One thing that you will find in a lot of the older New Zealand maternal families is a crossover between pacing and trotting stallions in some generations
Quite a lot of the successful stallions were just as liable to leave a trotter as a pacer if the maternal pedigree had left either in the past.
It was seen as a positive by breeders and gave you a second bite at the cherry if the planned pacing career didn't work out.
The second dam of the champion Christian Cullen in Pleasant Evening is a great example as she is a half sister to one of the all time great Australian trotters in True Roman ($532,732)
Several stallions that were imported in the 1970s and 1980s into New Zealand were dual gaited.
One of those was Crockett, a son of Diller Hanover who left 86 winners in New Zealand, sixty two of them trotters and twenty four of them pacers.
The best of the trotters was the champion racemare in Thriller Dee (24 wins) while the best of the pacers was Bronze Trail (18 wins)
Today you will still find Crockett turning up in a lot of maternal pedigrees in New Zealand and probably the one that is most well known is that of Eagles Three.
Eagles Three won five races and left four winners at stud but it is one of her lightly raced daughters in Skyhigh Eagle that really lifted the family.
Skyhigh Eagle left seven winners including Eagles Together 1:52 ($375,900), Regal Eagle 1:54.4 ($129,378), Galactic Eagle 1:54.6 ($127,815) and the smart In The Pocket mare Sky Beauty 1:58.4 ($58,666) who has produced the three time Harness Jewels winner in Sky Major 1:51.5 ($772,844).
The family is represented in this years Australasian Classic Yearling Sale at Karaka on February 22nd by Lot 21, Guilty Of The Crime.
She is a daughter of Art Major from a three win full sister to Sky Beauty in Eagles In My Pocket which makes Guilty Of The Crime a full sister in blood to Sky Major.
As the photos and video shows, she is typical of the progeny of Art Major and with so many classy relatives up close, Guilty Of The Crime is sure to attract plenty of attention on sale day.
The value of having dual gaited stallions appear in maternal pedigrees at yearling sales has been debated since their introduction but the results would suggest that they have greatly enhanced pedigrees overall.
Harnesslink Media