There is an international influence about the breeding of the four heat winners of the TAB Need For Speed for three-year-old trotters at Melton – Courage Stride, Cravache Dor, Amandine and Courmayeur.
Courage Stride, a son of siring colossus Muscle Hill, is out of the American-bred mare Nitengale Stride USA, who was bought by Sydneysiders Emilio and Mary Rosati at the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale in 2012.
A close relative of the Hambletonian winner Victory Dream, Nitengale Stride was injured in a training mishap in America as an early two-year-old and shipped to Australia for breeding purposes. She has left three foals of racing age for three winners in Courage Stride, Tiara Stride and Monarch Stride.
Cravache Dor, Amandine and Courmayer were all bred and are raced by Yabby Dam Farms’ principal Pat Driscoll.
Amandine and Courmayer are both from the first small frozen crop of Village Mystic, a millionaire son of the great Love You who stands at the prestige Haras des Rouges Terres, Normandy, France, of Louis Baudron.
“Village Mystic is currently in sixth position on the All Aged sires’ list in France from only five crops,” Driscoll stated. “Village Mystic has had five Australian foals, four of racing age (all three-year-olds) and a weanling filly that will go through the 2023 Nutrien Melbourne sale, while his only foal in New Zealand is a Group 2 winner and Group 1 placegetter.”
Courmayer is the first foal of the Italian-bred Onestar LB, a Cantab Hall mare who banked $144,271 and took a record of 1:57.3. Onestar LB was bought as a broodmare on the advice of French bloodstock agent Christian Le Barbey, of International Trot Services.
Meanwhile, Amandine, named after Louis Baudron’s wife, is from the NZ bred mare Mybrotherwasastar, the dam of the three-time Group 1 winner Wilma’s Mate and the 2018 Need For Speed victor Amour De Frere.
Cravache Dor, which means the Golden Whip, the annual award for the leading French reinsman, was gotten by the French-bred Orlando Vici from the American-bred mare Muscles N Blues (by Muscles Yankee).
“I bought Muscles N Blues as a weanling at the Perretti Farms dispersal sale in 2013. She was broken in NZ and trained by Maurice McKendry but was never raced,” Driscoll said. “Cravache Dor is her first foal.”
The Group 1 $60,000 Alan Mance Breed For Speed Prince Final and the Group 1 $60,000 IRT Australia Need For Speed Princess Final will be held at Melton on Saturday, September 2.