Lightning twice - Tour Party and Republican Party and the rare art of full brothers at the top

By Brad Reid (NZ Standardbred Breeders Association) 

The sensational performance of the Cran and Chrissie Dalgety-trained Tour Party (Bettor’s Delight) in the Group 1 Young Guns Cardigan Bay Stakes was a sight to behold for a number of reasons.

Firstly, there was the manner of it. Driver Carter Dalgety scarcely appeared to move, yet the colt simply kept finding, careered clear and ultimately put five and a half lengths on his rivals. To put that into some context, you would need to combine the winning margins of the last seven editions of the race to come close to what he produced in a single performance.

Secondly, it was the theatre around it. A large ownership group, including first-time owner and competition winner Josh Mantell, erupted as their pride and joy put pay to the opposition. The noise, the colour and the unfiltered celebrations that followed, shared widely across multiple platforms, served as a timely reminder of exactly what this game is all about.

Lastly, and perhaps most significantly from a breeding perspective, Tour Party completed a rare double, joining his full brother Republican Party as a Group One winner.

It naturally begs the question, how often do we actually see this in the modern era?

When you narrow the focus to this millennium, the list is remarkably short. I canvassed a number of astute judges up and down the country and the consensus was clear. Ultimate Sniper and Ultimate Machete, the sons of Bettor’s Delight out of Reality Check, remain the most obvious recent example.

Beyond that, you are quickly pushed further back. Hands Christian, a son of Christian Cullen who won the Easter Cup in 2012, and his full brother Christen Me, also by Christian Cullen, whose deeds still resonate strongly, were among the few that could be put forward. But even those now sit more than a decade removed, reinforcing just how rarely it occurs in more recent times.

It is far easier to find success among full sisters or mixed siblings. Sundees Son and Sunny’s Sister, Habibi Inta, Habibti and Habibti Ivy, (Our) Twenty Ten and High Gait, are just a few at the elite end. Others bubble just under, Dream About Me’s daughters All Of Me (G1 winner) and Beside Me (G2 winner), Locharburn and Cullenburn (G2 winner), Akuta and Aroda (G2 winner), as well as High Energy, High Step (G2 winner) and Higher Power (G3 winner) all recent examples that continue to underline the point.

Internationally, there are clearer modern parallels, Bettor’s Delight and Roll With Joe, Red River Hanover and Rustler Hanover, Pastor Stephen and Father Patrick, and Andover Hall, Angus Hall and Conway Hall all spring readily to mind.

To save going too far down the rabbit hole we will steer clear of half siblings, though current stars such as Merlin and Captains Mistress, and Leap To Fame alongside Swayzee, continue to light up our tracks and reinforce just how strong these families can be.

In New Zealand, over the past decade and a half, only a handful of mares have produced Group One-winning full brothers. What is particularly striking is that those mares did not stop there. Splendid Dreams produced Dream About Me by Bettor’s Delight, while Reality Check left Major Reality by Art Major, both Group One-winning half sisters to their famous brothers, further strengthening already elite families.

Democrat Party very nearly trumped them all. Her daughter Advance Party, a full sister to Tour Party and Republican Party, was dual Group One placed and set a New Zealand record as a juvenile.

The common thread is hard to ignore. These are not one-off results. These are what many would term ‘blue hen’ families, deep, proven maternal lines that consistently produce high-class horses across multiple branches and generations. Families like Scuse Me and her descendants, Lady Ashlee Ann, Rich N Elegant, or Amour Angus in North America, and even the Eight Carats family in thoroughbreds, all share that same trait. They throw the rulebook out the window. That is what makes them exceptional, they are the exception.

I was intrigued by some of the comments from Tour Party’s trainer, Cran Dalgety, in the aftermath. He admitted that, if not for the urging of his wife Chrissie, he may well have overlooked the colt entirely.

“Naturally we wanted to have a proper look at him, but the question was whether we were buying him because he was a full brother to Republican Party,” Dalgety said.

“I didn’t want to get caught up in that, so I made a point of judging him pretty critically on what he was in front of us.”

That was echoed from the vendor side too. Katrina Price noted that several of the major stables either didn’t inspect him closely, or in some cases, not at all, lending further weight to the old saying of “beware of the full brother.”

And yet, as we know in harness racing, when it comes to breeding there are very few hard and fast rules. Every horseman, breeder and buyer carries their own theories, often shaped as much by experience as anything else. There are exceptions at every turn and in the words of Mark Twain, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

I do enjoy a good deep dive, so I took a closer look at some of the more recent yearlings to go through the ring that were full brothers to elite performers, and spoke to a number of those involved.

The reality is there are so many moving parts. Type, temperament, size, scope, even the way a young horse carries itself, all can vary markedly from one to the next, even from identical matings. Very rarely do you get a carbon copy, which makes the evaluation process all the more nuanced. By the same token, you would like to think the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, or does it?

