BREEDING GROUND

With so much racing taking place every day, it is easy to lose track of the fact that each of those runners started out as the dreams and aspirations of a breeder writes Floyd Amphlett.

There is so much that can go wrong, from illness and injury, failing to chase, all the way through to discovering that the intended Derby winner is limited in the talent department.

Back in July 2019, we ran an article with Cambridgeshire breeders Richard Devenish and partner Dilys Steels as they contemplated life after the closure of Peterborough.

Out in the whelping pens they had two young litters still with their mums, who just happened to be litter sisters, and British Bred Oaks finalists, Tea For Tess and Thameside Bound.

Both litters were sired by Confident Rankin and were for sale at £1,200 for the dogs and £1,000 for the bitches.

So whatever happened to them?

 

The Thameside Bound litter comprised a dog and four bitch pups and things didn’t start out too well.

Dilys said: “We had a dog in each litter who both went lame in rearing and we never found out how they did it. It isn’t unusual for them to pick up minor injuries but it is very unusual that they stop them reaching the track.’

Although, ‘Ivor’ the sole dog in the Bound litter was never registered, his injury was only ‘performance affecting’, not ‘life threatening’.

He was eventually rehomed by Barley Greyhound Sanctuary and lives with a family in Nazeing. He and the family’s Hungarian cross bred, are occasional visitors to Barley where they are used in the assessment of recently retired dogs.

The four bitches all raced:

Virtuso ran A4/A5 at Henlow until November but was eventually re-homed, also by Barley.

Vivacious reached A7 at Henlow and looked like a very good stayer in the making but suffered a career ending injury while still only 18 months old. She finished third in a race but was hurt at the pick-up.

Thameside Val recently returned to racing after a break and ran third in an A3 at Henlow on Monday.

Mossvale Queen is currently trialing back at Hove following a break. She last raced in A4.

 

The three dogs in the Tea For Tess litter represent the absolute spectrum of what breeding is all about.

One of the dogs (as mentioned previously) was injured in rearing. Greyhounds are (or should be) reared ‘free range’ with plenty of freedom and company. So occasional accidents are inevitable.

Trainer Kim Gooding said: “He was between eight and twelve months old when he suffered a bad stifle injury. We took him to a number of different vets including Daniel Doherty, but it never looked good.

“We would have re-homed him but he would have had no quality of life and after taking veterinary advice, we decided the kindest thing was to have him put to sleep. It was very sad.”

Kim also had litter brother Johnny Ringo who ran seven races, winning two.

She said: “He was genuine enough, just not very fast.”

The 35 kilo black was retired at two years and three months and was re-homed by Lincolnshire Greyhound Trust.

The star of the litter was Posh Nosh who qualified into A6 at Towcester at 16 months old. He won seven of his first 15 races and by last summer was contesting opens at Towcester. He beat King Louis in 29.56 in the heats of the British Bred Champion Stakes and ran third behind Pocket Lola in the decider on Derby Final night.

He picked up a wrist injury when winning an A1 three races later but has received stem cell treatment and is currently back trialing.

All four bitches reached the track and appeared to be much better suited to sprinting than those out of her litter sister – to the same sire.

But that is how breeding often works!

Tragically Towcester D1 sprinter Fancy Tea suffered a fatal injury last August. Blue Return is currently racing in A5 at Crayford, Tumbarumba is D2 at Henlow and Florence who has been running D1 at Henlow, won a D2 at Nottingham on debut last week.

We hope to carry more breeders stories in the coming weeks including catching up with Kim Gooding to talk about two more recent litters.

---

Breeding queries

Should I outcross or line-breed?

This was a subject that regularly came up decades ago but is no longer relevant in my view.

There are old established theories that involved line breeding of close relatives to obtain a ‘pure’ characteristic and then ultimately outcrossing.

Taken to its extremes in certain cases it has merit. Breed 100,000 chickens. Select those with the biggest meat yield and in-breed, father to daughter, brother to sister, over many generations and you will end up with a population of bigger chicken.

You can anticipate problems including a decline in fertility and other disorders through the propagation of genetic faults.

(I once spoke to an American greyhound breeder who admitted mating a brother to a sister – and falsifying the paperwork. The result though was . . . . . nothing spectacular)

The problem is, the greyhound populations were already quite inbred until the last 30 years, particularly in Europe. The USA had by far the most diverse bloodlines having done a great deal of importing from Australia and Ireland in the 1950/60s.

But the arrival of outcrosses from the early 1980s onwards, primarily through American and Australian bloodlines, has brought that most fascinating evolutions known as heterosis or ‘hybrid vigour’ to European breeding.

I don’t begin to claim enough scientific knowledge to discuss the theory further, though the benefits of an outcross are widely known across many species.

Check any UK/Irish pedigree now and you will find at least as much American and Australian breeding as European.

So would Top Honcho or Sand Man have been as successful in their countries of birth? Would Waverly Supreme or Premier Fantasy have done as well in Ireland as they did with Australian lines?

