Rarebit of Sense

There are also Changeover and Courage Under Fire here don't forget.

Don't get me wrong, Scotty, I think the American influence in Europe is huge. The sire who founded the Valley Victory line, Speedy Somolli and his immediate family (including close relative Workaholic) is a massive influence in modern French breeding - as is the Star's Pride line through a range of sources - Florestan, Micky Viking etc. If any Muscles Yankee is going to step up it will be Muscles Hill, I love his maternal line, with first dam being by American Winner (who I do think will leave a sireline through Credit Winner, or Viking Kronos in Europe). Muscles Hill, through American Winner also carries Speedy Somolli maternally - as do many of the top French sires such as Love You. But it is the outcross provided by the Hambletonian line French horses like of Orlando Vici (Great McKinney - George Wilkes), Coktail Jet (Sam Williams, Peter Scott - Happy Medium) and the non Hambletonian Kerjacques line, Tenor Baune, Offshore Dream (sire of top French 3YO Vallaint Cash) which may give the breed a much needed outcross option. The Swedes did some research on the effect of inbreeding on race performance, and it showed that horses with a low inbreeding co-efficient on average earned significantly more than highly inbred animals - with durability a major factor - ie because unlike the American, their racing isn't geared towards racing at 2 and 3. At the time of the study - last year, the average inbreeding co-efficient was 8%, which had gone up from 6% in 1990.They predicted it would go above 10% in the near future, mainly because of the influence of US stallions. They concluded, and I quote "There is according to this study no doubt that there is a negative measurable effect of inbreeding as long-term risk horses sustainability, fertility and performance." It is significant also that so few Swedish bred top horses are competitive in the big money races in Europe. They have just two in the top 12 (one French sire over American mare, the other American sire over French mare). They only have another one in the top 20 - and three out of 20, with their resources is pretty poor. The top 10 in Europe's inbreeding co-efficient are Commander Crowe 5.277%, Roxanne Griff 6.392, Ready Cash 4.994, Main Wise As 12,703, Roi Du Lupin 4.076, Mack Grace 14.345, Nesta Effe 9.164, Rapide Lebel 3.914, Quarcio Du Chene 2.781 and Joke Face 4.472. That is only three (all Italian breds and two pure US-lines) have inbreeding co-efficients over 6.4%. Most US horses are already well over 10% while DeweyCheatumnhowe is 18.806%. Muscles Yankee has produced some very, very good young horses here, but, apart from the fantastic I Can Doosit (who was sparingly raced as a youngster), they don't seem to last very long. Could this be why?

I do not want to turn this into a Lasix argument, it was actually a dig at San Pail, who I am told won't go and compete in Europe because they won't allow him to use Lasix and yet was claimed to be the best horse in the world last year - I should not have made it, I'll admit - so sorry for that. Swedish-bred Commander Crowe is the best trotting horse in the world at the moment, no question. Eight group wins in a row including the Elitlopp and the Oslo Grand Prix and a world record last start. As a 9-year-old he is beating the champions of later generations, and is a true champ winning on all surfaces, on all distances not over one - and ran a world record last start. But he has never raced Ready Cash the French champ, who has won the past two Prix D'Ameriques because he is ineligible to run in the French Classiques, which are reserved for entires and mares. They will get the chance next month in the first Masters Du Trot final in Solvalla. Can any current American trotter beat these two. There are hundreds of imported American ones now racing in Europe (over 1000 have been imported into Sweden alone since the mid-1990s), including Wishing Stone and Crys Dream and, apart from the former, they are nowhere near the top 30, let alone the top 12 which will run off in that race. In fact there are only 5 that I can see in the top 50, who are US bred, one is Arch Madness, who earned points for running in the Elitlopp and Oslo Grand Prix, and the other Wishing Stone who is racing on lease, so that effectively makes three out of 50, with the best being Fawkes at 38. Four of the top five are by French sires and only two of the top 12 are of exclusive US standardbred bloodlines - both being Italian bred of American bloodlines. American broodmares are exceptional, sought after all over the world thanks to amazing families like Medio, Sally Sovereign, Minehaha and the like, but it appears that the American stallions are losing their crown, there certainly aren't any dominant sire lines emerging such as there was with Speedy Crown, Speedy Scot, Valley Victory etc. The latest boom sire Kadabra's grand sire was, I believe, a Swedish born horse - although of pure American lines. Let's start getting the best trotters of the world racing against each other. I understand this could well happen, with Chapter Seven likely to race in the Elitlopp next year which is great news. But I still think that Lasix is the thin end of the wedge, which has been so detrimental to this great game's image over the past few years.

