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It is always interesting to watch new sires emerge. There are three stallions in the 2025 APG Perth Yearling Sale who will have their first crops of 2YOs on Australian tracks this season – Interdominion winner Ultimate Sniper, US hall of famer Tall Dark Stranger and smart US 2YO Captain Ahab. Our first prime prospect […]
The first of the round of Australian Pacing Gold yearling sales will bring in the new year in style, with a total of 67 harness racing yearlings – 56 pacers and 11 trotters – being offered at Oaklands Junction on Sunday, February 2 at 1pm. The sale features youngsters by the established sires Bettor’s Delight, […]
Australian Pacing Gold have added a new yearling sale to their roster this year in South Australia, bringing their nationwide total to five States. Attracting an entry of more than 360 youngsters for 2025, I had the chance to chat with new APG General Manager Anthony Essex to get his thoughts on the upcoming sales […]
Smolda (Courage Under Fire), the 2016 Inter Dominion hero and Grand Circuit harness racing champion, has been a big part of Hunter Valley enthusiast Marcus Kirkwood’s life in harness racing. Kirkwood part-owned the Courage Under Fire gelding who won 32 races – including nine Group 1’s – with 23 placings from 68 starts for $2.4million […]
There’s not a lot the Osmond family hasn’t done in harness racing but the APG Sydney Yearling Sale will offer a new experience when they put their first yearling through the sales ring on February 25. Kylie Osmond, wife of Canberra trainer-reinsman Scott and mother of leading junior driver Taylah, will offer (Lot 322) a […]
Graduates from last year’s Perth APG Yearling Sale have won six of the first seven two-year-old races of the new season in WA – headed by outstanding harness racing gelding Louie Vee (Stay Hungry), who won at Gloucester Park in 1.55.6 on Tuesday. The Stay Hungry youngster stamped himself as a strong fancy for the […]
Goulburn breeder Matt Day has learned from selling yearlings at auction for more than 25 years not to make bold predictions. However, the hardworking Southern Tablelands horseman is adamant that his draft for the 2024 Australian Pacing Gold Sydney Yearling Sale at Warwick Farm on Sunday, February 25 is one of his best ever. “Every […]
Jonathan McAlister is heavily involved with thoroughbreds, but he could not resist putting in a bid for quality pacing mare Ima Grumpy Possum when she came up in an APG mixed sale a few years ago. The Art Official mare won 16 races and $124,000 in NSW and Queensland and is a half-sister to Our […]
The Lather Up colt, listed as Lot 339 at the Australian Pacing Gold Sydney Sale at Warwick Farm on Sunday, February 25, had a rather unusual start to his life. “We call him ‘Flash’ for two reasons,” breeder and part-owner Jason Gaffney said. “He was a beautiful colt when he was born and secondly, two […]
Goulburn teenage horsewoman Emma Day thinks the four youngsters she is preparing for the Australian Pacing Gold Sydney Sale on Sunday, February 25 are all likely two-year-old prospects. “They should all be early goers. They all have good temperaments,” Day, the daughter of leading NSW breeder Matt Day, said. The offering includes three yearlings owned […]
Dyanna Thommeny inherited her love of horses from her nanna, who raced pacers in the 1970s and 80s, but it was a meandering journey that brought her to the sport of harness racing. Thommeny said she started her horse adventures with an old stockhorse mare called Sweetheart as a small girl in Carinda. Now she […]
A three-quarter brother to the former NSW 2YO harness racing Filly of the Year and five-time Group 1 winner Jewel Melody (Captaintreacherous) will spearhead Gosford breeder Michael Taylor’s draft at the Australian Pacing Gold sale at Magic Millions, Gold Coast on Sunday, January 28. The bay colt, Lot 64 in the catalogue, is one of […]
The Garrard family’s involvement in harness racing goes back a century but their foray into breeding and selling yearlings is a relatively new venture. Trainer Daren Garrard, 55, has 15 horses in work. He has trained 559 winners of more than $3 million. He had an outstanding 2023 season, training 27 winners of $367,000 in […]
It quality over quantity as the old saying goes, and as you look through this years sales catalogue you would be foolish to dismiss those vendors only bringing one yearling. Let’s check out some of the quality harness racing yearlings being offered by the boutique vendors in the Gold Coast Yearling Sale on January 28. […]
In horse breeding, the goal is often to produce individuals with desirable traits such as athleticism, conformation, temperament, and specific skills, like high speed. Breeders may carefully choose pairings based on the bloodlines and genetic backgrounds of the horses involved. Certain crosses may be valued for producing harness racing horses with a combination of strengths, […]
The first progeny of the champion harness racing NSW bred and owned pacer Lochinvar Art, now racing successfully in North America, will go up for auction at the Australian Pacing Gold sale at Oaklands Junction on Sunday, February 4. It is a bay colt, Lot 164 in the catalogue, out of the Albion Park winner […]
A pair of leading lights in the NSW harness racing breeding industry, Joanne Andersen and Dyanna Thommeny, will be represented for the first time at a Queensland yearling sale with a single entry in the Australian Pacing Gold sale at Gold Coast on Sunday, January 28. Andersen, a former president and life member of Harness […]
An exceptionally strong line-up of race-winning mares and winner-producing mares will anchor the Australian Pacing Gold sale to be held at the Magic Millions, Gold Coast on Sunday, January 28. Of the 85 lots to be presented, 55 are out of race winners and 45 are from winner-producers including a swag of ‘black type’ performers. […]
Intending purchasers at the Australian Pacing Gold sale at Magic Millions, Gold Coast on Sunday, January 28 will have the added incentive of rich bonuses being offered through the QBred scheme. Of the 84 yearlings listed in the catalogue, 81 are QBred eligible. More than $3.6million in QBred bonuses was paid to owners and breeders […]
Monarch Farm matriarch Margaret Donohue has seen a lot of smart youngsters after a lifetime involvement with harness racing and she is “very happy” with her draft of yearlings in the APG Gold Coast Yearling Sale on January 28. Monarch Farm has produced several good two-year-old winners in recent seasons, including Paleface Adios Classic Winner […]
Always B Miki is the U14 Champion pacer who retired as harness racing’s fastest horse of all time. Trained by Jimmy Takter, Always B Miki’s racetrack deeds moved him to state “I think this could be the greatest horse that ever lived.” As a younger horse, he raced mainly at Hoosier Park in Indiana but […]
Lindsay and Mary Vagg, the faces behind the Victree Standardbreds banner, are one of the many success stories of the Australian Pacing Gold sales-race series in Brisbane. The couple, who live on a 530 acre property at Southbrook on the Darling Downs, have already produced two winners of the Group 1 Brisbane APG Sales Graduate […]
The Muscle Hill horse Southwind Frank was one of the best young trotters in North American harness racing of his day. He won 17 of his 26 lifetime starts including 10 consecutive races at two highlighted by the Breeders Crown, was 2YO Trotting Colt of the Year in both America and Canada, set a world […]
“Believe in yourself. You are braver than you think, more talented than you know, and capable of more than you imagine.” ― Roy T. Bennett A great story that had an amazing outcome in 2010 followed the above quote exactly when a man called Jim Mulinix went to the Harrisburg Yearling harness racing sale that […]
