News Track Bred editor Peter Wharton, Harness Breeders (Vic.) committeemen Peter Provis, Les Joslin, Greg Ryan and Ian Kitchin, owners Craig and Renee Judd and HRV's David Brick after Morgan Abby's win in the HBV Gold Chalice at Tabcorp Park. - Graeme Prosser photo Welcome Welcome to the new year.  2010 has begun with much optimism in breeding circles. After years of drought and tough times this breeding season has seen a return to better times. Most districts have had a good spring and summer has been reasonable so far, although in northern Victoria we could still do with some sizeable rain events. Breeders have reported good foal numbers and the mares are getting back into foal. As the breeding season draws to a close it is to hoped that we can produce a similar number of foals to last year. Yearling sales On February 5 we saw the APG Premium sale conducted with 72 lots going under the hammer and while there were not the high flying $100,000 plus lots of the previous year the results were very solid. The sale topper was a Western Terror colt out of Queen Xena sold for $75,000 with an Art Major filly out of Dilingers Reign fetching $71,000. The attendance was very good and bidding was brisk. The second day of the sale held on Saturday 6th   saw a further 72 yearlings sold with the highest price of $62,000 being paid for the Bettors Delight colt out of Tyalla, with $51,000 being paid for the Art Major colt out of My Liberty Belle. The attendance was a little disappointing and bidding was less than enthusiastic. The third day of the APG sale on Sunday 7th saw a further 182 yearlings go under the hammer and $50,000 was paid for the Mach Three colt out of The Dream Bet with an Art Major colt out of Miss Bigalow being knocked down for $44,000. Bidding on this last day was very slow and many vendors struggled to get their breeding and preparation costs back for the yearlings sold. In my opinion APG will need to rethink the three-day sale strategy; it did no favours to those selling yearlings on the third day and if this sale strategy continues it will have a detrimental effect on the future breeding numbers with breeders leaving the Industry due to poor returns on their yearlings. I hope the board of APG have a long, hard look at the construction of next year’s yearling sales. Davidson Cameron Board and Simmons are conducting a Broodmare and weanling sale of over 100 lots on Saturday, March 13 and on the following day will be offering 100 yearlings. It will be interesting to see how the market receives this two-day sale; it offers many great opportunities for breeders to upgrade their broodmares and young stock. Holiday racing On the racing front we have witnessed a hectic Christmas and New Year period with a great Victoria Cup victory to the New Zealander Bettors Strike, who had a charmed run and zoomed home to beat the locals. December 4 saw the running of the HBV Tailamade Lombo and the Jayne Davies owned and trained mare Moon Spirit won in style recording a sizzling 1:56.8 mile rate. On January 8 the HBV Richmond Lass was run and won by the Pacific Fella mare Mendelico, bred and raced by our member Harvey Delmenico. This mare is flying at the moment and has won her last four starts including the George Johnson in Tasmania. On the same night we witnessed the running of the HBV Gold Chalice and it was taken out by the Aces N Sevens filly Morgan Abby, owned by our members Peter and Craig Judd and bred by Rob Nalder. The Ballarat Cup was run on January 30 and won by Cincinnati Kid, trained and driven by Mark Peace, while on February 6 the last harness race meeting was held at Moonee Valley with over 15,000 people in attendance. It was a magical night of wonderful racing with the Hunter Cup being won by the New Zealander Bondy who led all the way in a mile rate of 2:01.7 and a last quarter of 28.5 giving nothing a chance from the back of the field. The Inter Dominion Trot final was also run and Sundons Gift gave another fine front-running display to take the prize for trainer and driver Chris Lang. The New Zealanders topped off a night to remember when Courage To Rule took out the Group 1 Victorian Derby in a slick 1:58.9. New committeeman Harness Breeders (Vic.) committee has co-opted Gary Donaldson onto the Committee to fill the vacancy not filled at our AGM. Don’t forget to check out our website on www.vicharnessbreeders.org.au and for any membership enquiries contact The Secretary, P. O. Box 211, Fitzroy, Vic. 3065 or email to iankitchin@bigpond.com

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