been considered unsuitable for racing due to his headstrong nature.

That was until talented young trainer Alchin broke the horse in.

Tough Monarch then went to Dennis Wilson, who had trained the trotter’s mother in the latter part of her career, but two or three preps later and he had done all he could to little avail.

“I had always had in the back of my mind that I’d like to have a go with him if the opportunity ever came up,” Alchin said. “Make no mistake, when I broke him in he was very difficult to handle, but you just couldn’t get to the bottom of him on the track, he was so strong.

“I said to Dennis (Wilson) that if he ever had enough that I wouldn’t mind trying him out and that’s how it all sort of unfolded.”

Almost four years later, the horse that was once destined for the scrap heap in an international Group 1 winner.

Credit: Hanresslink Media, 12 Noc 2019; HRV Trots Media

HORSES

Tough staying trotter Speeding Spur went back to back in the Gr1 $90,000 NZ Trotting Championships tonight by leading all the way and proving too strong at the finish for harness racing driver Josh Dickie.



In last years edition of the race Speeding Spur led and stuck his nose out at the right time to win narrowly and this year was a repeat of that with the Pegasus Spur horse lasting by a neck from a game Sundees Son who broke late when challlenging him close to the line.

An emotional Josh Dickie gave credit to the horses toughness after the race,

"This horses courage is unbelievable really," he said.

"We have had a bit of an up and down campaign since winning the Free For All here during Cup Week.

"I was quite happy to just pull back last week and let him run home, but tonight we wanted to lead up and let him dictate like he likes to do.

"Dad and I had confidence in him and he has backed that up tonight," he said

Speeding Spur trotted the 2600m mobile in a slick 3-17.9 in the wet conditions with a last 800m in 58 seconds with a closing 400m in 29.6 seconds.

Credit: Harnesslink Media, 5 Apr 2019

HORSES

“It seems surreal -but its actually real” -that sum up by Mike Woodlock co-owner of One Change with Trevor Casey and All Stars, seemed to sum up the remarkable rise of the two year old with his five for five win in the $170,000 Sires Stakes Final at Addington.

As for Trevor tears came to his eyes as he remembered his long time partner, the late Neil Pilcher, an original owner of the youngster after he was passed in as a yearling for $20,000

Bought post sale by the stable for $30,000, Neil’s share was taken up by All Stars on his death and Mike, a retired teacher at St Andrews College who helps out at All Stars, was offered a share. He had previously raced a horse successfully with “Pilch”.

As chief admirer and handler Ashleigh said “the dream continues” after One Change, looking headed by Flying Even Bettor close to the post kicked back to win.

Natalie had given him the run of the race but said afterward it went “nothing like I expected”

“I didn’t know how much gate speed he had because he hasn’t be used out of the gate previously. But he had it and we got the break.

I wasn’t sure we’d won. Flying Even Bettor, which went a terrific race came back at us and I wasn’t confident at all”

One Change has now won over $200,000 not a bad return on his yearling price.

He now heads to the Jewels and possibly the Breeders Crown in August if all goes well in the interim.

“He’s done nothing wrong and shown he has the early speed as well” Mark said

“Smooth Deal was disappointing and he will come out of the Jewels on that run. He is going backwards when he should be going forward”

His recovery rate raised questions as well, Natalie said later.




Credit: Harnesslink Media, 18 May 2019; courtesy of All Stars Racing Stables

HORSES

Dream About Me further cemented her status as the queen of New Zealand harness racing with a crushing win in the Group 1 New Zealand Standardbred Breeders Stakes at Addington on Friday night.

The Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen-trained millionaire ran her rivals in to the deck to claim her eighth top level title in the $100,000 feature.

The win sealed an incredible evening for the wonder mare’s owners, Aucklanders Charles Roberts and Paul and Mary Kenny.

The father, daughter and son-in-law also enjoyed success at Alexandra Park when Adore Me’s first foal, Sweet On Me, won her debut.

The blueblood two-year-old filly registered the second New Zealand victory for sire, Sweet Lou, who stands at Roberts’ Woodlands Stud.

The stallion’s first New Zealand win came earlier in the night, when the Purdon and Rasmussen-trained two-year-old, Virgil, scored in maiden company.

Paul Kenny said his family’s success at both ends of the country made for an incredible evening.

“It was a big deal for us with Sweet Lou, we have invested a lot in the Southern Hemisphere rights for Sweet Lou and to have a colt and a filly win tonight, on the eve of the yearling sales, is just enormous for us through our connection with Woodlands.

“It is a big celebration all around.”

Kenny said his camp were hopeful, but not overly confident, about Dream About Me’s chances of turning around her below-par effort at Addington in the Premier Mares Championship at Addington two weeks ago.

“I think knowing the horse – and we had a talk to Mark and Natalie and we had a talk to Tim after she last raced – we were hopeful.

“It was great to see her do that at Addington.”

The Kennys shared their good fortune by donating $500 to Harness Racing New Zealand’s teal campaign after Dream About Me’s win.

Driver Tim Williams made Dream About Me’s rivals work to beat her when applying pressure in the back straight the final time.

And they were simply not up to the task.

“Especially over 2600m tonight, I wanted to make sure that I had everyone off the bridle at the 500.

“And credit to the horse, she was able to do it.

“She was out of the early burn and she was able to catch her breath early and work in to the race nicely and she was good enough to take advantage.”

While Williams and Dream About Me were about to ramp up the pressure from the half-mile, her stablemate Elle Mac was dropping out of contention.

The hot favourite produced the shock of the race when struggling to keep up when starting the last lap of the race.

