CONGRATULATIONS STEW!
Just heard that Stew Firlotte will indeed be inducted to
Canada’s Hall Of Fame and deservedly so. The developer
of Ralph Hanover, Town Pro, His Mattjesty, Historic and
quite frankly a number of Perretti farmbreds has long been
a Hall Of Famer in our neck of the woods!
ARTISCAPES 1-2
It was 1-2 for Artiscape in the Harness Racing Communications
initial polling with Maltese Artist (Artiscape-Hula Dancer)
eclipsing last year’s horse of the year Rainbow Blue
(Artiscape-Vesta Blue Chip) for top honors amassing 326
points to the 320 garnered by the mare. Loyal Opposition
was a distant third with 203. Been a heck of a year thus
far for Artiscape as still another headliner son Art Director
(Silky Satin) prevailed in still another 4-year-old Open
feature at Harrington.
OLE! OLE
The mystery is solved. Scandinavian Bloodstock Agent Ole
Bach was right.on target tabbing Hobokenbamhamamamas sire
of the thus far impressive and likely Dexter Cup favorite
Great George Two as a relative of Stefan Melander’s
gifted Hambletonian and European champion Scarlet Knight.
Hobokenbahamamamas is indeed the first foal of Ruby Crown
by Supergill. This makes him a three quarter brother to
this year’s impressive Mohammed Mali and a three quarter
brother in blood to the noted Promising Catch. Thus there
is ample license to sire a promising colt like Great George
Two.
LAMENTABLE LOSSES
There were significant losses on the harness scene this
week first in Little Brown Jug winner Seatrain and then
the milestone race horse and stallion No Nukes.
Seatrain a gelded son of Meadow Skipper in many ways embodied
the genius that was Meadow Skipper who so often could get
a legendary performer out of just any mare. The dam Mary
Brakefield (Jerry The First-Senatress Abbe) was a nice mare
but apart from Seatrain threw nothing approaching major
status. Her next best Adour by Dale Frost was perhaps an
A3 pacer at Roosevelt and Yonkers. Seatrain not only won
the The Little Brown Jug but WOUND UP taking his 1:55 record
at the ripe old age of 12. He also was claimed a couple
of times for rather significant sums if memory serves. In
all Seatrain earned well over $800,000 at a time when purses
were not nearly what they are today. Seatrain was 33
HARNESSED POWER
From the first crop of Oil Burner, No Nukes was a charter
member of the sterling group of 1982 that also included
Cam Fella. Merger, Temujin, Icarus Lobell, McKinzie Almahust,
Armbro Aussie, Ideal Society etc. Of those, No Nukes and
Cam Fella emerged as two of the most influential sires on
record.
No Nukes was a meteoric success from the onset getting
champions Jate Lobell and Nadia Lobell from his very first
crop. Thereafter would come Die Laughing and Western Hanover
and so many others.. Western will ultimately prove his supreme
contribution through his contemporarily successful sons
Western Ideal, The Panderosa and perhaps our own Red River
Hanover.
No Nukes himself came along at a time when the Meadow Skipper
line had clearly branched into the Most Happy Fella and
Albatross tributaries and with his Oil Burner sire was four
generations from Skipper and thus eligible to 4x3 linebreed
to mares by Skipper sons. This he did quite successfully
and of the above named Nadia Lobell, Die Laughing and Western
Hanover are from Albatross mares.
No Nukes might have been the first of the Most Happy Fella’s
to display the blinding speed associated with Albatross
get while retaining the sheer power associated with the
Happy’s. As such, the eligibility existed and he became
truly a milestone stallion.
Often thought No Nukes’ best all around effort was
a race he didn’t win namely the 1982 Meadowlands Pace
in which he wound up a second a nose to Hilarion that one
catch driven by a then up and coming John Campbell.
Actually had quite an association with No Nukes stemming
from the old Boardwalk days where we first sent the likes
of Misty Raquel, Inside Joke and Al Bragin’s Happy
Times Stable mainstay Sweet O’Brien. The latter resulted
in Sweet Sharon.
Given the impact No Nukes had on Perretti Farm mares over
the years, he was accorded a rightful position in our honor
roll of stallions.
You know Steve, often wondered if you ever regretted rejecting
“The Most Anticipated First Crop Since Niatross”
as the slogan line for Upstream’s initial presentation
of No Nukes yearlings.
Still get a chill when HARNESS THE POWER flashes onscreen
to the tune of Chariots Of Fire in the No Nukes stallion
video!
.
GRADE A FOR TROT
DO give TROT magazine a grade A for its comprehensive State
Of The Industry issue. It’s a must read for all involved
in all aspects of this business and hopefully can spawn
some decisive and positive action sooner rather than later.
It’s distressingly obvious that the status quo is
not precisely working out so well during these trying days.
CAN’T CONFUSE RACING PROWESSAND BREEDING PROWESS
DID notice the USTA’s poll regarding the best overall
racing son of No Nukes where the overwhelming majority of
voters were split between Western Hanover and Jate Lobell
with but scant support for Die Laughing.
Of course Western Hanover has been one of the most influential
stallions of the last decade and is now the sire of top
young stallions The Panderosa and Western Ideal.
Jate Lobell from the first crop of No Nukes has been a leading
sire over the years and still gets good stake winners like
Sugar Glider.
Die Laughing though not nearly commensurate in the stallion
barn with either Western or Jate. However was one pretty
fair pacing colt. Some forget that in the 1:51.1 2-year-old
Breeders Crown epic set by Artsplace at Pompano, it was
Die Laughing and Richie Silverman that went off at prohibitive
3-5 favorites from the outside while Artsplace and John
Cambell were 3-1 from the inside. . Which tells you what
they looked like going in.
Sometime in the 80’s, was asked to recreate a hypothetical
race involving the best pacers from the years 1949 to 1976
with the contestants selected by poll. Certainly one of
the more deserving of the 8 starters was Meadow Skipper
who by then had established himself as perhaps the greatest
pacing sire of any era. The kicker is that Skip’s
contemporary and for the most part conqueror Overtrick was
not named. Which in pure racing terms was a colossal injustice.
Almost like having an all time thoroughbred match up listing
Alydar but not Affirmed.
Meadow Skipper most emphatically “belonged”
but in any hypothetical race citing all time greats so too
did Overtrick.
This is not to imply that Die Laughing was the best racing
son of Nukes though it is to state he was hardly as “distant”
from the other two as the voting might suggest.
It is not unusual for stud prowess to over influence recollections
of racing prowess.
That was an impressive move by Ideal News (Western Ideal-What’s
New) in Friday’s NJSS for fillies. Looks like a Miss
New Jersey candidate for sure..
Muscles Yankee fillies 1-2 in one Lady Suffolk division
at Freehold. Mr. Muscleman could be the Cutler final favorite
next week. Looked good in the elimination.
We got a real nice leggy Red River Hanover colt from Doc’s
Girl. She next goes to Card Shark Jeff Snyder!
Bob Marks