Miss Joelene
Repetitions run in the family for Miss Joelene (Russian Revolution), who broke through for a black type victory and took her earnings past $1 million in Saturday’s Tattersall’s Gold Crown (Listed, 2100m) at Eagle Farm.
Bred by Brisbane’s Janelle Whalley and Darren Wilson of Wilrace Pty Ltd, she’s out of a dam by that fine broodmare sire More Than Ready (Southern Halo) in Cellargirl.
Bought by the couple as a yearling via trainer Kelly Schweida at Magic Millions Gold Coast in 2016 for $90,000, Cellargirl was a black type winner also, of Doomben’s Bill Carter Stakes (Listed, 1200m).
She also figured in a very rare racing repeat. In the spring of 2017, back–to–back, she ran third in Randwick’s Tea Rose Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) and Flight Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) when the same trifecta presented each time, with Alizee (Sepoy) and Champagne Cuddles (Not A Single Doubt) finishing first and second respectively. In fact, it would have been a repeat of the first four, if One More Honey (Onemorenomore) had finished one placing better in the Tea Rose.
Cellargirl had an older half-brother and a younger half-sister. They were Cellarman (Mossman) and Cellarmaid (Husson), and both earned black type.
Cellarman won a Group 3 and two Listed races for Chris Waller, while Cellarmaid was placed at Group 2 and Listed level, also for Wilrace and Schweida.
Cellargirl also repeated something less meritorious than her stakes win and placings. In early 2019, she did a Chautauqua (Encosta De Lago) – twice.
First she refused to jump in the $1 million Magic Millions Fillies and Mares (1300m), eventually being cajoled out of the gates by James Orman, seven lengths behind the rest.
Then, in an Eagle Farm Class 6, Orman couldn’t get her going at all. The hint taken, Schweida advised stewards post-race that she’d be retired.
Eight months later, Wilrace sent her to Newgate Farm to be covered by Russian Revolution (Snitzel), then in his second season. The result was Miss Joelene.
Ultra consistent, she now has six wins and ten placings from 29 starts, including her victory in January’s $500,000 The Wave (1800m) at the Sunshine Coast, and a top–tier third in last year’s Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m).
Miss Joelene has another notable repeat going on in her pedigree, and it’s one some would avoid – a double-male duplication of Danehill (Danzig).
Repeating Danehill can be a dicey business. The stats aren’t great for any variant, but double male comes up the worst. A recent look, for doubling in the first four generations, showed it was running at 2.48 per cent stakes winners to runners, behind the 3.29 per cent for double female, and 3.48 per cent for gender-balanced.
Then again, to hell with damn statistics, for Miss Jolene wasn’t the only stakes winner at Eagle Farm on Saturday with a double male Danehill. Tashi (Sebring), winner of the day’s main race in the Tatts Tiara (Gr 1, 1400m) had it, and even closer in.
Tashi’s breeder, the late George Altomonte of Corumbene Stud, was never averse to some tricky duplications, and he often went a lot closer in than the 4m x 4m of Danehill in Tashi’s pedigree, via Flying Spur – Sebring’s damsire – and Exceed And Excel, Tashi’s second damsire.
Miss Joelene’s duplication is a little more diluted, with Danehill appearing at 4m x 5m, the latter of which shows we’re all getting old. He’s there through Russian Revolution’s grandsire Redoute’s Choice, and via Cellargirl’s second damsire Danzero.
Also at play in Miss Joelene’s bloodlines is Mr Prospector (Raise A Native), who’s at 6f, 5m x 5m through three different offspring, Prospector’s Fire and Miswaki – who come into Russian Revolution’s dam Ballet D’Amour (Stravinsky) – and Woodman, More Than Ready’s damsire.
More Than Ready has of course proven a wonderful damsire, finishing in the top ten of the Australian broodmare sires’ table for eight straight seasons including this one.
Five of those have been in the top five, including this season’s current spot of fourth, with his star contributor being Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) hero Knight’s Choice (Extreme Choice).
More Than Ready is also nicking well with Miss Joelene’s sire. Of the seven damsires with double figures of runners when blended with Russian Revolution, More Than Ready ranks as the best, with two stakes winners from just seven runners, at 28 per cent, with Miss Joelene the top earner.
It’s a similar story for Russian Revolution’s sire Snitzel, with More Than Ready his best nick for winners by percentages – with 38 from 39 runners – and with four stakes victors headed by Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) hero Shinzo.
Miss Joelene is also powered by a healthy sprinkling of the great Northern Dancer (Nearctic) at 6m, 6m, 5m, 6f x 5f, 6m, through no fewer than five different offspring.
In order, Danzig and Storm Bird run into Snitzel; Nureyev is the sire of Russian Revolution’s damsire; and the great blue hen Fanfreluche comes in strong as Russian Revolution’s fourth dam. In the bottom half, Northern Sea is the dam of More Than Ready’s sire Southern Halo (Halo), while Danzig goes again as the third sire of Cellargirl’s dam.
The association between Wilrace’s Whalley and Wilson and Schweida started with Wilson’s daughter Heidi having worked for the Eagle Farm trainer.
Sharing backgrounds in harness and show horses, Wilson and Whalley then started with thoroughbreds by buying a Sebring colt at Inglis Easter in 2015 for $80,000. Named Oink – Wilson’s business is pork processing – he won six races for Schweida and was Group 3 placed.
One year on, Whalley and Wilson bought the yearling Cellargirl.
“She was a good mare and did a good job, and we decided we’d start to breed a few with her,” Whalley told It’s In The Blood. “Miss Joelene was one of the first we bred. We just bred her on our small property at Birkdale [on Brisbane’s south-eastern fringes].”
As Whalley recalls, Cellargirl was a fine physical match for Russian Revolution, although there was “not much science behind it”.
“We just liked Russian Revolution as a racehorse,” she said. “But he matched up well with the mare physically, and it seems to have worked out pretty well.”
Off the back of Cellargirl’s early racetrack success, Wilson and Schweida went to Tasmania in 2018 to buy Cellarmaid, also for $80,000.
Cellargirl sadly didn’t survive birthing her fourth foal, who died soon afterwards, but Wilrace still has Cellarmaid, who has a yearling filly by Stay Inside (Extreme Choice) and, attempting another repeat trick, is now in-foal to Russian Revolution.
As Whalley puts it, things have snowballed from Wilrace’s early days. They now have 14 broodmares, all in-foal, and they’re kept on the farm they bought a few years ago on the outskirts of the Darling Downs in Washpool Lodge, the former breaking and spelling property of harness racing legend Kevin Thomas.
Next door, very conveniently, is another breaker in Wilson’s son-in-law Andrew Cooper, who broke in Miss Joelene among many for Wilrace and also, incidentally, is competing for Australia in eventing this week at the prestigious international show The Chio Aachen in Germany.
Almost five years in, the breeding caper is evolving very well for Wilrace, with high hopes for Miss Joelene to continue her strong form in middle–distance events.
“She always runs a good race,” Whalley said. “She hasn’t had the best of luck with barriers, but hopefully her time for a Group 1 will come.
“And she’s now ticked over the million dollars in prize-money, so we’re pretty happy – for a horse who came about when we decided to have a bit of fun and start breeding. She’s been fantastic for us.”