Driver Natalie Rasmussen was forced to ease Elle Mac out of contention after the tube of one of her sulky wheels came off its rim.

Stewards found that was caused by Dream About Me hitting the wheel, when racing fiercely earlier in the race.

The win was Williams’ 13th at Group 1 level and fourth with Dream About Me over a period of nearly four years.

Williams was quite clear about how he rates the star mare’s impact on his career after their win.

“I think other than my family, she might be the next love of my life.”

Visiting Auckland mare Step Up ran on better than any other horse back in the field to run second to Dream About Me.

Enchantee took inside runs to grab third.

Credit: NZ Harness News, 16 Feb 2019

HORSES

11 Group One wins in a career of 41 races is honour enough. Being in the first 5 in 37 of them and never finishing further back than 6th when she completed a race wasn’t bad either. And lets not forget those those 12 wins in a row from start one which had the harness world ga-ga.

Dream About Me was certainly something special.



Her first start and win was in a Sires Stakes heat at two and three starts later she won the Sires Stakes Final and then the Harness Jewels Diamond.

She then went to Australia and was unbeaten there at two culminating in the Breeders Crown for fillies. She went back in the summer and won her first four starts went down to Tell Me Tales in 1.49.3 in the Robin Dundee before winning the NSW Oaks. She did not get back to Australia until this year when she lost her only race in Australia (1.49.3 mile behind Tell Me Tales) before winning the Ladyship.

Three campaigns in Australia and the three leading female Group Ones, one for each trip. Not bad.

If it wasn’t for Adore Me’s 1.47.7 win in the Ladyship Mile in 2015 that champion mare would have to bow to her “cousin” on the Australian front. Adore Me had to settle for second in the Ladyship Mile (to Vansumic in 1.51) on her first trip to Australia and won the G2 Brian Hancock leading into her success in that race in 2015.

Dream About Me was well underdone when her winning streak was ended by Golden Goddess on her return from Australia but she won the Nevele R Final at her next start, added the NZ Oaks next start and was then cruelly beaten in the Harness Jewels flying home from a woeful draw for third

After a warm up win at Ashburton at four she easily won the Junior Free for All on Cup Day before being set for the Auckland Cup. A four year old mare winning a 3200m staying race in 3.55.4 is something you don’t see every season, maybe not even every decade.

“Splendour” went through a bad patch after that. Foot trouble ended an Australian campaign before it began and continued to plague her so that it was not until October she resumed now with Tim Williams

She took time to hit her straps but was always in for the fight and when you are going down to Lazarus by half a neck in the Ashburton Flying Stakes you are doing something right.

But nothing went right on Cup Day. Drawn on the second line and stopped in her tracks at the start she took no part. Ok so beating Lazarus was going to be a challenge but she was ready for the run of her life.

After being fourth in the Free for All she was hit by more problems and was not seen on the tracks again until the following August,

Beaten twice by Thefixer, she took out the time honoured Hannon Memorial and was beaten a mere head by Eamon Maguire who had a superior run before ensuring her strength as a stayer was in play in the NZ Cup going down very late to Thefixer (trail) and Tiger Tara a head and half a length from the winner.

She posted a double at the Auckland Cup meeting including the Queen of Hearts which gained her an automatic start in the Ladyship but was well below her best in the Auckland Cup where the time of 4.03 was eight seconds slower than her winning time the previous year.

But she went out on a high. The champion mare of New Zealand with her Standardbred Breeders win at Addington and champion mare of Australia with the Ladyship. It was a hell of a farewell.

Dream About Me was a 1.50.1 miler and a 3.55.4 “two miler” . Just off of Adore Me (1.47.7 and 3.54.6) but not far off. $1.2m compared to Adore Me’s $1.67m.

But really even being compared to Adore Me is as high a tribute to a mare in modern times you could find.

Splendour was at her best in tough staying races rather than those of outright speed. It may be no coincidence her worst race in recent times was the Auckland Cup which was just a sprint home .She was resilient, coming back twice from major setbacks mostly to do with her feet which were of unusual design. Her limbs were as sound as a bell.

Dream About Me was never the glamour mare Adore Me was. Because she was just so sheer bloody efficient in her work and in her races, utterly dependable, always giving her best, never quite demanding or hitting the headlines she so often deserved.

But her power when others were fading, her determination when others were wavering, her resilience when others might have limped into the history books and that glorious finale -the lioness at the head of the tribe- those are things we will never forget.



Credit: Harnesslink Media, 7 March 2019, courtesy of All Stars Racing Stables

HARNESS JEWELS

ELLE MAC: 4 B m Bettor’s Delight – Goodlookinggirl

OWNER: Mrs J L Feiss

BREEDER: Breckon Farms

TIME: 2:25.6 Mile Rate: 1-58.3 Last 800m: 60.6 Last 400m: 29.6



There is a heck of a lot of pedigree behind the winner of this year’s Four-Year-Old Diamond winner Elle Mac. Not the least that she was reared on the fine pastures of Breckon Farm at Ohaupo.

But the daughter of Bettor’s Delight is an example of some advanced genetics being the great granddaughter of imported American mare, Princess Nandina.

