RACING around the country has been pretty special in the past week.

We had the Derby and Futurity at The Gardens and then over in WA the Perth Cup and Galaxy.

There was a common theme with Sure As winning the Derby and his litter sister, the incomparable Miata, taking out the Galaxy.

They are by Bombastic Shiraz from the former Wentworth Park winner Winsome Bluebird who also stayed 618m at Richmond.

Winsome Bluebird's own dam Winsome Duchess won 13 races and was a very smart city class stayer.

It's a female line that traces to Mink Mitten (fourth dam of Sure As and Miata) a sister to Rapid Supreme and Cindy Lass both high class Group dogs.

Rapid Supreme is significantly the sire of Spanish City the third dam of Where's Pedro, Hallucinate, Crash and Pure Octane.

Dam Winsome Bluebird had already produced champion stayer Blue Lorian who had also won the Group 1 Galaxy during his career.

Let's go through the pedigrees of Sure As and Miata, Futurity winner Midnight Capers and of course Eddie Kingswell's star sprinter Oaks Road.

SURE AS and MIATA

What's so tough disecting this mating, you may ask?

They are by the champion race dog and sire Bombastic Shiraz, out of a city winner in Winsome Bluebird who had already produced a champion stayer.

That is Sure As and Miata in a nutshell.

Last week I made mention of a very fast recent Sandown winner State Of Bling and the fact he brought in a strong link between Miss Lemoss and Amber's Choice both of who are from the Riviera Moss/Zulu Moss female family.

Well, this is yet another pedigree that reinforces this most famous of female families.

If you check out the best progeny of Bombastic Shiraz, you will come across a feature that some of the best carry Awesome Assassin in the damline.

Again we have to trace Awesome Assassin's female line to find the link.

His third dam is Mad Midge a daughter of Riviera Tiger (Temlee-Riviera Moss).

If we trace the tail female line of Bombastic Shiraz we find his fifth dam is Zimbabwe (Temlee-Zulu Moss).

Again, Riviera Moss and Zulu Moss are sisters.

The position of Riviera Tiger in Winsome Bluebird and the position of Zimbabwe in Bombastic Shiraz allows both of them to impact upon whatever matings they have.

Just how much, no one can be certain.

It is just this factor that I believe Bombastic Shiraz, Bond, Elite State bitches and any with Awesome Assassin through a female, will be ideal for matings with recently imported Fear Zafonic.

Fear Zafonic has Double Summit in his female line and Double Summit (damsire of legend Top Honcho) is a brother to Versatile Miss (the dam of Worth Doing and Wary Suspect).

Double Summit's dam is none other than Zimbabwe so you can see what we would be achieving by putting those Bombastic Shiraz, Bond, Elite State etc bitches to Fear Zafonic.

Winsome Bluebird has already had matings to History Lesson, Surf Lorian and Where's Pedro.

The Surf Lorian mating duplicated West Cape in a special position and produced champion Blue Lorian.

The History Lesson mating brought in Shining Chariot in a very strong position to link with his sister Centrefire.

The Where's Pedro mating did neither of these and is not as good as Winsome Bluebird's other three matings.

MIDNIGHT CAPERS

Scott Board, I know, is a regular reader of this column. He is a good client of the service we provide.

He will have been jumping for joy when Midnight Capers (Collision-Midnight Movie) won the Futurity.

That's because Midnight Capers is bred along similar lines to Scott's home grown superstar Spring Gun (Bombastic Shiraz-Ready For Rain) winner of the Group 1 Vic Peters and a 29.69 winner at Wentworth Park.

Midnight Capers has as her third dam Ready To Rise who just happens to be the second dam of Spring Gun.

Scott's paddocks are full of this famous female family. He already has plans to put Spring Gun to stud.

While Midnight Capers is by collision and Spring Gun is by Bombastic Shiraz, there is a common and successful theme in both their pedigrees.

It is the duplication of the great Malawi's Prince.

I cannot get over the influence this great greyhound is having within the pedigrees of today's greyhound.

Midnight Capers and Spring Gun both are duplicated to Malawi's Prince. Midnight Capers in fact has THREE crosses of Malawi's Prince, two coming in her dam Midnight Movie.

Significantly one of those crosses comes via a SON in Token Prince.

This will be a key to Spring Gun's chances at stud. He obviously will be able to mate bitches that carry one more cross of Malawi's Prince. Midnight Capers has proved at group 1 level it works.

Midnight Movie, dam of the Futurity winner, is a sister to Midnight Flare who in a mating to Where's Pedro has produced Ritza Ryder a 29.79 winner around Wentworth Park.

OAKS ROAD

Eddie Kingswell is a pretty successful dog man and passionate about breeding.

He owns both Oaks Road and his litter brother the appropriately named Things Missing.

Fortunately for Eddie, Oaks Road has his "tackle" in tact and he is steadily but surely going about establishing himself as a future stud dog.

The Group 1 Perth Cup added to other Group victories and he's been placed and a finalist in a number of other Group races.

He is a son of Spiral Nikita-Leprechaun Pace.

OK, you may ask, where is the pedigree pattern that goes to produce a dog as good as Oaks Road.

Being by the Irish dog Spiral Nikita out of the Paws Of Thunder winner Leprechaun Pace (a sister to champion Betty's Angel), he is a virtual outcross.

What happens when breeders design a total outcross pedigree?

Its success then relies whole and solely on the strength of the female family the broodbitch comes from to achieve.

Few could argue with the fact Leprechaun Pace is from one of the best families this country has seen, tracing back to twice NSW greyhound of the year National Lass.

This is why many breeders using imports to totally outcross their bloodlines come unstuck. They do not use broodbitches that are good enough, dominant enough, to impact the most upon the outcross mating.

Imported stud dogs should always have ancestors within their pedigree to strongly link with those bitches they are going to mate.

As I said of Fear Zafonic earlier, Double Summit in his pedigree is perfect for this.