Quote Originally Posted by Showgrounds View Post
The biggest issue facing Lazarus, if her were to remain and stand in NZ, is the saturation of Bettors Delight blood. Or worse, Bettors Delight over Christian Cullen or In The Pocket mares. The horse population just isn't big enough for him whereas he can introduce new blood into the North American breed through Christian Cullen and his female family.

It would seem NZ breeders will be encouraged to breed to Vincent in order to introduce some fresh blood into all those Bettors Delight females.

That aside, I will really miss Laz, he was the most courageous race horse we've seen in a long, long time. No doubt Mark Purdon will spend a few nights staring at the ceiling instead of sleeping. To have had the likes of Lazarus and Vincent winning everything and then, a few months later, they're both gone magnifies the the ups and downs of harness racing.
Very well stated, Trevor. He presents the best opportunity for Southern Hemisphere sires there has ever been in North America.
His other “problem” as I see it, is performing well enough over one mile races in the US. His brilliance has been mostly over the longer journeys. He was soundly beaten in both MM’s he appeared in and his best and most convincing wins have been over 2400m plus. The yanks will go flat tack for the whole mile and he’ll have to pace around 1:47 to be a chance of beating the locals, which may also include a couple of ex-NZ or Aussie top liners.