“Princess Nandina is by Able Bye Bye who was available to New Zealand breeders for 5 years, in his case from 1974, and the result was just 124 live foals. Able Bye Bye’s pedigree was to die for. He was the son of Bye Bye Byrd (therefore grandson of Poplar Byrd) and his dam was Adioo Time (by Adios from On Time, who is a daughter of Volomite and the great mare Nedda Guy). Bye Bye Byrd’s dam is Adieu, the full sister to Adios.” (Quote from Bee Pears Blog, B4breeding.com)

The great grandmother of Lazarus, Tabella Beth was also by Able Bye Bye which is obviously the maternal family for Stars and Stripes, Light and Sound etc showcasing Able Bye Bye’s long reaching influence in our New Zealand pedigrees, which is once again being introduced through the stallion Sweet Lou.

Princess Nandina’s journey here to New Zealand is a fascinating one and intertwines some astute North Island breeders and new bloodlines.

Elle Mac’s grandmother Twice As Good was purchased by Steve Phillips in in the late 80’s as a yearling at the National Bloodstock sale.

“It was back in National Bloodstock days and at that time they were buying stallions and mares from the Unites States. She was bought here with a foal from memory,” said Phillips.

“She was put in foal to Butler BG which I think was her first foal in New Zealand, and put the resulting filly into one of the National Bloodstock sales, which were relatively new and controversial at the time.

“I ended up buying Twice As Good at that sale from memory for around $30,000. Prices were fairly reasonable,” said Phillips. She was a blueblood in pedigree being a half-sister to 1987 USA Three-Year-Old Filly of the Year in Pacific who was by a son of Bret Hanover in Seahawk Hanover. Pacific took a mark of 1:53 in her Breeders Crown victory with career stakes of $871,550.

“The fact that she was a half-sister to Pacific, who had done such a huge job over in the States made her quite attractive as a breeding prospect. We were looking to acquire a few mares as we had only bits and pieces at that stage, but we wanted something that was well-bred and that’s why she was bought,” said Phillips.

Twice As Good didn’t race until she was a mare due to some injury issues, but she was good enough to run in the money 13 times from 32 starts.

“She had a few soundness issues. When we had her in training as a two-year old she had a bone chip in her hind leg that had to be removed. As a three-year-old she was about to go to the races when we found another chip in the other back leg. We took that out as well, so it wasn’t really until as a four-year-old she made it to the races.

“She ended up winning about five races in a row including a New Zealand record for 1700m. It was pretty quick back in those days being a 1:56.5 mile rate,” he said.

At stud, Twice As Good has been responsible for a wonderful tail line of some serious pacers.

Miss Streisand 2015 (F A2) by A Rocknroll Dance - 1:53.0 $112,940

Into The Fire 2002 (F A2) by Presidential Ball - . [1]
- Prosthesis 2013 (G A2) by Rocknroll Hanover - T1:59.0 $46,003

Mark Dennis 2008 (G A2) by Bettors Delight - 1:53.9 $302,198

St Barts 2003 (M A2) by Island Fantasy - 1:57.0 $162,506

Trelise 2001 (F A2) by Holmes Hanover - 1:58.7 $19,231 [1]
- Im Twice The Delight 2011 (F A2) by Bettors Delight - 1:52.3, $67,832

Twice As Fine 1997 (F A2) by New York Motoring - . [1]
- Pacific Warrior 2007 (G A2) by Pacific Rocket - 1:54.8 $343,41

Twice As Great 2005 (F A2) by Artiscape - Pacer $150 [2]
- Duplicated 2014 (G A2) by Somebeachsomewhere - 1:49.2US $159,369
- Strawberry Courage 2010 (G A2) by Courage Under Fire - 1:54.1 $115,509

Twice As Hot 1999 (F A2) by In The Pocket - 1:59.6 $53,580 [4]
- Flaming Flutter 2009 (M A2) by Bettors Delight - 1:53.0 $771,635
- Mister Whittaker 2011 (G A2) by Somebeachsomewhere - 1:54.9 $38,566
- Two Times Bettor 2015 (F A2) by Bettors Delight -1:53.6, $74,630
- When Youre Hot 2007 (F A2) by McArdle - . [1]

Waitfornoone 2000 (F A2) by Albert Albert - 1:55.7 $201,804 [2]
- Luis Alberto 2013 (G A2) by Bettors Delight - 1:54.8 $141,285
- Windinherhair 2008 (F A2) by Bettors Delight – 1:54.6, $140,476

“She did a huge job and mainly with fillies. When we decided we had enough fillies to continue from that line we put her in the sales and Rod Croon purchased her.

“Waitfornoone was by far the best one, there were a couple of others who were okay and bred on quite well.

Waitfornoone bred on and left Four-Year-Old Diamond runner up Windinherhair who was beaten a small margin by Elusive Chick in 2013. She is also the mother of In The Shadows who was good enough to run third in what is now Elle Mac’s Four Year Old Diamond.

Ken Breckon had long admired the family and decided the time was right to get into it on his own accord. I had also followed the family right back from when Steve Phillips was developing it,” said Breckon.

“First of all, I bought Goodlookinggirl at the Sales which was quite funny, because I ended up paying a lot more then I should have.

“Mark Purdon had asked me if I wanted to buy her and I told him I did. Unbeknown to me, we ended up bidding against each other which would have left Rod Croon feeling delighted. I think we paid around $60,000.

“She only raced around four times from memory and Mark Purdon felt she was going to go in a suspensory and her pedigree was such that we decided to breed from her very early.

Goodlookinggirl was lightly raced and won once from five starts.

“Not long after she retired we ended up purchasing her mother Twice As Good off Rod Croon who was having a bit of a dispersal at the time. We got a couple of foals from her before she was retired also.

“It’s a very very good family, particularly of fillies,” said Breckon.

“We nearly ended up retaining Elle Mac, she got caught in the fence and did superficial damage before the sales so she was in the ring on Sales Day with a bandage from the knee down.

