A trotting mare conceived in Australia by a Swedish stallion from a Swedish mare, and who was foaled, broken in and originally trained in Victoria, won at her second start in New Zealand last Friday.
It is the four-year-old Who’s Who mare Aldebaranmargareta, who came from worse than midfield with a rousing late rally to swamp her rivals at Alexandra Park, Auckland.
“We purchased her dam Aldebaran Teal as a yearling from Menhammar Stud in Sweden and we raced her over there,” Aldebaran Park principal Duncan McPherson OAM, who bred and owns Aldebaranmargareta, said.
“She was as tough as old boots, so we always reckoned that she was going to be a pretty good broodmare.
“We bred from her in Sweden and her first foal was the Charly Du Noyer filly Aldebaran Bardot, who we subsequently imported to Australia along with her dam.
“In line with the philosophy of Aldebaran Park, we wanted to bring to Australia some broodmare genetics that no one else could have.”
The second foal of Aldebaran Teal was For Sure Aldebaran (by Readly Express), who was sold at the Menhammar online sale and later won three races.
McPherson then put Aldebaran Teal in foal to the Swedish superstar Who’s Who on southern hemisphere time, and Aldebaranmargareta was the result.
“She was named in memory of the late Margareta Wallenius-Kleberg, who was the principal and owner of Menhammar Stud,” Duncan said.
Aldebaranmargareta was foaled and reared at Aldebaran Park and formerly trained by maestro horseman Brent Lilley as a two-year-old.
“Brent thought that she would be better suited to the right-handed way of going in NZ, so we sent her to Michelle Wallis and Bernie Hackett last year,” McPherson said.
“She then suffered a setback. We operated on her and took a bone fragment out of her knee.
“Because she had to have six months off, we put her in foal to Aldebaran Zeus by embryo transfer. A surrogate mare is now carrying the foal.”
Aldebaranmargareta qualified at the Pukekohe trials in July, winning by 50 lengths.
“She went into her first race as the favourite, galloped and lost a lot of ground, and rocketed home for fourth. Three weeks later, she broke her maiden status.”
Since producing Aldebaranmargareta in 2022, Aldebaran Teal has left the two-year-old filly Aldebaran Trinity (by Dancinginthedark M) and the Walner yearling colt Aldebaran Tobbe, which was sold for $180,000 to Marg Lee at the Nutrien Equine Melbourne Sale in April.
She is now in foal to Aldebaran Zeus and is booked to the champion French stallion Face Time Bourbon this season.
• Slip Slidnaway, a juvenile winner at Newcastle last week, is the 15th foal and 11th winner out of Slip Slop Slap, a mare owned by Dan and Blanche Poole of Rhiannon Park.
• Elleegant Lane, a winner in restricted company at Melton, was bred and is raced and trained by young Shepparton horseman Luke Tabone.
Photo credit: Race Images
