Harness racing can be cruel at times as Studholme Bloodstocks Brian West well knows after he lost the services of his second open class trotting mare in the space of three months when he had to retire the outstanding trotting mare Paramount Queen recently.
Brian had to pull the plug on the racing career of the outstanding trotting racemare Superbowlcheerleader earlier in the season and now he has lost the services of Paramount Queen after she had a heart fibrillation during a race at Addington on March 27th.
Even though Paramount Queen won eight races and $122,612 in New Zealand racing at the highest levels it was a career littered with top performances against the best in which she was repeatedly placed in a lot of the classics
At two Paramount Queen was beaten into third in both the New Zealand Trotting Stakes and the New Zealand Sires Stakes Final behind Sheemon and Habibti and then ran third to Royal Aspirations and Sheemon in the Harness Jewels.
At three Paramount Queen won the $25,000 Hambletonian Trot over the boys before running second to Habibti in the New Zealand Oaks and third behind Prime Power and Sheemon in the Harness Jewels.
Her best run at four was a close fourth to Sheemon in the Harness Jewels and she started her five year old season with a hiss and a roar with two outstanding wins at Auckland which was followed by a career best run for second to Stent in the Waikato Flying Mile where she was credited with a placed time of 1:54.6.
Another close second at Auckland where she was only out of the money once in eight starts followed before the heart fibrillation problem raised its ugly head to stop her career just when it looked like she had come of age as a racehorse.
A daughter of Love You, Paramount Queen is bred to be way above average.
She is a half sister to the former outstanding age group trotter Paramount Geegee 1:57.3 ($561,342) and her dam Paramount Star (7 wins) ($54,130) was a half sister to the former open class trotter Paramount Jack 1:58.6 (12 wins)
Brian West has been having a great season with his three year pacing fillies with both Start Dreaming 1:58.1 ($50,650) and On The Town 1:56.7 ($23,306) looking legitimate New Zealand Oaks chances but his luck with his high class trotting mares has been all bad.
Paramount Queen has now settled in at Brian's showplace breeding establishment at Coe's Ford and we can no doubt look forward to seeing her progeny at the Premier yearling sales in years to come.
Harnesslink Media