Jury, Mister Twister

IT has never be hard to like Steve Williams the Queensland businessman, a self-made rich bugger, who came back into greyhound racing decades after his first try to make himself a dynasty.

Steve is a mate of mine and we have designed the pedigrees of some very good dogs for Velocity Lodge over the years. I cannot lay claim to Steve's champion Glen Gallon though. That was all his own doing.

Last Friday night, Steve's home grown product, Jury, led throughout to win the Group 1 National Sprint for trainer Tony Brett on their home track at Albion Park.

When I rang Steve the next day, he was on his way home to Hervey Bay feeling just a tad worse for wear after celebrating his latest Group 1 victory.

Jury is a real Steve Williams product.

He is by Cosmic Chief (Brett Lee-Cosmic Goddess) a stud dog I have always felt went under the radar but achieved some pretty good results from limited opportunities.

His dam Velocity Sheba (College Causeway-Velocity Zoom) was given her chance to succeed at stud when most would have knocked her back. She raced 19 times for just two wins and nine placings, the wins coming at Cannington and Mandurah.

She had been given her chance in Queensland and then South Australia without racing.

But Steve was always going to give her a stud chance because she had broken in with great reports and then carried an injury that plagued her whenever she was on the track.

There was much more to Velocity Sheba than met the eye.

Steve admits though it was a decision based entirely on her natural ability and not that of her litter. The College Causeway-Velocity Zoom litter had 10 named progeny and all of them won. Steve says few of them "put in" having much more natural ability than they showed.

Velocity Sheba was placed up to 642m. College Causeway has been a sire with strength among his best attributes. It augured well for her to be mated to a pace sire. Cosmic Chief was chosen as her first mate by Steve because he simply liked the way his progeny were racing at the time.

Glen Gallon had a hand in Steve's latest Group 1 winner.

That's because Jury's second dam Velocity Zoom is a Flying Stanley-Incoherent litter sister to Glen Gallon (37 wins, 15 placings, $618,000).

Steve, influenced by the success of his great Group star Glen Gallon, was always going to give his sisters a chance at stud. Velocity Zoom started 10 times for just one win at Maitland and she was placed at Sandown.

Other sisters to Glen Gallon had already produced, Parchment and For Luck both being Group finalists from his sister Velocity Zap an unraced bitch.

By the time Steve Williams came to putting Velocity Sheba to Cosmic Chief, the damline was in need of a high quality galloper.

Jury is not the only one with ability in the litter.

A dog called Ace has won 11 times. There are five other winners in the litter.

The pedigree Steve designed is quite a good balance.

Malawi's Prince comes in twice via daughters in dam Velocity Sheba. This is balanced via Melawi's Prince's son Token Prince who is the damsire of Cosmic Chief.

Also, Head Honcho is balanced via daughter in Cosmic Chief and son in Velocity Sheba.

And, Token Prince and Go Wild Teddy are bred on a reverse cross of Malawi's Prince and Brother Fox.

Jury has already been in a number of feature race finals. But he too has had injury issues. He came back to racing not long before the Nationals and showed his break was exactly what he needed. He has turned into a 29.70 winner around Albion Park and that is "low flying".

WHICH brings me to Mister Twister who last Friday night added the Group 2 Black Top to his already impressive career stats and further added to his chances of making it at stud.

His breeder Jason Lymbery asked Pedigrees By Design a few years ago to produce some matings for Double Twist and I felt champion sire Collision was an absolute natural for her.

Tifi, dam of Double Twist, had already produced a Group winner to a mating to Collision.

There was the proven cross of Collision and Where's Pedro.

The mating brought in a 3x5 duplication via daughters of "pace" influence Malawi's Prince. Many of the best progeny of Collision have a double to Malawi's Prince including his champion son High Earner.

Brother Fox was brought into the mating along a very powerful line in the pedigree of Double Twist to link with the other cross of Brother Fox in Collision. This is important and more influential than many might believe.

Eaglehawk Star was duplicated and balanced, so was New Tears and there was a cross of Centrefire and her brother Shining Chariot. Shining Light, dam of Centrefire and Shining Chariot, was positioned to impact through Shining Chariot with her half brother Bowetzel in the damline of Malawi's Prince.

Such a great bitch like Double Twist deserved to be mated to a champion sire first off.

Mister Twister became the result. He has started 41 times for 18 wins, 13 seconds and two thirds and earned $310,000. I will enjoy designing pedigrees around him in the future.