By Duane Ranger (courtesy of Redcliffe Paceway)
Alberton horseman, Patrick Croghan, has already had a taste of Group One victory, and now the 42-year-old wants to make sure he’s no one-hit-wonder.
“There’s no thrill like breeding a Group One winner and Hes Sweet (He’s Watching – Our Sweet Melody – Art Major) broke my duck in the Brisbane APG Sales Graduate Final in 2020.
“Now I want more Group glory. We all do. Sure, I enjoy training horses and breaking in the young ones, but breeding is where I get the most satisfaction.
“Mating them, seeing them grow, and then watching them win. There’s nothing like it,” said Croghan, who works at a major hazardous facility at the Port of Brisbane.
“That’s why I bought Kelly Louise from down south last season. I’m going to race her this season and then breed from her later in the year.
“I’ll look at the Sales results and see which stallions stand out before I make a decision as to who she will go to,” he added.
Kelly Louise, a 5-year-old daughter of Sweet Lou and Faye Kelly (Jeremes Jet) notched up her third win in 29 starts in the second event at Redcliffe Paceway last Thursday (March 9).
The Croghan trained and Matt Elkins driven mare has also placed three times and banked $15,893. Croghan has only had her for just three of those starts for two Redcliffe wins, and a fourth in fast time.
“I saw her advertised on the Trading Ring and really liked her breeding, but I thought they wanted too much for her as a racehorse. Anyway, to cut a long story short I got her for $1,500 off Alby Ashwood in Victoria.
“She won her Redcliffe Trial and race first up in September and then she ran fourth at Albion Park in 1.55 before I tipped her out for five months. She won first up again for Croghan after two nice trials at Redcliffe.
“I really love her breeding and even though she’s no star, I think she will win more races before she becomes a Mum later in the year,” Croghan said.
“I really enjoy racing fillies and breeding from them,” he added.
Kelly Louise (foal four) is so far the most successful of the six foals left by the unraced 2009 Jeremes Jet mare, Faye Kelly.
“It was Faye Kelly’s mother Miss Paula that impressed me the most about the breed. She won 22 races ($159,395 and was a Group Two winner.
“She was a prolific breeder, who left a lot of quality winners,” Croghan said.
He’s correct – the Kelly family-bred Miss Paula left 153 winners 14 foals between 1995 and 2015, with all but one of her progeny, winning two races or more. Foal three, Albert Kelly (by Albert Albert) and his younger half-brother and foal five, McRaes Mate (1:51.8) won 32 and 30 races respectively and more than $800,00 in purses between them and the fillies have always bred on in this family including Frith who won over a million dollars and is now the dam of the promising filly Peaceful (Sweet Lou),
Croghan said he always likes to have a couple of horses in work, and said he wanted to sell his seven-win Sunshine Beach black mare, Awholelotofpretty at the end of last season.
“Then I realised who I was dealing with. There was no way my 10-year-old son Jake wants to sell her. In fact, he’s told me he’s breeding from her next breeding season as well.
“He absolutely loves her, and she reciprocates, so who am I to split them up,” said Croghan, who is married to Kerrie, and they also have an 8-year-old son named Josh who tells anyone who will listen Kelly is his horse.
So how did Croghan end up breeding the Group One winner, Hes Sweet?
“I bought his grand-dam Montana Melody at the Yearling Sales in 2006. She never raced due to injury so we put her to Art Major and Our Sweet Melody was born in 2009.
“Our Sweet Melody only raced two times For two Redcliffe wins in 2015 and 2016 and then we crossed her with Hes Watching in 2017 and Hes Sweet was the result and her third foal is the outstanding filly Jewel Melody a four time group 1 winner as a two year old last season.
Southport-born and Beenleigh State High School educated Croghan has been involved in harness racing almost all of his life.
The former rugby league front row forward, who played at a high club level, said he was always too big to drive, and that’s why he enjoyed training and breeding so much.
“I broke my jaw at footy when I was 17 and my life took another direction, but horses have always been close. My two boys absolutely love footy and the horses as well,” Croghan said.
I’m looking forward to the future as I have two nice mares in foal to Sweet Lou and one mare in foal to Captain Crunch.
“I’ll probably always be involved in some form, especially breeding, but as my boys get older I want to put more time into them and what they want to do. That’s where my priorities will lie in the future,” he added.
