The 2024 Dominion Trot…..Trot Sires making a difference
Rob Courtney
The Dominion Trot, long regarded as the ‘Cup for the trotters’ moves significantly to the 2nd Tuesday in November and no doubt will be a raceday highlight along with its pacing counterpart.
The ‘profile’ of the trotter has improved immensely in recent times and alongside that has been the increase in choice for the trotting breeder.
The injection of frozen semen from Europe has been a game changer and the best of the American stallions have added to this mix.
Orlando Vici
Favourite on the day will no doubt be Aussie champion Just Believe and rightly so. By the highly credentialed European horse Orlando Vici from an imported American mare by Like A Prayer, progeny from the sire have done a super job especially in Australia without numbers on the ground ever being substantial.
Of the other 15 horses ranked to make the final field, Muscle Hill is the most represented with three in Aardiebythehill, Kyvalley Hotspur & Midnight Dash with a son of Muscle Hill (What The Hill) producing a real contender in Bet N Win.
Alabar’s champion sire Majestic Son has two representatives in Oscar Bonavena & Fiery Bandito while the highly sought after Love You also has two runners in Love N The Port & Mr Love.
Muscle Hill
In essence those three sires make up 50% of this year’s field.
The other eight runners are by eight different sires.
Up & coming young sire Creatine has Mighty Logan flying his flag for the first time in the famous trot. As a sire with less than a smooth passage over recent seasons, it would be fair to say that the stock of Creatine have done a good job here in NZ.
Trixton (Arcee Pheonix) and Angus Hall (One Over All) have Australian progeny making the trip across the Tasman along with the favourite while ‘old stagers’ Pegasus Spur (I Dream Of Jeannie) and The Pres (Jimmy Carter) sneak in at the lower end of the ranking system.
Both the latter, of course, are no longer available to trotting breeders
On the damsire side of the field one horse stands out…..the mighty Sundon who has no less than six broodmare credits within this field
Pegasus Spur (2), Earl (2) & Sierra Kosmos (2) mean that 12 of the 16 (75%) runners come from just four broodmare sires.
Just Believe aside, the other three credits belong to Yankee Jolter, Love You & Monarchy.
Given the improvement in the breed in recent years, the trotters are set to give the 4:00 barrier a real shake this coming Tuesday and three times winner Sundee’s Son’s record looks under real threat.
From a breeding purist point of view, the choice of stallion just keeps getting better and the trotting races should reflect this increased quality come raceday.