Aust/New Zealand Standard of Racing
Similar to the Auckland Reactor thread I am keen to get your opinions on the Aust/NZ Standard of Racing.
Awesome Armbro is making a name for himself while Miss Galvinator and Fleur De Lil have done alright for themselves as well. Then we have the flops like Auckland Reactor. Just to name a few examples.
Visa-versa Aust has seen Genuwine, Cams Fool, Articulator, Slug of Jin, Sweet Fame and more recently and more succesfully Mr Feelgood. Some come with reputations they never lived up to. Genuwine, Cams Fool, Articulator and Sweet Fame were supposed to be Grand Circuit horses yet never really cut it, although Sweet Fame won a Group1. Slug of Jin was always up there in his racing while Mr Feelgood has claimed a few Group 1s including our best race, the Interdominion. He came here with the biggest wraps - he was supposedly the third best Grand Circuit horse you had behind Mister Big and Artistic Fella. How true this was I don't know?
We haven't really had a sire attempt the US shores - Christian Cullen may have had one unsuccesful season there? Meanwhile our breeders can't get enough of the US sires. We have few succesful local sires.
If we look at times our biggest track, a 7/8ths track as I believe it would be called in America (1400m) produced a 1.50.3 mile in our premier Mile race, the Miracle Mile just last week. The winner sat in the death. Our second teirs ran 1.50.6 the week before with the winner coming from off the pace. Meanwhile on our premier 5/8ths track (1200m) a future Grand Circuit star, Villagem, won in 1.52.5 for a 1720m race. He sat three wide for a lap and actually ran 4th in the Miracle Mile. Then we go to what used to be our fastest track, a 940m track, before those two new ones and a horse who was just off Grand Circuit ran 1.52.8 a few years back.
I think Somebeachsomewhere is your fastest ever pacer at 1.46.4 for a mile track? So thats 4seconds, or about 35metres faster than our records. This in itself is bizarre - your 3yos are better then your open class racers?
I also found an article saying Artistic Fella broke a 5/8ths record going 1.48 when he won the Ben Franklin. Thats 4.5seconds or just over 40m faster than Villagem on a 5/8ths track (who sat 3wide and isn't our top FFAer unlike Artistic Fella).
So although your miles may be much faster and on times alone you would beat us comfortably we aren't to far behind the 8ball. We don't train for the mile specifically and we rarely run out races hell for leather. We also don't have the benefit of Lasix and other drugs? (Although that could be debated with some trainers :p) So in reality I believe the US racing at the top end is just, very narrowly above us. In saying that your 3yos would blow us out of the water, ours just arent as hardened as yours and could never do some of the things yours do - but perhaps the drugs has something to with this I don;t know. I think your edge with the open classers being marginally better pacers also comes down to being a much bigger industry with much more breeders. So although yes the US does have better class animals it also has a lot more duds. I believe there is not much difference in the quality of racing. A huge majority of horses our horses will trace back to sires such as Adios, Meadow Skipper, Most Happy Fella, Abercrombie or Oil Burner. The only major exception I can think of is the In The Pocket line but he threw two of the best pacers NZ has ever seen, Christain Cullen and Courage Under Fire. Are those 5 sires listed above (Adios - Oil Burner etc) the same main five in America or is it different? Because if its the same then I believe the quality of racing has to be the same.
But, I'm sure there would be more educated users than myself here and was interested in your opinions.
