Victorian breeder-owners Duncan McPherson and Pat Driscoll, two of the biggest players in the Australasian squaregaiting ranks, experienced success on the racetrack and the sale ring last weekend.

Victorian stallions made their mark both on and off the racetrack in no uncertain manner on both sides of the Tasman last weekend.

A big consignment of standardbred stallions and racehorses was shipped from Sydney to Chicago on Monday night. The stallions will be dispersed to major stud farms in USA and Canada.

The charter was organised by International Racehorse Transport, the global market leader in horse transport for 45 years with its Australian headquarters at Melbourne Airport.

Few areas of the standardbred breeding scene come under as much scrutiny as each year’s new first crop two-year-old sires. A breakout first season for a stallion can in many cases set up a long and successful stud career.

The American horse Bettor’s Delight is Australia’s top sire for a record 13^th consecutive season. During the 2024 season the Woodlands Stud flagship sired 315 individual winners for $11,353,620 in stakes, over $400,000 ahead of the second placed Art Major.

Well known Kyabram journalist, sportsman and hobby breeder Gus Underwood experienced the highs and lows of harness racing in the space of 24 hours last weekend.

A colt foal by Propulsion out of Underwood’s former outstanding racemare and triple Vicbred champion Claudy’s Princess died as the result of a snakebite at a Brisbane property last Friday morning.

The Alabar Bloodstock flagship stallion Art Major achieved yet another historic milestone in a brilliant siring career when Don Hugo emerged successful in the Inter Dominion Grand Final at Menangle recently.

A feature of the Christmas meeting at Melton was the fact that three of the Final winners of the Vicbred Platinum Homegrown Classic in Captain Perfect (2YO colt), Looks Perfect (2YO filly) and Iron Women (2YO trotting filly) were all bred in the same region.

There is a Victorian influence about the breeding of the two Inter Dominion champions – Don Hugo and The Locomotive.

Victorian bred square-gaiters make up two-thirds of the 12-horse field for Saturday night’s $150,000 Inter Dominion Trotting Championship Grand Final at Menangle.

The eight-strong Vicbred contingent is headed up by ruling favourite The Locomotive who is attempting to make a clean sweep of the series.

Passionate Melbourne hobby breeder Shayne Last has enjoyed a productive fortnight with a small, select band of broodmares.

A total of 15 Victorian-bred horses will contest the opening round of heats of the Inter Dominion pacing and trotting championships at Newcastle on Friday night.

The victories by Valtino and Enchauffour at last weekend’s Breeders Crown meeting at Melton Entertainment Park raised the total of Pat Driscoll’s Yabby Dam Farms’ Crown winners to 11 and he is clearly the most successful breeder in the time-honoured series.

The Woodlands Stud stallion Sweet Lou and Llowalong Farms’ frozen semen sire Volstead have the largest entry for the Breeders Crown finals at Melton for pacers and trotters respectively.

Sweet Lou has eight runners and Volstead 10.

Other stallions with strong representation on the pacing side are Bettor’s Delight with six, as well as Art Major (five), Always B Miki (four), American Ideal (three) and Downbytheseaside (three).

Layden, who cost a modest $17,000 at the Australian Pacing Gold Melbourne Yearling sale in 2019, is proving one of the success stories of Victorian harness racing.

Trotting phenomenon Volstead reached an important milestone when his three-year-old progeny broke through the $1 million barrier at the Redwood carnival at Maryborough.

Melbourne breeder and financial advisor Harvey Kaplan has been at the forefront of the standardbred breeding industry, both in his home state and New Zealand for more than 20 years.

Among the top flight performers he has brought out are Bling It On, Baby Bling, Mach Doro, Fly Like An Eagle, Flaming Flutter and Arctic Fire, just to name a few.

Victoria’s reputation as the hub of the Australian standardbred breeding industry was further amplified with the results of the huge Victoria Cup meeting at Melton Entertainment Park.

Three of the six Group 1 winners were bred in Victoria….Best Deal, winner of the $200,000 Woodlands Stud Victoria Derby, Just Believe, who took out the $75,000 Aldebaran Park Bill Collins Trotters Sprint, and Keayang Zahara, the runaway winner of the $75,000 Catanach’s Jewellers Victoria Trotters Oaks.