Breeding column: By DAVID BRASCH

September 1, 2023

Caption: Charlie Riccio worked hard to breed and train Puppeteer and he wasn’t going to sell him after his first win. (Photo courtesy St George And Sutherland Shire Leader)

(Chase Newspaper September 2023 edition)

CHARLIE Riccio was surprised by the call but happy as well.

“No,” he told the caller. “Puppeteer is NOT for sale.”

The caller was Andy Lord, none other than one of the country’s best trainers and one of the most astute observers of the greyhound there is.

Andy loves nothing better than snapping up a young dog for the kennels he owns with his wife Jodie, so he keeps a better than close eye on anything that shows promise.

That’s what he was doing when he rang Charlie Riccio.

“I told Andy straight away that Puppeteer was not for sale and he was quite happy to cop that, but he told me the dog is some prospect,” said Charlie.

That was the day after Puppeteer (Mr Pupparazzi-Gone By Noon by My Bro Fabio) had made his race debut in a 515m maiden at Gosford.

Checked a few times early and then again going through the pen, Puppeteer went on to win by 10-and-a-quarter lengths in 29.61 the best of the day.

Puppeteer was green, green, as green as grass in the run, but still put his maiden rivals to the sword.

No wonder Andy was on the phone the next morning.

There is no way Charlie is going to “unload” his dog. He’s bred him, reared and trains him and it was a mating of faith that is paying off.

Others in the litter show plenty of ability as well.

Charlie had the ultimate of faith in Puppeteer’s sire, Mr Pupparazzi (Djays Octane-Pie Thief), a dog he had bred and raced with great success.

“I had his mother Pie Thief and his grandmother Ate Bucks,” said Charlie.

“I put Pie Thief to Djays Octane because I knew what a good sire he was in the US.

“They talk about Kelsos Fusileer being a success and being the sire of Fernando Bale. But in the US Djays Octane was the champion sire and Kelsos Fusileer was nothing compared to him.

“I got Mr Pupparazzi and he was a ferocious chaser.”

In 29 starts, Mr Pupparazzi won 13 and was placed seven times for stakes of $43,000. He won at Richmond, Nowra, Wenty, Dapto, Angle Park, Bulli and The Meadows.

He was a finalist in the G3 SA Derby.

While impressive, that’s hardly stud dog performances for anyone but Charlie Riccio.

“I had faith in him and was always going to get a litter by him and see what turned out, and then think about a commercial career for him,” he said.

Charlie worked closely with Tony Lockett handling the stud career of legend Collision (damsire of Mr Pupparazzi), so he knows what it takes to get results in that most competitive of fields.

So when Gone By Noon (My Bro Fabio-Flash Earner by High Earner) came on season, she became the first object of Mr Pupparazzi’s desires.

“Gee, those My Bro Fabio bitches are becoming something at stud,” said Charlie.

Gone By Noon had raced just 16 times for six wins and seven placings earning $15,000 from wins at Dapto, Richmond, Wenty and Gosford. But, she had been third in the G3 Richmond Riches and her winning times at Dapto and Wenty were better than good.

And her mother Flash Earner had won the Listed Ultra Sense during the Easter Egg carnival in 2015.

It is the famed Silver Cassie direct damline that has been ever so successful.

Charlie was obviously just wanting to have a nice race bitch, with plenty of pedigree, going to Mr Pupparazzi for his first mating, but the pedigree match he put together to produce boom youngster Puppeteer is something else.

With Mr Pupparazzi having Collision as his damsire, it would always be great to have a cross of Collision again in the damline of the bitches he mates.

Coming via a SON would be even better.

This is exactly what Charlie designed.

Collision is line-bred in Puppeteer 3×4 and balanced via daughter and son.

But what Charlie also did was bring in a 3×3 link of Ate Bucks and Silver Shiraz, and they are virtually sisters.

They bring in the brothers Black Shiraz and Big Ginger Boy, but also a strong duplication of that wonderful producer Zimbabwe.

When Charlie designed the pedigree of Mr Pupparazzi, he brought in the US sire with strong Aussie bloodlines.

For Mr Pupparazzi to become a success at stud, he was always going to need to mate bitches that brought back to him bloodlines almost identical to those in his dam Pie Thief.

That’s exactly what Charlie did when he produced Puppeteer.

It is the same for Fernando Bale, by US stud dog Kelsos Fusileer from the Wheeler bitch Chloe Allen.

Do just a simple five-minute study of the pedigree of most of Fernando Bale’s best progeny and it will be so, so obvious they are in-bred to his mother Chloe Allen with very minimal influence from Kelsos Fusileer.

The very same thing happened with Aussie Infrared, by the US stud dog Bella Infrared from the Aussie bitch Ebby Miss.

Most of his greats are in-bred to Ebby Miss’s bloodlines.

Those mating to superstar Aston Rupee, by US stud dog KC And All, from Aussie bitch Aston Miley, would do well to remember this.

WHICH brings me back to Fernando Bale.

Ask anyone thinking about mating a bitch to Fernando Bale and their first thoughts will surround the size of their own bitch and the possibility of getting small offspring, especially bitches.

The standard when designing a mating to Fernando Bale is certainly to have a “big bitch” closer to 29kg or 30kg the better, and with lots of leg.

But is this necessarily true?

I decided to study the very best progeny sired by Fernando Bale, the size of those great race dogs, and especially to concentrate on the size of their dams.

Here is how it worked out:

McInerney (23 wins, $1.23m) 31.4kg, dam Born Ali 27.2kg.

Tommy Shelby (31 wins, $1.02m) 31.6kg, dam Serena Fly High 27.4kg.

Tornado Tears (35 wins, $989,000) 32.8kg, dam Tears Siam 30.7kg.

Fernando Mick (35 wins, $867,000) 29.2kg, dam Noaki Moth 26.9kg.

Whiskey Riot (22 wins, $812,000) 30.8kg, dam Ready To Riot 25.8kg.

Koblenz (26 wins, $776,000) 32.9kg, dam Up Hill Jill 29.3kg.

Sennachie (18 wins, $696,000) 33.3kg, dam Rhonda Rocks 30.2kg.

My Redeemer (25 wins, $669,000) 31.0kg, dam Where’s Demonica 30.3kg.

Dyna Patty (23 wins, $636,000) 27.7kg, dam Unix Bale 28.6kg.

Mepunga Ruby (25 wins, $568,000) 26.7kg, dam Mepunga Rosie 29.4kg.

Ferdinand Boy (52 wins, $554,000) 32.3kg, dam Nayla Swift 30.3kg.