Tony Pearce is a keen campdrafter and unashamedly admires Conman and what his progeny are doing and for this reason alone when he began looking for a colt it had to be a Conman.
He was more specifically looking for a Conman colt from an extremely talented and consistent mare line.
The search took him to a most unlikely position when he was offered an eight week old Conman colt foal. David Ahern from the Scenic Rim Vet Clinic had bred two Conman and two Seligman Spin embryo foals from a relatively unknown mare. The mare was Beaudestiny, a mare by Acres Destiny and from a very good cutting mare, QP Spins Request. Tony remembered QP Spins Request in the cutting pen with Todd Graham, being a NCHA Futurity placegetter and the NCHA Derby Reserve Champion. She continued on to have a big career including winning an NCHA Non Pro Open Title with Jackie Graham.
Upon further research Tony found that Beaudestiny had herself been a tremendous young mare with huge potential until injury closed her career after only a single Maiden Draft win at Gayndah with Gavin Dennien.
So Tony had found a Conman foal from an Acres Destiny mare who had shown huge potential and was from an exceptional cutting mare with Spinifex bloodlines. What did he have to lose? Sight unseen he purchased the foal and the recip mare and felt at worst he would have a good saleable gelding.
Tony took his mare and foal back to Goulburn and Contractor was treated like any other young foal. He was broken in by Tony and when he needed miles he was sent to Dan Lindley as a 2 yo where he did general work and plenty of hours under saddle.
On returning to Tony his education continued and he was always impressive in his work and he was showing real signs of developing into something special. In fact Tony was so impressed with his young colt that he began to allow himself to think about Cloncurry. He approached Morgan Webb and they agreed that Morgan would take Contractor north for the winter with a start at Cloncurry being the ultimate goal.
After plenty of work and good results from both the Horse of the North and Georgetown Draft Contractor headed to Cloncurry primed for a big performance. History now states that Contractor is the Cloncurry Challenge Champion for 2018 and a very worthy winner after exceptional displays in both Dry Work sections and typical Conman displays in the Cattle sections.
Contractor returned to Tony on return from Cloncurry where he hoped to start a serious campdraft season, but like so many, drought, fires and floods have prevented any consistent planning. Tony did send him to his mate, Darren Towns, for the summer drafts in Victoria in 2019 and his ability soon became evident winning the Maiden at Dumbalk and the Novice at Sale.
Meanwhile the public have to wait to really see what Contractor can do. Tony hopes to send him south again this summer but Covid may have the final say. Similarly he hopes to have him at Tamworth for the Nutrien Stallion Shootout but again we have to wait and see.
However one thing is certain, we will be seeing a lot more of this talented son of Conman in the campdraft arena and also in the Challenge and the Open Cowhorse arenas.
