For Group race winning strike rates, particularly for Derbys and Oaks, few maternal families if any can compare with that of an oddly-bred grey mare foaled in Napier in 1922 called Krina.

For a family which began relatively late in proceedings and had few foal numbers during that early evolvement, it has sent forth a steady stream of fine performers at an amazing rate and just in recent years it has resulted in the likes of star fillies alone in Jovial Jeanie, Happy Hazel, Imagine That, Bellajily, Van Glory, Under Cover Lover, Amongst Royalty and Exotic Lover, the latter one of last season's top juvenile fillies and not far off striking top form again.

The family has not been shy in producing colts either however, and the outstanding Australian pacer Divisive is just the latest advertisement in that respect.

After getting an early education as a milk cart horse around Napier, Krina was lightly raced by Canterbury trainer Manny Edwards, but was a good class saddle mare for her Kaiapoi owner, winning four races including a Nelson Cup and a mile under saddle at Addington in 2.10 4/5 in 1931.

She was by Jewel Chimes, an Australian-bred son of Abbey Bells, from an unnamed mare by Rothschild, which wouldn't have inspired many breeding purists at the time, but there were some very important aspects to her pedigree.

For a start, Abbey Bells was by Bow Bells, a son of Electioneer and noted broodmare Beautiful Bells, who was by the Clay horse The Moor from Minnehaha.

And he was from a sister to a champion mare of the time in Maud S. in Russia, who was by the incestuously-bred and hugely influential Harold from another noted broodmare in Miss Russell.

Harold was by Hambletonian (by Abdallah 1) from a daughter of Abdallah 1 and Abbey Bells, who was thus line-bred 3x3 to Hambletonian with two of the best broodmares of the day in his maternal lines, proved a successful sire in Australia at a time when records were barely kept.

Jewel Chimes was from a mare by Heir At Law, a son of Mambrino King whose dam was line-bred 2x2 to George Wilkes, another famous son of Hambletonian and great rival of Electioneer.

Rothschild was by Harold's champion son Childe Harold and brought more Mambrino blood into the picture.

So it was hardly surprising when Krina, bred almost entirely to Jack Potts or his Derby winning son Gamble, left eight named foals for seven winners, which were either roan or chestnut.

Among them were the top juvenile and Inter-Dominion heat winner Sprayman.

A Jack Potts daughter in Ngarimu established one successful branch of the family, but it was her non-winning daughter by New Zealand Cup winner Red Shadow, an Axworthy-line horse, in Mala who really ignited the family.

Mala's first two foals were Malabella (5 wins) and Princess Grace, a Prince Regent (by Springfield Globe) mare who led to the likes of Cup class pacers Vanadium and Sunseeker, big U.S. winner Wilton Royale, Rosebloom (SA Oaks) and more recently Divisive.

Mala, a chestnut, had been acquired in the 1940s by Nick Matyasevic, a popular Christchurch restaurateur from Czechoslovakia, and it was to prove a most fruitful association.

For him her daughter Malabella left seven foals for six winners with her three fillies being NZ Derby winner Bellajily, Van Glory and Trapalanda.

The latter eventually proved a disappointment in Australia, but Bellajily and Van Glory (11 wins, NZ Standardbred Breeders Stakes, 2nd NZ Derby) were to establish highly commercial families in their own right.

To Van Glory can be attributed the wonderful filly Under Cover Lover, multiple Derby winner Mon Poppy Day and good Australian winners such as Parthenon (WA Oaks), Travcor, Boambee Bay, Rumadrum, Shakhan and Wirrpunda, the latter a Group 2 winner in Perth.

Brilliant Australian juvenile Amongst Royalty (14 Aus wins, $413,740) is from a half-sister to Mon Poppy Day (20 Aus wins, $318,558).

West Melton's Jim Dalgety had been a stablehand for trainer Ces Devine when Bellajily, a daughter of Devine's NZ Cup winning son of U. Scott in Van Dieman, and it was to prove a masterstroke by Dalgety when he brought her back from the U.S. in the late 1960s.

Dalgety had noticed in an American magazine, Bellajily racing well past her best at the age of nine in New York claimers worth $5000 and Malabella had been one of his favourites.

"Malabella won a Riccarton Stakes and ran third in both the NZ Derby and Oaks,” recalls Dalgety.

"She had two dashes of thoroughbred blood in her, and Van Dieman's third dam was also by a galloper."

Bellajily, Malabella's second foal and first filly, was a fine performer herself, often beating the colts as a 3-year-old.

She won the 1963 NZ Derby and was unluckily beaten into second in the Oaks.

After Matyasevic passed away, she was sold to America, where in 1969 from a handful of starts she had managed one placing and $1380 in earnings.

"To claim a horse you had to be a member of the USTA and so forth.

"So I rang Stanley Dancer and asked him to claim her for me, and he said...'what do you want that old Indian mare for?'"

First bred to Gene Abbe, Bellajily lost the colt, and then went to reside at Blue Chip Farm where Most Happy Fella was embarking on a stud career.

The result was a filly, but after putting her back in foal to Most Happy Fella and shipping her home, Bellajily slipped a colt on the way.

"His stud fee was US$35,000, which was a bloody fortune in those days, and he wasn't even proven."

All was not well though when the consignment arrived as the filly had also hurt herself in transit.

But later as Jovial Jeanie, after missing to Noodlum, she was sent north to Roy Purdon to race right-handed - she was hopeless the other way due to her earlier injury - and proved one of the class acts of the 1978/79 season.

She won eight of her first nine starts and another in the Franklin Cup and was the leading stakes winner among aged pacers for the term.

In the meantime, Bellajily in consecutive years sent forth the smart colts Never Bend and Bold Ruler and the class filly Krina Bella.

The latter, a daughter of Lordship, was a juvenile winner here and second in the WA Oaks and her six winners include SA Derby winner Keep It Up (44 Aus wins, $244,851), and the dams of Flyboys Fun (16 Aus wins, $77,850), Alert Falcon (US1.54.4), Torbello (16 Aus wins, $98,894) and Black Flash (24 Aus wins, $130,393).

Bellisimo was the daughter of Krina Bella who produced the latter trio and more recently she has left the speedy filly Asabella and one of this season’s better 3-year-olds in The Cavalier.

Bellajily died in 1985, aged 25, the dam of just six foals.

Dalgety, recognising the broodmare potential of Jovial Jeanie, didn’t keep her long on the racetrack, and while her six winners to date are mostly moderate performers except for Fella Ship (5 NZ 3yo wins), one was definitely not.

That was Happy Hazel, her 1985 filly by another Dalgety import in Alberton after earlier bringing in leading sires Bachelor Hanover and Out To Win.

She was outstanding in 1989, winning a string of classics including the DB Fillies Final in Auckland in 1.57.6 and the GN Oaks and was only just beaten in the NZ Oaks when a raging hot favourite.

Happy Hazel took a while to produce in kind, but that was worth the wait with ImagineThat (15 NZ wins, $415,289).

That is just one side of the family, with the Vain Franco and Under Cover Lover one coming through Van Glory being a whole new story, and no doubt something else again in the years to come.

All of which is a very long way from the seemingly humble origins of that old grey saddle mare who at times also made a living pulling a milk cart around Napier.

Frank Marrion