“We didn’t get a lot for her. We were going through a time where we needed cash for the farm and if we had our time again we wouldn’t of let her go obviously.

“But as I have learnt from Sandy Yardley, its often not the price but the home they go too that matters most. With Jean Feiss buying her, I remember saying to Karen she was going to be well-looked after, and six Group Ones later, the rest is history,” he said.

Once Elle Mac found the top in the Four year Old Diamond she was always going to be very tough to roll.

She retires with $600,000 in stakes and would have added the three year old Filly of the Year title to her two year old filly of the year credit had it not been for the boom Australian filly, Shez All Rock.

“Goodlookingirl is still in good shape and is back in foal to Bettor’s Delight, so you might ask why we would need to buy back into her. We did so well with the Art Major half-brother last year selling for $190,000 but the mother is getting on a bit.

“There is nothing better I believe then having a Group One winning mare. That is part of our ethos now in terms of trying to acquire as many of them as we can. The cost to do that today is starting to get a wee bit prohibitive unless you race them yourself.

“You’ve got the studs doing the same to give their own stallions a chance which is raising the value of the mares, look at what Alabar did with Nike Franco recently bringing her back.

The studs have realized a lot of the buyers and breeders will sit on their hands and wait for a stallion to be proven. The studs can’t afford to wait and have to give them the best possible chance and you only need to look at what Woodlands have done with Sweet Lou.

As a champion daughter of Bettor’s Delight, Elle Mac has a multitude of options available to her with the likes of Art Major & Sweet Lou being some obvious choices, but Breckon looks set to roll the dice on last year’s North American Two-Year-Old siring sensation.

“It’s a pretty hard call but I think at this stage I might go outside the square a little bit and have a go at Captaintreacherous,” said Breckon.

Crossing the boom sire with an unbelievable pedigree over an already heavily American pedigree in Elle Mac’s would be a salivating prospect for many breeding buffs.
Whatever the future holds, it’s a family worth keeping an eye on.

Credit : Brad Reid


Credit: NZ Breeders Association : Breeders Weekly 7 June 2019

HARNESS JEWELS

BOLT FOR BRILLIANCE:2 Br g Muscle Hill - Toomuch To Do

OWNERS: Mrs S Herlihy, D I Donaldson, P J Hailes, S H Mathews

BREEDER: Brad Reid

TIME: 2:30.2 Mile Rate: 2-02.0 Last 800m: 60.7 Last 400m: 28.6


It would be fair to say that the breeding career of the top trotting mare Toomuch To Do has been quite the rollercoaster ride for all those concerned.

As a winner of 11 races including a G2 Canterbury Park Trotting Cup and an Inter-Dominion heat in Auckland, where she downed an 11-year-old Lyell Creek, Toomuch To Do went to stud with understandably high expectations.

Her Christchurch breeder-owner Simon Philip certainly did everything right by her in breeding two filly foals by Sundon and then two colts by Love You, but only one of them raced and none won.

One of the Love You colts died at an early age of a twisted bowel. The other three were all found wanting it would seem, and neither filly was used or wanted at stud.

So this rollercoaster ride had ‘crashed and burned’ and a very disappointed Philip wanted out.

“This was all in the wake of the earthquakes which had badly affected my business (Baker Boys) and I couldn’t afford to keep pouring money down that drain, or the horses,” said Philip.

“So I was looking to sell Toomuch To Do, but in the end I wound up swapping her for a service fee to The Pres, which I never used.

”Philip had bred one more foal in a filly by Revenue and wound up effectively giving her away. She was later on sold for $4000 on The Horse Trader.

Philip had signed Toomuch To Do over to Patrick Halpenny, a Christchurch fellow, now a Perth based air traffic controller, having a brief flirt with the game who then sold her in foal to The Pres to Tracey Healy.

This happened at the silent auction organised by Noel Kennard at Addington Raceway and Healy paid just $600 for her. “Bruce Hutton had the two Love You colts and when he got crook, he asked me to try one of them as he was a bit too much of a handful for his stablehands,” said Healy.

“It was the first Love You and the second one had died as a yearling.

“He had a really nice way of going and I liked him a lot, but you could tell he wasn’t happy about something, and it turned out to be arthritis.

“I could also recall Bruce telling me that the second Sundon filly could have been alright, but that she never really got tried, so the mare had had some bad luck with most of her foals and I had some sympathy for her.

“I got a colt by The Pres and he’s just had 18 months out as a result of severed tendons, but I’ve started on him again.

”So on the face of it, things weren’t looking too flash for Toomuch To Do as a broodmare – that is until that Revenue filly showed up as Hey Yo and put Jack Harrington on the map.

Healy would go through some difficult times after buying Toomuch To Do and left her empty for a year before leasing her to Brad Reid of the NZSBA.

He bred Toomuch To Do to Muscle Hill to get Bolt For Brilliance, a $30,000 sale for him at the Premier and the upset winner of the 2YO Ruby at the Jewels.

So suddenly Toomuch To Do is not only the dam of an open class trotting mare who is Group 1 placed, but also the dam of a Group 1 winning two-year-old trotter with a big future, and people are coveting what fillies she has and might have.

Healy would subsequently lease the mare to Harrington for two years and he’s bred a yearling colt and a weanling filly each by Peak, while Healy has gone in with friend Tony Wederell in putting Toomuch To Do in foal to Creatine, and now finds herself hoping and praying for a filly herself next season.

All this from a 21-year-old mare that nobody really wanted until Hey Yo showed up and won her debut at Addington just a few years ago.

