Designing A Special Pedigree

I MUST admit I cheered home Aston Kimetto to win Sunday night's Group 3 Warragul St Leger.

I MUST admit I cheered home Aston Kimetto to win Sunday night's Group 3 Warragul St Leger.

No, owner Ray Borda and trainers Seona and Jason Thompson, don't need me to be part of their cheer squad.

But, to watch the son of KC And All-Sweet It Is rail through from a clear last early and beat a high class field of youngsters was something else. He ran past them on the home turn like they were anything but the class acts they are.

What gave me the impetus to cheer him home is the fact he is a son of champion race bitch Sweet It Is.

In the four decades or more that I have been studying pedigrees, I'd love a quid for every time I've heard that old catch cry about great race bitches not being able to produce.

Sweet It Is (Mogambo-Off Springer by Flying Penske) was a champion who raced 67 times for 25 wins and 22 placings earning $962,000.

Bred by that great man of Victorian breeding Len Jones, she was bought by Braden Finn and the great one Darren McDonald and became a champion.

She won two National Distance titles, two Sandown Cups, an Association Cup and Bold Trease all at Group 1 level.

She ran a track record at Wentworth Park and was also a finalist in four other Group 1s.

It is often a cry from many within the industry that high class race bitches generally fail when they go to stud. Often we expect far too much of those bitches. A legend like Sweet It Is, or Paua To Burn, or Flying Amy etc before her cannot be expected to produce the equal of herself.

Those bitches are Hall of Fame class, and how many bitches produce Hall of Famers … very few indeed.

But the success already of Sweet It Is' mating to US stud dog KC And All is heralding some great things to come.

Aston Kimetto is already the winner of five of his six race starts and twice a winner, on debut, at The Meadows. Litter brother Often Imitated has already won at Sandown in 29.44, and littermate Never Duplicated recently won a 595m Maiden there in 34.40.

Aston Kimetto is from the second mating for Sweet It Is. To Turanza Bale she produced G2 Richmond Derby finalist Aston It Is (10 wins, 5 placings, $37,000), Aston Abbott (10 wins, 13 placings, $19,000) and Zoe The Pest (5 wins, 6 placings, $13,000).

Owner Ray Borda knows to buy the very best damlines, from the very best racers, is the ideal way to go forward.

His latest champion galloper Aston Dee Bee is the perfect example.

Aston Kimetto has a very interesting pedigree.

Sweet It Is has as her damsire the US staying influence, champion sire Flying Penske.

The son of Oshkosh Racey-She's A Natural had great success in Australia mainly for the Ivers family through such greats as Texas Gold, Quidame, Lucy's Light, Nellie Noodles and Symmetry.

Putting Sweet It Is to KC And All brought in a duplication and balance of Oshkosh Racey 6×4. He too was a huge influence on pedigrees in the US.

KA And All might appear to be a complete outcross to Aussie bloodlines.

But, he carries a 3×3 cross of the famed US race and stud dog Dutch Bahama (Hairless Joe-Dutch Debit by Woodward).

But an even casual look at the pedigree of Dutch Bahama will show a 3x5x4 cross of the full relations Tell You Why, Magic Babe and Sky Jet. Interestingly, Magic Babe is duplicated in the pedigree of Temora Lee the famed dam of legend Temlee.

Sweet It Is has 28 crosses of Temlee in her pedigree which means she carries 56 crosses of Magic Babe … the same Magic Babe found, along with his brothers Tell You Why and Sky Jet, in Dutch Bahama.

A little bit of research on the best progeny sired in the US by KC And All shows a great number of them with Flying Penske up close in their dams.

Pedigrees By Design
0450 407271 or 02 65569784

Latest News Articles