Harness: Sweet Future is a creator of champions

Sometimes it’s apparent right away. Sometimes it takes a little time for that cream to reach the top. However, in the case of Sweet Future, both theories are perfectly applicable, though it did take a few years before her broodmare prowess was readily noticeable.

Sweet Future (Falcons’s Future-Sweet Dahrlin) was just named pacing broodmare of the past decade by the good folks at Standardbred Canada. The honor was bestowed primarily due to her champion son Sweet Lou, a foal of 2009 and Dan Patch champion in 2011 (2-year-old champion) and again at age 5 in 2014 (Older Pacing Horse), and the double Breeders Crown winner Bettor Sweet.

Sweet Lou is currently a highly successful stallion at Diamond Creek Farm in Pennsylvania and is the sire of world champion Warrawee Ubeaut (p, 2,1:48 3/5), a double Breeders Crown winner, in addition to Dancin Lou, last year’s Breeders Crown 3-year-old champion, and a host of others.

Actually, Sweet Future did indeed demonstrate broodmare prowess instantaneously. It just wasn’t readily apparent until years later.

Her first foal born in 2003, Sweet Paprika by Artiscape, was but a $13,000 yearling who attained moderate success on the racetrack taking a mark of 1:51 1/5 as a 4-year-old and earning $211,189. Sweet Paprika, like mom, was not an instantaneous success in the broodmare ranks but she made up for it with foal number four, Captain Crunch from the first crop of Captaintreacherous. Captain Crunch won the Dan Patch for 2-year-old pacing colts in 2019 and is the richest son of Captaintreacherous with earnings $1,561,940. He’s also the first son of Captaintreacherous to reach the stud, standing in 2020 at Diamond Creek in Pennsylvania.

Thus, from perhaps a somewhat auspicious beginning, Sweet Paprika has made it as Captain Crunch’s full brother Captain Fireball brought $150,000 at auction in 2019.

Sweet Future’s second foal, Bettor Sweet in 2005 (p,4,1:47 4/5, $2,782,353), was a $45,000 yearling off the strength of Sweet Paprika’s respectable showing at age 2, but was nowhere near sales-topper status.

Actually Bettor Sweet took his sweet time emerging to prominence, earning but a qualifying mark of 2:00 1/5 as 2-year-old. Late in his 3-year-old season he began to make his mark winning the Progress Final at Dover in 2008. Then in his aged form, Bettor Sweet really took off with stakes wins and/or placements at just about every major event for 4-year-olds and up, and has finished out his career as his dam’s second richest all-time performer behind Sweet Lou

Sweet Lou, himself a foal of 2008, was but a $38,000 yearling in 2009, being a son of at that point the marginally successful Yankee Cruiser. Interestingly Yankee Cruiser is by Artiscape, thus Sweet Lou becomes a three-quarter brother to Sweet Paprika and of course an uncle to Captain Crunch. Of course none of this was readily apparent when Sweet Lou was purchased by Ron Burke Stable interests in 2009.

Sweet Future has another daughter named Sweet Lady Jane (p,3,1:54f, $119,789) by Somebeachsomewhere. While Sweet Lady Jane herself was a moderate Pennsylvania Sire Stakes type at best, her American Ideal daughter Youaremycandygirl has been anything but that earning $1,550,004 while being acclaimed as the Dan Patch 2-year-old pacing filly champion of 2017. Since then she’s been an upper-echelon filly and aged mare while competing with Shartin N and Caviart Ally.

Youaremycandygirl’s family and sibling’s prowess were indeed apparent by the time she hit the auction ring in 2016 as her yearling price was $150,000.

Following Sweet Lou’s 2-year-old championship season in 2011, the yearling prices for Sweet Future’s next four foals escalated to $325,000 for Sweet Talkin Clyde (Well Said) in 2012, $300,000 for Honey I’m Home (Well Said) in 2013, $150,000 for Nutcracker Sweet (Bettor’s Delight) in 2016, and $225,000 for Power Sweet (Betting Line) in 2019. Of those, Nutcracker Sweet (p,2,1:50 2/5), the now 4-year-old full brother to Bettor’s Sweet, has been the most successful earning $416,909 to date.

Thus in the recently concluded last decade, Sweet Future not only produced a champion in Sweet Lou but two of her daughters – Sweet Paprika and Sweet Lady Jane – did likewise via their offspring Captain Crunch and Youaremycandygirl.

Sweet Future is no doubt a worthy choice for Broodmare of the Decade.

On a personal note, Perretti Farms acquired Sweet Paprika at Harrisburg in 2012 for $75,000 as Anthony Perretti, knowing his father Bill Perretti’s famed vacillations about whether or not to finally disperse, instructed me to obtain a few more mares, one of which was Sweet Paprika.

She was carrying a Bettor’s Delight that we named Brooklyn Bets and thereafter bred her to Rocknroll Hanover resulting in Sweetest Emotion, a $25,000 yearling then sold by Diamond Creek Farm. Sweetest Emotion became a reasonably good Pennsylvania Stallion Series filly pacing in 1:52 3/5 as a 3-year-old and earning $142,460.

Sweet Paprika, then in foal to Rocknroll Hanover, finally sold for $50,000 at the 2013 final dispersal, while Brooklyn Bets brought $30,000 as a weanling.

What we would have done with Sweet Paprika had we retained her is anybody’s guess as our own Rocknroll Hanover had prematurely passed on, but fortunately the good folks at Diamond Creek selected Captaintreacherous as her consort! And the rest is history.