Smart Valentino

IT wasn't hard to be impressed when Double Twist blitzed her opposition to win the Dapto Oaks last week.

The daughter of Where's Pedro and the Bombastic Shiraz bitch Tifi overcame hiccups in the final to rush to a devastating win by eight and a half lengths.

Dam Tifi had already produced Tifia (by Collision) the winner of the Magic Maiden at Wentworth Park in 2012.

Tifi is the former multiple Wentworth Park 720m winner and a full sister to Group 1 National Sprint winner and successful sire Bit Chili but from a later litter to him.

Tifi and Bit Chili are out of Chili Berger the half sister to champion Paua To Burn.

It is one of the country's most dominant lines and Chili Berger is it most powerful source.

And then just two days later, Smart Valentino made the pedigree of Double Twist look even better when he stormed home to win the Group 1 National Distance final at The Meadows.

Check out the two pedigrees. Smart Valentino is bred identically to Double Twist.

The National champ is also by Where's Pedro.

He is out of a bitch called Smart Betsy (Bombastic Shiraz-Awesome Berger) and that bitch is a virtual sister to Tifi the dam of Double Twist.

Both Awesome Berger and Tifi are out of Chili Berger.

I remember a little time ago there was conjecture the progeny of Where's Pedro could not stay.

Most people's perceptions of all things greyhound racing are never backed by a genuine thought process or analysis.

It's a bit like that old wives' tale about repeat matings.

The National Distance champ Smart Valentino is from a repeat mating of Where's Pedro-Smart Betsy.

Dam Smart Betsy was something else on the racetrack winning the Laurie Healion Maiden, the National Futurity and was a track record breaker over a middle distance at Nowra.

Oh! And there's another one gone by the wayside.

Yes, great race bitches DO outperform at stud lesser quality race bitches. Not always, but usually.

This is proven out in the fact about 90 percent of the finalists in both the National Distance and National Sprint at The Meadows on Saturday night were out of very smart race bitches.

While everyone's eyes were on the winner of the Dapto Oaks, I couldn't help but notice another of the country's most dominant damlines was making its presence felt in the Dapto Oaks final.

That's the line that traces to Lauren's Desire, Genuine Replica, Model Belinda and Model Donna a line that has been nurtured by the Fletcher family for decades.

You see, no fewer than five of the eight Oaks finalists all had this female family in their pedigree, four of them directly along the tail female line.

They are, second placed Courageous Girl (Swift Fancy-Iona Habit), third placed Ronray Miss (Magic Sprite-Ronray Disco), Crazy Lass (Bush Legend-Crazy Maddie), Stunning Ami (Where's Pedro-Ami Tanga) and Bit Sassy (Bit Chili-Meredith Grey).

Ronray Miss has Ultimate Wish (New Tears-Lauren's Desire) as sire of her second dam.

All the others trace directly to the famous Genuine Replica family along their bottom line.

Crazy Lass, also a Richmond Oaks finalist, in fact has as her third dam a bitch called Fiancee who is incestuously in-bred 3x2 to Genuine Replica.

This family traces right back to a bitch called Model Donna (Top Bomber-Carrodina) a 1970 whelp who was probably the start of it all.

To Cabernet, she produced the great Cabanossi and the outstanding sprinter No Shoes Jacky.

To Waverly Supreme, Model Donna produced Model Belinda and this is where the current day stars trace to.

But it is the pedigree of Model Donna I found fascinating. She is in-bred, and I have never found this before, to Chief Havoc and a litter brother called Double Link.

They come into Model Donna's pedigree 5x4 and in a sort of "zig-zag" pattern and certainly able to impact with each other.

Double Link's only other influence in pedigrees traced via the female line of a dog called Son Of Beau who finished last in the Hobart Thousand won by Brother Fox in 1985.

Model Donna's daughter Model Belinda would produce NSW greyhound of the year Sonic Wave (by Chief Dingaan).

To Chief Babwe (a son of Bowetzel and Chief Dingaan's sister Zimbabwe), Model Belinda produced Genuine Replica.

To Brother Fox, Genuine Replica produced Lauren's Desire who became a champion broodbitch.

And why wouldn't she because Lauren's Desire heavily in-bred to similar lines.

Brother Fox's dam Pitstock Park is line bred to the intensely line bred Elsie Moss. Chief Babwe's dam Zimbabwe is also intensely in-bred to Elsie Moss.

Thus when Brother Fox and Genuine Replica met up, it produced a bitch (Lauren's Desire) who was saturated with some of the greatest blood this country has ever seen.

It probably didn't matter what sire such an intensely in-bred bitch like Lauren's Desire went to.

The outcross Grove Whisper was imported and stood with the Fletcher family so it was natural he would be used.

Daughters from the Grove Whisper-Lauren's Desire matings have proved themselves.

Many, many of the best offspring from daughters of Lauren's Desire brought in further crosses of Brother Fox (or to be more precise, his dam Pitstock Park) to reinforce the strength in Lauren's Desire's own pedigree.

Duplicating this family is starting to emerge with success.

The recent Wentworth Park sub-30 winner Apollo Reign (Reign Over Me-Venice Fantasy) is in-bred 3x4 to Thai Magic a famous daughter of Grove Whisper-Lauren's Desire.