“I simply couldn’t afford to breed from her myself for quite a while,” said Healy.

“I had a run of 11 horses which amounted to nothing and most of them were mine, and they all cost money to feed and work.

“Then last year I got knocked over by a horse and woke up in hospital two days later with a fractured skull.

“I’m lucky to be alive and between me and the few horses I’m working, we’re all cot cases.

“This was going to be Toomuch To Do’s last foal, but we might have to rethink that now.”

Reid is now basking in the glory of being the breeder of a Group 1 winner with the very first horse he’s bred, and sold at the sales.

He has mixed feelings about selling him now, but it had to be done at the time, with others in the pipeline.

“When I got this job I’d go along to the races and see the thrills that other people were experiencing, and I had to get involved,” said Reid.

“I thought about breeding Toomuch To Do to sires like Pegasus Spur and Skyvalley, but I could recall Tracey saying that if she won Lotto, she’d love to cross Toomuch To Do with Muscles Yankee.

“Then I was talking to Gavin Smith one day and he said why would you breed to that old horse for 9k when you can breed to his best son for not much more ($12,500).

“You couldn’t get a booking to Muscle Hill, but Bruce (Hutton) had one he wasn’t going to use and we negotiated with Peter O’Rourke getting the booking transferred.

“Hey Yo qualified the same week that Toomuch To Do was bred to Muscle Hill and then about a fortnight out from the yearling sales, she finished third in the Great Southern Star.

“If it hadn’t been for her, I probably wouldn’t have bothered putting the colt in the sales.

“Then Trent (sales preparer Yesberg) went to the trouble of drawing Tony Herlihy’s attention to the colt.

“So it was like a case of coming from nowhere to a place where all the stars came into alignment.

”Or all’s well that ends well.

Credit: Frank Marrion

HARNESS JEWELS

ONE CHANGE: 2 B c Bettor’s Delight – Changedown

OWNERS: Allstars Racing Stables Limited, M R Woodlock, T G Casey

BREEDERS: Rob Carr and Don Kirkbride

TIME: 2:26.3 Mile Rate: 1-58.8 Last 800m: 58.7 Last 400m: 28.2

Rob Carr and Don Kirkbride hit the jackpot as breeders when they acquired Chokin’s well-performed sister Chaanger as a 12-year-old broodmare and her first foal for them was Changeover.

It was purely a coincidence when Geoff Small bought him at Karaka for $28,000 for an Auckland TC syndicate which Carr was charged with managing, and had the pleasure of watching him win 29 races and over $2.4m.

Those wins included a $1.2m New Zealand Cup in record time, the New Zealand and Northern Derbys and 3YO and 4YO Emeralds at the Jewels.



“Geoff did ask the question whether or not there was going to be a conflict of interest with Rob managing the (ATC Trot 2006) syndicate, but it was put to the then club president Steve Stockman and he gave it the all clear,” recalls Kirkbride.

“It was just a bummer that having been in the two previous syndicates, we opted out of having shares in the third one, although we still had the kick of being the breeders.

”Carr and Kirkbride would breed another 11 foals from Chaanger and five of them won, including good sorts in Change Gear (9 NZ wins, US1.52.8), Change Time (7 NZ wins, 1.56.2) and Change Stride (4 NZ & 21 Aus wins, $316,000, US1.51.6).

The now rising 29-year-old Chaanger was retired a few years ago after producing a staggering 19 foals and she remains in fine fettle in Kirkbride’s care.

“I had 50 acres at Ardmore up until 7-8 years ago, but now I’m down to four acres following a marriage break up.

“Rob had a lovely property at Karaka where we prepared the yearlings, but he moved to Cambridge a couple of years ago and for the last four years the yearlings have been done at Breckon Farms.

“So we have been winding our breeding operation down for one reason or another, but One Change has put a spring in our steps again.

” In the wake of Changeover, many of Chaanger’s foals were sold for good money at Karaka, with Change Stride making $90,000 in 2013.

Carr and Kirkbride would retain two fillies from Chaanger in Changedown, an unraced daughter of Falcon Seelster, and the very last foal in Super Change, a daughter of Mach Three who won a race at Cambridge and was then promptly retired. Super Change is now in foal to Art Major.

Changedown had been tracking in just an average manner, so much so that she had been entered in the Mixed Sale at Karaka this year while in foal to Art Major, before being withdrawn. One could assume that was because Carr and Kirkbridge had got wind of how good her two-year-old son in One Change was going to be, but “funnily enough, that wasn’t the reason at all.

”“Rob had done an exercise on costings and worked out that based on an $8000-$10,000 stud fee, the cost of breeding a yearling and getting it to Karaka was between $25,000-$27.000.

“We could do it a lot cheaper when we had our own properties and were preparing them, but that hasn’t been the case in recent times and it costs a lot more up here than in the South Island.

“Changedown’s first five yearlings had been selling for between $42,500 and $17,000 and basically we were just treading water with her.

“But we had to withdraw her from the sale because a foot issue came to light and the long term prognosis is not good.

“I don’t know a lot about the problem but I think it’s called White Line Disease a form of laminitis.

”A lot has changed since that sale of course – One Change is unbeaten in his five races to date and will be 2YO Pacer of the Year having won the Sales race, Sires Stakes and now the 2YO Emerald at the Jewels.

That has been an even bigger change for Carr and Kirkbride, as about six months ago, Mark Purdon mistakenly informed them that One Change had been put down.

“We believed that for about a fortnight then one day Rob rang to say that Mark had got the wrong horse and we might have to rename him Jesus.

