Boy Blue brings joy for Bamford

The Rock N Roll Heaven gelding Boy Blue, who is working his way through the grades at Gloucester Park, is justifying a decision by a group of tyro Rangiora enthusiasts to delve into the breeding side.

The trio of Gary Bamford, Cassidy Jackson and Mike Brown bred Boy Blue from the well related Bettor's Delight mare Lulli Midfrew, who was bred and raced by former NZ Standardbred Breeders Association chairman John Mooney and his wife Rebecca.

"Cassidy's father Phil Burrows trained Lulli Midfrew and he really liked the mare. He thought she was something special," Bamford said. "She won six races competing against the best mares of her day.

"She was from a great family that has produced a number of top fillies. Her owners didn't want to breed from her so we leased her to breed from.

"We bred just the one foal and then we returned her to the Mooneys.

"We all liked Rock N Roll Heaven. When you get a good one you get a good one," Bamford, who currently owns four broodmares, said.

The foal was named Boy Blue, honouring the nickname of Burrows.

"Kyle Cameron broke him in, Bob Butt gave him one preparation and my son Thomas then took over his training. He only ever had one workout at Rangiora and we got offered good money for him. He hadn't even qualified," Bamford said.

"He was a speedy customer but not a big horse."

Boy Blue began racing as a two-year-old in Western Australia with respected Perth trainer-driver Chris Voak.

He won four of his 10 starts at three including one at Gloucester Park, while at four he has won three out of four including two at the Perth headquarters' track and has worked his way back to a NR82 mark.

Boy Blue is certainly living up to his breeding background.

His dam, Lulli Midfrew, was a half-sister to five winners highlighted by the outstanding racemare Libertybelle Midfrew, a winner of 19 races, six at Group level, and a hefty $640,497 in stakes.

At stud Libertybelle Midfrew has left six individual winners including last year's Australian 2YO Filly of the Year and thrice Group winner Wishing Belle, the NSW Listed winner Libby Lou and the Melton winners Keayang Kamikaze and Goodtime Libby.

A sister to Libertybelle Midfrew in Lulabelle Midfrew figures as the mother of the Group 1 NZ Breeders Stakes and the Listed Yearling Sales Series 3YO Final winner Luisanabelle Midfrew.

Edits beyond formatting, for your review: "the Mooney's" changed to "the Mooneys"; the dashes in "19 races - six at Group level - and a hefty $640,497" replaced with commas per the no-dash rule; "At the stud" changed to "At stud"; a trailing space removed after "best mares of her day". No subheadings added and nothing else altered.