On Friday night the first leg New Jersey Sire Stakes splits
for freshman pacers and trotters will take place at The Meadowlands. As a
result of a myriad of issues we don’t need to get into, we’ve gotten used to
this program being stocked by a very limited number of stallions—primarily
Rocknroll Hanover and Muscle Hill. The former passed in March of 2013 and his
last crop of 44 will race in the PASS this year. Muscle Hill, on the other
hand, is in his final year of two-year-old eligibility in New Jersey; his
freshmen will be eligible to the PASS in 2017.
All 25 trotters competing in the NJSS on Friday are by
Muscle Hill. That’s not radically different from last year, when that one’s
sire Muscles Yankee, who was exhausting his eligibility in New Jersey, also
contributed some. And the fact that Muscle Hill and Muscles Yankee are premier
trotting stallions seemed to make it OK.
On the other side, all ten fillies and all seven colts are
by the marginal stallion If I Can Dream, who stood at Deo Volente Farms for
four years. The winner of the BC, Messenger and Tattersalls Pace had a
distinguished career on the track, but he’s no Rocknroll at stud, so looking at
a program page fully stocked with his progeny is a shock to the system. Forty
Five Red won the Sheppard while Big Boy Dreams took the Matron and the Windy
City, but the son of Western Hanover hasn’t exhibited the credentials needed to
carry a major sire stakes program. He stood two years in New York, followed by
four in New Jersey. If I Can Dream stood for $5,000 last year in the Garden
State, and is standing for $2,500 in Ohio in 2016. His current two-year-old
class is drawn from 45 registered foals.
What happens next year when the Muscle Hill freshman class
is no longer eligible in New Jersey? Trixton was received like royalty last
year, breeding 140 mares, but the resulting issues won’t come online until
2018. The diminutive Conway Hall stallion, Wishing Stone, who won the Kentucky
Futurity and accumulated more than $2 million on both sides of the pond, was
doing double duty He has 16 yearlings who will join the fray next year, but he
moved on to Ohio in 2015, so there won’t be much help from him.
The journeyman Credit Winner millionaire Calchips Brute has
also been doing double duty in New Jersey, but he only bred 19 mares in 2014
and 2015 combined, resulting in ten foals, so that’s eight more to add to the
mix next year. Obviously things are going to be stretched to the max until the
Trixton offspring shows up, and that will put the program back into the same
old one stallion funk it’s in right now.
Things are even less promising on the pacing side, where
there is no Trixton to overcome geography and whatever other obstacles are
placed before him. After five years in Ontario, Lis Mara, the fastest son of
Cambest, the winner of the BC, Franklin and CPD, and the sire of speedball Mel
Mara, emigrated to New Jersey for the 2015 season, but he only bred a dozen
mares. And the American Ideal pacer Great Vintage took up residence at
Walnridge Farm last year, but the record only shows him breeding nine mares. Also,
Rocknroll Heaven, who stood five years in New York and has failed to live up to
expectations, was relocated to Deo Volente this year. It will be 2019 before he
adds to the mix. So, considering that there will only be a handful of If I Can
Dream freshmen around next year, things are going from bad to worse.
A residency based program for mares has seemingly been in
the works forever. And this year a new SDF (Standardbred Development Fund)
program will commence for two-year-olds and the offspring of mares that have
resided in the state for 150 days, regardless of the sire’s location. While all
of the Premier Division races will continue to be held at The Meadowlands, the
SDF races will all take place at Freehold, beginning September 23. This will
help, but it doesn’t solve the problem of a Premier Division stuffed to the
gills with If I Can Dream stock.
Joe FitzGerald
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