”Purdon wasn’t overly impressed with One Change last year, but like a lot of the Bettor’s Delight’s, he has never stopped improving and just refuses to be beaten.

The irony in all this is that Carr and Kirkbridge only reluctantly bred Changedown to Bettor’s Delight and One Change remains her only foal by him during eight seasons at stud.

The service was actually a free return after they lost another mare while in foal to Bettor’s Delight, and Changedown was the best if not the only option for it at the time.

“We were among the first to use Bettor’s Delight, but after four foals by him, two were midgets.

“They were from Chaanger and Dancingonmoonlight and they weren’t any good.

“Changedown was a smallish mare as well and we figured we would be tempting fate with Bettor’s Delight.

“One Change was on the small side and initially he was passed in for 26k.

”Trevor Casey wandered along later however and agreed to take him for the reserve of $30,000 along with Neil Pilcher.

When the latter passed away last year, his share went to the All Stars Stable and part-time stablehand Mike Woodlock, a retired school teacher.

Changedown had been an embryo transfer because Chaanger had gotten to foaling late and one way of getting a mare ‘back on track’ is an ET rather than leaving them empty for a year.

She had failed to measure up in training with Geoff Small and most of her foals were on the small side and not up to much either.

Her first foal in the Christian Cullen filly Schnucki Putzi, which is German for Sweetie Pie, was sold for $18,000 and went unraced.

She is now owned by Dave Kennedy and her first foal is a weanling filly by A Rocknroll Dance.

Second foal Unchanged was a Mach Three filly and she was also on the small side, although Mark Purdon signed for her at $30,000 and she proved a smart juvenile as Renske B.

She was placed at Group 1 level for Hazel van Opzeeland and she has produced a weanling filly by Highview Tommy, himself a smallish son of Bettor’s Delight.

Then came a filly by Rocknroll Hanover in Ready Change, who was bought by Terry Chmiel for $42,500, but who went unraced.

She is now owned by Donna Williamson and the four-year-old was bred to Vincent this season.

Changedown then produced a fourth straight filly in La Vitesse, a daughter of Well Said who was bought by Rob Lawson for $17,000.

She raced eight times here without threatening and was sold to Australia in January, winning a race at Port Pirie last month.

One Change was Changedown’s first colt and he has turned things right around obviously.

It just remains to be seen if he can go on and prove to be a Chokin and Changeover, but one couldn’t ask for anymore at this stage.

Changedown subsequently produced another filly by Somebeachsomewhere, but the filly had to be put down after cracking a stifle as an early yearling.

Carr and Kirkbride now have to decide what to do with a weanling filly by Betting Line called Star Change, a three-quarter sister to One Change.

Normally she would have been run through the sales like the rest of them. Carr and Kirkbride are getting on a bit these days. Kirkbride is leaning towards keeping the filly and Carr is probably going to concur.

“Don might be 74 now but I’m only 67 and I’m still interested in future broodmares,” said Carr after another session at the gym this week.

“I do really rate Betting Line and with the uncertainty surrounding Changedown, we probably should be looking at an insurance policy.”

Credit: Frank Marrion

HARNESS JEWELS

TICKLE ME PINK:2015 3 B f Muscle Hill - Luby Ann

OWNERS: Breckon Farms-The Perfect Ten Syndicate

BREEDER: Breckon Farms Ltd

TIME: 2:29 Mile Rate: 2-01.6 Last 800m: 60.3 Last 400m: 28.8



There aren’t many New Zealander’s that put more into the game than Ken & Karen Breckon.

The Auckland couple have spent the last two decades putting themselves into the position of being able to enjoy the fruits of their labour.

Saturdays win in the Three Year Old Ruby with Tickle Me Pink would have to rate right up there for the couple who up until a few months ago must have wondered whether the winner of four of her first five starts back at the races.

“She probably shouldn’t have gone to Australia, “said Ken Breckon.

“Tony trialled her a week out from travelling where she was beaten in a pretty good time. He had a quiet word with me saying he was a bit disappointed in her.

“He took her home and had a look at the time she went and said maybe he was being a bit harsh on her, but if we had our time again she would never have left as Tony was probably on to something.

“The flight tipped her the wrong way, and when she got there the weight really started to fall off her. She was off her food and raced way below par,” he said.

She ran fifth in the time-honoured Redwood Classic before managing a third placing in a heat for the Breeders Crown, but on her New Zealand form, were races she should have been winning.

“She didn’t get beat by much but Tony was beside himself, she had lost another 20 kilos and even though she had qualified for the Breeders Crown final and was still a big show he told me he wanted to send her home which is what we did,” said Breckon.

“She made it home and began to deteriorate even more, and Tony was quite emotional about it. We thought with the weight she was losing and the speed she was losing it that she had cancer or something horrific.

“It ended up being a very bad blood infection. She had abbesses on both front feet and luckily Noel Power and our staff did and incredible job round the clock monitoring her and her feet. It was a real slow road to recovery.

That long slow road to recovery just made the taste of success even sweeter when Tickle Me Pink returned to the track.

In late April she sat parked and beat a strong crop of male trotters in the Group 2 Sires Stakes Trotting Championships. She did so fresh up without a race under her belt since the failed Breeders Crown mission in August last year.

“It blew us away, Tony expected a good run and she had trialled well in the lead up, but going against some hardened colts we could never have expected that.

“Tony said if she ran in the first five he would be happy. She just has this big ticker and keeps going, she’s beautifully mannered, has an incredible gait and she can get off the gate where she avoids a lot of the early skirmishes in those trotting races.

