The recent announcement by Harness Racing South Australia to fund a $30,000 Sires Stakes race for two-year-olds sired by SA based stallions in 2022/23 has resulted in two ‘new’ sires becoming available to broodmare owners this season.
The royally bred pair are the American-bred Tinted Cloud and Our El Fuego NZ.
Tinted Cloud is to stand at the White Star Lodge stud, of Shane Loone and Maria Petricevich, Two Wells, while Our El Fuego will line up for his first season at Bolnora Breeding and Racing, Dublin, of Lee-Ann Pangrazio.
As the sire of one of the greatest pacers raced in NZ and Australia in Smoken Up ($3.6 million) and of two of South Australia’s leading pacers at the present in Buriton Bailey and Bien Hoa, Tinted Cloud is without question one of the most proved sires available to breeders in SA. He is one of the few sires standing in this country represented by three sub 1:50 performers – Nemisis (1:48.2), Smoken Up (1:48.5) and Richard Henry (1:49.6).
Tinted Cloud, who was first at the stud in NZ, where he sired more than 120 winners, has a good score of winners from his foal crops in New South Wales and Western Australia.
Among his Australian-bred winners have been a top free-for-all pacer in Cheap Tint (1:53.9), the prolific Gloucester Park winner Jaxon Fella ($238,048), the NSW Breeders Challenge 2YO Blue winner Franco Storm (1:53.9), Veiled Secret (1:53.6), the Menangle winners Miss Rodriguez (1:52.6), Lady Son Yador (1:54.4) and The Maldives (1:55.3), Tinted Pearl (Mt Gambier Oaks) and so on.
Actually Tinted Cloud’s percentage of winners-to-starters rates him highly.
Tinted Cloud, who had a record of 1:51.2, won in good company in North America, is one of the most stylishly bred horses at the stud in SA. By In The Pocket, sire of two of Australasia’s greatest sires in Christian Cullen (1:54.1) and Courage Under Fire (1:54.2), his dam Test Ban was the grand-dam of the NZ Derby and Jewels winner Border Control (1:50.6) and the USA Grand Circuit winner Chasin Racin (1:51), now at the stud in Argentina.
Not only has Tinted Cloud distinguished himself as a 1:50 sire, but his fillies are now to the forefront as broodmares. In Australia a Tinted Cloud mare Ana Malak is the dam of the WA Golden Nugget and Popular Alm Sprint winner Ana Malak (1:54.9) and Ana Afreet (1:54.5), the winner of nine of his 13 starts in WA.
A 1:50 sire and 1:55 broodmare sire of Tinted Cloud’s breeding could make an interesting and valued contribution to southern pedigrees. In Australia last season Tinted Cloud had 34 runners of which 19 were individual winners – seven in better than 1:57 – for more than $400,000 in stakes.
Our El Fuego, who won nine races – five in NZ and four in Victoria – in a brief career, is a quality type of bay horse, foaled in 2009, and who took a record of 1:57.1.
In one of his successes, Our El Fuego came from three deep on the marker pegs to swamp a handy field at Melton.
Our El Fuego is a most interestingly bred horse. He is a son of former champion Christian Cullen (1:54.4), one of the greatest of a string of champions left by the champion American sire In The Pocket (1:49.6). Sons of Christian Cullen are now coming to the forefront as sires in both NZ and Australia.
On his dam’s side Our El Fuego comes from a family which has made a real impact on the Australasian breeding scene. His dam, Sparks Under Fire, ranks as a half-sister to the crack racemare Sparks A Flyin 1:52 ($627,218), the winner of three Group 1’s as a three-year-old including the NSW Oaks and Breeders Crown and who later raced successfully in America.
At the stud Sparks A Flyin left six winners from seven foals including the outstanding WA pacer Bettor’s Fire 1:50.2 ($966,417), the Menangle, NZ and USA winner My Alpha Rock 1:49.5 ($240,614), the Derby heat winner Art Union 1:55.6 ($208,913) and the NZ Southland Oaks victor Safedra 1:56.3 ($133,704).
Bettor Rock On, a Cups winner in Victoria and who later won in 1:50 in America and earned more than $500,000, is also closely related to Our El Fuego.
In a further boost for local breeders, Allenby Lodge studmaster Stephen Norman is offering a $1,000 cash bonus to the breeder of all progeny of Major Secret that wins a two-year-old race in the 2022/23 season.
