THE win of River Lad in Queensland's most prestigious sprint, the $1 million BRC Stradbroke Handicap, recalls the deeds of wonderful Bletchingly sire Canny Lad, who was humanely destroyed at age 26 at his owners' Darley property "Woodlands", near Denman, last week.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
By Queensland based Umatilla sire Top Echelon, River Lad was produced from Ikeymo, a daughter of Canny Lad.
While the broodmare sire of numerous other winners including six times Group One winner Desert War, Canny Lad is widely known for his daughter Shantha's Choice, dam of champion Australian sire Redoute's Choice and via his multitude of sons and daughters at stud. This has ensured Canny Lad's name will feature in thousands of pedigrees.
Bred on a cross of former Widden stud champion sires Bletchingly and Lunchtime, Canny Lad retired to the Ingham Brothers' stud Woodlands in 1991 following his champion juvenile year 1989-90, the season in which he won the Golden Slipper Stakes.
Canny Lad's male line descendents are disappearing. His best stud son was his dual Group One winner Dodge (sire of over 105 winners including his stakes winning $1m earner Hard To Catch) who was also humanely destroyed late last season who formerly stood at Raheen stud in Queensland.
Retired from stud duty to Woodlands in 2011 (after serving seasons with Darley at its Aberdeen base of Kelvinside), Canny Lad sired over 744 winners in excess of 2130 wins and progeny earnings of almost $53m.
BOUTIQUE breeding property, Little Wych, on the outskirts of Bathurst, has brought renewed interest to a region which was an original cradle of Australian breeding about 150 years ago.
Owned and operated by Fran Ovenstone, the latest success for the property was two-year-old Leeds recent winner of the $50,000 Castletown Stakes-LR at Wanganui in New Zealand.
Leeds, who became the fifth stakes winner for Australia's current leading first crop sire I Am Invincible (which stands at Yarraman Park, Scone), was a $30,000 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale summer graduate bred and sold from Little Wych.
The New Zealand-trained Leeds (produced from the Peintre Celebre mare Swentre), can be grouped with other stakes winners bred, reared and sold by Little Wych including half-brothers Molto Bene and Mourinho, and earlier Barbara Joseph trained half-sisters Ain't Seen Nothin' (stakes winner and Group One placed) and Commands Nothin'.
New TBA president
FOLLOWING the resignation of Sydney's Trevor Lobb after his six-year tenure as president at a recent board meeting, it was announced that Queensland's Basil Nolan Senior was appointed president of Thoroughbred Breeders Australia (TBA).
"I have enormous shoes to fill with Trevor doing a tremendous job, particularly during the equine influenza outbreak and since with the artificial insemination battle," said Mr Nolan.
Mr Nolan was elected to the Thoroughbred Breeders Queensland Association board (TBQA) in 1969 and has served on the TBA board since 2005. Current president of the TBQA, Mr Nolan - along with wife Diane and son Basil Junior - owns and operates the long standing breeding farm Raheen stud, at Gladfield near Warwick, Queensland.
Mr Nolan is not the first Queenslander to hold the TBA presidency following Colin McAlpine being at its helm for 13 years from October 1983 to November 1996.
Farewell to sire Du Jour
WHO can remember the win of Belle Du Jour in the 2000 Golden Slipper Stakes? The filly stumbled out of the gates when the starter said "go" with jockey Lenny Beasley almost thrown from the saddle, and consequently was lengths last, until the filly produced an amazing sprint in the straight to get up and win the world richest two-year-old event.
The reason to recall this event is the fact her US-bred sire Dehere (by Northern Dancer's champion sire grandson Deputy Minister) died of a heart attack recently at stud in Turkey aged 23.
Shuttling for some seasons to Coolmore, Vinery and Arrowfield studs, Dehere was a champion two-year-old US colt.
The bay horse sired winners in numerous countries across world, and apart from Belle Du Jour, he sired other Australian Group One winners including Natural Blitz, Dear Demi and Defier (who incidently was trained by the late Guy Walter).
A Class of his own
WHILE we easily recall some of Redoute's Choice's best sire sons - including Stratum, Not A Single Doubt, Snitzel, and Bradbury's Luck - there is a lesser known but well-bred son of the champion Australian sire "chipping away" at siring winners.
His name is Supreme Class, a bay son of Arrowfield stud's Redoute's Choice and who has only had eight horses to race with six of them winning. This includes his first crop three-year-old Tildy Lad, a winner of four of seven starts, his latest victory over 1250 metres at Morphettville last Saturday. In fact, Tildy Lad made it three successive wins (his last two at Morphettvile), after carrying 59 kilograms and starting the punters pick.
Trained at Bordertown in South Australia by Jeff Searle, Tildy Lad has returned his owners over $60,000 following his $9000 purchase price from Caithness Breeding at the Adelaide Magic Millions Yearling Sale.
Standing at Paul and Carol Dingwall's Caithness Breeding at Crowther (half way between Young and Cowra), Supreme Class displayed his sprinting ability in Hong Kong, winning five races including the Chevalier Cup. A half-brother to brilliant Melbourne stakes winner Secret Flyer, Supreme Class was also placed fourth in the Group One Hong Kong Classic Mile over 1600 metres.