“Nothing worries her, she’s foolproof. She just knuckles down and keeps going,” he said.

Tickle Me Pink beat the boys again two weeks later when winning the Northern Guineas, once again staving off the New Zealand Derby winner, Lotamuscle. She was far too good for her own sex a week later in the Northern Trotting Oaks, telling the camp she was more than primed for a run at the Jewels.

Remarkably she wasn’t on the leader board a month out from the race, only to end up qualifying third in stakemoney earned.

Tickle Me Pink was looking to become only the fourth filly to win the Three Year Old Ruby, with Pocaro, Sunny Ruby and Donegal Bettorgretch having blazed the trail before her.

The odds were significantly against her. Where the pacing fillies & mares are given a plethora of Group One racing opportunities against their own sex, the trotting fillies and mares don’t have a single race in their own to speak of.

Only eight trotting fillies have saluted in the 26 Two & Three Year Old Ruby’s and only one mare from thirteen attempts in the 4YO Ruby.

Tickle Me Pink becomes just the 18th filly or mare to win a Group One race in the last 10 years. That is from 118 Group One trotting races being carded showing just how hard it is for our trotting girls to win black type, but they also have to compete against the males.

Tickle Me Pink left the arm of the mobile on even terms with the blueblood Australian visitor in All Cashed Up (the first progeny of French champion sire Ready Cash to ever race in New Zealand).

The daughter of Muscle Hill’s job was aided when firstly Enhance Your Calm made a mistake 100m after the dispatch, and then again when the son of Ready Cash galloped after finding the front before she did.

Tony Herlihy and Tickle Me Pink outlasted them for a further mile to be a head in front of them at the finish, only to have to survive a protest from the second place finisher.

“I was feeling sick. I’d had a small punt on her, but I felt more so for the syndicate and the members involved. I get really nervous for the others involved and for me it’s the thrill of seeing them get a win, and some of them are first-time owners.

“I thought gosh, to lose this race on a Group One Day, on a Jewels Day which is the second biggest day on the racing calendar it would have been bloody terrible. Initially we thought it was into the favourite who had galloped, but when you hear its second into first from the Winning Owners Bar, it wasn’t nice.

“We got the result and it capped off a huge day. For what she overcame and to get a Group One under her belt is just huge for the horse herself and a remarkable three or four months.

In overcoming the odds, she isn’t short on breeding.

She is by North America’s leading trotting sire Muscle Hill from the imported American mare, Luby Ann who was acquired from Bill and Jean Feiss.

Breckon acquired Luby Ann in 2011 when the Feiss’ were having a clearance of their broodmares and were turning their focus to buying pacing colts at the sales, which has gone rather well for them.

Luby Ann’s first foal was last season’s Three Year Old Trotting Filly of the Year, Luby Lou. She burst onto the scene as a late three year old having suffered a bad injury at two. She recovered to win the Southland Trotting Oaks, New Zealand Trotting Oaks and a New Zealand Derby before missing her whole four-year-old season due to ongoing injury concerns.

Luby Lou is the first foal from the Andover Hall mare Luby Ann and is raced on lease by Breckon Farms’ Six of the Best Syndicate

Tickle Me Pink, who is the second and only other live foal is raced by The Perfect Ten Syndicate.

A somewhat surprising aspect of all this was that Luby Ann doesn’t belong to particularly strong or well-known American trotting families.

Luby Ann is from Luby (1.54.4), a good trotting filly by Donerail who won a Delvin Miller Memorial at three and who is also the dam of Lubbock (1.53.1, $293,000) and Lutetium (1.52.4, $420,000), but there isn’t anything else of any note in that maternal line for a long time.

Luby Ann was a four-year-old when she began racing and was a nice enough mare, winning four races over the next 12 months, with two at Cambridge and one at Ashburton over Stent when he was on the way up as a four-year-old, and the last of them in Auckland.

Luby Lou and Tickle Me Pink are probably just examples where it is the immediate family and pedigree that is really only relevant.

In these two bluebloods we have fillies by Muscle Hill from a handy enough mare by Andover Hall whose dam was a top youngster in America, and who is perhaps starting a family all of her own.

Muscle Hill over an Andover Hall is also responsible for 81% foals to starters in North America, and is hailed as this generation’s trotting ‘Golden Cross”. The average earnings for those foals is north of $80,000 with 32% of them being sub 1:55 and the same percentile being $100k earners.

The good news for Luby Lou fans is that she is not far from resuming back into work and with fingers crossed be prominent in some of the feature Open Class trotting features next season, adding some much needed depth.

How do the full sisters stack up on ability against each other? Would be silly not to ask the owner!

“They are both foolproof in their gait even though Luby Lou broke at Ashburton on a horrible day in the Hambletonian. Something blew over the track that caught her eye causing her to go off stride. They just trot,” said Breckon.

“Whether Tickle Me Pink has the sheer speed of her sister, I don’t know. I think Luby Lou might be quicker. Talking to Tony, he thinks due to her illness, it probably affected her development physically.

“If you look at her today she is still quite weak and is why he wanted her tipped out. In saying that, is there a lot between them? Not really, as Tony said, give her another six months and she has fully grown into her body and she might be anything,” he said.

“The way the syndicate is its interesting. We usually retire them at four and being mares there isn’t a great deal for them past their three-year old season as they’re racing the boys every week. Tony is beside himself, he said this mare won’t be retiring, she’ll be Open Class even if I have to hide her from you,” laughed Breckon.

Unfortunately, Luby Ann has not had a foal since Tickle Me Pink, having been unable to carry them full-term.

