The Next Best Thing...

The rising seven-year-old by Highview Tommy, The Next Best Thing, stunned punters at Addington last week, paying a remarkable $161.40 to win as the rank outsider in an 11-horse field — easily a record for a win payout in the modern era.

His race record now stands at four wins and nine placings from 28 starts, earning $47,000 for owner-trainer Michael House. Closer scrutiny of his maternal bloodlines, however, reveals some serious depth — the sort of “spine” that suggests he was always bred to be a racehorse. He is already the best of his dam’s five live foals.

His dam Crusader Franco — bred, as the name suggests, by Spreydon Lodge and trained by Robert Dunn — was a capable mare who won four races between the ages of three and five. By the talented yet underrated Badlands Hanover, Crusader Franco produced her first foal Champagne Franco (by Falcon Seelster), who won one of only two starts. A daughter of a noted broodmare sire, Champagne Franco left her mark at stud through Platinum Revolution (by Changeover) for former Addington race caller Mark McNamara.

After one two-year-old start, Platinum Revolution was exported to Australia, where he won three of five outings and paced 1:52.7 before injury curtailed his career. Subsequent half-relations by Captain Crunch and King Of Swing also followed McNamara across the Tasman, though they are yet to appear on the track.

Crusader Franco was a daughter of Cherubic (Tuapeka Knight – Chin Chin Cherie), a quality filly for the Shinns and breeder Wayne Francis in the 1990s. She won six races and $64,000 before retiring to stud, where she left 12 foals — 10 of whom raced, with nine breaking two minutes for the mile. Among them, Franco Catapult (by Franco Seelster) won four of ten New Zealand starts before heading to America, where he posted a sub-1:50 mile. His full brothers Franco Conquest, Franco Croupier and Franco Caesar all went on to perform well in the United States.
The cross of Crusader Franco with Falcon Seelster clearly proved potent. Half-sister Cherish A Franco (by Caprock) won two of just four starts and left the likes of Cruiser Franco (8 wins), Franco Cristiano (9 wins) and Franco Cornel (6 wins).

Cherubic was easily the best-performed of Chin Chin Cherie’s foals both on the track and in the broodmare paddock, with many of her siblings failing to make an impression. That was somewhat surprising, given she was a daughter of Petulus (Stormyway – Perpetua), bred by the late, great Jim Dalgety.
Her first foal, Golden Oriole (by Local Light), was New Zealand’s top two- and three-year-old filly of her time and helped establish a young Murray Butt as both a professional trainer and studmaster. Hakim (by Garrison Hanover) reached “cup class” when ten wins were the benchmark, while Colonel Kenton (also by Local Light), though unraced, earned his opportunity at stud and enjoyed modest success. Another sibling, Mia Mocca (5 wins, by Local Light), became a foundation broodmare for Otago breeder Phil Creighton, whose family of mares continued to breed on through the 1990s and early 2000s — he was a familiar vendor at the Christchurch Yearling Sales for many years.

The Next Best Thing didn’t debut until he was four and didn’t start winning until his five-year-old season, but did he really deserve to be so unwanted by punters last week?

Owner Michael House is likely amused by the whole affair — and while horses can’t talk, perhaps this six-year-old gelding was simply “tapping into” the exploits of his accomplished family tree.