Sires Lists
Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2006 2:48 pm
It is amazing what you will believe to be the facts when it comes from an authoritative source.
I was taking a look at the first season sires lists in North America here and noticed that there is a huge discrepancy between the two online publications The Blood Horse and Thoroughbred Times. Here is a link to their respective lists.
http://breeding.bloodhorse.com/sirelist ... t_crop.asp
http://thoroughbredtimes.com/sirelists/ ... n=Freshman
In my opinion neither of the charts supplied are right.
The Thoroughbred Times list is certainly worth some attention. Their chart has Johannesburg leading the pack with just over $1.9m in earnings, with 80 starters and 31 winners. It is the horses that they include in these figures which totally misrepresent the situation.
Equineline, a division of TJCIS currently gets all the foals and runners from Australia and for some reason the Thoroughbred Times list, which is generated by Equineline, includes all these foals and runners (and their prize money earned). The 2yo racing in Australasia started in October and Johannesburg has three winners there and they make up his 31 winners on the list. It beats me why Thoroughbred Times decide to include these horses.
These foals are not bred to Northern Hemisphere time they are bred Southern Hemisphere time in Australia so it hardly seems right to name Johannesburg Champion first crop sire of North America (if he indeed finishes in that position) with a number of his horses being bred in Australia and having no impact on the racing scene here in North America. Obviously stallions who don't shuttle are at a distinct disadvantage on this list.
The Blood Horse's figures are also a little shaky. The Blood Horse currently has Johannesburg with 26 winners but for whatever reason The Blood Horse see fit to exclude a Northern Hemisphere bred foal that won in Japan (Thunder Along). I can't be certain as to why they do this, I suspect it is because of the exchange rate and the impact it would have on a list, but they have been doing it for some time. Now that Japan is a Part 1 country it is probably time for the Blood Horse to change their approach and start integrating Japanese based earnings in their sires lists. They also exclude a filly foaled in Kentucky who was exported to Chile and won her only start there (as a two year old racing against three year olds mind you). She should appear as a winner and doesn't. The Blood Horse correctly exclude all Southern Hemisphere bred crops from consideration.
So what are the real Northern Hemisphere figures for Johannesburg? He has 149 registered foals in his first North American crop, 74 of these have started and 28 are winners with 7 stakes winners. He’s doing a great job with his first runners, and I didn’t highlight him for any reason other than he is being misrepresented on both lists and if he is so misrepresented I'd hate to think about other stallions on this and other lists published by both companies.
Is there any chance that either of these publications could stop misleading the public and publish a proper sires chart? It should be pretty simple. If the stallion stands in North America and his foals are foaled to Northern Hemisphere time then they are Northern Hemisphere foals regardless of where they are born and count them where ever they race no matter what the country and don't include foals that are Southern Hemisphere bred to that time. That would at least give everyone a genuine look at who is the leading first crop sire of North America.
Anyway, that is my ‘soapbox moment’ for the week....
I was taking a look at the first season sires lists in North America here and noticed that there is a huge discrepancy between the two online publications The Blood Horse and Thoroughbred Times. Here is a link to their respective lists.
http://breeding.bloodhorse.com/sirelist ... t_crop.asp
http://thoroughbredtimes.com/sirelists/ ... n=Freshman
In my opinion neither of the charts supplied are right.
The Thoroughbred Times list is certainly worth some attention. Their chart has Johannesburg leading the pack with just over $1.9m in earnings, with 80 starters and 31 winners. It is the horses that they include in these figures which totally misrepresent the situation.
Equineline, a division of TJCIS currently gets all the foals and runners from Australia and for some reason the Thoroughbred Times list, which is generated by Equineline, includes all these foals and runners (and their prize money earned). The 2yo racing in Australasia started in October and Johannesburg has three winners there and they make up his 31 winners on the list. It beats me why Thoroughbred Times decide to include these horses.
These foals are not bred to Northern Hemisphere time they are bred Southern Hemisphere time in Australia so it hardly seems right to name Johannesburg Champion first crop sire of North America (if he indeed finishes in that position) with a number of his horses being bred in Australia and having no impact on the racing scene here in North America. Obviously stallions who don't shuttle are at a distinct disadvantage on this list.
The Blood Horse's figures are also a little shaky. The Blood Horse currently has Johannesburg with 26 winners but for whatever reason The Blood Horse see fit to exclude a Northern Hemisphere bred foal that won in Japan (Thunder Along). I can't be certain as to why they do this, I suspect it is because of the exchange rate and the impact it would have on a list, but they have been doing it for some time. Now that Japan is a Part 1 country it is probably time for the Blood Horse to change their approach and start integrating Japanese based earnings in their sires lists. They also exclude a filly foaled in Kentucky who was exported to Chile and won her only start there (as a two year old racing against three year olds mind you). She should appear as a winner and doesn't. The Blood Horse correctly exclude all Southern Hemisphere bred crops from consideration.
So what are the real Northern Hemisphere figures for Johannesburg? He has 149 registered foals in his first North American crop, 74 of these have started and 28 are winners with 7 stakes winners. He’s doing a great job with his first runners, and I didn’t highlight him for any reason other than he is being misrepresented on both lists and if he is so misrepresented I'd hate to think about other stallions on this and other lists published by both companies.
Is there any chance that either of these publications could stop misleading the public and publish a proper sires chart? It should be pretty simple. If the stallion stands in North America and his foals are foaled to Northern Hemisphere time then they are Northern Hemisphere foals regardless of where they are born and count them where ever they race no matter what the country and don't include foals that are Southern Hemisphere bred to that time. That would at least give everyone a genuine look at who is the leading first crop sire of North America.
Anyway, that is my ‘soapbox moment’ for the week....