By Duane Ranger
Fake Left’s ghost was well and truly hovering around Albion Park last week.
The 1992 Little Brown Jug winner has been dead since 2001, but that didn’t stop two of his progeny winning races three and six on Thursday’s seven-race card.
The Grant Dixon trained and driven Saint Kilda Beach and the Chantal Turpin trained and Peter McMullen driven Timeless Appeal won by 2.8m and 5.2m respectively. It was their fifth and second career wins.
However, Fake Left’s co-owner and prominent Queensland businessman, Kevin Seymour said the two pacers came about simply because he suddenly remembered he had the straws several years after freezing them.
“We forgot we had a couple of straws tucked away and when we realised that we still had them we decided to make the most of them and impregnate Kelly Major (by Art Major) and Talented Tess (by Grinfromeartoear). That's how both Saint Kilda Beach and Timeless Appeal came about in 2015,” Mr Seymour said.
"I'm just glad that we remembered the straws because it's quite remarkable to think that his frozen semen is still producing winners some 18 years after his death.”
Seymour described Fake Left as a super sire and an even better broodmare sire.
The Canadian bay, who stood in Australia for the first time in 1993, was also a quality racehorse, who recorded a 1:51.4 mile.
All-up he had 51 starts for 17 wins,14 placings and $314,417 in prize money.
By the end of the 2010-2011 season he was the only Australian-based stallion to have sired three millionaire pacers.
They were three-times Interdominion champion and multiple Group One winner, Blacks A Fake (72 wins and $4.75m); dual Miracle Mile winner, Be Good Johnny ($48 wins and 1,656,489) and Miss Galvinator (60 wins and $1,148,446).
Be Good Johnny had 16 classic wins, plus multiple Cup winners while Robin Hood recorded 11, and Safari 10.
“I think he will be the leading broodmare sire here for many years to come. He has already proven that. There are no more straws out there that I know of, and sadly these two fillies are the last we will see by Fake Left,” Mr Seymour said.
“He was an awesome stallion. He was very good to us and thankfully his memory will live on for many years to come yet.”
Saint Kilda Beach is the first of three foals out of the two-win Art Major mare, Kelly Major.
Timeless Appeal is the eldest (of four foals) out of the one-win Grinfromeartoear mare, Talented Tess.
As for Fake Left, he was the 1989 son of the super sire Cam Fella (by Most Happy Fella) and was the second of five foals out of the 15-win ($164,845) 1977 Albatross mare, Madam Madusa.
He sired 20-plus sub-1:50 milers.
As a 2-year-old the colt won five times and placed in four races.
It was as a three-year-old that in the words of his owners - "he's finally developed into the kind of horse we expected him to be" - after winning six races in the Midwest just prior to competing in the prestigious 1992 Little Brown Jug.