Right off the bat this year, the full brother to Freeze Frame in the Woodlands Stud draft fetched $200,000 on the back of his G1 Sires Stakes upset of Jumal. Woodlands Stud’s Sales Manager described Freeze Frame as the nicest yearling he had seen the stud prepare in his time, while noting that this year’s colt was a different type, more athletic and perhaps not as ‘solid’ in his frame. Being the fourth foal from a young mare with a deep page never hurts, and the full brother tag certainly didn’t deter Queensland interests from putting their hand up.

In the same catalogue, a full brother to the superstar trotter Just Believe made $50,000. In years gone by that is not to be sniffed at for a trotter, but with the market continuing to evolve alongside the breed, you could see why Cran Dalgety quipped that he had to double check he had the right horse after securing him for what looked a touch of value.

Down in Christchurch, Dave Kennedy’s Beaudiene Breeding draft offered a full brother to the champion juvenile Jumal. Many expected him to push beyond the $95,000 Steven Reid paid for his son of Downbytheseaside, yet he was knocked down for $90,000. Hardly a disaster, but Kennedy was told point blank by one leading purchaser that they “wouldn’t buy a full brother or sister to a champion,” and despite being a different type again, he was of the belief that tag kept a few hands down.

Graeme Walsh had an eerily similar experience with Ultimate Sniper.

“Off the back of what Machete had done, we genuinely thought if we were ever going to get overs for a horse it might be him. He was a better type, but in the end that’s what pushed the connections of his full brother to buy him. They were very much in the camp of not buying full brothers or sisters at the time,” he said.

Renwick Farms realised enormous success selling Akuta for $170,000 in 2020, yet Ashleigh, who now heads their yearling preparation, admits full brothers can be a different challenge altogether.

“When I took over the Yearling Sales Prep we had a full brother born and it’s a tough one. I’m always more comfortable selling a filly because they carry that residual value, which I think makes them a bit more appealing when there’s already a standout colt in the family.

“The colts are going to be judged a lot harder. The first full brother was looked at plenty, but buyers didn’t warm to him, he was a different type and he ended up being passed in. The one last year, that made $130,000, was a really nice type and sold accordingly. We had another this year and while we generally want colts because they’re more commercial, I was probably a little disappointed personally, I thought a filly might have been better in that instance.”

An interesting example where there appears to be some continuity sits with Jen Marie, the dam of Derby winner Sheriff and 1:48 performer Wrangler among a string of consistent performers. She has produced six full brothers by Bettor’s Delight of racing age, with the last six sold through the ring by Rosedale Farm averaging $77,500, ranging from $60,000 to $95,000.

While time will ultimately tell whether some of the more recent purchases reach the heights of their predecessors, looking beyond the sale ring offers a little more context as to why some of these theories continue to circulate.

Always Dreaming sold for $85,000 on the back of his full brother Don’t Stop Dreaming being named 2YO of the Year, but his breeder Brian West suggested that result was more a reflection of type than any hesitation around the full brother tag. That view was well and truly backed up by the $340,000 achieved by the next full brother in 2025.

Ultimately, buyers still buy what they see in front of them.

Being the son of one of harness racing’s great pioneers in breeding thought, it is perhaps no surprise that Cran Dalgety has long been comfortable operating outside conventional thinking.

He has never been deterred by progeny from older mares, nor has he shied away from returning to proven crosses. His record speaks for itself.

Dalgety trained both London Pride and London Express, sons of In The Pocket who went on to earn nearly a million dollars between them in the late 90s and early 2000s, with London Express ironically winning the 1998 Cardigan Bay Stakes. He then enjoyed even greater success with London Legend and subsequently his half brother, the G1-winning juvenile Bit Of A Legend.

In his own words:

“I’d rather be buying a full brother to a good horse than a full brother to a bad one,” he said candidly.

And while that might sound simple, the reality is a little more complex. Lightning doesn’t always strike twice to the same degree. The full brothers to Lazarus out of Bethany are a case in point, the same genetics, yet none have come close to replicating what he achieved.

But if anybody truly had the definitive answer as to how these things would play out, this game would look very different.

By the same token, while a good horse can come from anywhere, the studbook would suggest our best maternal families are a bit like mining. Gold, diamonds, oil, you tend to strike again in the same ground. Lazarus’ maternal family, through the Tabella Beth line, has been doing exactly that for generations, producing quality from multiple branches time and time again.

Horses, as they so often do, have a habit of making liars of rules and sweeping statements. That is why each one has to be judged on its own merits.

Because while theories will always exist, and trends will come and go, every now and then a horse like Tour Party comes along to remind us that when the family is strong enough, lightning can strike twice.