Just Believe, who made a clean sweep of the SENTrack Inter Dominion Trotting Championship series – he won all three heats and the $250,000 Grand Final - was bred in Victoria but boasts a truly international breeding background.
The six-year-old gelding is a great example of Franco-American breeding, with his sire being bred in France out a mare by an American stallion and his dam being a mare from a classic North American trotting family.
The Just Believe story began at the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale in Kentucky in 2005.
Melbourne businessman and prominent owner-breeder Kevin Riseley attended the sale, looking to introduce some fine American blood into his racing and breeding stock.
“I bought two fillies at the sale and arranged for Peter Walsh (then based in New Jersey) to break them in and then send them over to Australia,” Riseley said.
Riseley shelled out $23,000 for Let’s Be Happy, an Andover Hall mare out of a Pine Chip mare, and $10,000 for the Like A Prayer mare Heavens Above, whose third dam, Armbro Blush, was the leading two-year-old trotting filly of her day.
Both were the first progeny of their sires ever to come to the southern hemisphere.
Let’s Be Happy went on to win two races and a paltry $7,298, while Heavens Above did not race.
Four years later, Riseley decided to put both mares up for sale as part of a complete dispersal of his breeding stock at his Arcadia property.
Both were knocked down to Ballarat breeder Pat Driscoll for his fledgling Yabby Dam Farms enterprise on the advice of bloodstock agent Peter Dow.
Let’s Be Happy became the dam of five winners, including the Breeders Crown champion Val Gardena, the cups winner Endsin A Party and the listed winner Verbier.
Heavens Above’s first two offspring in Heavenly Sister and Shared Interest were cup classic trotters, and her third, Namoscar, has won 10 races to date.
Her fourth foal, Just Believe, has totted up 15 wins for $393,863 in stakes and is the toast of Australian trotting.
The gelding was sired by Orlando Vici, who stands stud at the prestigious Haras De Ginair in Normandy for a fee of 8,500 euros and has been in the top bracket among the French stallions for many years.
Orlando Vici’s frozen semen is available in Australia from Driscoll’s Haras Des Trotteurs stud at Ballarat and Just Believe is one of his amazing first crop.
“Anton (Golino) and myself always thought that Just Believe had the ability. We reckoned that he wouldn’t be at his best until he was six, seven and eight as most of the top French trotters,” Driscoll said.
“He is now showing all the benefits of a long and patient training regime. Michael Hughes did a good job with him and Greg Sugars and Jess Tubbs have put the polish on him.”
Heavens Above, the dam of Just Believe, has proved a difficult mare to get into foal in recent years.
“She produced twins last year. She’s very healthy at present, so we are going to mate her with Village Mystic this season,” Driscoll said.