3 minute read

Hunter Valley breeder Julie Harris had good reason to be pleased with the results of the million dollar Group One double won by stablemates Galaxy Star and Arcadia Queen at the recent Perth carnival.

Each was nurtured on the Harris-owned Holbrook Thoroughbreds property between Scone and Gundy for their breeder owners Bob and Sandra Peters, the doyens of Perth racing.

Julie Harris joined with her parents Alan and Madge Harris to establish the agistment farm near Scone in 1998 after the sale of Holbrook Stud in the Widden Valley that had been in the family for over 150 years.

Galaxy Star and Arcadia Queen were bred and raised until yearling age by Harris for the Peters, among the most successful breeders as non-stud owners in Australia.

They keep about 30 mares with Harris at Holbrook. Julie Harris walks them in for matings with top of the range Hunter Valley-based sires, foals them down and rears them until they are sent to the west.

Her input plays a big part in the success of the Peters team in WA as rarely a week goes by without black type being earned by performers that were produced and groomed in her care.

The classy 6YO mare Galaxy Star won the G1 Railway Stakes (1600m) at Ascot on November 24 while the exciting 3YO filly Arcadia Queen showed she was a star of the future with a brilliant win in the G1 Kingston Town Classic (1800m) on December 8.

Both are trained for the Peters family by Grant and Alan Williams with Galaxy Star finishing third behind Arcadia Queen in the Kingston Town.

Kingston Town winner Arcadia Queen is shaping as a stand out as she has now won five of her six outings since she began her racing career in September, making a meteoric climb with wins in the G3 WA Champion Stakes, G2 WA Guineas and G1 Kingston Town over the older horses.

Galaxy Star is also top shelf, having raced only 14 times for 10 wins, three seconds and a third, blossoming as a stakes star with wins in the G3 Asian Beau Stakes and the G1 Railway Stakes.

Arcadia Queen and Galaxy Star are now million dollar earners and good advertisements for having three time champion Australian sire Redoute’s Choice, and in turn his great sire Danehill, in their pedigrees.

Arcadia Queen is by record breaking sire Pierro, a Golden Slipper winning son of Lonhro, from Arcadia, a Redoute’s Choice winner in Perth and Melbourne.

She is also dam of stakes winning fillies Arcadia Dream (Duporth) and Arcadia Rose (Kheleyf), and is a sister to Perth stakes winners Broadway Belle and Antique Belle and to stakes placed Antique Dream.

Using Broadway Belle and Pierro, the Peters bred and raced WA Derby winner Action.

Broadway Belle, Arcadia and offspring Arcadia Dream, Arcadia Rose and Arcadia Delight are all in Julie Harris’s care for at Holbrook.

Also in the paddocks are Antique, Antique Belle and Antique Dream and another sister in Antique Rose.

Also in the Holbrook paddocks are relations of Galaxy Star, who is one of only two foals from Galaxy Queen, a Peters-bred daughter of Melbourne Cup winner Jeune who died at eight years.

They have her sister Star Encounter and her stakes winning daughters Star Exhibit (Statue of Liberty). Perfect Jewel (Redoute’s Choice) and Royal Star (Redoute’s Choice), stakes placed Favourite Star (More Than Ready) and her Listed winning Testa Rossa daughter Enticing Star in the broodmare band on the Scone property.