When the inaugural Nutrien Equine Standardbred Yearling Sale kicks off next April at Oaklands Junction it will mark a significant milestone for respected Shepparton breeder Helen Head.
It will be the 31st consecutive year that the nonagenarian owner of ‘Grenada Park’ has been a vendor at the Victorian sales.
Helen and her late husband, Graham, a leading international dog judge and a board member of the Victorian Trotting Control Board, began their involvement with the yearling sales in 1990 when they put through their first draft at an auction conducted by John Aughey at the Melbourne Showgrounds.
A strapping colt by Glen Almahurst out of Lady Raglan named Malabar was knocked down by the pair for a modest $3,000 and he ended up banking $82,176 from 13 wins including a Hobart Pacing Cup.
He became the first of countless winners bred and offered at the sales by the 2007 Victorian Breeders of the Year, whose record of success reads like a classics’ date book.
Though Malabar’s dam Lady Raglan was to claim a Victorian Broodmare of the Year award, the source of the majority of winners bred by the Head’s over four generations has been the New Zealand-bred Bachelor Hanover mare Madame Han.
Madame Han left 18 foals, 10 of which were winners and five were winner-producers. Seven of her progeny were successful on metropolitan tracks including the Moonee Valley winners Chipmunk, Easy Mark, Cocky Benz, Gold Mistress, Moonshine Mistress and Botlar.
Among Madame Han’s descendants are pacers the calibre of Safari 1:55.7 ($535,445), the Victorian ‘Cups King’, the Derby winners Garnet River 1:50 ($555,822) and Astronaut 1:53.4 ($264,177), the Vicbred champion Our Maid Marianne, Queen Of Fire (Devonport Cup), the Tatlow winners Gemfire and The Godine Machine, Shine Of Hollywood, the top Tasmanian juvenile Vancouver Mac, and many others.
Star Chaser, a great granddaughter of Madame Han and the dam of four $100,000 earners, won the Victorian Broodmare of the Year award in 2007.
Other top performers bred off Grenada Park down through the years have been the outstanding racemare Tell Me Tales 1:49.3 ($360,870), former 2YO of the Year The Storm Inside 1:50.7 ($311,125), who was undefeated in his first 11 starts, the SA Derby winner Lively Exit, Indigenous (Tas. Oaks), Holly’s Miss Molly, the winner of 37 races and $274,676, Mabo and Singasongasixpence (VHRC 3YO Cup).
In all, 29 of the Head breed have won more than $100,000 in stake earnings. There have also been more than 30 sub two-minute performers including two in the 1:50 list.
Helen said the most outstanding colts that she has bred are Safari, Garnet River and The Storm Inside, while the best filly is undoubtedly Tell Me Tales.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the first foal out of Tell Me Tales hit the ground in 2021,” she said.
“It is just exciting to see any of them you have bred win. It gives you a real kick.”
And, Helen is hoping she will get a few more kicks before she bows out of the breeding game!
She is planning to breed from eight of her select broodmare band this season and has nominated four youngsters for the 2021 round of yearling sales including two at the Nutrien Equine sale – both out of American-bred mares from top families.
They are a Betting Line half-sister to The Storm Inside and four other sub two-minute winners and a Pet Rock colt from the dam of the brilliant but ill-fated Fast Flyer and the Bathurst Gold Tiara heat winner Dangerous Hand.
On the score of breeding, both yearlings look certain to uphold the proud record of ‘Grenada Park’ in Victorian standardbred breeding.
By Peter Wharton