Today we are the Cushion Track at Geelong for an interesting runner in Race 3, a 1300m maiden. His name is De Little Engine and he is having his second race start following a debut 5th at Cranbourne. He is pictured above as a weanling at the Inglis Weanling Sale in 2011.
De Little Engine is by top stallion, Encosta De Lago by Fairy King out of the VRC Oaks winner, Arapaho Miss. Arapaho Miss is by Danehill Dancer out of the stakes placed imported French mare, Happy Heart by Exit To Nowhere. She has also produced the stakes placed Heartsareforlove by Hussonet. Delving a little further back in the family, we note it has produced the likes of Qld Oaks winner, Vouvray as well as the good stallions Alzao and Tom Rolfe.
So with such an impressive pedigree page, what do we make of De Little Engine. First off, his pedigree sees four lines of Northern Dancer, starting in the third generation. We also see crosses of Sir Ivor through both tail female lines, as well as Natalma, Hail To Reason and Klairon. With the prevalence of Northern Dancer in the modern pedigree, we hardly see that as a great advantage, although the remainder of the pedigree largely looks to reinforce the similarities of the both the sire and dam.
In terms of dosage, we see that De Little Engine has a profile that reads [0.83/3.16] [16-11-25-0-0] which would immediately make us think of a miler type. However, we have see that the family has excelled over some ground, and in fact Arapaho Miss had a four generation profile that read [0.70/4.00] [5-25-20-0-0] and yet she was to win an Oaks. Even given that the Oaks is not always won by the best stayer, we would still suggest that this colt will improve today over some more ground, and in fact should easily get a mile on his pedigree. There is little doubt that De Little Engine will win a few races, but whether he is ready for that today is a good question. We will certainly be watching his run with interest