Ride High as a foal with his dam All The Magic
A decision made by Maryborough, Victoria breeder Peter Gleeson some 39 years ago has never stopped rewarding him and his good friends Bruce and Craig Cameron.
In 1980 Peter purchased a plain little unraced mare, sight unseen, called Hot Foot. In 1984 he made the genius decision to breed her to powerful son of Meadow Skipper in Windshield Wiper, who was based at the relatively new breeding farm in Victoria at the time, Alabar Farm.
The resulting foal was a plain bay filly, although she had more size than her mother. She was to be named Larrakeyah Lady – Larrakeyah is an inner suburb of Darwin where Craig Cameron was based at the time.
Larrakeyah Lady became the best of Hot Foot’s fifteen foals, winning eleven races including the Victorian Sires Stakes Final for four-year-old mares in November 1989.
She was driven on that evening by the Late Gavin Lang, who in true Gavin style was content to win by a narrow margin – on this occasion by a short half head.
Larrakeyah Lady had her last race start on 6th September 1990 and she then commenced a breeding career that has directly or indirectly put millions of dollars into many owners pockets.
The most recent culmination to the success of this Larrakeyah Lady Family came last Saturday night in the $200,000 Victorian Derby.
The exciting and brilliantly named colt Petracca had half a neck to spare at the finish over his stable mate Perfect Class.
DEELICIOUS!
— The Trots (@TheTrotsComAu) October 14, 2023
Petracca grabs the Woodlands Stud Victoria Derby on the line for driver Cam Hart, trainer Emma Stewart and owners Danny and Jo Zavitsanos - a special horse grabs the Group 1! pic.twitter.com/w1cCl8wSbm
Both these colts can boast Larrakeyah Lady as either their third or fourth dam. Petracca is from the Always A Virgin mare Lovelist (a daughter of Lifeline) whilst Perfect Class is from the Live Or Die mare Perfect Life (a granddaughter of Lifeline). Lifeline in turn is a Classic Garry daughter of Larrakeyah Lady.
The powerful and scintillating fast stallion Ride High 1.49 also boats Larrakeyah Lady as his third dam. He descends through the Live Or Die mare All The Magic and then to the Presidential Ball daughter of Larrakeyah Lady in Celebrity Ball.
If we had some hours to spare, to calculate the combined earnings of all the progeny tracing back to the remarkable daughter of Windshield Wiper, we would find a total into the millions of dollars.
This is simply the most prolific family of racehorses in Australia today.
Ride High, who is now in his third season in the breeding shed, is without any question the fastest member of this Five Star family. That cold winter night at Bendigo in August 2020 when he blew the clock apart to set a Track Record of 1.49 is just one example of his blistering speed.
- In 9 of his 16 wins he recorded last quarters in 26.8 or better including 25.7 at both Kilmore and Melton as a 3 year old.
- In 11 of his 16 wins he ran his last half in 55 or better including 7 in sub 54 seconds.
His Dam is by Live Or Die and 6 of her 7 foals of racing age have shown that same family ability. Four have taken sub 1.55 records and the 6 winners now have over $1 million in earnings between them.
Ride High is the image of his sire, the champion stallion Art Major. He has the looks, he has the speed, he has the breeding……. Sounds like a Perfect Ten.
Ride High – can you find a better looking stallion?