Friendship leads to fast Albion Park winner

A mateship between champion breeders Brian West and the late Father Dan Cummings paved the way for the breeding of last Saturday’s impressive Albion Park winner Flying Colours.

“Father Dan and I were close friends and we often travelled overseas together,” West said.

Flying Colours, who lifted his stake tally over the $100,000 plateau, is the product of Hurricane Dancer, a Christian Cullen mare bought by West and friend Lynn Hodgson from the Cummings family.

Only lightly raced, Hurricane Dancer proved a highly successful matron, leaving 11 foals for six winners with three inside 2:00 and three $100,000 earners including the NSW Simpson Sprint winner God Send (1:51.8) and the exported God Forbid (1:50.2).

Flying Colours is her last foal.

Sold for $52,000 at the NZB National Yearling Sale at Christchurch in 2021, Flying Colours was three times placed from seven attempts as a two-year-old for premier Northern horseman Tony Herlihy.

The Vincent gelding was sold to a NSW syndicate at the outset of his three-year-old campaign and has since totted up eight successes including one each at Menangle and Albion Park.

“We’ve kept one of her daughters in Take My Hand (by Roll With Joe) to breed from,” West said.

Take My Hand’s first offspring is the promising three-year-old filly The Dancer, a winner at Invercargill and Wyndham this season for Matthew Williamson.

West, the 2024 NZ Breeder of the Year, currently owns a broodmare herd of around 60 at his 300 acre property at Coes Ford, 20 minutes south-west of Christchurch.

“We used to always breed between 25 and 30 mares each season, but these days we are breeding up to 15 mares,” the Studholme Bloodstock boss said.

The Studholme broodmare band is littered with black type winners and winner-producers.

Heading the list of top racemares to be bred this season are the five-time Group 1 winner and NZ 2YO and 3YO Filly of the Year True Fantasy, the NZ Oaks winner No Matter Wat, Paramount Queen (NZ Hambletonian), the Listed trotting winner Paramount Empress and the Robin Dundee Crown winner Amore Lancome.

Among the notable matrons are Wat A Woman, the dam of the Group 3 winner and NZ Aged Mare of the Year Manhattan (1:49.6), the Harness Million victor Wat Next and No Matter Wat; Secret Lotion, the dam of the NZ Sires’ Stakes champions Chase A Dream and Secret Wish; I’m So Lucky, dam of the Listed winner Wish Me Luck and Get Seaside Lucky (NZ Little Green Jug); My Style, dam of the Southern Country Cups Final winner Idealism; Paramount Princess, a half-sister to the 2YO, 3YO and 4YO Trotter of the Year Paramount Geegee; Mon Lancome, a daughter of the Jewels victor Lancome; and Perfect Potion, a daughter of the dual Group 1 winner Secret Potion.

West, 75, who has been breeding standardbreds for over five decades, has brought out an amazing 277 individual winners and they have won 1,002 races in New Zealand and countless races in Australia, USA and Canada.

The list of winners that first saw the light of day at his Canterbury base reads like a classics’ date book. They include the mighty Lazarus, Bit Of A Legend ($2.6 million), the brilliant speedster Defoe, London Legend, the millionairess Don’t Stop Dreaming, Lancome, Secret Potion and True Fantasy.

The next wave of potential stars from Studholme Bloodstock will be rolled out at the National Yearling Sales at Christchurch on February 17.

The 12-strong entry comprises two colts and a filly by Art Major, two colts by Captaintreacherous, two fillies by Sweet Lou, a colt and a filly by Bettor’s Delight, a colt by What The Hill and fillies by Majestic Son and Volstead.

There are relatives to a cavalcade of top flight performers headed up by Major Trojan (WA Derby), Underthesouthernsun (1:47.8), Willie Go West (Hobart Pacing Cup), Turkana (Queensland Oaks), the National Trot winner Sheemon, Secret Potion, Lancome, Manhattan, Wat Next, Paramount Geegee and Rare Opportunity (Worthy Queen Trot).