Royal blood takes a trip to Rangiora

REPUBLISHED WITH PERMISSION FROM HARNESSLINK


The All Stars Stable of Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen rolled out some heavy hitters at the harness racing Rangiora trials on Monday with their royally bred fillies featuring prominently.

Fillies out of Splendid Dreams, Adore Me ,Twist And Twirl and O Baby all bowled around the North Canterbury track and duly proved to have the ability to carry on the stables winning ways in years to come.

The broodmare prowess of Splendid Dreams is well and truly etched into New Zealand harness racing history with Hands Christian, Christen Me, Dream About Me and Aliante, along with well performed others, all out of the Charlie Roberts bred super-producer while Adore Me, whose racing career is a War-and-Peace length feature film in itself, has already foaled the near unbeatable Sweet On Me.

The “sleeper” of the lot, if there is such a thing in this sort of company, could come in the form of the 2yr old daughter of Group 1 winner Twist And Twirl. The filly, named Bettor Twist, won her heat in a leisurely 2.35.6 over the 2000m mobile.

Bettor Twist is a 1/2 sister to Sires Stakes Final placed King Of Swing who has racked up more than $400’000 in career prize money and Extreme Stride who impressed in limited starts

The maternal line of this filly has proved both relative and truly successful in recent years with Dibaba (Mares Championship winner and now a winner 1:51.3f in the USA) Group 1 Fillies Classic winner Opluent , The Fascinator ($155,000 career earnings) and 1.51 pacer Feels Like Magic all coming out of the same maternal lines.

A close relation to Bettor Twist is being offered at the 2020 National Standardbred Yearling Sales by Breckon Farms.

Lot 43. A brown colt by the fastest standardbred of all time in Always B Miki “Wheels Of Fortune” is out of a 1/2 sister to Twist and Twirl in Spin To Win who raced out of the Mike Berger stable.