No foibles for The Vicar Of Dibley   

By Peter Wharton 

Bought for $47,500 at NZ Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale in Christchurch in 2021 and later bought back by her breeders before being sold to Brisbane interests, The Vicar Of Dibley is proving one of the success stories of Queensland harness racing. 

The Vicar Of Dibley wins at Menangle – Club Menangle photo

The four-year-old Betting Line mare outsprinted a smart lineup of mares at Menangle in a fresh lifetime mark of 1:51.2 over 1609 metres on August 31 and before that she rated 1:54.4 leading most of the way over 2138 metres at Albion Park.  

From 15 starts on Australian soil The Victor Of Dibley has won five – including four at Albion Park – and been four times placed for $34,469 in stakes. 

The Vicar Of Dibley was bred by the NZ Sires’ Stakes Board Executive Officer Martin Pierson and his wife Maureen. 

“We sold her at the yearling sale to Jean Feiss but a few months later she asked us if we wanted her back,” Martin said. “At the time I told her we didn’t but we ended up taking her because she had such a beautiful temperament and was a good looking filly.” 

Trained by Burnham horseman Jamie Gameson, The Vicar Of Dibley made her debut in the Harness Million at Addington as a two-year-old and was twice placed from eight attempts at that age. 

She won her first start as a three-year-old at Roxburgh before being sold to Brisbane trainer Daren Garrard and his wife Gayle a month later. 

“We finished up keeping 20 percent of her along with Jamie and Natalie Gameson,” Pierson said. 

Pierson bought The Vicar Of Dibley’s unraced dam, the Rocknroll Hanover mare The Vicar’s Daughter, at the 2019 All Aged Sale in Auckland for $26,000. 

“I’m a big fan of Rocknroll Hanover. The horsemen in NZ were never keen on his stock but he is now coming through as a broodmare sire,” Pierson stated. 

The Vicar Of Dibley is her first foal.  “ I sold The Vicar’s Daughter in foal to Captaintreacherous to Victorian breeders Anne and Bill Anderson three years ago. However, the colt foal she was carrying unfortunately died in a paddock accident,” he said. 

The next foal, a colt by Captain Crunch, was knocked down by the Anderson’s for a modest $6,000 at the Nutrien Equine Melbourne Yearling Sale in April. 

“He was one of the last lots at the sale and most of the buyers had headed home,” Anne Anderson said. 

The Vicar’s Daughter has since produced a lovely bay filly by Captaintreacherous who will be retained by the Anderson’s and she will be joined with leading first crop sire Poster Boy this spring.  

“We originally bought the mare to breed to Poster Boy,” Anne said. 

The Vicar’s Daughter has a wealth of blood on her dam’s side, being a half-sister to the outstanding pacer and A. G. Hunter Cup winner Stunin Cullen ($1.4 million) and the Group 1 winner Coburg, their dam, Burgundy Lass being the dam of the dual NZ Cup winner and Horse of the Year Il Vicolo ($1.5 million). 

Pierson said that The Vicar Of Dibley was not the best of the crop of her year. 

“Penny Black, who has won six out of seven in Western Australia, and the multiple Gloucester Park winners He’s Never Been Beta and Coney Island Lou all came out of the same paddock as The Vicar Of Dibley,” he said.  

Among earlier smart performers bred by the Pierson family have been Mister Odds On, a winner of 13 races in Perth including the WA August Cup, and the Group 3 winner Herrick Roosevelt, now racing successfully in America. 

“We’ve bred some nice horses over the years and we’re pretty proud of what we’ve achieved,” Martin stated.