Mark,
My connection with Top Draft is limited but I'll explain it for history's sake anyway.
Top Draft was bred by a good friend and mentor of mine Reg Daly, just on the Quebec side of the Ontario border here in Canada, Reg owned and operated Echodale Shorthorns with his family near a little town and had a small farm that was mostly rocks, trees and hills.
I went to work at Echodale in 1999, the year I got out of High School and stayed with reg and his wife for a number of years preparing their cattle for their production sale that year. I got to know Reg and his family very well during that time and we remained friends until Reg's untimely passing due to cancer in the summer of 2005.
I sold Reg the last bull he ever bought as well as a heifer calf that he purchased from me in the Toronto Royal sale in the fall of 2004 and delivered those cattle and visited with him and his family between Christmas and New Years 2004, a few days before I moved out west. I miss the nights sitting up at Reg's table drinking tea and talking about Shorthorns as well as the many long distance phone calls (Echodale was about an 8 hour drive from where I grew up) Reg was a vibrant chracter to say the least, I still chuckle to myself when I think of many of his mannerisms and sayings as well as his thick Ottawa Valley accent. Reg was one of the most passionate Shorthorn breeders I ever met and a great friend.
I believe that Reg bought the mother of Top Draft, Sutherland Topsy 700 in a Shadybrook production sale in the late 80's and I can remember as a child some of the bulls that they bought to the Toronto Royal Winter Fair out of her in the early 90's. Top Deck, Top Hat, Top Draft I believe were a few.
I also worked on the farm that owned Topsy 700 until she wouldn't flush or breed anymore and they shipped her around 1999 or 2000? She was a massive bodied cow but would probably be considered to relatively moderate in her frame size compared to many of todays cows, I believe she weighed over 2,100# when they shipped her though.
There were few Top Draft daughters in Canada because he was sold into the U.S to Deertrail etc at a young age but the ones that were here were awesome cows. I remember them as being very stout for the time, big boned and good uddered.
I remember one daughter in particular that was an exceptional producer, she was raised on the farm that owned Topsy in her final days and we put thousands of miles on dragging that cow and her progeny to shows all over the continent in the late 90’s. She also produced the Canadian National Champion Bull in 1999 when the show was held in Edmonton Alberta. I’m sure that I spent hundreds of hours working on that calf, blowing, rinsing, feeding etc. He had hair to die for as well and it was a pleasure to work on him.
Another great Top Draft female I remember was a cow that Reg Daly owned, she was a Top Draft out of Shannon Margie 924. She was moderate, sound and perfect uddered. I bought a heifer calf of hers sired by an AKF Board Walk son while I was in University but sadly we lost her at a young age and have no progeny from her.
One of the biggest mistakes I ever made buying cattle was during the Echodale production sale the year I worked there. Reg sold an off age heifer calf out of Topsy 700 and sired by a Dividends Impact son, complete with horns and everything. I thought I would be able to get her fairly inexpensively because she was a strange age for Canadian calves and had never been dehorned etc. I was runner up bidder on her and she ended up going to a breeder in Illinois, not sure what ever became of her but she was a lot like Topsy 700, Stout, moderate, huge ribbed and a perfect even shorthorn roan. I think she would be close to an ideal female by today’s standards but I was young and just didn’t have the money at the time, story of my life it would seem.