Past Greats

[Messenger]

Bret Hanover (1962) raced 68 times between the ages of 2-4 for 62 wins, 5 seconds and 1 third and so was never unplaced

He won his first 35 races

His only 3rd was at his last start in which he raced further than a mile for the very first time (1 and 1/8). He was all fired up that night and he went through the mile in 1.54.3
If that had been the end of the race Bret would have paced the fastest race mile in the history of the sport; no Standardbred had ever raced a sub 1.55 mile

Bradley, John: Modern Pacing Sire Lines (1999)

Having a very quiet long weekend so I decided to investigate Bret Hanover's dam line

There has been nothing outstanding tracing to Bret's dam Brenna Hanover apart from him
So I decided to go back to his 2nd dam Beryl Hanover

The champs I found that trace to her (and thus have a connection to Bret):

Anndrovette (2007) by Riverboat King (his only star performer) 4 times American and Canadian mare of the Year and winner of $3.5m. Her 5th dam is a full sister to Bret Hanover

Dragon Again (1995) by Dragons Lair (his only star son) $2.3m who would prove to be a top sire. Dragon's 4th dam is the same full sister to Bret Hanover as was Anndrovette

McWicked (2011) by McArdle $3.9m whom we all know as Lazarus's recent nemesis. McWicked's 7th dam is another full sister to Bret Hanover


We are talking about the Family U1 so you would expect a few stars and although they are distant connections I like to think they have some common DNA with Bret Hanover

ps I should add that all my research comes from the wonderful http://classicfamilies.net/horsedetails.aspx