Breed to Race – Do You Own a Mare By This Sire?

A stakes-winner from last Saturday has given me inspiration to look into the merits of this broodmare sire, who is interesting for a number of reasons and whose daughters are plentiful and often affordable.

The Joe Pride trained mare Ballistic Lover won her second stakes race at Moonee Valley on the weekend and has now won six of 13 starts banking over $380,000 in prizemoney.

By Twin Hills Stud’s ever reliable sire Smart Missile, Ballistic Lover was bred from a daughter of Show a Heart, one of the very last commercial direct male line descendants of the Star Kingdom (IRE) sireline.

Retired from stud duties last year, Show a Heart has sired 25 stakes-winners headed by Group I winners Toorak Toff, Heart of Dreams and Woorim with a stakes-winner to runner strike rate of 2.9%.

As a broodmare sire, Show a Heart has sired the dams of 17 stakes-winners headed by Group I winner Miss Cover Girl and Group II winners Winning Rupert and Every Rose at a rate of 3.6% stakes-winners to runners.

Show a Heart mares have enjoyed success with a wide variety of sires producing plentiful winners to Queensland stalwarts like Rothesay, Jet Spur and Real Saga, but some of his best and most interesting nicks are as follows:

Shamus Award (Snitzel) – 10 winners from 11 runners – best G2 Sovereign Award, SW Enchanted Heart.

Not a Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice) – eight winners from nine runners, best SW Granny Red Shoes

Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) – five winners from seven runners, best SW Royalzel

Written Tycoon (Iglesia) – four winners from four runners, best G2 Winning Rupert

Choisir and his son Starspangledbanner - combined have a perfect record of five winners from five runners, best G2 Every Rose and SW Thrillster

Of the 17 stakes-winners from Show a Heart mares, 13 of them are by Danehill line sires, so if you own a Show a Heart mare and are looking to enhance your chances of breeding a winner then look hard at Danehill line sires.

There are loads of affordable options from the sirelines above that are easily searched through our Breednet Stallion Directory that features Premium Stallions.

Written Tycoon is of course fully booked and super expensive, but he’s not short of less expensive sons at stud this spring and they too offer plenty of potential.