21 August 2018 | Peter Wharton
Major Secret, a Group winner in three States and one of the best performed sons of supersire Art Major, will stand at one of South Australia’s best known breeding establishments, Allenby Lodge Stud for proprietors Steve and Teresa Norman this season.
His service fee is $1,500 including GST.
Major Secret was a top racehorse from a juvenile through to cup class, winning in Group and Listed company from two to seven years.
From only 53 starts he recorded 22 wins and 15 placings, for earnings of $464,872 – an impressive total for a brief career.
He ran second in the $54,000 Southern Cross 2YO Final at only his second start and won the $50,000 Tasmania Cup in Hobart in one of his final outings before succumbing to a fetlock injury.
As a two-year-old Major Secret won five of his nine starts, highlighted by a win in the $100,000 Vicbred Super Series Final, defeating Hectorjayjay, Messini and co. His other successes at 2 included a heat of the Australian Breeders Crown (5th in the final) and heats of the Vicbred and Southern Cross.
At three he crowned his career with a world record-breaking win in the $200,000 NSW Derby, covering the 2400 metres journey in 2:52.4, a mile rate of 1:55.6 while leaving Bling It On, Isaiah and Major Crocker in his wake. He also picked up another Vicbred heat and finished third in a Victoria Derby heat.
Following a nine month let-up, Major Secret made a clean sweep of the time-honoured Central Victorian Championship before embarking on a highly successful open age career.
Possessed of strength and stamina, the entire showed his liking for long distances, winning the $70,000 Horsham Cup in a 1:55.7 rate over 2700 metres to smash the track record by an amazing 2.4 seconds, the Geelong Cup (2570m), the Italian Cup (2240m) at Melton and Tasmania Cup (2579m).
A magnificent individual, Major Secret is also quality young horse bred on a classic cross of blood – that of Art Major his sire and Safely Kept his maternal sire.
Art Major, sire of Major Secret, is Australia’s leading sire and broodmare sire of two-year-olds. A champion pacer himself, with a record of 1:48.8, Art Major was the USA and Canada 3YO Pacing Colt of the Year and Aged Pacing Male of the Year and ran up a then record tally of $3,273,217 to the end of his four-year-old racing.
On his dam’s side, Major Secret belongs to a family which has distinguished itself by the number of fine juveniles it has produced. His own dam, Secret Life (1:58.6), a winner at Moonee Valley and Gloucester Park, has thrown seven winners from seven foals, five of whom took records of better than 2:00, including a crack racemare in Beauty Secret 1:52.4 ($425,921), Vanderley (1:54.2) and Perfect Life (1:58).
Secret Life is also the grand-dam of the Southern Cross Final winners That’s Perfect (1:56.6) and Perfect Look (1:53), the Melton winner Striking Beauty (1:54.7), and others in Seaside Beauty (1:55.7), Paintball (1:54.4) and Stay And Play (1:55.5).
Secret Life ranked as a half-sister to the Southern Cross winners Lovelist 1:53.2 ($222,889) Punch Line (1:54.2) and Royal Crime 1:55.7 ($100,753), being out of Lifeline, by Classic Garry from the broodmare gem Larrakeyah Lady (by Windshield Wiper).
Larrakeyah Lady, a Group 1 winner herself, became the dam of nine individual winners including the A. G. Hunter Cup and SA Cup winner Safe And Sound ($990,006), Gold Rocket ($393,387), Massarua ($282,692) and The Good Times ($201,024), all top performers.
Rocknroll Magic, a Vicbred and Breeders Crown champion, Exciteusinthecity, Starburst Girl, Ample Power and a capable young pacer in Ride High are a line up of smart performers from the same family as Major Secret.
The Larrakeyah Lady tribe is one of the most highly prized in Australia today.
Major Secret is a young stallion with the bloodlines, racing performance and conformation to commend him to the most discriminating breeder anywhere in Australia and his acquisition by Allenby Lodge ranks as one of the greatest boosts to the SA breeding scene for many years.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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