.jpg)
The breeding journey continues to create excitement when it comes to Follow A Foal’s first trotting participant, Aldebaran Demi, who set a new personal best 1:58.5 mile rate with her win at Melton Entertainment Park on December 4.
In 2018, Harness Breeders Victoria embarked on what would become an award-winning campaign aimed at engaging the wider public with the amazing process of breeding a standardbred.
Aldebaran Park and Alabar Bloodstock committed to the project, which documented the process breeders are so familiar with – stallion selection, insemination, gestation, foaling and yearling preparation.
Both studs generously donated 5 per cent of the sale price of each horse to Harness Breeders Victoria’s charity partners WomenCan (ANZGOG Team Teal) and the Children’s Tumour Foundation.
“We saw this as an opportunity to share what we love so much about breeding horses with a wider group,” said HBV president Nick Hooper.
“In this way, we’ve also helped two charities that are really special to the harness racing family.”
Alabar’s mare Arms Of An Angel (Elsu) was first cab off the rank with her October Always B Miki filly the first of her broodmare career after securing earnings of $220,000 on the track.
Aldebaran Maori (Dream Vacation), an established producer of winning trotters, then gave Follow A Foal fans an early present with an Aldebaran Eagle filly born on Christmas eve.
It was the sixth filly foaled by Aldebaran Maori, who had Andover Hall colt Aldebaran Dino at foot when the Follow A Foal journey started. He has gone on to win six races and continues to chase the records set by big sisters Fear Not (eight wins for $196,000) and Kyvalley Kyrie (eight wins, $100,000).
A competition for a stable name for the new filly by now deceased trotting sire Aldebaran Eagle determined she be called Demi, and she went to sale with the official moniker Aldebaran Demi.
Aldebaran Demi was from the first crop of Aldebaran Eagle foals in Australia, 10 now four-year-olds in total, who have collectively earnt almost $160,000. Now Australia’s leading three-year-old trotting sire on earnings, it’s clear the wonderful ownership group who bought Demi at the 2020 Australasian Premier Trotting Sale at Oaklands that day for $10,000 got an absolute bargain.
Demi’s debut came in an early two-year-old race at Melton, but it was after a change to the Chris Svanosio yard in 2022 that she broke her maiden status at Kilmore. From there, she hasn’t looked back.
Now with more than $44,000 in the bank she is the seventh highest earner from the 2020 APTS and has earnt 4.48 times her purchase price already, with the future looking bright to grow that figure further.
While those outside the industry may not be clear on the achievement, breeders understand the challenge in just getting a live foal on the ground, let alone safely through weaning, yearling preparation, breaking in and training.
Aldebaran Demi sits equal fourth in the most wins (five) from that sale cohort, a table headed by the very impressively bred Just A Bit Touchy with nine. With her new mile rate mark of 1:58.5 she is now also the sixth fastest of her class, and the third fastest if best times set at the super slick Menangle are excluded.
“As breeders, we are always looking to the future with mares and fillies, and in Demi it seems her ownership group have a lot to look forward to when she’s concluded her racing journey,” said her breeder Duncan McPherson, principal of Aldebaran Park principal and ardent supporter of ANZGOG Team Teal.
Aside from her dam producing five winners from five to the races so far, half-sister Aldebaran Etta has had two foals to the races for one winner, while Kyvalley Kyrie’s first foal, Kyvalley Pierro, blasted on to the scene, winning on debut and taking three of his first five starts.
There are more Aldebaran Eagles on the way in the family too – Fear Not’s first foal, a colt, has just dropped for the Conroy family while Theappleofmyeye (Aldebaran Etta) has two fillies by the late sire on the ground.
Can we look forward to bringing Demi’s broodmare story to another new audience ready to share the breeding magic? As with all things in racing, only time will tell.
