This Sunday Harness Racing New South Wales are staging the six $125,000 Breeders Challenge Finals at Menangle.
The finalists and draws for the six races have been made and Harnesslink thought it was a good time to have a look at the sires represented in the three age groups.
Note: We have included the emergencies in the analysis
First up for analysis are the two year old finalists.
1) Two year old fillies
The sire to have the most representatives in the final is the deceased Rocknroll Hanover who has three finalists in this division.
Rocknroll Hanover has 141 two year olds this season and he is reaping the rewards for those big numbers being the current leader on the two year old sires premiership.
Regardless of numbers it is still a notable effort for Rocknroll Hanover to provide a quarter of the final field in a $125,000 race
Another string to his bow is he is also the sire of Rock N Roll Heaven who has one representative in the final but that of course is Heavens Trend 1:52.1 who is a dominating favourite for the final after drawing barrier three.
Art Major is the only other sire to have more than one runner with two representatives in the final including the unbeaten Our Golden Goddess 1:54.3.
One surprise when looking at the field was the lack of Sportswriters with him having only one finalist this year.
Last season they were everywhere and challenging the established stars like Bettors Delight and Art Major but are a lot quieter this season.
Champion sire and noted filly sire Bettor's Delight was a notable absentee from the list of sires who had finalists.
2) Two year old colts / geldings
Two stallions have multiple finalists and they are Art Major and Somebeachsomewhere who both have two in the final.
Somebeachsomewhere is really starting to make his mark in Australia and both his finalists here are top class.
Waikiki Beach is unbeaten to date and from barrier three will stay that way on Sunday.
His biggest challenger is the other Somebeachsomewhere finalist in Match In Heaven who is going to need a bit of luck from barrier 10
As Somebeachsomewhere only has 23 two year olds to represent him this season, his effort to have the two leading candidates for the $125,000 final is a huge achievement.
Especially as earlier in the season he lost the super two year old Goodtime Sammy 1:54 to injury.
One notable absentee from the colts/geldings division is Rock N Roll Heaven who with 153 two year olds this season should have at least had a finalist in this division.
The other notable absentee is Rocknroll Hanover who after having three in the fillies final, has no runners in the colts or geldings final.
Harnesslink Media