Rocknroll Hanover

[Love Of Courage]

there wont be an australian/new zealand sire to ever make it as a top line horse in the US in my life time

You mention Courage Under Fire ITMQ, someone in the US tried to by Courage for 3 million as a 3 year old. With his speed and stamina he could have scorched around a few of those US tracks.

His only fault from what I have heard is that his lack of size would have gone against him with a few breeders.

[triplev123]

there wont be an australian/new zealand sire to ever make it as a top line horse in the US in my life time

I think for the foreseeable future you're right on the money there ITMQ...but in saying that I'm really not that concerned about Oz bred & performed sires going over to the US & CAN to try and make their name so much as I'd just dearly love to see the best of the Oz bred & performed sire prospects getting their chances at stud here in Oz...and in doing so greatly restrict to perhaps one day verging on ceasing the annual flow of $$$ out of Oz and into the pockets of US syndicates in exchange for access to their latest siring prospects. Once I used to think that was a pipedream. These days however it is so close to becoming a reality that I can damned near taste it.

[triplev123]

Maybe a son of this colt? He goes Ok.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEZkg...layer_embedded

[nat]

We will never have a Northern Hemisphere rated stallion they just don't rate our horses in that light. We have plenty of good local stallions worth a go but on that we have to patronize them, how many import stallions would tick all the boxes in your eyes for our top level racing when you really look at them?

[triplev123]

G'day Nat,

I'm not at all concerned if US & CAN Breeders happen to rate Southern Hemisphere bred sire prospects or they do not.
I'm more interested in the best of our 2yo and 3yo colts having the opportunity to prove their comparitive worth by racing for good $$$ over the Mile on our tracks and under our conditions.
I wouldn't say we have plenty of local breds that are worth a go, at least not to this point in time anyway. In due course however, with the quality of sires available to us now, that is a situation which will most definitely change.

On this general subject, the Breeder duplicity that exists here is verging upon inexplicable.
The very thing that they demand of the imported US/CAN bred sires, i.e. superior juvenile performance (& by that I mean top end 2yo & 3yo wins) is that which they do not demand of our own homebred sires.
Instead they paradoxically seem to prefer proven Aged performers, successful in the ID ranks & so on, horses which have been successful in that which is basically the equivalent to the Aged ranks in the Northern Hemisphere.
Added to this is the rather curious fact that, in turn, imported US/CAN bred sires that did not race particularly successfully at 2yrs & 3yrs but were instead Aged performers...are invariably viewed by so many of those very same Breeders with quite significant suspicion.

[nat]

Hey Triplev123

Definitely not just our juvenile racing need the right opportunities our whole racing calendar needs to be brought into line the one thing those yank have over us their horses have every opportunity to earn the big dollar and race the prestige events our states and countries bodies to often get into a pissing competition and cut each others throat. events like Breeders Crown, The Harness Jewels, Bathurst Gold Crown and Breeders Challenge are helping drive the interest in breeding and racing 2yld-3yld and 4yld.

[triplev123]

G'day Nat,
That 3yo colts having no opportunity to step it out over the Mile in an Open Age Classic format really spun my head.
I have to confess to not having even considered the lack of such a race as being of any great importance up until it was mentioned to me at Menangle. Couched in the terms that it was to me then and in keeping with the general thrust of this thread however, it is vitally important that the situation be rectified.
It would be an extremely productive long-term move for the Australian Breeding Industry should for instance the fellas with the fastest track in the Southern Hemisphere, the NSWHRC and the wonderful Menangle , either institute a race or adapt an existing race which would afford the aspiring 3yo stud colts the opportunity to post marks down around or sub 1:50. As part of all that also I'm still very keen on the idea of both a 2yo & 3yo Grand Circuit racing in conjunction with the Aged horses...or at the very least a very clearly and very well defined, thoughtfully programmed 3yo Grand Circuit.

[Greg Hando]

Make the Derby a true classic heats and final over the mile and give the race the true recognition it so rightly deserves our family has bred i think it is up to 6 or 7 Derby winers now incl 2 on the one day trotter's as well and both by the same sire Dad tells me their is no prouder feeling than to win a Derby as it used to be the pinnacle aside from the Inter he reckons it's a bigger thrill than breeding an Inter winner. For each state i feel the Derby has lost it's prestige in the latter years

[smithy]

personally i want a derby win over any other race... but i disagree over the distance, have it over 2600-2800m and have the best horse standing at the end, not the best drawn

[triplev123]

Flat out pressure on all the way, lead from gate to wire Mile racing for a 3yo colt is going to be a far greater test of his stamina than any 2600-2800m could ever be.