ANOTHER HOMEBRED WINNER FOR THE ALDERSONS

The Alderson family has never had a shortage of well-performed homebreds.

Cindy Alderson is the Cranbourne-based trainer in the family, and her mother Lynne is credited with breeding many top horses over the years.

And while Lynne’s husband Colin trained grand galloper Sky Heights to four Group 1 victories, she is yet to reach the ultimate level with one of he own homebreds.

Another horse bred by Lynne, Reuber (Dissident x Fortress Madonna) scored his second metropolitan victory at Caulfield on Saturday when the four-year-old won at 2000m.

He has been a horse that has surprised Cindy who originally didn’t believe the gelding was much good until the blinkers were applied.

Now with four wins, five seconds and three thirds and $327,945 in the bank, Alderson’s opinion of Reuber has
obviously changed.

“His biggest attribute is that he is really genuine, he handles all sorts of conditions and he is sound and he is healthy,” she said.

“He is sort of the perfect racehorse but is a little on the small side.

“But he has come back this preparation a little bit more furnished and has had luck this time around whereas last time he didn’t have luck go his way all the time.”

Alderson said the family were cutting back on their broodmare band and only had about six left on their Bayles farm and no longer have Reuber’s dam Fortress Madonna (Dylan Thomas x Madonna) which won two races for Alderson when she trained in partnership with her now-retired father, Colin.

“We have cut back a bit on the mares as mum and dad are getting a bit older,” she said.

“It’s a bit hard to manage them all and whatever but girls at the farm do a good job.”

At one stage the Aldersons were breeding from 18 broodmares that they had on their farm.

“I hope we have kept the right ones because mum does have a habit of getting rid of the ones that win through,” Alderson laughed.

Lynne bred Reuber in partnership with John Heenan who had a small share in the five-time Group 1 winning Dissident (Sebring x Diana’s Secret). Since buying Fortress Madonna, Heenan has Reuber’s full brother Mamool in work with Grahame Begg and also has the mare’s Iconic Girl (Fighting Sun) with the trainer, and has also bred a full sister to Reuber.

Fortress Madonna has also a weanling filly by Toronado.

Alderson said her mother didn’t think that Fortress Madonna would be that effective but the three-year-old Mamool has had eight starts for a win and two thirds.

“Her foals look quite promising, but you can’t have them all,” she said.

“My mum has got a great record of breeding great winners but also moving them on when they’re ready to go.”

Among the top horses bred by Lynne Alderson include Group 3 Carbine Club Stakes winner Toy Carousel (Toy Pindari x Irma); Group 2
Blamey Stakes winner Walk On Air (Eire x Ride The Wind); Group 2 Autumn Stakes winner Brom Brom and Group 2 Moonee Valley Classic winner My Poppette (Snippetson x Brompton’s Choice). Geelong Classic winner The Tiger (Catbird x Tio Belle) was Lynne’s first homebred Derby runner.

“She has bred quite a few stakes winners but hasn’t had the big one yet,” Alderson said.

“And she has also bred quite a few good earners like Reuber.

“VOBIS has been so good but I think it’s going to get harder in Victoria because people are aware of how good the VOBIS system is and we pretty well had it much to ourselves for a little while.”

Jigsaw (Manhattan Rain x Demandz) has won four races and along with his older four-year-old sister Queen Adele (Adelaide), a winner of two races, is also Alderson family bred.

“As I said, she hasn’t cracked it for a big Group 1 winner but she is going all right,” Alderson said.

“There is a lot of luck involved in breeding.”

Alderson will now target the $175,000 VOBIS Gold Stayers race for Reuber art Caulfield on July 23, but admits the gelding doesn’t quite get 2400m.

“But he deserves to get a crack at it this time and he might be a bit stronger,” she said.

The Aldersons have also sold yearlings at Melbourne Premier over the years, as well as selling some of their well-performed stock to Hong Kong.

It was also a good day at Caulfield for the man who trained Dissident to his Group 1 glories.

Peter Moody bred and owns two-year-old filly Cotel (Charge Forward x Cotillard) which won on debut, picking up the first prize of $71,000 and VOBIS bonuses of $21,000.

He paid credit to Maluka Thoroughbreds’ Luke and Mags Anderson who raised the filly

“It’s the reason I came back training, I breed 10 or 12 of them, I sell a few. The fillies I tend to keep if I want to breed from them. I let her mother (Cotillard) go,” Moody said in his post-race interview.

“They’re (the Andersons) lovely people and raised this filly, I gave them the mother because once I got this filly I was happy to give the dam away, you don’t want too many of them the same.”

Moody has a yearling filly by Rosemont Stud stallion Shamus Award out of Cotillard (Flying Spur x Chateau D’Yquem) which had two trials for the trainer but never made it to the races.