by Dean A. Hoffman

If harness racing ever needs a poster boy for genetic diversity in the modern trotter, it’s Vivid Photo.

Today we expect to look at trotting pedigrees and see multiple crosses to such prominent sires as Speedy Crown, Super Bowl, or Valley Victory.

Vivid Photo – USTA Photo

Look hard at Vivid Photo’s pedigree and you’ll find Speedy Crown and Super Bowl once in his fourth generation. No matter how hard or how long you look at Vivid Photo’s pedigree, you won’t find a trace of Valley Victory blood.

In fact, you won’t find a common ancestor anywhere in the first four generations of Vivid Photo’s pedigree, and I dare say that is mightily unusual in trotters today.

Too bad the Hambletonian winner is a gelding.

It’s not until the fifth generation that you get a duplicated ancestor in Vivid Photo’s pedigree. He picks up the blood of Formal Notice twice. Formal Notice appears in the fourth generation as the sire of the second dam of SJ’s Photo, and in the fifth generation as the sire of Vivid Photo’s fourth dam Village Choice.

Formal Notice was a tall son of Kimberly Kid who was virtually unknown in the sport before he won a heat over Timothy T in the 1970 Hambletonian. He was trained and driven by master horseman Jimmy Arthur, who made a presentation at last Saturday’s Hambletonian.

Formal Notice was not a sound horse and accomplished little at stud. It’s unusual to see his name in pedigree today.

In the fifth generation of Vivid Photo’s pedigree you pick up three crosses to Star’s Pride, certainly the most influential trotting sire of his era.

Vivid Photo gets two infusions of Star’s Pride blood through his sire SJ’s Photo, whose sire Photo Maker and whose dam Sassy Jane were both sired by grandsons of Star’s Pride.

SJ’s Photo was one of the most widely-admired trotters of the 1990s and Europeans probably respect him even more than Americans do.

Roger Hammer was indeed the man on Hambletonian Day. – USTA Photo.

Starting with a perfect 13-for13 slate as a 2-year-old in 1992, SJ’s Photo just kept getting better each season he raced. Every year he made more money than the year before and his final season at the races was his best. That, my friends, is the hallmark of a great horse.

It’s also the hallmark of great horsemanship and SJ’s Photo was handled throughout his career by David Wade of Maryland. The horse and man proved to be popular wherever they raced and SJ’s Photo cut a wide swath through the international circuit in Europe in 1995.

SJ’s Photo went to stud touted not only for his accomplishments on the track, but as an outcross for all the Speedy Crown and Super Blood blood so pervasive in trotting pedigrees.

Seemingly like many trotting sires, SJ’s Photo’s first crop wasn’t brimming with stakes winners. That all changed, however, with his second crop. The foals of 1998 were the “breakout” year for SJ’s Photo.

From that crop came SJ’s Caviar, Pegasus Spur, Applecider Hanover, Shark Kosmos, Norvelous Hanover, and Scully FBI. Suddenly everyone wanted to breed to SJ’s Photo. After his 2-year-olds raced in 2000, SJ’s Photo bred 360 mares in North America in the 2001 and 2002 seasons (and many more worldwide as his semen was in great demand on the international market).

Vivid Photo and Classic Photo were two of the 62 colts and 58 fillies by SJ’s Photo registered in 2002.

Vivid Photo was foaled March 28, 2002, two days prior to Classic Photo. Vivid Photo was the fourth foal, second colt, from the mare Winbak Farm mare Miss Garland.

Miss Garland was foaled in 1990 in Quebec when Garland Lobell’s entire crop numbered just 29. This was before he began to catch the attention of horse breeders and trainers in Quebec. Now retired from public service, Garland Lobell vaulted his way to the top ranks of trotting sires.

Miss Garland started racing as a 2-year-old and didn’t stop until she was a 7-year-old. In the process, she made 159 starts, most of them in Quebec, and earned $91,356. She took her 2:00f mark as a 5-year-old at Blue Bonnets for trainer-driver Yves St. Jacques.