In a word. LASIX That's why some of your top ones won't race in Europe, where it isn't tolerated. I'd love to see the top North Americans race the top Europeans on a more regular basis, but while you continue to use this chemical to help your horses, it ain't going to happen.

We've seen Love You here, Revenue is here too, and the world is just waking up to the fact that the Franco American cross is the way of the future. We saw some very quick times at Meadowlands - Chapter Seven's world record on a mile track, with a speed sulky. But remember Commander Crowe won the Hugo Abergs Memorial raced at Jagerso in Sweden -- in a new world record of 1:50.4 for a 1000m track. As the harnesslink report says. "Though he had to trot three wide in the first quarter and the next quarter was second over without cover, Commander Crowe with Belgium driver Christophe Martens in the bike, was in a class of his own and won in a new world record of 1:50.4f -- lowering Arch Madness' record by one-fifth of a second. Second was Sebastian K in 1:51f, followed by Caballion and Sanity, both timed in 1:51.2. Those four trotters are all sired by a French stallion and out of an American mare." Rememberm, without the speed bike, on a smaller track - and without the chemical help. The American mare is key to the whole thing obviously, but so is the hybrid vigour being given by this exciting new outcross.

What has been missed by all the stories on the Hambo, and something the Yanks don't want to mention (a bit like the Aussies and the Olympic medal table), is that Market Share, the winner of the Hambletonian, is a Franco American, and the first by a non-Hambletonian line stallion to win their great race. Revenue is by Reve D'Udon, a French bred racehorse who is from the Godolphin line through Fushcia, the so-called French Hambletonian, and still going strong in France. Mind you Revenue has been getting close, even though his stock, like him, get better with age - he got second last year with Whiskey Tax. The year before that he won the Breeders Crown with Break The Bank K, while Hot Shot Blue Chip was second in the open Breeders Crown.

Doesn't it strike you as odd that the TAB can broadcast sports events on the internet, yet can't offer the same service to racing punters. I get six streams on my German service showing any race I wish to punt on while there are also US services which offer the same. Once again we are treated like second class citizens to sports betting by our national provider.

I'm not saying he's bred to be a champ, he is a freak. Fact is we know where the so-called big-heart gene comes from, and it is a maternal trait - any book on breeding will tell you this. The thoroughbred guys reckon they can trace it to a mare called Pocahontas, which is not available in any American pedigrees, but which emerged in French breeding through a mare called Dladys, and is now found in almost all their best horses, including Love You here, and their current stars Ready Cash and Rapide Lebel. Two of the top fillies in the states last year carry it too, they were by Taurus Dream, who carries it. There are several standardbred mares who carry the same gene from a different source (the sire of Pocahontas, Glencoe, was exported to America, but it was through daughters of a horse called Diomed that seem to be the one most influential). Some breeders like to have mares which carry this gene in abundance (usually doubled up on both sides of the pedigree) to increase the likelihood of it passing on. Googoo Gaagaa's pedigree is pretty ordinary to be generous, to the point where they seem to have disposed of the mare. Complicating the fact is that there is another gene which predisposes horses to pacing on the sire's side. It seems that the sire passed very little of his genes to the progeny. He did however pass some pretty quick genes on, and thankfully for the horse, his maternal trotting genes have obviously over-ridden any pacing traits. But he is a freak, much like many champions such as Lyell Creek, Bonecrusher, Sunline, Black Caviar, Shergar et al, who won the lotto in the game of genetic chance. But there are plenty of horses, who are richly bred and went on to become champions too, and in greater numbers - Frankel, Galizzz, Sea The Stars, Sadlers Wells, Danehill in recent thoroughbred history, and any number of standardbreds from Bret Hanover to Andover Hall. But when a freak arrives, they can blow them all away, which is why the smaller breeder always has a chance in this game.

You guys are on to it completely. It is the maternal side that is coming through here absolutely, something that the U3 family has done several times lately to ordinary sires with weak damlines - just look at Kadabra (Primrose Lane) and Garland Lobell (ABC Freight) - from humble beginnings, to two of the hottest sirelines in the North America - trumping all the Hambletonian winning royally bred ones from the big farms. If Cams Rocket had a more prepotent damline, (without Steady Star and Poplar Byrd, both good colt sires but rarely seen maternally) he would have paced, I'm sure. I don't think Cams Rocket has ever produced a $100,000 pacing winner, and he is 16 years old. But I wouldn't be putting any more trotting mares to him, this is a freak, like Lyell Creek was.

