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.
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.
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.
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.
