Tommy Terrific

IT certainly hasn't taken long!

That's the emergence of superstar race dog Tommy Shelby (Fernando Bale-Serena Fly High by Bit Chili) to stamp himself one of the most exciting young stud dogs in the country.

Let's take just a brief look at the weekend's race results.

Tommy was always going to make an impression at home in WA and his early runners at Cannington have been impressive, to say the least.

Look at the weekend alone when littermates Flying Freda and King Tommy (Tommy Shelby-West On Violet by Barcia Bale) continued to toss their sire's name up in lights.

Flying Freda, already 2nd in The Westchase and a finalist in the G2 WA Oaks, stepped up to 600m for a 34.69 win.

Her brother, King Tommy, 3rd in The Westchase, won over the 700m at Cannington in 41.84. That followed wins in 29.67 and 34.59.

First, let's look at their pedigree.

The obvious aspects are that they are bred on the proven Fernando Bale/Barcia Bale cross.

Next, they also bring in the Serena Fly High/Barcia Bale cross that tossed up superstar Jungle Deuce.

But, if we look VERY closely we see that Flying Freda and King Tommy are in-bred 2x2 to Serena Fly High and Zelemar Fever who are bred on an identical cross.

They bring in a 4x3 double and balance of Bombastic Shiraz, and a 4x5 of the famous half brothers Big Daddy Cool and Brett Lee.

That double and balance of Bombastic Shiraz is already starting to prove itself as a source of success with Tommy Shelby's progeny.

Which brings me to Saturday night at The Meadows where the first two races were won by progeny of Tommy Shelby, Morton in a flying 29.77, at only his second race start, and Major Request in 30.06.

Morton (Tommy Shelby-Chloe Louise by Moreira) is unbeaten in two starts for Jessica Sharp.

When Tommy Shelby retired to stud, a detailed search of his direct damline brought us to a incestuously in-bred bitch called Velvet Fire.

If we trace the direct damline of champion sires Collision and Cosmic Rumble we find a dog called Hot Rumble, a brother to Velvet Fire.

That Qld greyhound of the year, Dam Slippery, has a dam bred on the Collision cross with Tommy Selby's damline.

Take a look at the pedigree of Morton and you will see his mother Chloe Louise is in-bred 3x4 to Collision and both instances are placed to impact with the damline of Tommy Shelby.

Chloe Louise is also in-bred to identically bred Fortress and Murlens Slippy.

In two starts to date, Morton has won in 29.89 and 29.77 at The Meadows.

Major Request won the second at The Meadows and he is Tommy Shelby-Miss Vonshae by Kinloch Brae.

AND, once again, his pedigree shows a 2x2 of identically bred Serena Fly High and Shared Equity. They too bring in a 4x4 double and balance of Bombastic Shiraz and this time a 4x3 of the half brothers Big Daddy Cool and Brett Lee.

So, what does this tell us about Tommy Shelby?

It tells us that his damline, just like his sire Fernando Bale in much of his stud success, has a huge influence in making him a top class sire.

Have a look at the success of that other boom young sire Hooked On Scotch.

His great son Postman Pat is also intensely in-bred to the aspects of his mother's pedigree.

AND, there is a distinct pattern emerging in Hooked On Scotch progeny. He loves meeting up with Fabregas who is bred on an identical cross, but in reverse, to 2nd dam Misty Fields.