With a new, exciting bunch of babies’ set to launch their careers in North America in the next fortnight and the opening leg of the Grand Circuit less than a month away, the focus will be well and truly on the stallions being represented by their first crops.

This season there are eight rookie pacing stallions who fit the category.

Undoubtedly, the horse with the biggest profile is Bulldog Hanover 1:45.8 ($2,789,271), the fastest standardbred of all-time, a Breeders Crown champion and the only standardbred to be voted unanimously as USA Horse of the Year.

The young Shadow Play horse will be represented by a crop of 79 foals, the result of mixing racing and stud duties at Seelster Farms, Ontario in his final year of competition in 2022. He stands for a fee of $US15,000.

Incidentally, there are 16 weanlings – eight colts and eight fillies – in Australia sired by Bulldog Hanover.

Perfect Sting 1:48.2 ($1,808,147), the product of the mating of world champions Always B Miki (1:46) and Shebestingin (1:47), has 113 foals from his first crop. A former USA 2YO Colt and 3YO Colt of the Year, Perfect Sting stands for a fee of $US10,000 at Deo Volente Farms in New Jersey.

The rookie stallion with the biggest foal crop is the Somebeachsomewhere horse Summa Cum Laude 1:50.4 ($551,275), who has 116 eligible two-year-olds from his first season at Midland Acres, Ohio. The Breeders Crown two-year-old champion also has nine weanlings in Australia as a result of frozen semen distributed by Tourello Standardbreds in northern Tasmania.

The Bettor’s Delight horse Best In Show 1:48 ($672,240), a son of the world champion and Dan Patch Award winner Put On A Show 1:47.6 ($2,406,628), has 91 foals from his first season at Premier Acres, Indiana.

Western Fame 1:48.2 ($1,931,775) and the Little Brown Jug winner Southwind Ozzie 1:48 ($1,116,355), who both stand at Cool Winds Farms in Ohio, are represented by 50 and 11 two-year-olds respectively.

The top Canadian pacer Century Farroh 1:49 ($1,350,398), who stands at Seelster Farms, has 40 two-year-olds, while the Sportswriter horse Sports Column 1:49.2 ($550,645), one of the powerful sire roster at Winbak Farm in Delaware, has 16.

Century Farroh, a son of Mach Three and who stood a single season at Llowalong Farms, had his first Australian crop sell at the yearling sales in the autumn.

The 2021 Hambletonian winner Captain Corey 1:51 ($1,090,333), based at Hanover Shoe Farms, has the largest crop among the ranks of new trotting sires with 103 two-year-olds.

  • Benstud Standardbreds landed a winning double at Melton with Yambukian, a son of the newly crowned Victorian Broodmare of the Year Coppagoodone, and the promising three-year-old Seathestars
  • The Pastor Stephen gelding Pass The Salt, a smart two-year-old trotting winner at Melton, was bred and is owned by well-known Goulburn Valley enthusiast Kevin Riseley
  • Cranbourne hobby trainer Rick Cashman looks to have unearthed a handy money spinner in My Uncle Stan, who won seventh race at Melton and pushed his earnings above $70,000

 

PHOTO: BULLDOG HANOVER