Champion sire, Fake Left was still siring winners 18 years after he passed on:
https://www.racingqueensland.com.au/...rs-after-death
Wow. He was a 1982 colt. I didn't know you could keep using frozen semen forever and a day. I am sure, I read a year or two ago that there would be no more Somebeachsomewhere and I thought there must have been a limit on how long you could keep using frozen semen. Maybe there is now? I notice Falcon Seelster has not had any foals since 2020
per un PUGNO di DOLLARI
Champion sire, Fake Left was still siring winners 18 years after he passed on:
https://www.racingqueensland.com.au/...rs-after-death
Falcon Seelster's influence ongoing
Falcon Seelster sired the very good sire McArdle
In turn McArdle sired the very good sire Tintin In America
Tintin In America sired the superstar filly Shartin NZ - as an aged mare was voted US Horse Of The Year, are rare feat for a mare and even more creditable when she came from Australasia
She took a time of 1.46.4 and won nearly 2 &1/2 million, including a million in one season
A month ago at Lexington Yearling sale her first foal, a filly by Capt Treacherous, sold for $140,000 to the bid of Tony Alagna (trainer of the Captain) who later said she had been purchased for Richard Poillucci, who was the original purchaser when Shartin was sold to the US. He had sold her to her current owners as a broodmare when she retired from racing.
So Falcon Seelster's influence is still being seen at the top levels, albeit from a distance these days.
Geelong is one of the tracks that can host mile races and just the same they bastardize the track by running 1140m races. WTF
per un PUGNO di DOLLARI
Four races out of eight where 1140 metres, I suspect we have to get used to these types of races. Not a huge fan on what I have seen in WA.
One of the 1140 winners ,Johnny Redcoat is a 12 yo and has only ever been trained by one person and has had 247 starts! The trainer is JH Barker (the driver has the same surname, so I am assuming that they are related) so that is an amazing effort for both horse and trainer. Must be a story there.
Certainly not my first choice given we can never match dogs or gallops for speed. Havent watched many races but am told those at the back dont have much chance.
However, I dont think we (the whole industry) can constantly bemoan the fall of the industry and question whats being done and then turn around and be upset about 90 second racing. I am sure studies would suggest younger generation have a short attention span and I am sure the TAB are pushing screen time so whether we like it or not I think its a space we need to get into. We just have to go full noise on it rather than very sporadic so punters and trainer/drivers can figure out the way races are run and we can optomise these 90 second races.
My point was that Geelong can/did also run short 'world accepted mile races' so why do they need to run these races - for the sake of 30 secs?!
per un PUGNO di DOLLARI
Daniel, the Barkers are pretty much as recognizable a name in Vic harness racing as Hall is in WA.
Jim (89yo) who trains Johnny is the Grandfather of Jackie who drove it (her dad is Rod)
Jim has won our highest award 'The Gordon Rothacker' medal
You need to brush up on your East Coast knowledge LOL
One way is to click on drivers and trainers names in the fields or results
You will then see tabs for Current Stats, Career Stats and Biography
However for a legend like Jim they are misleading in that they only start from 2000
per un PUGNO di DOLLARI
Haven't cited truthfulness but second result on google when searching 'average attention span' is this article
https://www.wyzowl.com/human-attention-span/
It says the average attention span has shrunk 25% from 2000 to 2015. A mile race to 1140m race around that 25% less.
An extra 30 seconds of lead in time on Sky could be quite handy for punting dollar as well (if we were to use that extra 30 seconds as lead in time).