One of the trotting sires that continues to pop up in results in New Zealand is the Australian based son of S J's Photo in Bacardi Lindy 1:52.8.
Bacardi Lindy is firmly established in Australia with a string of quality trotters on the ground including the grand circuit mare Claudy's Princess ($330,146) along with such smart types as The Boss Man ($148,365) and Bellmac Kody ($113,440) while another five have topped the $50,000 mark to date and he has done that off just 85 foals that are three year old and older.
One of the Bacardi Lindy's bred here in New Zealand to find its way to Australia is the very talented filly Amarula who ran third to Speeding Spur in the Victorian Trotting Derby last season.
His numbers in New Zealand have never been great and this years three year old crop numbers just 13 foals.
But amongst that thirteen are a couple of very smart three year olds who look more than capable of mixing it in the classics in the next few weeks.
Leading Southland trainer Nathan Williamson has a Barcardi Lindy filly in the shape of Dark Horse who has won two of her first four starts and in her last start she showed tremendous speed late in the race to fly home for second to the very well performed Pyramid Monarch ($70,570).
Dark Horse is back on track at Forbury Park on Thursday night to continue her preparation towards the New Zealand Trotting Oaks at Addington on April 1st and she looms as a definite winning chance.
Nathan named Dark Horse recently as the trotter to watch from his barn over the rest of the season.
Another Bacardi Lindy to really impress is the Cran Dalgety trained Benchmark.
Like Dark Horse, he was bred by the Grice brothers from Mid Canterbury who are two of the most successful breeders in New Zealand harness racing and who continue to produce age group stars year in,year out.
Dark Horse and Benchmark are both from Sundon daughters of the Grice brothers champion trotting broodmare in Janetta's Pride
Benchmark has only had five starts in his career to date.
A couple of handy thirds were topped off by an excellent win at Addington at his last start in a very slick 2:00.4 mile rate for the 1950 metres.
What gave the run even more merit was Benchmark drew the outside of the gate at barrier nine and settled well back in the running before unleashing a powerful late sprint to win going away.
Given a break after that victory,Benchmark should come back even better and with the the three year old trotters being fairly even this season, Benchmark is a chance to be a serious player in the upcoming three year old trotting classics.
So Bacardi Lindy from just thirteen live foals has managed to produce both a colt and a filly that are good enough to compete in the classics yet the number of mares going to him continues to stagnate.
Maybe if one of these two three year olds in Dark Horse or Benchmark can impress in the classics, New Zealand trotting breeders may finally wake up and support a very talented stallion.
Harnesslink Media