Past Greats

[Messenger]

Wet weather has seen me enjoying Trots Vision and reading John Bradley's Modern Pacing Sire Lines (1999) between races. I thought I might share a few interesting facts in this thread while recommending JB's book which I think is still available

The great Pacing Machine and sire Cam Fella (1979) had to be gelded in 1997 to save his life and yet in that year at the age of 18 while on a North American tour and doing a lap at the Little Brown Jug he was feeling so good that he did the half-mile in 57

[Greg Hando]

A lot of his son's also had to be cut later in life for the same reason testicular cancer.

[Messenger]

Greg, would there be any connection to the fact that he was a rig?

[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)

[Richard prior]

Great Book

[Greg Hando]

Greg, would there be any connection to the fact that he was a rig?

Don't know Kevin but perhaps it has

[Dot]

Don't know Kevin but perhaps it has

If they were rigs too then yes. The testicle/s retained in the abdomen experience higher temperatures then in the correct location of the scrotum and are at higher risk of becoming cancerous.

[Richard prior]

Friend of mine told me My Field Marshall is a double rig

[Greg Hando]

If they were rigs too then yes. The testicle/s retained in the abdomen experience higher temperatures then in the correct location of the scrotum and are at higher risk of becoming cancerous.

The few i know of weren't Rig's but were cut later in life after successful breedings.

[Messenger]

Adios was bought by the Warner Brothers as a 6yo in 1946.

In 1947 "Harry Warner planned to start a Californian breeding farm with Adios as his stallion and Adios was bred to a few mares in 1947 and 1948 while also training and failing to get back tho the races."

Delvin Miller purchased Adios for $21,000 "in the fall of 1948 when the Warner brothers decided they did not want to be in the breeding business after all."

"In 1955, Hanover Shoe Farms' Lawrence Sheppard purchased Adios from Del Miller for $500,000. Later, Sheppard sold a one-third interest back to Miller and one-third to Max Hempt. Adios continued to stand at stud at Miller's farm with strong support form Hanover's great broodmare band. Adios's stud fee began at $300 and was $15,000 at the time of his death on June 22nd, 1965 - the highest in Standardbred history at the time. Also at that time, Adios's sons and daughters had earned over $14,000,000 and went on to earn even more. That figure was higher than any Thoroughbred stallion in that era."

Bradley, John: Modern Pacing Sire Lines (1999)

[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

[Messenger]

Every now and then I like to look at a past great from Down Under (Great Trotters by Ron Jenkins is where I start) and see if their bloodline has survived
This week I happened to look at Welcome Advice and the best I could find for him was trotter Tetra who has Welcome as the sire of her grandam
Tetra won R4 at Shep tonight
That was her 4th win and being by Majestic Son, I reckon she will make it the breeding barn one day and keep a little bit of Welcome Advice's blood going around

http://www.harness.org.au/racing/fields/race-fields/?mc=SP170920#SPC17092008

For those who don't know Welcome Advice here is his Black Type history (He won 24 metro races at The Showgrounds)

http://classicfamilies.net/CF/History.aspx?HorseID=10021193&SE=TimeAmountClass&AD=ASC

[Messenger]

I was thinking about the fuss we make of the Victoria Cup when it is only worth < $150k to the winner
When I happened across a 1969 Ouyen race that saw Minuteman (nearing the end of his career) run second
I looked at his record again - 2 Hunter Cups and an Inter Dominion and yet he only won $66k for his 30 wins
The median Melbourne house price was < $10k in the mid 60's so he won enough to buy 7 city houses back then
If a horse was to win 3 Vic Cups and as much again from dozens of wins it would still probably only be enough to buy 1 Melbourne house ($850k)

[Showgrounds]

When I was a little kid you could hear the garbled commentary from outside my uncle's house in Ascot Vale. Back then, in the mid-60s, the late Maurie Kirby would replay the Showgrounds races in glorious, grainy black and white on Channel 9.

Minuteman was a star and captured my young imagination. Prior to the 1970 Inter Dominion a school mate and me went to the trots one Saturday night. Minuteman was a 10 year old by then and he demolished a free for all field that night. Unfortunately, he wasn't in the Inter and that was one of his last wins. He was one very tough horse!

[Messenger]

Trevor, checking out my newly acquired Yr Bks, that FFA you refer to was his last win (and second last start) - it was Feb 7, 1970 and Bold David ran 2nd (and would go onto win the Inter 3wks later)
The Ouyen race I was surprised to find him in was on the 8th day of the same season and one of only 6 starts for the season
On this point I find ClassicFamilies a little confusing for in his history it has 1970-4, I am not sure what that means - he didn't win 4 FFA's that year

http://classicfamilies.net/CF/History.aspx?HorseID=10012979

Edit - I am thinking the 1970-4 might mean the 4th FFA for the year 1970

[Showgrounds]

Just shows he was some sort of horse. A old mate and mentor was at the 1963 South Australian Derby, one of five derbies won by Tactile. He always maintained Minuteman should have won but for a poor drive.

[Messenger]

You will see from the Mildura thread that I noticed Reichman raced there and while providing a link to Reichman (for the young ones who don't know him) I noted his high family number A460
So I thought I would research it.

If you do a classicfamilies search for A460 you will only find Reichman and one other - Maori Court 1975 who won a trotters derby at Kadina SA in 1979 (no relation to the famous Maori's Idol 1972 - probably just wishful thinking by the connections ;) )
I researched the dam lines of both horses but I am sad to report that I don't think any horse from this family raced past the 80's and that would seem to be the end of family A460

I note in Ron Jenkins' Great Trotters that in the first 4 generations of his pedigree Reichman had 4 horses that were American bred, 3 that were NZ bred and the remaining 23 were all bred in Australia
When he won the 1973 Miracle Mile by 16yds he became only the 2nd horse in Australia to top earnings of $100,000