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).
On the trotting side, Father Patrick and Skyvalley both have five finalists, Love You and Majestic Son four apiece and Sebastian K three.
Father Patrick and Volstead account for seven of the 12 runners in the $50,000 final for two-year-old trotting colts and geldings, while Bettor’s Delight and Sweet Lou have 50 per cent of the field in the $100,000 two-year-old pacing fillies’ final.
Bettor’s Delight, who has sired a record 18 Breeders Crown champions, is represented by runners in three of the four championship finals, while Alabar Bloodstock’s flagship Art Major, who has left 14 Breeders Crown winners, is represented in both the two-year-old and three-year-old colts and geldings’ deciders.
Majestic Son, also a member of the Alabar roster and the sire of seven Breeders Crown final winners, has a single entrant in all four divisions of the squaregaiting series.
Among the breeders, Pat Driscoll’s Yabby Dam Farms has the largest entry at 10, of which five are engaged in the two-year-old trotting colts and geldings’ final.
Four of the finalists in the trotting divisions were bred at Aldebaran Park, while Alabar bred and raised two finalists in both the pacing and trotting series including heat winners Bay Of Biscay and Kiss.
Bruce and Vicki Edward, of Durham Park Standardbreds, who brought out the Breeders Crown champions Act Now and Petacular, bred four colts in the pacing deciders and have clearly the largest entry for the series.
Let Her Roll and Rey Bailando, who both won heats of the Breeders Crown two-year-old series, are both out of Crown champions. The former is from Rocknroll Magic (3YO fillies – 2016) and the latter from Reina Danzante (3YO trot fillies – 2015).
Poster Boy continues to lead the first crop sires in terms of prizemoney with $540,018, more than $100,000 ahead of Stay Hungry and Captain Crunch. Poster Boy and Captain Crunch are tied on the winners’ list with 17, followed by Stay Hungry (16) and Soho Tribeca (14).
The progeny of Need A Boyfriend, a Christian Cullen mare owned by Gisborne horseman Don Lock, have been on fire in two states recently. Calypso Mistress has won three on end and Butter Cup won twice at Globe Derby Park.