Until the late 1990s when the shuttling of stallions between hemispheres started to take off, breeders in Australasia had lagged behind their North American counterparts with no access to the latest successful stallions.
However since shuttling became a part of the breeding scene, the siring charts now in both hemispheres have a lot of the same names near the top of those charts.
Pacing down under has definitely caught up with it's North American cousins with regards to access to the best but until recently trotting had failed to have the same access to the very best in North America.
However that has all started to change in a hurry in the last three or four years and as each subsequent breeding season goes by, trotting breeders are getting spoilt for choice with the quality of the trotting sires now available.
Heading the sires available is the brilliant racehorse and now champion sire Muscle Hill 1:50.1 ($3,273,242) who has been a siring star right from the start.
From his first crop he sired the brilliant Trixton 1:50.3 ($947,051) who won last years Hambletonian while from his second crop he produced the champion two year old filly Mission Brief 2- 1:50.3 ($1,599,587) who was narrowly beaten in this years Hambletonian.
From his third crop this year, Muscle Hill has produced the brilliant Southwind Frank 1:52.2 ($941,811) who won eleven of his twelve starts at two.
With just three crops on the track, Muscle Hill already sits third on the all age charts and it seems just a matter of time before before he assumes the mantle of leading trotting sire.
Another stallion available down under who is making a slash on the siring charts in North America is Lucky Chucky 1:50.4 (2,099,973)
After a good debut year last season with his first crop, Lucky Chucky broke into the top ten with his second crop, currently lying eighth after producing a couple of top two year olds.
Dog Gone Lucky 1:54 ($505,841) was his flagbearer winning his last five in a row including the $216,000 Matron Trot and deadheating for first in the $490,000 Valley Victory final.
Non Stick 1:56.3 ($185,448) was the other Lucky Chucky to stand up, being unbeaten in six starts.
The success of his second crop didn't go un-noticed at this years yearling sales where the Lucky Chucky's sold very well.
Another stallion available down under is Andover Hall 1:51.6 ($875,047) who has been an elite level sire from the time his first crop hit the track.
As of today he has over $65,000,000 on his card including nine millionaires and 22 in sub 1:53.
Andover Hall is still in the top half dozen on any siring chart you care to look at and continues to do an outstanding job.
The leading European sires such as Love You and Ready Cash could be just as influential were it not for the issues of supply of semen which has been a bugbear for a couple of seasons now and is affecting their credibility in the marketplace.
All up the trotting breeder has plenty to smile about these days and it would not be a surprise to see our trotters close the gap on their Northern Hemisphere cousins in the next few years.
Harnesslink Media