Harness: Kikikatie, Solveig prove the importance of the broodmare

The odds are stacked against them.

Broodmares go into every breeding season with a singular goal and that is to be bred and produce a foal in the next calendar year. Contrast that with the life of a stallion that could span two hemispheres and lead to mating with hundreds of mares that produce an endless supply of potential racehorses that will enhance his stature as a great stallion.

It’s really not a fair fight if you ask me and therefore it is incredibly rare for a mare to succeed with every chance since we all know stallions fail more than they succeed.

The recently retired Jimmy Takter has known more than his share of top-caliber trotters and pacers in his time. Along the way Takter has helped advance the legacy of many stallions, but perhaps somewhere below the radar people have tended to overlook how he catapulted the fortunes of two incredible broodmares.

Takter campaigned all five sons of the great Kikikatie, her only foals, and each of them ended careers with in excess of $240K bankrolled and 1:50 or faster race records. It’s an incredible feat that Takter had a hard time explaining.

“It’s hard to say there were similarities,” said Takter of the five that began with Rockin Image, a 1:48 2/5 winner as a 3-year-old back in 2010 that has moved on to become a very successful stallion in Indiana. “If I had to say one thing about them as a group it was that they all had a great gait.”

Takter backtracked a bit even from that statement when recounting a notable exception. “Actually Grams Legacy would catch himself every now and then when going at high speed and lose his stride,” Takter said, recalling the frustration of the black sheep in the family that earned just the $240K.

“Tellitlikeitis (her final foal by Well Said) was just one of the toughest horses I’ve ever had. His performance in the Meadowlands Pace was incredible. He was in against a great group and put in a phenomenal race, I think pacing under 1:48,” said Takter of the 2014 race where the colt not only overcame pre-race adversity but managed to finish in the company of He’s Watching and runner-up Always B Miki before that one arrived in Takter’s care. “His front ankles were not so good coming into the race. That’s why I thought that was an incredible performance,” Takter said.

Time To Roll was probably among the most forgotten foals of Kikikatie, but that’s probably because he had to mix it up with perhaps the best sophomore class of the last decade. That Time To Roll defeated A Rocknroll Dance in the New Jersey Sire Stakes final as a sophomore in 2012 would be a high point in and of itself, but his second-place finish in the North America Cup that year behind Thinking Out Loud by just a half-length could get lost in context if one forgets that Sweet Lou, State Treasurer, A Rocknroll Dance, Pet Rock, and Warrawee Needy all followed the top pair home.

Kikikatie enjoyed an incredible year in 2012, rivaling most any stallion, with her freshman Rockin Amadeus capturing the Breeders Crown at Woodbine and defeating Captaintreacherous.

Though none of the five earned seven figures, collectively they banked roughly $3.2 million.

“It’s an incredible family,” said Takter, noting that his daughter Nancy Johansson happened to train the Dan Patch award winner Kissin In The Sand, the $1 million winning daughter of Somebeachsomewhere who is out of a full sister to Kikikatie. “I also had Katie Said from that family,” said Takter. “She was a wickedly fast filly.”

While it may be hard to beat five-for-five in 1:50 or better on the pacing side, the odds of a trotting broodmare producing champions every year are exponentially more difficult. Solveig, a daughter of Yankee Glide, has been defying the odds since her first foal arrived in 2008. “Johnny William was one of my best colts training down,” said Takter of Solveig’s first foal by Andover Hill. “I loved that colt but he didn’t make it to the races.”

The following year Trond Smedshammer purchased Solvato, a Donato Hanover colt that had stakes success in North America and then proved himself a solid force in Europe.

“The thing with Solveig is that they come in all sizes,” said Takter. “Dontyouforgetit was tiny but he would give you everything.” Dontyouforgetit was a Pennsylvania Sire Stakes champion at age 2 and the first Cantab Hall colt from the mare.

A year later Shake It Cerry would come along and forever stamp Solveig’s status as a bona fide producer. The multiple Breeders Crown winner of in excess of $2.7 million won 23 of her first 28 starts during a magnificent freshman-sophomore campaign in 2013-14.

For many broodmares that would have likely been the end, but Solveig was far from done with Uncle Lasse following right behind his older sister into the winner’s circle. “He was a bigger horse and the harder tracks were very tough on him,” said Takter. “I sold him to Stefan Melander and he did very well in Europe afterward.”

Uncle Lasse finished third in the 2105 Hambletonian behind stablemate Pinkman and the filly Mission Brief.

Uncle Lasse earned $931K in just two seasons for Takter before being exported.

Seven of Solveig’s first eight foals have proven stakes worthy, with all earning sub-1:56 2/5 records and two (Shake It Cerry and Uncle Lasse) trotting faster than 1:52.

Solveig’s legacy is still in progress with 2018 producing the juvenile Champlain winner Susy by first-year sire Father Patrick. “She’s a nice horse,” said Takter. “She’ll need to improve this year to go up against some of those other fillies.”

“You know, I think sometimes stallions get too much credit,” Takter said. “If you take some of these good mares that are bred to top stallions and breed them elsewhere they would make another stallion look good as well.”

He’s ‘dam’ right.