PAUL Wheeler makes no secret of his dislike for the results he has not achieved when sending his fabulous damline to Bombastic Shiraz.

In 2004, Paul whelped a litter of Bombastic Shiraz-Mirren Bale pups that included Geo's Gem. She won five races from 22 starts and ran 30.50 winning at Wentworth Park. She was no superstar and Paul obviously sold her on to Margaret Bannerman.

While Paul is the leader in using outcross sires to his damline, maybe he should consider keeping some of those Bombastic Shiraz outcross bitches.

Geo's Gem has a very smart race dog called Badja Bale (by Pure Octane) who only last week ran 29.55 when wining at Sandown.

Badja Bale's pedigree is a nice one - very nice indeed.

It has some very significant crosses to help Geo's Gem lift the standard of her offspring into 29.55 class just like Badja Bale.

When mating Geo's Gem it was first advisable to look at her alternate sex path. This goes up to Bombastic Shiraz, down to his dam Bombastic Blonde, and up to Malawi's Prince and so on.

By using Pure Octane as a mate for Geo's Gem, it brought in a duplication 3x4 to Malawi's Prince (grandsire of Pure Octane) and a sex balance because Malawi's Prince comes via his son Token Prince in the direct sireline of Pure Octane.

We have already seen that Pure Octane does extremely well when mated to bitches by Brett Lee (a son of Gun Law Osti).

Many of his feature race winners are bred this way.

Let's look closely at the pedigree of Pure Octane.

His alternate sex path runs down to his dam Elusive Rebel, up to her sire Bobniak and then down to his dam Paris Match.

Paris Match (Brother Fox-Osti's Shadow) is a genetic sister to Gun Law Osti (Brother Fox-Miss Dusty Lee).

Both Osti's Shadow and Miss Dusty Lee are daughters of legend broodbitch Osti Lee.

Both Paris Match and Gun Law Osti are positioned perfectly to impact the mating of Pure Octane with Geo's Gem.

If we turn our attention to Mantra Lad (Pure Octane-Al Fresco) the champion stayer and sprinter of high class, we will see he too carries a duplication of Malawi's Prince, and significantly runs along the alternate sex path on both sides of his pedigree to Paris Match and her litter sister Pilgrim's Star.

So Badja Bale is bred on virtually the same cross as Mantra Lad, with a few subtle differences.

Obviously Al Fresco, dam of Mantra Lad, was a much better race bitch than Geo's Gem.

Al Fresco, a high class Group stayer, was able to produce a champion race dog when a special pedigree was devised for her to Pure Octane.

Geo's Gem, the winner of one race at Wentworth Park, was able to upgrade her offspring to produce a very, very fast dog when a similar special pedigree was devised for her to Pure Octane.

In mantra Lad's pedigree, I do not believe Malawi's Prince had any influence on the fact Mantra Lad was a champion performer. It all came down to that special link, in a very special position, between Paris Match and Pilgrim's Star.

In the pedigree of Badja Bale, Malawi's Prince, Paris Match and Gun Law Osti all had an influence.