By Peter Wharton
Well known Tasmanian media identity Jamie Cockshutt and his racing partner Barry Cooper have been regular buyers of yearlings, mainly in New Zealand, for many years. Cool Water Paddy, Dapper Dana and Our Chain Of Command are just a few of the NZ bred performers they’ve raced with great success.
The pair has also enjoyed great success with horses they’ve bred themselves.
“We bred Streitkid, who has earned almost $140,000 and has won in 1:52, and Watchmylips, who won the Raider Stakes and has earned $90,000,” Cockshutt said.
Cockshutt estimates they have won around 400 races to date.
The 2022 Tasmanian Harness Yearling Sale, to be held on Saturday, March 5 at Carrick Park, will break new ground for the successful racing and breeding partnership.
They will be yearling sale vendors for the first time.
The pair has a three-prong consignment comprising a gelding and a filly by boom first-crop sire Betting Line and a gelding by former Australian 3YO of the Year and Auckland Cup hero Vincent.
The Betting Line gelding ranks as a half-brother to Watchmylips, being out of the former smart racemare Belliciouslips (1:55.9), a winner of 10 races in Tasmania and Victoria.
“Belliciouslips beat Barynya one night at Elwick as a three-year-old,” Cockshutt said.
“The gelding out of her is good sized and very athletic.”
He is Lot 8.
Cockshutt said the Vincent half-brother to Streitkid, listed as Lot 2 at the sale, is a cracking individual.
“He’s a big, strong bloke and a really nice type,” he said.
The third of the Cockshutt-Cooper draft is a neat, compact Betting Line filly from a powerful North American family.
Lot 17, she is the first foal out of the Sweepstakes and Blue Bonnet victor Vouvray Beach (1:55.8), a daughter of Somebeachsomewhere and the Life Sign mare Vouvray.
The draft is being prepared by Brighton horseman Rodney Ashwood.
