The Breeder Series - Keep An Eye On This One
Earlier this year the Gibson family from Young in New South Wales were over the moon when the Bathurst Harness Racing Club announced the Gibson Family as Honourees for the 2024 Bathurst Gold Crown Carnival.
It was fitting recognition for arguably Australia’s finest and certainly most durable Standardbred breeding operations.
Begun in Queensland in 1967 John and Mary Gibson were pioneers of AI in that State, importing numbers of stallions, and they soon became acknowledged as a leader in the field.
In 1991 the Gibson’s moved to Young in NSW and were joined in the stud’s operations by their daughter Jackie and although the stud no longer stands stallions on the property, Success Stud is one of Australia’s premier mare bases.
The stud’s unrivalled success in the breeding, preparation and selling of yearlings led John Gibson to bring the Australian bred mare Jasmarilla back to Australia in 1990 after a successful racing career in North America.
A former Australian 2yo Pacer of the Year before being sold to American connections for $100,000, Jasmarilla retired as the winner of 50 races and with $503,000 in earnings.
Initially it appeared as if Gibson may have pulled the wrong rein as Jasmarilla’s Australian born foals hardly set the race-track on fire with just the moderately performed Jassy managing to win races.
Jasmarilla’s last foal was a Perfect Art filly born in 1999 and later named Grace Robinson and while she never raced she is bona fide proof that John Gibson knew what he was about when he returned Jasmarilla from North America.
Grace Robinson is the dam of 13 foals and while one died ten have raced with nine proving to be winners headed by the one-eyed gelding Two Eye See which won the Group One Seymour Nursery in Queensland as a 2yo on his way to stake earnings of $306,703.
The success of Two Eye See has seen Success Stud adopt “Eye” as a naming brand for their horses.
A full-sister to Two Eye See is the dam of their 4yo Sweet Lou mare and the Group One 3yo NSW Breeders Challenge winner Eye Keep Smiling is the latest to carry the Eye moniker.
Bred by Success Stud and owned by Jackie Gibson, Eye Keep Smiling will race in the Western Jewel slot in the 2024 Eureka.
Eye Keep Smiling has a record of 14 wins and four seconds in 21 starts and her last start win in a mare’s race at Albion Park took her stakemoney to $300,299.
She has a record of 1:49.9 which she took in taking out a semi of the NSW Breeders Challenge last season.
Eye Keep Smiling