Black Caviar link to Taylor’s 2YO race favourite.

Honourbefore Glory, will start a popular elect in Thursday’s QTIS 2YO Handicap (1050m) at Callaghan Park purely on the strength of his recent barrier trial win, but there is so much more to recommend this Clinton Taylor-trained newcomer.

At first glance the bay gelding’s pedigree appears run of the mill, but if you look deeper, it’s anything but.

Now, they say Sir Donald Bradman’s brother couldn’t bat and Dame Nellie Melba’s sister couldn’t sing, but that doesn’t stop us wondering about how far this apple may have fallen from the tree.

Stemming from a ‘blue hen’ line of top thoroughbreds, Honourbefore Glory’s maternal line gets interesting very close-up. His great grandmother was the Group 1 winning mare Scandinavia who foaled Helsinge, the mother of unbeaten superstar Black Caviar.

Raced by Thangool Race Club president Pat Brennan together with family and friends, Honourbefore Glory is from Brennan’s 20-year-old Distant Music mare, Hypatia which ran with limited success in the Central Queensland region a decade and a half ago. The 2YO is by the good win-getter Heroic Valour.

On New Year’s Eve, Taylor put Honourbefore Glory in his first trial at Callaghan Park and with Ashley Butler up over 900m, he easily accounted for his opponents beating Hi Frank by almost two lengths with a similar margin to Honourbefore Glory’s stablemate, Profits Player. The trial was good enough to suggest that Honourbefore Glory is a readymade runner and shouldn’t take long to get onto the winner’s list.

At Thursday’s Rockhampton Jockey Club race day,  he will start in the first of six races, running  from barrier one and he has the local premier rider Justin Stanley in the saddle.

Butler will ride Hi Frank (6) for trainer Sileas Green.

Honourbefore Glory may not ever reach the dizzy heights of some of his better-known relatives, but if he can win on debut, he is off to a good start.

Family matriarch Scandinavia was a grand old dame of Australian thoroughbred breeding who died aged 25 in 2019. A Group 2 race winner, Scandinavia produced four Stakes winners. Besides being the grandmother of Black Caviar, she foaled Group 1 winner and leading sire, Magnus.

In 1994 renowned Victorian-based breeder Rob Crabtree purchased unraced Vain mare, Song Of Norway, from Kingston Town’s breeder, David Hains, for $40,000. She was in foal to Snippets and the result of that pregnancy was Scandinavia who won the Blue Diamond Prelude at two and the Group 2 QTC Cup, but she was also four-times Group 1 placed in the Salinger, Goodwood, Lightning and Newmarket. Scandinavia’s first foal – Danavia, by Danehill – would fail to salute in four starts, but she went on to produce Melbourne stakes winner, Iconic, she also produced Honourbefore Glory’s mum Hypatia. Scandinavia’s second foal, Helsinge – albeit unraced – would leave an indelible mark on Australian racing. Bred by Lee Fleming through a foal share arrangement, Helsinge was sold by Fleming at the 2005 Inglis Broodmare Sale: going on to produce both Black Caviar, and four-time Group 1 winner All Too Hard for Rick Jamieson’s Gilgai Farm.

All Too Hard has sired many stakes winners, including Alligator Blood.

Another of Helsinge’s daughters, Naturale, is the dam of smart racehorse and now successful sire Ole Kirk. Magnus was Scandinavia’s third foal. Magnus who died last spring scored his most notable victory Group 1 The Galaxy (1100m) in 2007 when piloted by Damien Oliver. He also performed with distinction overseas on many occasions, finishing a gallant third in the Group 2 King’s Stand Stakes (1000m) at Royal Ascot behind Australia’s own Miss Andretti, defeating another ‘Aussie’ superstar Takeover Target in the process.

Magnus retired to Eliza Park in 2008 and since then has produced 525 winners to date, siring four Group 1 winners and 27 individual stakes winners, including 17 million-dollar earners.

• David Aldred RJC CEO