She must have a remarkably sound, durable mare because from 1994-96 she made 117 starts.

After her racing days were done, the bay mare was acquired by Joann and Joe Thomson, the dynamic pair that has made Winbak Farm a mega-force in harness racing in recent years.

Miss Garland was bred in her first four seasons to Program Speed, Giant Hit, Donerail, and SJ’s Photo. Winbak was giving her a chance to see what blood she liked bes. Program Speed is a son of Super Bowl; Giant Hit is a son of Speedy Crown; Donerail is a son of Valley Victory; and SJ’s Photo is the wild card as he’s the outcross son of Photo Maker.

Miss Garland’s daughter by Giant Hit, Goodlookngirl, indicated that she had real potential as a broodmare as the filly earned more than $150,000 in her first two seasons (2002-2003) at the races. She’s now a broodmare for Blue Chip Bloodstock and has a suckling filly by Credit Winner.

SJ’s Photo. USTA Photo

Miss Garland has a 2005 yearling sister to Goodlookngirl (and half-sister to the Hambo winner). Her name is, appropriately, New Royalty and she’s set to be auctioned at the SUNY Morrisville sale.

This year Miss Garland had a colt by Dream Vacation and is now back in foal to Giant Hit. I’ll just bet,however, she finds her way back to SJ’s Photo in 2006.

Beyond Miss Garland, you don’t see many Grand Circuit winners in Vivid Photo’s pedigree for a few generations.

Her dam Scenic Dolly had only two foals, both Garland Lobell mares. Scenic Dolly is a daughter of Lindy’s Crown, a horse given scant chance here in the United States as a sire.

Vivid Photos’s third dam Scenic Linda was a prolific mare with six foals registered in the United States and 11 after her importation to Sweden.

Scenic Linda was bred to the pacing stallion Chairmanoftheboard while she was owned in Ohio, but her best foal was Cleveland Rocks 1:58.4f ($90,541) by Coleman Lobell.

When she got to Sweden, Scenic Linda was reunited with Lindy’s Crown, then a popular stallion and later the champion Swedish sire. The cross of Lindy’s Crown on Scenic Linda produced good trotters such as Kristall Hornline, Juvel Hornline, and Oscar Hornline.

The fourth dam of Vivid Photo is Village Choice, a mare that produced 15 registered foals and they averaged just over $13,000 in career earnings.

The next dam Clear Sailing also produced 15 foals, but her results were even less impressive. Her foals averaged $6,271 in career earnings, not much even by the standards of the 1970s and 80s.

Once you get back four or five generations in Vivid Photo’s pedigree, you see names of stallions that are virtually forgotten today. Among them are Eric B, Farong, Newport Dream, A.C.’S Viking, Sharpshooter, High Volo, and Duke Of Lullwater. These stallions each enjoyed some measure of prominence (two were Hambletonian winners themselves) but their legacy has waned over time.

When you reach Selka Song, the sixth dam of Vivid Photo, you begin strike a vein of gold. That gold wasn’t found in Selka Song, as she was another disappointment as a broodmare, but instead in her sister Scotch Love. She was the dam of Speedy Scot, the “Castleton Cannonball” and the Triple Crown winner in 1963.

This is also the maternal family of the Swedish star Revenue S, now a Perretti Farm stallion, and Hambletonian winner Lord Jim if you want to go back far enough.

Vivid Photo is the son of an outstanding sire, SJ’s Photo, and out of a mare by an outstanding sire, Garland Lobell. While his maternal family didn’t accomplish much to shout about for many decades, Vivid Photo revived it on Saturday with his stirring win.

I mentioned earlier that Vivid Photo has no Speedy Crown or Valley Victory blood, but he is hardly alone in this category among recent Hambletonian winners. Despite the remarkable influence that Valley Victory has had in trotting pedigrees, five of the last six Hambletonian winners (2000-2005) have no Valley Victory blood at all.

None of these recent Hambo winners, however, is as much of an outcross as Vivid Photo.

It’s just too bad that the poster boy for genetic diversity is a gelding.