Breeding gamble pays off

Press, 23 February 1989, Page 34

Breeding gamble pays off

By

DAVID MCCARTHY

The judgment of the late Jack Alexander, director of a once-famous Cranleigh Stud near Wanganui, and a breeding gamble by the Canterbury Jockey Club’s chairman, John Austin, and his wife, Liz, has paid off for two Canterbury stables. Roydon Bergerson produced La Meilleure to win a juvenile event at Riccarton recently, while La Baraka, owned by the Austins, cleared maidens at Wingatui last week.

Both descend from the imported mare, Oigiata, which Mr Alexander bought in England in 1966 when looking for a mare tracing to one of the families established by the famous Italian breeder, Federico Tesio.

La Meilleure, which may line up again at Hororata next Friday, is from a granddaughter of Oigiata, and so is La Baraka.

The former is from La Fillette, a half-sister to La Mer, and La Baraka from La Figlia, the jackpot result for the Austin breeding gamble. Mr Austin bought Oigiata when the mare was 17 years old with just three live foals to show for nearly a dozen years at stud, one of those born in England before she was

exported and one conceived there before she left for New Zealand.

La Mer, a daughter of that first foal in New Zealand,. La Balsa, had brought the family to fame but interest in it was fading by the time Oigiata came up for auction on the death of Jack Alexander.

“It was a gamble we would get a filly from her at her age and with her breeding record. We were just lucky things worked out in our favour,” John Austin says. He gave $15,000 for Oigiata, which produced La Figlia to Taipan II the next season. Oigiata died a couple of years later. La Figlia, a small filly, was tried a few times from Jim Tomkinson’s stable but the matron’s paddock was always going to be her highest priority. Her career there did not begin auspiciously as she slipped twins in her first season, but she left Donatella to Beaufort Sea before leaving La Baraka to Balmerino and is now in foal to Palatable. Donatella showed a good deal of potential from the stable of Dave and Jan Kerr, which also developed La Baraka. But she went amiss after two starts, the latter being a smart winning performance in the hands of Grant Cooksley at Riccar-

ton. Donatella is in foal to Kingdom Bay. Mr Austin enlarged the scope of the Tesio influence by putting La Figlia to Balmerino. His dam was by Duccio, a horse of low fertility but high impact bred by Tesio in 1944.

Tesio’s breeding theories and practice have fascinated generations of breeders after him. His great achievement was developing champion racehorses and sires such as the unbeaten Ribot and the great Nearco from mares he had picked up for bargain prices in England, returning to win major races with their descendants. Tesio’s maternal families are identified by the first letter of the names of many members. Duccio was from the *'D” family (his dam was Donatella) while La Baraka is from the “T” family. La Baraka’s granddam, Oigiata, was by Acropolis, a half-brother to Agricola and a brother to Alycidon, sire of Beaufort Sea’s dam Homeward Bound. Their sire, Donatello 11, is from the Tesio “D” family. Oigiata was involved in a drug scare early in her three-year-old season in 1963 but made an electric race debut, winning the Wood Ditton Stakes at Newmarket and placing later in the Park Hill and

Princess Royal Stakes. She had to miss the Oaks because of soreness and found a mile and a half (2400 m too short for her later in the season.

A big filly, and an attractive one, she was a granddaughter of Tokamura, a brilliant race filly described by one admirer as “the best looking horse in Italy.” She was a half-sister to Ribot’s sire, Tenerani, and was bred with a half-brother to - Nearco, Niccolo D’Arca, an able horse suspected of lacking ambition.

The result was Tesaura, dam of Oigiata. Oigiata came to New Zealand in foal to Worden 11, a chestnut horse which topped the French sires’ list.

Olgiata’s first foal, La Mer’s dam La Balsa, was a fiery type which did not make it to the races.

As most racing fans are aware, her daughter La Mer did so with a vengeance, winning 24 including the Oaks.

The knowledge that La Mer was so good and the potential many of the family show indicates why the Austins would take such a gamble with the ageing Oigiata and why Arthur Williams would spend $BO,OOO buying La Meilleure. Neither must regret their decision so far.