Who knows? But I am convinced that outcrossing played a major factor in their success. It is ‘a thing’.

One final point that shouldn’t be forgotten though, American and Australian bloodlines in particular were themselves heavily influenced by the great British coursing lines of the late 19^th and early 20^th century.

 

Which type of bitches make the best broods, sprinters, middle distance or stayers?

This is of course an almost impossible question to answer. There are thousands of matings every year, and results are almost impossible to quantify.

For example, many of the top Droopys broods never raced, or if they did, wouldn’t have had the chance to be tested over longer distances.

There are comparatively few sprint races so there will be few opportunities for champion female sprinters to thrive as mums.

If you are looking for an example of one who has, is there a better example than Wee Tiger Tots, dam of King Turbo. Of course her great rival Skate On was a sprint champion and track record breaker in her own right.

Like many of the great bitches though, Skate On was equally as comfortable over four bends. But she wasn’t alone. There was no finer example of that sprint/standard dual distance ability than arguably the greatest dam of the 1980s, Ballinderry Moth.

Once you get into the stayers stretching into marathon hounds, where do you stop? Just looking at British breeding alone, Mega Delight, Easy Bimbo, Westmead Move, Decoy Lassie, Ka Boom, Star Of Dromin and so on.

Yet I often hear owners of top stayers hesitant to breed.

Why?

Sometimes they refer to wanting to breed ‘for pace, not stamina’. To them I would offer two thoughts.

• To be a top class stayer, these bitches will invariably have needed as much tenacity as they have ability. That will hopefully be transmitted to their offspring. Without those attributes, pace is pointless.
• Overall, bitches usually stay further than dogs. Hence while dogs dominate Derbys, bitches win their share of Legers and TV Trophies. Instead of concentrating on the bitch’s preferred trip, take a look at her brothers. A good example of this is Droopys Mo, a bitch who shone over 575 yards. Her litter brothers were Droopys Maldini and Droopys Marco, while her younger full brother was the brilliant sire of early pace, Droopys Scolari. As a dam, Mo threw the three time champion sire, Droopys Jet.

There are hundreds of similar examples out there. It is also true that many staying bitches also throw stayers – though it isn’t inevitable.

 

Do repeat matings work?

Yes they do. There are a string of champions who have been produced from repeat matings including the likes of Daleys Gold, Phantom Flash, Westmead Chick, Droopys Scolari and many more.

But the odds are always against it happening. The main reason for a repeat mating is because there was something special about the first litter and you are asking lighting to strike twice – but better – second time around before you judge it as a success.

Also, there will normally be two or three years between repeat matings which will tend to coincide with gradually reduced fertility and litter sizes.

---

BIG RACE WINNERS

Bellmore Sally‘s sire, Droopys Sydney shows tremendous versatility with early pacers like Bubbly Bluebird and Deerjet Sydney but with stamina seen in the likes of the three ‘Coolavanny’ bitches, Bani, Aunty and Chick.

Bellmore Lucy’s racing career was modest enough though her litter brother Bellmore Jagger reached the Juvenile Classic Final at Tralee.

Bellmore Shelly is a sister to the brilliant early paced Aero Nemesis who was 6-4f to win an English Derby semi in 2014 but finished fourth. Shelbourne Capri is a litter sister to the 2014 Golden Jacket winner Shelbourne Merc and Irish Derby winner Shelbourne Aston.

 

Crossfield Dusty joins a line of top class sprinters by Droopys Jet which includes Ardnasool Jet, Matts Malibu and Bockos Jon Jo.

Dam Crossfield Kate (28.40 Shel. Pk) ran 4th in the Winter Oaks and fifth to Clonbrien Hero in the Produce Stakes. She is a litter sister to Seamus Cahill’s Golden Crest/Derby Plate winner Crossfield Giles.

Betty’s litter sister Crossfield Rees threw Crossfield Will who went nine spots off Tyrur Shay’s Towcester 500m clock.

 

Burcnhchurch Mick‘s sire Laughil Blake is a real early paced specialist; the average winning distance for his 2021 open race winners was 420m.

Blackstone Angie qualified but was unraced. She has three litters on the track, the latest by Ballymac Best, Apr’20s include the flying Burnchurch Best (28.39. 28.41 Clonmel).

Her dam Coolavanny Angie was nothing special on the track, three wins from 20 races (though she may have a back story). As a brood though, she was fabulous. Her Vulturi litter also included Derby Plate winner Wildfire Jimmy, Ballymac Red (28.37 Notts 480m) and Grand Prix finalist Ballymac Twitter. Her other progeny included: ‘Ballymacs’ Ambrose, Kingdom, Araminta and Wisdom.

Coolavanny Angie is also a half sister to the sensational brood Ballymac Razl (dam of ‘Ballymacs’ Tas, Syd, Inspeed, Smallmead etc etc).