With the way the harness racing stallion business is these days, it is becoming harder and harder for the home grown stallions to break into the lucrative market that is dominated by the shuttle stallions from North America.
Breeders have access to the very best from North America and that means the local stallion has a huge challenge when going to stud.
Christian Cullen proved he was up to the mark in his prime but few others have made it to the top of the sires list down under.
The jury is still out on Changeover with the son of In The Pocket churning out plenty of nice horses but he badly needs one or two genuine stars to lift him into the elite level of stallions.
Another local who is attempting to break the grip of the Northern Hemisphere stallions is the son of Mach Three in Auckland Reactor.
In an attempt to give him a genuine shot at challenging the elite stallions, his management team set his fee at $3,000 and in his first two years he served huge books of 213 mares in year one and 156 in year two in New Zealand and he will serve about 100 again in year three.
Auckland Reactor has also done really well in Australia with 182 in year one followed by 210 in year two and is on track to serve about 220 again this year.
It's long been accepted that for a stallion to establish himself, he needs to have the numbers on the ground and Auckland Reactor has certainly been given the opportunity with the numbers he has coming through.
Auckland Reactors first lot of foals hit the yearling sales this year with five entered at Auckland and twenty four in Christchurch.
One that caught our eye was the colt Jordan's Jury, the first foal from the former smart racemare in Georgia's Jury 1:58.7 ($59,871) who is being offered as Lot 29 at the Australasian Classic Yearling sale at Karaka on February 22nd.
Georgia's Jury ran 2nd in the Sires Stakes at three behind the champion Adore Me and all up only had 22 starts for 5 wins and 7 placings.
The dam of Georgia's Jury is the racewinning Christian Cullen mare in Van Seraa whose first three foals old enough to race have all been winners.
Apart from Georgia's Jury, she has also produced Raesawinner 1:56 ($88,351) and the three year old Van Mara 1:58.2p who won his maiden race at Alexandra Park in December.
This branch of the Rosalie family has been prominent since the very speedy racemare Good Going went to stud in the 1980s.
Winners have flowed from that time with two of the best being Tribute 1:54.9 ($610,993) and Easy On The Eye 1:54 ($461,580) and that flow of winners shows no sign of slowing down.
To view the Australasian Classic Yearling sale Catalogue click here.
Harnesslink Media