Dominant Sires - A Myth Skewered

We're guessing that if, in early May, a hundred pundits had been asked to nominate a list of Sires that would dominate the TAB Statewide Regional Championship Final (May 25th, at Menangle) - bearing in mind that it is a Series for 4yo+ horses, Australian-bred, NSW-trained, and up to NR70 at the time of the original Regional Heats - the likes of ART MAJOR / BETTORS DELIGHT / CAPTAINTREACHEROUS / and SWEET LOU etc. would have featured prominently.

Well, guess what ...?  

Not a single stallion managed to get multiple runners into this Prestigious $100K Final. Yes, the (ostensibly) best fourteen (incl. emerg.) NR70-raters in NSW currently, are the get of fourteen different sires. And, what's more, these fourteen stallions stem from fourteen different studbook families!  

Sadly, five of these fourteen sires are no longer available to Australian breeders.  But, it is worth noting that, of the nine that are, six had 2023 season Service Fees under $10K, and two were available for just $2750 incl. GST ... under-scoring, yet again, that high service fees are no guarantee of success, nor are 'value propositions' necessarily a poor investment.   

Even more remarkable, from a breeding diversity perspective, is the realisation that the fourteen broodmares that provide the list of finalists this year, likewise stem from fourteen diverse studbook families ... AND that even at the Broodmare Sire level we are looking at fourteen discrete progenitors, and a remarkable eleven different families!  

The only familial-duplications, at the broodmare sire level, come through:

• PANORAMA and REAL DESIRE  (U20)
• WAVERLY NIATROSS and LIVE OR DIE  (U21)

and brothers

• ART MAJOR and PERFECT ART  (U7)

We would contend that a lesson to be learnt from such remarkable statistical diversity is that breeders should always be diligent in their research for the 'best cross' for their mare, and avoid being inadvertently seduced by the studs advertising their 'latest, greatest new thing'.

On the subject of 'crosses', those that occur repeatedly in this field are :

• ABERCROMBIE  (who features in the pedigree of 7 of these finalists) 
• ALBATROSS      (5)
• ARTSPLACE      (2)

NB:  The Breeders Voice Inc. members can view a detailed pedigree page for each finalist HERE.

And, it is also worth noting that, of the fourteen sires represented in the Statewide Final, a creditable four (= 28.5% ) are Colonial Stallions ... namely:

• COURAGE UNDER FIRE (NZ)
• FOR A REASON
• LINCOLN ROYAL (NZ)
• VINCENT

... and this long before HRA's artificial Stallion Tax, which was, supposedly, essential to give support to our Colonials!  Really ....?

Whilst 'diversity' - in terms of pedigree - is certainly the stand-out feature of this Statewide Final Field, there is one contrasting feature of 'commonality', and that is that all but one of the representative broodmares were race mares - and successful ones at that.  Collectively, the dams of this field faced the starter a total of 468 times, accumulating 88 wins, and an additional 110 placings.

The Breeders Voice members can view full details of all the finalists (incl. emergencies) - together with individual pedigree pages - HERE