An embryo transfer to Love You was tried last season but she missed at that as well.

Thankfully for Breckon she is safely back in foal to new Woodlands sire and son of Muscle Hill, What The Hill.

And thankfully for us trotting fans, the wait over winter will be well worth it to see the Jewels winner and her full sister back out on the track in the near future.

Credit: Brad Reid

HARNESS JEWELS

BELLE OF MONTANA:3 Br f Bettor’s Delight - Lady Cullen

OWNER: Montana Park Pty Ltd

BREEDER: Rod Croon

TIME: 2:25.1 Mile Rate: 1-57.9 Last 800m: 58.0 Last 400m: 27.4



The Three-Year-Old Diamond was hyped as a match-race between two serious pacing fillies, and the crowd in attendance was treated to the match race they were told all week in the build-up.

Belle of Montana and Princess Tiffany had raced on four previous occasions with the New Zealand Oaks victory a fortnight earlier being the only time Tiffany had got the better of the Barry Purdon trained filly.

Earlier in the season, Tiffany had not quite been at her best and may have had excuses.

With the ace draw and back to a shorter distance, Belle Of Montana had a few things in her favour, but many felt the slushy track might detract from her lethal sprint and play into the staying prowess of the Mark Purdon trained filly.

As it turned out, Belle as she is known was able to keep the lead, hand up to the Oaks winner and run past her up the lane, albeit by a freckle, with a withering burst of speed over the last 100m.

The daughter of Bettor’s Delight is regally bred on the Bettor’s/Cullen cross from a daughter of Andress Blue Chip in Lady Cullen.

Andress Blue Chip knows a thing or two about producing champion fillies with Belle Of Montana being from a half-sister to the champion Carabella, who claimed a three-year-old Diamond for herself when she swept all before her in the 2011 season.

Belle of Montana’s breeder Rod Croon acquired Lady Cullen from Robert Famularo having been acutely aware of her pedigree and the speed she had shown in her limited career on the race track.

“I did a deal with Robert Famularo who had the breed and being a half-sister to Carabella I thought she would make a nice prospect.

“I knew she had a lot of speed because I remember Steven Reid saying she was quick,” said Croon.

Her former owner Robert Famularo echoed those sentiments remembering unsolicited quotes from trainers who as he details, had no rhyme nor reason to pump up his tyres or that of the mare.

“She went in the suspensory originally and we think she did it on the float to the races at Auckland,” said Famularo.

“It was a real shame as Steven Reid told me she was the fastest horse he ever sat behind, and at that time he was training the likes of Monkey King and Bailey’s Dream which tells you something.

“We brought her back slowly and she was just about ready to make a return to racing. Brendan Hill had her at his stage and he made the comment he thought she had the ability to win her first seven races in a row.

Carabella was the first live foal after Lady Cullen so Brendan Hill would have been expecting a bit of ability, but got all that and more from the daughter of Bettor’s Delight.

Andress Blue Chip, unraced, is the mother of both and is an imported American mare by Artsplace.

Andress Blue Chip’s half-sister Athena Blue Chip was by Goalie Jeff (Cam Fella) and she was good enough to win three stakes races at both two and three and earn $457,118 in stakes as well as setting a lifetime mark of 1:50.3.
Andress Blue Chip has an Artsplace daughter of her own in New Zealand under the ownership of Bruce Carter and Ross Johnson in Saddle Ridge. She has been a fine producer in her own right as the mother of The Bucket List, Extreme Machine & the smart mare Somethingaboutmary.

Lady Cullen had not been injecting any of that lethal speed into her foals with her first three live foals including a full brother and sister only able to win 4 races among them.

Since Belle of Montana, she has had only the Somebeachsomewhere filly who qualified as a two year old this season for Mark Jones and is in the ownership of Famularo amongst others.

“Lady Cullen died a few days after foaling down south which was unfortunate, it must have been a rupture somewhere,” said Famularo. She is survived however by her multiple Group One winning daughter and soon to be anointed three-year-old Filly of the Year, who Croon remembers well having still been hands on with his involvement in preparing yearlings for the sales at his previous property.

“She was quite a striking looker, she was black yearling but was quite a timid horse.

She was never the boss in the paddock but she had a presence about her. I sold her at the sales for $40,000,” said Croon.

Croon is no longer involved in the breeding industry he gave three decades of service too, citing the sale of his farm as the main reason as he no longer had the ability to be hands on with the stock he enjoyed so much.

“I’m totally out of it at the moment, I needed to have a breather after 30 years breeding horses but I will be back at the yearling sales in a couple of years I imagine to have another go.

“I certainly still get a thrill in seeing horses I bred win big races as they are few and far between. That was my first breeding winner of a Jewels.

“Belle Of Montana actually beat the last horse I still had an ownership interest in called Big On Personality. We have sold her since but when Belle beat her, I realized how good she was.

Croon has had a distinguished career as Chairman and log term committee member of the ATC and more recently HRNZ’s appointee to the soon to be refocused NZ Racing Board, under its new name of Racing Industry Transition Agency. Rod’s term on the board will come to an end with the Minister taking the power to make all future appointments.

“It’s been good to be on the Board but there have been some frustrating times as well. Politics had gotten in the way a bit towards the end with race fields legislation getting delayed which was annoying, but it is what it is I suppose.

“We’ve just signed on a new CEO at the Auckland Trotting Club. Our current President is retiring from the ATC in October which will probably see me step into that role for two years and then that will likely be the end of my involvement from an administration level also”, said Croon.