The Darling Downs Harness Racing Club is on a quest to rejuvenate the sport in the region and it needs your support.
The club is working to raise funds so it can increase the number of harness racing meetings in the area.
Its next fundraiser is a stallion auction which will start at the weekend. The auction will be run by APG – check out the APG website for details.
It has been given eight stallion services to auction online from some of the biggest studs in Australasia and club president Michael Reichstein hopes harness breeders will rally to the cause.
“The club has been in recess for a bit. We hold a couple of grass track meetings at Gatton and Warwick and a handful of show meetings,” Reichstein said.
“But we have decided to reignite the club so we can increase meetings to help promote the sport.
“We are in the heartland of the standardbred breeding industry in Queensland. We have a lot of horses and local interest.
“We are hoping that harness enthusiasts will support the stallion service auction and give the club a financial boost to increase meetings and develop the sport at a grassroots level.
The Darling Downs auction is headlined by highly credentialled sires A Rocknroll Dance and Modern Art, who have produced more than 800 winners between them with combined earnings of $42 million.
A Rocknroll Dance ($2.4mil, 1.47.4) is the sire of standout mare No Win No Feed ($700K). He is also the broodmare sire of champion US three-year-old of last season Confederate ($2mil, 1.46.2).
Modern Art has left 552 winners. His best son is Lochinvar Art ($1.6mil, 1.48.6). He is also making a huge impression as a broodmare sire with 233 winners from his daughters, including multiple Group 1 winner Tricky Miki ($550K).
Both stallions are from the maternal family of the prodigious sire Western Hanover.
Services to New Zealand champion Changeover ($2.4mil, 1.53.4), sire of 125 Australian winners with $5.7 million in earnings, and Warrawee Needy ($1.2mil, 1.46.8), sire of 70 winners with $2.7 million stakes, are also available.
Interestingly, 10 of Warrawee Needy’s top 14 earners are fillies.
Two stallions – Lather Up ($1.9mil, 1.46) and The Storm Inside ($300K, 1.50.7) – have been represented by their first crop of two-year-olds this season.
The Storm Inside already has five winners and Lather Up has two winners.
For trotting enthusiasts, the auction offers a service to champion US stallion Pastor Stephen ($1mil, TR1.53.8).
If you are looking for a local superstar, you can’t go pass multiple Group 1 winner Colt Thirty One ($1mil, 1.51.2). He finished his career with 51 wins.
Hoofnote
Darling Downs Harness Racing Club’s next meeting will be at the Lockyer Valley Turf Club on August 25.
It will be held on grass and the club expect between eight and 10 races on the program. It is a TAB meeting.