Classic Equine has an Andover Hall stallion out of a three-quarter sister in blood to Credit Winner for the new season - named Anderberg. Stands in Finland. Fastest time 1.52PL when a close third to Donato Hanover and Adrian Chip in World Trotting Derby. http://www.classicequine.net/anderberg.php

Pretty simple. Went looking for an outcross stallion for trotters for a mate who owns a stallion, and for whom I do a bit of part-time work, came across Revenue. One thing led to another, started watching Swedish racing, fell in love with it. My 'day' job I work evenings, and at this time of year, the lunch double is on when I get home, a nice way to relax for an hour. Then I do the V75 on Saturday night, when I get home from Saturday shift. Have corresponded with several Scandinavians, who have become friends over the past couple of years, most of my other knowledge comes from them. So I know who horses like Sanity are because I have watched him go up through the ranks, and of course the other stars, such as Commander Crowe, Maharajah, Tamla Celeber, Brad De Veluwe, Quarcio Du Chene etc. Great fan of the way they have structured their sport too. A lot we can learn from here.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons the sport is thriving over there in Sweden and Europe and dying a slow death in America - propped up by Pokie money. America has a drug culture. It pervades all its sports from baseball, Gridiron, athletics - and that doesn't include the recreational side. And where do all the drugs that are used here and in Australia come from? I used to like harnesslink, but it just seems hell bent on defending these guys - an article justifying Lasix, which in their warped way of thinking, is beneficial to the horse. If it bleeds from the lungs, stop it racing, and stop it breeding the defect on, period. It's there livelihood they say. But if they are a crooked banker, or lawyer or accountant, and they are caught - what happens to them. They don't get a second chance there. And using performance enhancing substances is cheating. It's crooked. End of story. You don't put a band aid on a cancer - you cut it out.

Swedish Travsport writes in a press release: Today, the Court delivered its judgment in the amateur coach Nils Enqvist. Court of Appeal judge Nils Enqvist in the loss of practice license, a total refusal of access on the racetracks and the ban will be addressed in a horse-holder register for a period of 15 years. It is on welfare grounds that the Court tightens the Disciplinary Board decision on eight years off significantly. Court of Appeal argues that harness racing in Sweden is permeated by the care of the horse and that animal welfare is central to Swedish Super Sports rules and regulations. The ruling states that animal welfare is paramount and that is why the penalty is sharpened from eight to 15 years. Nils Enqvist convicted of deliberately and systematically doped three horses with stanozolol, an anabolic steroid, and a horse with the analgesic methocarbamol. He has also violated the regulations by having kept illegal drugs, performed injections and for not having completed treatment records. - We are building our sport on a strong welfare of the horses and to the Superior Court so strongly points to the welfare aspects sends all the right signals. Doping the horses are completely unacceptable in Swedish trotting. The Court also concludes that there is no doubt that Nils Enqvist deliberately and with calculation on several occasions doped horses with anabolic steroids to affect the horses' performance, says Swedish Super Sports Secretary-General Ulf Hornberg. Swedish Harness Racing has called for lifetime ban for Nils Enqvist. The judgment of the disciplinary board was appealed by both the Swedish Travsport as Nils Enqvist. - This is Trotting first doping case with anabolic steroids and will provide a very severe punishment and a 15-year suspension. I think the judgment is still perfectly reasonable and clearly shows that the racetrack very strict on this kind of crime. This penalty also applies in all countries within the European Trotting Union, continues Mr. Hörnberg. Background: Four positive doping test That was when the Swedish Travsport made an unannounced visit to Nils Enqvist stables May 2, 2011 that three horses left the positive doping test. For horses Freedom Viking and Viking Thunder Storm, the analysis showed the presence of stanozolol and the analysis of Diamond Vikings samples contained the painkiller ingredient methocarbamol. The visit was found needles and syringes in the garbage in Nils Enqvist's stables. Content Remains of these have been analyzed, and four cases show the contents of stanozolol. After the three positive cases were all tested horses on Nils Enqvist träningslista and another horse, Simsalabim, gave a positive doping test for stanozolol. The horses Thunderstorm Viking, Viking and Freedom Simsalabim is already doomed to the grounding of two years from the time they left negative tests for stanozolol.

Very sad to lose a rising star in the trotting ranks. It is horses like Gee Gee that bring the crowds back to the sport, and we can ill afford to lose one, let alone in such terrible circumstances.

For those wanting to watch the Elitlopp live, tune into tv4.se They are covering the whole thing live all day.