October Vicbred Wednesday Winner
Our Vicbred Weekday Winner for this month, selected from member-bred horses who claimed their Vicbred First Win Bonus in September, is Royal Speech, a Well Said gelding bred and raced by members Peter & Leslie Medhurst…
The first thing that stands out in the pedigree of Royal Speech is the sheer depth of the maternal lines. His dam Three Queens (Mach Three, $42,000) is one of ten foals from her dam Surfing Queen (Beach Towel, $7,000), with all nine who reached the racetrack recording a win. Some of them – many wins. Surfing Queen is a half-sister to Group 1-winning Thorninmyside (Troublemaker, $160,000) who has thrown ten foals with nine to the races and eight taking wins. Both mares are from Roses In Paris (Kentucky, $36,000) who threw 13 foals which all raced and 12 won races.
Roses in Paris represents multiple strains of the great mare Roya McKinney, along with her sisters Queenly McKinney and Regal McKinney. At least eight strains are present through multiple sons and daughters of Roya. They appear in both Kentucky and Scarlet Sunrise, often through Roya’s son Scotland who was the sire of the incomparable U Scott who appears twice in the pedigree of Scarlet Sunrise. Roya McKinney represents the maternal line of Kentucky and his sire Tar Heel.
Royal Speech is the first of what will potentially be a similar streak for Three Queens. He has recorded over $60,000 in earnings but the 4YO has only just picked up his $7,000 Vicbred First Win Bonus as his racing to date has taken place in South Australia. His foray across the border in October was a successful one and gained his connections their first win bonus after an incredible 59 starts. It’s never too late to make Vicbred pay! The only one of three foals to be named, he currently has a 2018 colt brother and 2021 filly sister, both by Betting Line.
The only duplication in Royal Speech’s immediate pedigree is a 4x3 to Matts Scooter but to look at the four main paternal lines in the family is to see some of the most powerful bloodstock in existence: No Nukes, Artsplace, Matt’s Scooter and Beach Towel. Adding the maternal sires of Albatross, Abercrombie and Kentucky makes this pedigree one of the more impressive on paper. With the exchange of the Western Hanover paternal line for that of Bettor’s Delight, his two half-siblings still enjoy the influence of Western Hanover through Betting Line’s dam but have Cam Fella added in with no duplications in the first four generations.
If we look at Well Said progeny, the most successful damsire (crop of more than ten) is Mach Three, with 53.85% of Well Said horses from Mach Three dams landing a win, with average earnings of $34,000. Never Been Said ($168,000, Group 3) is the most successful of these. Art Major and Bettors Delight sit next with 42.8% and 36.8% respectively, and Christian Cullen on 30%.
Of the nine winning siblings produced by Surfing Queen, Forty Seven Flash (P Forty Seven, $166,000) and Flaming Hero (Courage Under Fire, $161,000) were the most successful. Courage Under Fire appears several times in the successful runners across four generations of this family. Thorninmyside is the granddam of $82,000-winning Courage Under Fire gelding Crowning Glory (from winning Falcon Seelster mare, Crown Of Thorns). The spread of sires is nonetheless broad. Surfing Royal, a sister to Three Queens, is by the recently deceased Royal Mattjesty and has two foals, the only one to race so far has been a winner (Kuhio Crest, Well Said) and the Betting Line filly dropped in 2021. Another successful sibling is Surface To Air, who banked $77,000 and is by Pacific Rocket (Albert Albert).
The impressive nine winners from nine foals to race produced by Surfing Queen still wasn’t enough to live up to her own dam’s incredible dozen winners from 13 foals. The Kentucky mare was herself a winner and was able to pass on the gene – Petes Elect (Holmes Hanover, $118,000), King Grin (Grinfromeartoear, $132,000), Paris To Berlin (Falcon Seelster, $71,000) and of course Thorninmyside were all big money earners in their day, and all bred by the Medhursts.
Thorningmyside’s eight winners included Jax Navaro (American Ideal, $73,000) and Pebble Sands (Somebeachsomewhere, $50,000) as well as a 2018 Captaintreacherous gelding yet to reach the track. As with Surfing Queen, her daughters have started to produce too – Crown of Thorns has had four winners from her four starters, including American Ideal mare Crown Royale ($26,000) who now has a brand new Stay Hungry colt at foot, and Beach Side (Somebeachsomewhere, $6,000) with a 2019 Rock N Roll Heaven colt and a 2021 Betting Line filly on the board.
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