Undefeated youngster from old Auckland family

Undefeated NSW youngster from old Auckland family

By Peter Wharton

Blazing Home, who stretched his unbeaten winning sequence to six when he annexed the Victoria Youthful Stakes when travelled to Melton last month, is a Rock N Roll Heaven gelding from a family established near Auckland over four decades ago.

Owned and trained in the Riverina district, Blazing Home, who was a graduate of the NZ Bloodstock National Yearling Sale at Auckland in 2021, has earned $44,160 from six attempts and is regarded as one of the best his age and gait in NSW.

The gelding traces back to a trotting bred mare named Cinnamon Toast (by Great Evander), who was the foundation mare for Helensville professional breeder Michele Carson and her lifelong friend Tony Milina.

“She was a beautiful big chestnut mare but a very unpleasant mare to handle,” Michele recalled.

The partners bred 11 foals out of Cinnamon Toast, five of which emerged successful including Traitor’s Gate, who won 10 races in New Zealand including the Northland Cup before being sold to US interests. He finished up with a stake tally of $132,374.

Toast Of New York (by New York Motoring), the ninth foal from Cinnamon Toast, was to become the cornerstone broodmare for the Carson-Milina breeding enterprise.

Only lightly raced, Toast Of New York left six winners headed up by Code Zero, a 1:54.6 winner in America, the Te Awamutu Juvenile victor Mach Of A Man and the In The Pocket mare Bury My Heart (1:59.2), a winner of 13 races and $105,758.

At the stud Bury My Heart produced five individual winners, all of whom took records of 2:00 or better. Undoubtedly the best of her progeny was her first foal, Texican (1:50.2), a winner of 45 races in NZ and America including the NZ Sires Stakes 3YO Championship and Southern Supremacy and $1.1 million in stakes.

Others from Bury My Heart have been the thrice Melton winner Better Exclusive (1:56.2), the three-year-old Step It Up A Notch (1:58), Derringer (1:58.5) and the unraced Capture My Heart (by Bettor’s Delight), who became the dam of Blazing Home and the recent Menangle winner Chevron’s Bypass (1:53.1).

Since producing Blazing Home in 2019, Capture My Heart has left a rising two-year-old colt and a weanling colt by Rock N Roll Heaven and a filly foal by Christian  Cullen’s NZ Derby winning son Locharburn.

Two half-sisters to Bury My Heart have enjoyed marked success at stud. Toast To Cullen (by Christian Cullen), who is being bred from by Biddlecombe Equine Ltd, figures as the dam of five winners including the Menangle winners Kenrick 1:50 ($268,449) and Nimble Jack (1:53) and others in Bubbaloobah (1:56.8) and Doubleodeano (1:58.3).

Follow My Heart, a Mach Three mare out of Toast Of New York, has left Flo Motion, who won in 1:56.8 at Ashburton last month.