Jackie Nelson getting the Chocolates
Rob Courtney
Over the weekend in July co-trainer Colin DeFilippi was laid low with the flu and by the Sunday was thinking he should stay away more often, so good was his team going in his absence at the track.
Not that Jackie Nelson was complaining as a horse that she owned with her late mother (June) was winning his 3rd race in the capable hands of ‘stand in’ driver Craig Thornley.
Choco Lou and Craig Thornley securing the win at Addington
Getting to the front & rolling along before sprinting home in 55.9, he gave his rivals little chance to make any impression over the final stages. That was his 2nd win in his last 3 starts & with 10 further placings (in 26 lifetime starts), he is doing a very good job for Nelson, whose connection with the Choco Lou family goes back 4 generations starting around the early 1990s.
June Nelson bred Choco Lou from her seven-win mare Minty Mellow (by Man Around Town), a shy breeder, who has only left the 3 live foals since 2012., the other most significant of those being Archie (by Sportswriter) & now racing out of the stable of Joseph Gray. He has won 3 races to date.
“Mum just loved Choco Lou and for that sentimental reason, I’ve told CJ (DeFilippi) that he wont be sold anytime in the future,” Jackie remarked.
Joan Nelson passed away earlier this year.
The Nelsons also bred Sweet Lady (Save Fuel – Chocolate), the mother of Minty Mellow and although she didn’t manage to win a race, Sweet Lady proved a more than handy broodmare. Besides Minty Mellow she left another 4 winners from just 6 foals, with Im Stepping Along arguably the best of them, winning 11 with another 26 placings.
Another daughter of Sweet Lady, Crème De Coco (by Badlands Hanover), has been retained for breeding. She didn’t race due to an injury but is in foal for the 4th time to Sweet Lou (sire of Choco Lou) and has already left the winner in Louis (by He’s Watching) who has also found his way into the Joseph Gray stable.
“Colin told me I had too many horses and we have leased a couple to Joseph with good results and it’s just gone on from there,” Jackie shared.
Chocolate (Noodlum – Quite Brigade) was not bred by the Nelson’s but after winning once in just 11 starts, was inherited from the wider family and they did breed all her 6 foals.
“Dad always wanted to get a racehorse and they (Mum & Dad) really loved going to the races to see such races as the NZ Cup.”
Step Out, by Cameleon, won 5 + $41k and beside Sweet Lady, race winner, She’s Sweet, also by Cameleon, was bred from for a time with Press Play (4 wins) clearly the best of her progeny on the track.
Dulcet Diva, an unraced daughter of She’s Sweet by Live Or Die, has bred on, her first foal being Justa Diva who has won once this season for trainer Joseph Gray.
Interestingly, Dulcet Diva was bred to skewbald stallion Natives Royal Affair in 2020 and left a pieball colt who is now a 2yo gelding.
“I always wanted to breed a pieball and this little fellow is just stunning. He actually bowls along pretty nicely but I could really see him being a standout ‘clerk of the course’ horse in the future,”
Last season Dulcet Diva had a filly by The Storm Inside which is yet to be registered. Jackie has always been a fan of Rocknroll Hanover, sire of The Storm Inside.
Jackie readily admits to having the horse bug and intends to keep breeding her harness horses.
Minty Mellow gets in foal easy enough but then loses that pregnancy after a month or two so her immediate breeding future is in doubt.
Last year she purchased Chiola Belle (Sundon – Viola Chiola) out of a Gavelhouse auction and she is currently in foal to Creatine with a booking to Volstead. Jackie was involved with the ownership of the mare when as a racehorse, she won 3 races and has already left the capable Ti Amo Belle (7 wins + $79k).
Her full sister, Belle Galleon (11 wins + $116k) is the dam of millionaire trotter Stent (30 wins) several other very good performers.
She is undecided yet as what to do with her 2 other mares Crème De Coco & Dulcet Diva.
“The $10M injection into our sport is fantastic and we all need to get positively behind the new initiatives, but it would be still encouraging to the ‘smaller’ breeder if we could see some further initiatives in our direction,” Jackie suggested.