After two exceptional years courtesy of Kings Elvis and Turbo, the 2019 hopes of the KSS Syndicate lay with an exceptional litter by Eden The Kid out of Skate On. Not including King Sheeran – obviously – he had a plate in his hock following a potential career wrecking injury in the semi finals of the British Breeders Stakes.
It would be April before he returned to the track by which stage the talk was of the other Kings and Queen and it hadn’t started well. King Nelson, who had two lines of sub-28.70 form at Central Park at 20 months old, but whose honesty had always been in question, let himself down with a ‘DQ’ in the semi finals of the Springbok.
But as the ‘Prince Andrew of the family’ was exiled to the flaps, his brothers and sister set out to repair the damage. It was just four days later when King Dylan ran third to King Turbo in the Winter Derby at Hove, though even he was overshadowed by his only sister Queen Beyonce.
By the start of the Star Sports/ARC/LPS Derby the 28 kilo brindle had a record of 12/17 races and she reached the semi finals on a nine-timer.
She was joined in the bridesmaid round by Sheeran whose first race in seven months had been in the qualifiers. Sadly, both failed to make the final; Sheeran as one of the last wide seeds in the event, Beyonce with a shoulder joint injury that kept her out of action for four months.
But the disappointment didn’t last long. In July, the three Kings: Sheeran, Cash and Dylan took the Produce Stakes tricast. Sheeran also picked up the British Bred Derby and his brothers have reached a string of Cat One finals. The eight littermates have won 52 races so far this year.
The Kings are gone, long live the kings.
Elvis departed to produce smaller versions of himself following an emotional and possibly self indulgent display in front of an army of fans in the Golden Crest Final. King Turbo bowed out after going lame in November. Both are now standing at stud with Ron Grey in the North East.
Rab McNair said: “You know it can’t last forever, and you worry how you will replace dogs of that calibre, but I don’t have a single regret. Both dogs’ careers were ended by injury, but it was the only one of any consequence that either had in their careers and they had achieved everything by then.”
As the McNairs look forward and not back, it could be argued that the kennel is getting stronger and the biggest issue will be knowing who to move on – and when.
Rab said: “With the licence I have, I am allowed to race 12 dogs within a month. With one or two always injured or in-season, I am quite happy to have around 15 in the main kennel. At the moment, we can afford to hang onto the likes of ‘Cash’ ‘Lennon’ and the rest of that litter, but sooner or later we will have to make decisions. A lot depends on how the pups progress.”
Certainly, with the Eden The Kid/Skate On litter not three years old until next February, there should be many more wins to come, particularly as they tackle longer distances. The one member of the litter whose career path lays in a different direction is Queen Beyonce. She was eliminated in the Oaks semi finals and picked up two new injuries.
Rab said: “She has a thick tendon and and a calf problem. I’ve discussed where we go with her from here with Brendan (Keogh) and Simon (Senyk) and we will keep treating her until she is ready to race again. But if she was to come into season before then, she will be mated. I really can’t wait for Beyonce to have a litter, I think she will be a brilliant dam.”
The future racing plans for the KSS Syndicate lay around three litters of 2018 whelps:
The oldest are the January litter by Leamaneigh Turbo out of Queen Asia. King Louis is the pick of the dogs having won a Central Park stake in a calculated 28.95 on Sunday. The three bitches are all open winners, Queens: Dolly, Franklin and Tammy.
Rab said: “The dogs were a bit unlucky. King Buddy smashed all his metacarpals on one foot but was operated on by Daniel Doherty. He did a great job but he would never race. Hendrix damaged a heel. He and Buddy were both re-homed by Jo Atkins who still has another brother, King Otis running at Swindon.
“Queen Franklin reached the Oaks final as a puppy but I think she is even better than she has shown. She had a couple of ribs broken by Queen Cher when they were in the British Bred Oaks at Doncaster. It has affected her confidence a bit but she has great ability.
“Queen Dolly did a calculated 27.85 at Swindon and is only just coming to hand. I think Tammy is the slowest of the three though she still clocked 23.90 at Romford.”
The four dogs and two bitches by Leamaneigh Turbo out of Skate On were born on 3 May 2018, and Rab doesn’t even begin to hide his excitement about them.
The two bitches, Queen Jessiej and Queen Lilly were the first to come to attention. Lilly clocked 29.50 (calc) in her first ever 480m solo at Central Park followed by a 16.39 for the sprint before coming into season. She is still unraced.
Jessiej did 29.41 in her first solo, 16.28 in her first sprint and has won both her first two opens in 29.17 and 29.07.
King Ozzy, who is with Dan Brabon, ran 29.35 in his final qualifying trial and was beaten in his only race to date, an A1. King Sam has a best of 16.33 in sprint trials and was beaten in his only two races to date, both sprint opens.
King Drake clocked 16.32 in sprint trials, had a best of 29.36 in qualifying trials and finished in his last trial last weekend clocking 29.57.
Rab said: “He showed a lot of pace to the third bend (3.28 sect) but was cramping late on and was locked solid after the winning line. The winner clocked 29.44.”
Then – there is King Bruno.
“King Bruno will be big news” says Rab simply.
“He ran 29.00 in his first 480 metre trial and on the day Jessiej did 16.35 for the sprint, Bruno did 16.11. He had a slight setback with a metatarsal but nothing too serious. I can’t help but be excited by him. He looks at least as good as either Elvis or Turbo at the same stage.”
The third litter of ’18 whelps is a dog and two bitches by Eden The Kid out of the maiden bitch King Danni (Eden Brett-Pretty Fantasy).
The slowest of the bitches is Queen Tina, currently A5. Sister Queen Rihanna has raced twice and won A1 on debut. and then there is King Axel.
If you didn’t see RPGTV on Sunday – let us introduce King Axle running from trap four.
Rab said: “He reminded me of Queen Beyonce when she made her debut. As you can see, he is still very very green. He was looking for the others to show him the way around. Once he got going, you could see for yourself.”
Not only has the kennel unearthed another potential staying star, King Danni will join an incredible collection of young brood bitches.
Rab said: “She was a good bitch in her own right, a top class stayer, I think she beat Farloe Tango twice. She was also a litter sister to King Dec so she has the breeding too.”
Still to come, later in the year, is the only pup from a Leamaneigh Turbo/Wee Tiger Tots litter. It is a repeat mating from the cross that produced King Turbo.
Rab said: “Because he was the only one, I bought two pups of similar age from Craig Dawson. They are by Kinloch Brae out of Ballydoyle Peach and the three of them are absolute savages.
“They are only 11 months old but there was an incident in the paddock last week after a fox got into their paddock. Well I can only assume it was a fox, there wasn’t a lot left by the time we found it. Once that happens, the pups start to have a go at each other so we brought them in early.”
Rab said: “We have plans to really kick on next year with so many good young bitches. At this stage we may have one last litter out of Skate On, with King Turbo a possible cross. We still have some Lamaneigh Turbo straws to use on Queen Anna. Then we may use King Elvis across King Danni and Queen Asia.
“I would say to anyone who is thinking about breeding, go ahead and do it. The buzz that you get from bringing young pups through is indescribable. There are a lot of very good potential brood bitches in Britain. Decent Irish dogs are getting harder and harder to buy. Why not give it a go.”
