Did You Ever Wonder?

Tara Madgwick - Sunday March 14

Results during the past few weeks can only leave us all wondering what the bloodstock and racing world would look like now had Northern Meteor not died after producing just four crops of foals.

Advertisement

Krone is the first G1 winner for Northern Meteor stallion Eurozone - image Steve Hart

When progressive 5YO mare Krone won the Group I ATC Coolmore Classic (1500m) on Saturday she became the third Group I winner this year sired by a son of Northern Meteor crediting her sire Eurozone with his first Group I winner.

And the mare she beat Mizzy, was lining up for her second successive Group I second, and she’s by another Northern Meteor son in Zoustar.

The success of Krone followed on from 5YO Zoutori winning the Group I VRC Newmarket Handicap (1200m) to become the second Group I winner Zoustar, while a few weeks earlier 3YO Portland Sky won the Group I MRC Oakleigh Plate (1100m) to give her sire Deep Field his first Group I winner.

Zoustar sons Zoutori and Indian Pacific run the quinella in the G1 Newmarket - image Grant Courtney.

A brilliantly fast Group I winning son of Encosta de Lago that won the VRC Coolmore Stud Stakes, Northern Meteor was retired to stud after just nine starts ending his career with arguably his best performance splitting Takeover Target and Apache Cat in the Group I ATC TJ Smith Stakes with Nicconi in fourth place.

He bowed out of racing sound and in top form with his trainer Gai Waterhouse later lamenting she had not scratched the surface of him.

Northern Meteor

The Gooree Stud homebred retired to Widden Stud in the same year as Golden Slipper winner Sebring, but was overshadowed by his barn mate who stood initially for $49,500, while he began at $33,000 and remained at that fee until his premature death in 2013.


Sebring went on to become a hugely successful sire before he too passed away in 2019, but in terms of producing sire sons, Northern Meteor has left him in the dust.

With the benefit of hindsight, Northern Meteor had all the qualities to found a sire dynasty in this part of the world being free of Danehill blood and with an outcross US female family tracing directly to legendary matriarch Rough Shod, whose descendants include some of the world’s best stallions including Sadler’s Wells and Nureyev.

Northern Meteor was the perfect package of genuine top class pedigree, elite Group I performance and impressive conformation to continue the legacy of his champion sire Encosta de Lago.

Had he lived, Northern Meteor’s service fee would have gone skywards as would the quality and numbers of mares he covered and we would no doubt be looking now at elite yearling sales packed with his offspring.

The Australian General Sires List would see him in the Top 10 sires by earnings and his myriad sire sons would populate the first and second season sires list adding to the success he has already achieved with Zoustar, Deep Field, Shooting to Win, Fighting Sun and Eurozone, who have all produced stakes-winners, three of them producing Group I winners.

The Northern Meteor legacy is already moving into a new phase with the retirement to stud of Zoustar sons Lean Mean Machine, Zousain, Sun City and Deep Field’s Cosmic Force, who have all covered good numbers of mares.

The Northern Meteor profile is one that should be respected for breeders attempting to evaluate the true merit of the plethora of young stallions either retiring to stud this spring or in their second, third and even fourth seasons at stud when there are no runners to give a clue to their fate.

Look hard at what sirelines are likely to flourish when matched with the over supply of Danehill blood in our elite mare population.

Some stallions are almost destined to fail before they even begin based on their pedigree and the fact a large number of their offspring will carry a close up Danehill double cross which may work as a hand brake to their potential success.

For some stallions such as Zoustar it’s no real hurdle, as more than half of his stakes-winners carry a double cross of Danehill including his best horse Sunlight, but for others there seems to be a real issue.

Look hard at race performance and in particular soundness as there are far too many horses being bred that are barely fit for purpose.

They lack a good strong constitution, are hard to train because they can’t withstand a decent workload and frequently waste everyone’s time and money because they are being asked to do a job they physically are not capable of doing.

A trainer will always tell you they would rather have a fast horse with some soundness issues than a slow one that is sound.

Physical problems can be managed, lack of talent cannot, that said when the soundness issues get more prevalent and the speed and distance range drops below 1000m, I think we move into dangerous territory.


 

Advertisment
More Reading...
Begg Bred Siblings Make for a Winning Double
Former Group I jockey and now emerging country trainer Danny Beasley produced his first winning double at Wagga on Monday and he did it with a pair of first time winning siblings that are both bred and raced by the legendary Neville Begg.
Sires With Winners - Thursday July 3
Here is the full list of 27 stallions which had winners throughout Australasia today with winners and result details.
Resolute Racing Win G1 Prix Jean Prat – Wootton Bassett Sire Power
A crackerjack meeting at Deauville in France overnight highlighted the power of Wootton Bassett (GB), who sired yet another new two year-old stakes-winner and he also featured as the grand-sire of Woodshauna, who captured the Group I Prix Jean Prat (1400m) for US based Resolute Racing.
Sires With Winners - Sunday July 6
Here is the full list of 68 stallions which had winners throughout Australasia today with winners and result details.
Te Akau Stars Headed to Cranbourne
Te Akau’s Cranbourne barn has welcomed some exciting reinforcements ahead of spring racing, headlined by $3.5 million NZB Kiwi (1500m) heroine Damask Rose.
Aussie Interest at JRHA Sale Next Week – First foal of Golden Slipper Winner
The 2025 JRHA  Select Foal and Yearling Sale will be held next week in Japan on July 14 and 15 and as usual there are some interesting entries for Aussie racing fans with a significant number of our star mares at stud in Japan including the 2022 Golden Slipper winner Fireburn.
Group 1 Durban July Success For Son Of Australian Bred Gimmethegreenlight
Although not having previously sired a winner of South Africa’s greatest race, the Australian bred, South African-based sire Gimmethegreenlight (More Than Ready) added a 13th individual Group 1 winner to his record when the Dean Kannemeyer trained The Real Prince (SAF) added Saturday’s R5m Group 1 Hollywoodbets Durban July (2200m) to his record.
Stakes Success for Spritely 7YO Warhorse
Pearce Racing's seven year old warhorse Ginger Baker collected his first ever stakes win in the Listed 2200m South West Cup yesterday.
Dubawi Colt from $US8million Mare Wins G1 Coral Eclipse for Coolmore
Blueblood Dubawi colt Delacroix was a beaten favourite in the Group I Epsom Derby when unplaced behind his stablemate Lambourn, but he found his time to shine overnight when scoring a miraculous last to first win in the Group I Coral Eclipse Stakes (1m2f) at Sandown.
Debut Winner for St Mark’s Basilica
Set to shuttle to Coolmore Australia this spring, St Mark’s Basilica (FR) had an impressive debut winner overnight in the UK with Cape Ashizuri opening his account in style.