Harness racing breeders pore over pedigrees of prospective stallions looking for a breeding cross or a double up of a dominant female in the pedigree to convince themselves that the stallion they are assessing meets all of their criteria.
For a lot of breeders, 'blue blood' pedigrees are a bonus alongside a stallion's racetrack performance and it is rare to find a stallion with both to a high level.
However one recent addition to the trotting stallion ranks in New Zealand certainly has both a 'blue blood' pedigree and an outstanding racing career to go with it.
Trixton 1:50.3 ($968,696) is a recent addition to the Stallions Australasia stallion offering and he certainly has 'blue blood' in abundance.
A first crop son of the boom North American trotting stallion Muscle Hill 1:50.2 ($3,318,682), Trixton is from the hottest trotting family of the last twenty years anywhere in the world.
His dam is the former North American two year old trotting filly of the year in Emilie Cas El 1:57.1 ($454,688) who is a full sister to three of the greatest trotting sires of all time in Andover Hall 1:51.6 ($875,047), Angus Hall 1:54.3 ($830,654) and Conway Hall 1:53.4 ($818,884)
A full sister in blood to those three great sires in Canland Hall 1:57 ($339,143) is the dam of another great trotting sire in Cantab Hall 1:54 ($1,524,305).
To get some appreciation of the impact of these four sires on the North American scene, we have listed below their current lifetime earnings at stud in North America.
* Angus Hall – Lifetime earnings todate – $90,091,985
* Conway Hall – Lifetime earnings todate – $75,511,847
*Andover Hall – Lifetime earnings todate – $63,850,311
* Cantab Hall – Lifetime earnings todate – $55,003,432
The numbers are quite staggering and don't include any stakes won in Europe or Australasia.
So Trixton is a real 100% 'blue blood' and he had a racing career to match.
Trixton only had eight starts as a two year old but performed admirably, raking up four wins and two placings.
His best run was in the $86,000 Bluegrass Stakes where he was beaten a neck in 1:53.4
Trixton at three had a further eleven starts before injury curtailed his career but in those eleven starts he stamped himself as a colt of the highest quality.
Trixton won eight of those eleven starts and was placed twice while the only time he missed a place was when he pulled up sore in the Canadian Trotting Classic.
His wins included the final of the $272,000 Goodtimes Trot in 1:51.3, the $218,000 Simcoe Trot in 1:52.2 and of course the jewel in the crown, the $1,000,000 Hambletonian in his lifetime best of 1:50.3
When retired due to injury, Trixton had faced the starter just 19 times for 12 wins, 2 seconds and two thirds for $968,696 in stakes.
Trixton stood his first season in New Jersey in 2015 at a fee of US $12,000 and covered 140 mares which is a good reflection of how he is viewed in North America.
Trixtons fee down under for the 2105/2016 season has been set at $9,000 which would appear highly competitive given his North American fee.
Harnesslink Media